Got my hands on a 96 TS Magna Sedan, 4G54 with 210XXX kms.. Paid just under $1800 so I'm pretty happy.
New injectors and leads, water pump, & alternator.. Bloke I bought it off claimed a new clutch but it was fried within a month, so a new clutch has gone in.
$100 Sony head unit has been put in for now, previous owner attempted to replace the stock speakers up front but made a breakfast not even suitable for your dog out of it.. Not too sure yet how to go about that. Immaculate interior minus that and a torn drivers seat. Have noticed my parcel shelf had places designated for speakers, wiring shouldn't be a drama I assume.
Driving in 3rd gear today, clutch in as I rolled to the lights.. Watched the revs drop from 2600 down to about 900 as the clutch went in, then it slowly dropped down to about 250-300rpm, then stalled. Kicked it back over and it was fine until I got home. Drove in to the garage, 1st gear, clutch in, coming to a complete stop the revs dropped down to just over 300 and felt like it was going to stall, struggled back up to 500 rpm, then slowly climbed to 1000rpm and idled normally.
I've got limited funds and 12 months of no licence to put towards this car.. Got some nice little plans for it.
Looking for the best value for money modifications that won't burn holes in my wallet.

Any replies to any sections will be mostly appreciated! :)

Your idle problems sound similar to mine which also started last week.

See http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106286 for my progress to that end, albeit I'm 4 cylinder auto.

Online copy of the factory manual is available at time of writing from http://ipfreelyproxies.net/mynannashotpants/TR-TS,KR-KS%20Workshop%20Manual%201995%20OCR.pdf

I haven't resolved my idle issue - most common causes seem to be either dirty throttle body (which I haven't adventured into cleaning) or problems with the idle control motor.

When yours was at very low revs, was it still a smooth tickover, or was it missing on one or more cylinders? Mine was a smooth decline so I don't think it's a fuel or ignition system problem.


Cheers, Mike.

Took the big girl for a lap earlier..
Idles like a dog for a while then sits around 900rpm.
Turn key - jumps to 1500rpm then drops to 500-450rpm.. Feathering the accelerator, 3 second intervals and kicking it to 1500rpm, it drops to nearly 350rpm and tries so hard not to stall.
I did notice sitting on a hill she idled even worse, taking off holding rpm just over 1000 and it still tries to drop to 350rpm and stall.
Starting to think a fuel issue.. I'm 110% amateur and new to the scene so anything is possible.

I've got limited funds and 12 months of no licence


Took the big girl for a lap earlier..

Going to go out on a limb as say that your lack of funds and lack of licence go hand in hand?
And going out driving is only going to lead you to longer with no licence or money.
Maybe try staying off the road?
Call me an old fart telling you all the crap you have heard before, but seriously from previous personal experience, the money i 'donated' to the government in fines, being pulled up unlicenced and unregoed ect, could have bought me a very nice car.
I also know that the fines i paid 10-15 years ago were a lot smaller than what they hit you with these days
Even years down the track, my old driving history still bites me in the ass when i least expect it even though i 'mostly' do the right thing...

Quite a limb you climbed there my friend.. Hahah. I re-sat my L's test for the second time in 6 years, about a month ago. Passed with flying colours just like the first time ;) so I've got the next 11 months to baby, restore and improve the TS. No employment is to blame for lack of funds hahahah :(
Can happily say that for the 6 years I've been on the roads, I've never been pulled over, not ever for an rbt. I'm only 21 but I'll still claim it for now.
I live on one of the quietest streets in town, the furthest I'll take the car is 100m down the road and back. And I've done that daily since I've owned it, :)

Now for important parts..
SOMEONE HELP ME
Driving up quite a decent hill yesterday to see if my would "jump" as it was doing just prior.. Around 1800rpm in 2nd, if you gave it just that bit too much or just not enough, the car would hop and jump, almost as if you were to pump the brakes at speed. Didn't occur in 1st, occured in 3rd around 2100-2200rpm, and didn't appear to occur in 4th nor 5th gear.
Coming down the other side of this hill.. 3rd gear, clutch in and rolling to the bottom.. Coming to a complete stop, still with 3rd selected and clutch in, the car stalled. Rolled the car 150m down the road, trying to roll start it and start it normally, wouldn't turn over. Sat for about an hour and tried to kick it over, no luck.
Flick the key to ignition and back off like you would any other day, the car starts and jumps to 1000rpm, (not up to 1500rpm like any other day) and then slowly cuts out over only 2 or 3 seconds.
In conjunction with the first thread of this post, it's making think it has to be a fuel issue.. But I'm still only an amateur and I'm probably completely wrong.
Any help will be forever appreciated!

