[Crash]

Ok, I've officially driven 1,000 miles since I got my '85 a number of months ago. As some of you may know, I had a dog of a time with my head gasket. Well, I have a few questions now.

1: Under heavy accelerating circumstances (Drag racing) I hear a whistling sound, kinda like a turbo sound, but quieter. I heard it could be tranny whistling, I thought intake. Out of curiosity, what is that?

2: Occasionally the temperature needle will jump all the way past hot, till the needle stops. I tap the dash, and it goes back to normal. Why?

3: Heat blows real nice when I'm moving, but when I stop it's ice cold. I have new coolant, about a 70/30 mix with water. Is that normal?

4: On the expressway tonight coming home from work, the brake light and the battery light started flickering, and then came on, and flickered again. Voltage seemed to be around 10 volts or so, lights obviously dim. When I got off the expressway, the lights (battery and brake) shut off, and voltage stayed around 10 all the way home. I did test the alternator about 2 weeks ago and the diode pattern is bad, but it pushes the right amount of amps. The battery is also going, it tested good, low charge when it was fully charged (usually indicating a bad battery on its way). I do have to replace both things, but is that normal for that light thing to happen?

I'm sure I'll have more stupid questions for you all, and I'll post them then. Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it!

-Jake

 

[lahiru]

1: Under heavy accelerating circumstances (Drag racing) I hear a whistling sound, kinda like a turbo sound, but quieter. I heard it could be tranny whistling, I thought intake. Out of curiosity, what is that?

2: Occasionally the temperature needle will jump all the way past hot, till the needle stops. I tap the dash, and it goes back to normal. Why?

3: Heat blows real nice when I'm moving, but when I stop it's ice cold. I have new coolant, about a 70/30 mix with water. Is that normal?

4: On the expressway tonight coming home from work, the brake light and the battery light started flickering, and then came on, and flickered again. Voltage seemed to be around 10 volts or so, lights obviously dim. When I got off the expressway, the lights (battery and brake) shut off, and voltage stayed around 10 all the way home. I did test the alternator about 2 weeks ago and the diode pattern is bad, but it pushes the right amount of amps. The battery is also going, it tested good, low charge when it was fully charged (usually indicating a bad battery on its way). I do have to replace both things, but is that normal for that light thing to happen?

I'm sure I'll have more stupid questions for you all, and I'll post them then. Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it!

ok here's what i think if i'm wrong on these some one pl correct me... ok for the number 3 check your thermostat may be it's stuck or flush your heater core one of the other or do both
and for the number 4 if your charge light and brake light is coming on it means your ALT is on it's way out and get your batt check if it's not good replace it as well when it happned to me i replaced my ALT and my BATT but after while it came back on like with in a week so i took it back to the place that i got it done the son of a B**ch who instoled my ALT has dameged my ALT wiring harnes so i had to replace that too (no charge ) so check your ALT wiring harnes .like i said this is what i think of it so if i'm wrong some body pl corect me
lahiru

 

[dogstar]

the whistling sound could be a few things... have you taken the snorkel off your air filter box?
because i noticed the same whistling after i removed my snorkel, hadnt heard it before then.

cant answer the temp gauge question.

the heater question... if i understand correctly, the heater has a vacuum controlled valve to regulate temperatures... it could be that when you slow down, there isnt enough vacuum to hold the valve open, and hot coolant isnt flowing into the heater core.
i seem to remember reading that this is a symptom of the vacuum valve going, maybe someone else will give more information soon.

and yes, the flickering lights is your car telling you the charging system isnt happy, so its time for more parts

 

[Crash]

Ah yes, forgot to mention I put an aftermarket cone filter on the air flow sensor thingy (forgot the name, not MAF is it?) and with that filter instead of the stock filter the check engine light comes on. That might be the source of the whistle? The thermostat is new, part of the HG disaster - er, I mean project - the heater core was not flushed... Hey MK2Racer, I found another part I need off your parts motor...

 

[MKII boy]

Ah yes, forgot to mention I put an aftermarket cone filter on the air flow sensor thingy

yep, cone filters make that cool whistle under hard acceleration

-Evan

 

[85SilverWedge]

All the times I've ever experienced the "no heat at idle, heat at throttle", the coolant level was too low. I have read so many posts here about trapped air in these cars' cooling systems also. HTH my .02 cents.

 

[ash1]

check the thermostat for the overheating problem. Mine did that last summer and I replaced it and haven't had any problems since.

Sounds like you have air trapped in your system and that is causing the heater problem. Our sons car was doing the same thing and if you had everything turned off and revved it up at an idle you could hear the coolant flowing through the heater core. I bled the air out and topped off the system and everything was fine.

I replaced my airbox with an HKS filter and I get some slight whistling now. Make sure all of your connections are tight on your intake though.

 

[Crash]

I guess I should explain better about the needle thing. It will actually shoot all the way up, like a spring loaded needle of death so to speak. I guess I'll have to make sure the system is bled, but of course, once the alternator problem is finished. Gotta get around to that this weekend... Anyway, ok, so the whistling is the cone filter. Cool. Here's a question #5 for ya, how do I get my check engine light to stop coming on? It comes on once I start driving, and I'm pretty sure it's all about the filter. Also, as far as bleeding the system, what's the best way to go about that? I heard that if you jack the front end up it's best, but I dunno for sure. As always, thanks for the input and the help.

-Jake

 

[trdmkii]

about the temp needle, you may have a wire pinched or shorting somewhere and at times it will short shoot up and then shoot back down to normal, i haven't located the problem in my dads car, but its pissing me off, i'm about to run a wire from the damn sensor to the gauge....

usually with the heat it usually means there is some air in the system and its not completely bled out......might wanna try that....

hope it helps...

 

[dogstar]

for the bleeding of coolant, search for burping and coolant
that should give you a couple leads.

 

[Crash]

Well, battery and alternator swap complete, 4 hour job. During this time I also took the liberty of replacing most of the vaccum hoses with some nice new red vaccum hose I bought. Also I got some blue wire loom for the plug wires, got it on the #1 wire and realized that it was eating up a lot of time. Still no luck on the heating situation while stopped, perhaps tomorrow (christmas day) I'll get lucky and find a plastic tee fitting and do that. Who knows...
Anyway, as always, thanks for the help in making my Supra the happiest it can be.