cheddar

All right guys i have a '96 2.5tl that has a lot of probs. and would appreciate any help or ideas ya'll might have. I love to work on it myself but have little experience.

Heres a run down of the probs. im currently having

1. Brakes.... the pedal goes all the way to the floor and fluid seems to be leaking somewhere when at a traffic light sometimes the car will just start rolling due to no pressure on the brake pads and I have to pull the e brake.....Leaking master cyl? if thats the case is this something a novice like me could fix.

2. the AC, will be cold @ first but condensation will blow out of the vents and air will get to be whatever the temp outside is, refrigerant? how much would this cost to replace.

3. Leaking oil filter mount. How hard would this be to fix?

4. this on really gets on my nerves. when driving about 60-70 miles perhour car will shake pretty violently, but only if i give it gas. with all the rolling hills around middle Tennessee It gets pretty annoying on a daily basis and I cant stand going 55!

5 . changed my spark pugs this weekend and noticxed that two of the five were soaked w/ oil. what does this mean?

Well hopefully my car has a chance, but who knows! ANY help is appreciated. thanks much!!

01tl4tl

sad to say but this TL is headed for the auto recyclers

oil on plugs- valve seals
brakes- master cylinder
shaking- motor mounts?

time for a new ride

Go90go

^ I had all those problems and then some, but on a 3.2 and it lasted me awhile. Master cylinder is pretty easy if you're mechanically inclined, but if you've never done any sort of repair/maintenance on your car, I'd have someone else do it. Valve seals are pretty easy to replace, again, if you have the right tools, etc. A shop shouldn't charge too much. Mounts are where it's going to be expensive. The 2.5 has fluid mounts that adjust to various driving styles. With your symptoms, I'm not too sure I'd go and say the mounts are the culprit, though. If they were out, you'd have vibration and a loss of power throughout the powerband.

~Cheers~

P.S. OT, but 01tl4tl, you never answered my question about why SeaFoam went and changed their formula to one that doesn't work as well, and by my estimates is cheaper to produce. Also, which market is SeaFoam Sales Company traded on? I was just looking into it, remembering that you had stated you owned a majority share of the stock.

cheddar

thanks much go90...i liked your reply mush better than 01tl4tl, no offense to him! i am pretty mechanically inclined, ive changed the brakes out and done the regular maintenance myself on the car. what type of tools are needed for changing the the valve seales, or is their a DIY on here for that?

pi1996

get a shop manual, its really useful.

6spMike

1) Find the leak. If it's the master it'll be leaking out of the bottom of the master cylinder where it attaches to the brake booster.
2) So it blows cold air when the car is cold, but then when the car warms up it blows warm air? It might need a R134a refrigerant boost. You can get a kit for that at Autozone or similar for ~$20.
3) The mount to the block, or the filter to the mount? A new gasket, or a new filter. Make sure you clean the mounting surface before you put the new filter on, and that the old gasket is removed. Cheap.
4) Do you get a clickety noise when making sharp turns under power? That would indicate outside CV joints are bad. It could also be inner CV joints. If there is one that is leaking grease, that's probably it.
5) Does the engine run smoothly otherwise? If so, could be valve seals (strange that it's only 2). If not, it probably has some other problem on the two cylinders that had the plug problem. Run a compression check before replacing the seals to verify there is not something more serious wrong. It could also be an ignition problem on those 2 cylinders; if the plug doesn't fire all the time, the plug will read rich. Is the check engine light on? What's the code(s)?
Good Luck.
...IMO, You might get more help if you didn't title it with 'Busted ass', You sounded like a getto loser from that title, but the rest of your post seemed fairly literate.

6spMike

Another thought -
I'm not familar with the 2.5, so stay with me here for a while on this...
When you say 'soaked with oil', do you mean it looks like they were dipped in it, or do you mean black burned oily deposits on the spark tip insulators?
If the plugs install vertically through a hole in the top of the engine's valve cover, and they looked dipped, that means the valve cover gasket is leaking; it's probably not a big deal to change.

Go90go

Remind you of anyone in particular? Besides, "busted ass ___" isn't nearly as bad as some of the other thread titles. Even some handles on on here make me want to knock them out.

To the OP, I'm glad to hear that you can work on your car. It'll save you a bit of cash in the future. Valve cover gaskets are cheap and easy (relatively) to replace, valve seals aren't too much more difficult. As pi said, a service manual would be a great tool to help guide you along. Certain things aren't in the right sections, though... I learned the hard way when I was figuring out my mid-mounts and the 20 pieces they fell apart into, hehe. Master cylinder is pretty straight-forward. I changed mine in a parking lot. Which BTW, is nothing compared to my friend's turbo getting hungry, eating a silicone coupler, then swapping a turbo + oil lines + figuring out how to get the boost reference nipple pointed the right way all in 110*+ Las Vegas heat, in a parking lot during SILV '06. Just be sure to have a one-man bleeder or have a buddy that knows how to bleed brakes, and have a fresh bottle or two of brake fluid.

~Cheers~

P.S. So 01tl4tl, are you going to answer me about the formula change?

cheddar

wow...thanks for the good info sandymike, I really appreciate it! I downloaded the manual from someones post and am going to attempt to knock out the master cylinder change this weekend, the only drawback I foresee is bleeding the brakes (not too sure how that works).

I'll answer your questions/respond to your statements as best I can:
2) your desc. on this is dead accurate (no pun intended). Ill try the ref. boost.
3)I was told by the dealer that it was the oil filter housing....
4)I dont get any click noises when turning under power, just some pretty bad shaking when going accelerating at speeds of 62-73 mph...when i hit about 75 the shaking reduces significantly but is still noticeable.
5)the engine does run smoothly otherwise, and the plugs looked like the were dipped in oil, not just some deposits...

Again, thanks for the help!!!

p.s. ill try not use ghetto titles in any future threads!! I hate it when i sound like a ghetto loser!!

cheddar

oh yeah and to go90, ill look out for things not being in the right place... i assume the one you were referring to was the one posted. I guess ill have to find that snap on part the manual was talking about to do the valve cover gaskets.

6spMike

4) Are you sure it's only under power? If it really doesn't change with throttle position, it could be an out of balance or out of round tire, that's the most common cause of a vibration.
Search the forum for "bleed", I'm sure there is something here.
1) Note that you have to "Bench Bleed" the master; they'll be instructions with the new one on how to do it. If you don't have a vise you could install it in the car and do it before you hook up the brake lines.
Good Luck.

cheddar

Absolutely positive its only when under power, if I'm coasting there is no vibration.

racerock