Could be all sorts. Trouble is, unless you know someone with parts who is willing to donate them for free, any solution is going to start costing money. You'll likely find yourself buying parts to try swapping out that make no difference until you get to the root of the problem (at least you'll get yourself a stash of spares).

Engine turning over but not firing:


no fuel - fuel pump shagged, fuel filter blocked, blocked fuel line, injectors clogged, no injector drive (ECU kaput), contaminated fuel (from the pump, water in the tank, rust in the tank)
no spark - distributor dead, spark leads, spark plugs, ignition coil faulty, power transistor no good, dud ECU


Any dash warning lights?

lol, fair enough, my apologies on the assumptions :D

ac1176 has fairly well covered were you need to start.
Trying to differentiate between a fuel and spark issue can be hard, particularly if your still learning.
When it cuts out/looses power, does it backfire, pop, crackle ect once the power comes back? That would be a key indicator that the unburned fuel in the exhaust is being later ignited. That leads to a lack of spark issue causing your problem (Leads, Coil, Coil driver circuit ect)
What do the spark plugs look like? That'll tell you quite a bit too. Are they wet? what colour are the tips? especially if you can pull one out and have a look as soon as it starts faulting.

http://www.ngk.com.au/spark-plugs/technical-information/spark-plug-analysis

http://www.aa1car.com/library/reading_spark_plugs.jpg

AC1176
Speaking of swapping out parts and creating a charity for magna parts.. what parts from other model magnas will bolt straight on to the TS?
Other than a long and expensive process of elimination, is there a way to diagnose an issue straight away? ie scan tool? I think I read somewhere that it's possible, but they use the old OBD 1?
I had to get the cat towed back home yesterday, I haven't tried to kick it over today and I don't think I'm going to bother. The bloke driving the truck said his daughter has a TS Exec, and her came did the same thing a few weeks back, swapped out the fuel pump and away she went. Common issue?
New injectors and new leads less than 5000km old.
No dash warnings, it's got me buggered.

Oldf4g
There was no backfiring or popping, once it eventually climbed back to a stable idle it would be fine.. But it's been 24 hours now and I haven't kicked it over
I haven't been able to pull the plugs out, I don't have any sockets deep enough to reach them hahahah. There's one I'm a bit sceptic about, I noticed there was a bit of moisture around the head of the plug. Only a tiny bit though

Speaking of swapping out parts and creating a charity for magna parts.. what parts from other model magnas will bolt straight on to the TS?



Pretty much anything from the TR/KR/KS will go in the TS. Older TM/TP I doubt anything fits. Someone more knowledgable than me may be able to steer you in the right direction here.


Other than a long and expensive process of elimination, is there a way to diagnose an issue straight away? ie scan tool? I think I read somewhere that it's possible, but they use the old OBD 1?



Scan tool is expensive and rare. Maybe your friendly mechanic can let you hook theirs up and pull out any error codes for a six pack? 2nd gen Magnas used a non-standard implementation of OBD (aka MUT), so not all scan tools will read the codes succesfully. Manual reading of the error codes is possbile using a volt meter and measuring on-off pulses coming out of the diagnostic connector. There are how-to's out there if you Google for them. Page 1 of this one (http://www.mivec.co.nz/tech/Mitsu_DiagCode.pdf)shows how to do it and page 3 shows what the codes mean.


swapped out the fuel pump and away she went. Common issue?


Perhaps worth checking. There are probably means and ways of forcing the operation of the fuel pump and checking if any go-juice comes out the far end (carefully of course! Don't want fuel squirting out all over the place).




New injectors and new leads less than 5000km old.


There's two areas you can probably discount straight away then.

There are things you can do that cost nothing as a starting point. Look for electrical connectors around the engine that look loose, broken, rusty. Unplug them and inspect the pins and sockets - do they appear clean? Unscrew sparkies and check condition as per Oldf4g's post. Have a bopeep at the dizzy - water damage? Cracked top?



No dash warnings, it's got me buggered.



Not all engine errors will raise the dash lamp (assuming the bulb isn't blown!), so not necessarily indicative of where the fault lies.

Flick the key to ignition and back off like you would any other day, the car starts and jumps to 1000rpm, (not up to 1500rpm like any other day) and then slowly cuts out over only 2 or 3 seconds.

Another one to look at is the fuel pressure regulator. If I understand correctly it sounds like you can sometimes start it OK but it won't run for very long under its own steam. Spark is probably there, fuel is probably there long enough for the pump to prime the fuel rail, but fuel pressure might be dropping rapidly after the engine fires. Regulator recirculates excess pressurised fuel back to the tank when it opens, so if the regulator was jammed open all the time you might get the problems you're experiencing. Wouldn't get a 'check engine' lamp on the dash for that one either.

You can check the fuel pump, i dont know the specs but they would be in the factory manual along with the test procedure.

In a nutshell though, you run the fuel pump into a measuring container. over a known time period, eg 60 seconds, it will output a known volume, eg 1L
Then you put a pressure gauge inline before the regulator, then fuel pump will then make a known line pressure, eg 30psi.
Then you clamp off the line after the gauge, the pump will make a higher pressure, eg 50psi.
That'll tell you the condition of the fuel pump.
The reg is tested by reading the fuel line (rail) pressure, eg, it'll be 30psi with the vacuum line to the reg disconnected, then when you apply a vacuum to the reg, it'll increase to 40psi
You can get a suitable gauge off ebay for around $30-40, very handy tool to own. just make sure it goes over 50psi or its no good for efi stuff

Could also be the fuel pickup gunked up with crap, not uncommon for a vehicle that age, youd have to pull the pump out to inspect that though so youd still be best off testing the pump before doing that.

I dunno what the flop I just did everything I typed disappeared.. not a happy camper.

I forgot I downloaded the factory manual, had a geez through the fuel chapter and came across a fault diagnosis chart.. Its screaming at me to change the fuel pump.
"Engine stalls after initial explosion".. The absolute best possible way to describe what it was doing before it died. Which comes hand in hand with the shitty idle and poor acceleration.

Will ANYTHING from another TR/TS fit in mine?
Like a fuel pump, perhaps? Hahahahah
My drivers seat has seen much better days, better to just find another TS Exec seat?

I looked at every single bit of electrical I could find through out the engine bay, and both the footwells.. Everything looked super clean surprisingly. Had to swap out a couple of fuses but other than that it's perfect.

Alright you guys have owned your swagna's a lot longer than I have.. Value for money modifications, both exterior and interior.
What have you got!?

I reckon you're on the right track to focus on the fuel system for now - fuel filter, fuel pump and fuel pressure regulator.

Modifications - if it's only cosmetic, nothing is value for money IMHO lol

But if you insist:

Replace stock headlights with parabolic units from Verada
Replace stock indicators with orange-lense units from Verada
Install better head unit (which you already have)
Install better speakers - split system, tweeters in dash where original speakers sit, woofers in door cards. If possible get the door cards from the Verada which have the speaker pods. Looks much better than simply screwing woofers into the old door trim panels.
New rims (how deep are your pockets?)
Tailgate trim from TS SE or Verada
Repsray bumpers to colour-match body work
Leather seats and woodgrain trim from Verada (cork sniffing now...)
Radiator grill cover from Verada (may as well buy a Verada...)
Front bumper cover and fog lamps from NZ Diamante (really pushing the limits of sensibility...)

I know how you lost what you wrote. I've done it twice now. Crappy Design feature in this forum. I've done it at least twice.

http://i.imgur.com/NrEJqIGl.jpg

Alright so I'm under the impression that the fuel pump is an in-tank pump.. How the flop do I get to it!? I had a bit of a gander earlier, pulled all my boot lining and rear seating out.. I can't find access. Don't tell me I have to take the tank off? :(
Parts: Fuel pump, eBay? Just find one to suit? Does anyone know what style pump? Fuel filter, found a Ryco filter for $40, sounds the goods? Fuel reg, if I was to swap it.. Is it a mission? What sort of $$ would i be looking at? Does it come down to "if it ain't broke don't fix it"?
I need someone to teach me how to uploads photos to these posts.. I have something so show y'all. It's what I think is the fuel reg, it looks worse for wear.. but I wanna know what you guys think of it.
Will the Verada doors cards clip/screw straight on to the Exec door?
How about the seat rails if I was to get different seats, are they the same throughout the TR/TS?

Are there any cheeky little $50'ish interior mods that are worth it? eg gauges (not yet) upgraded lighting, anything jdm az fuq!?!!?

You need a photo hosting site to post pics - Photobucket, Imageshack, Picasa, Imgur, Tinypic or the like.

Verada door cards will replace the Exec door cards like for like, although if your car doesn't have power windows you'll have to drill a hole in the Verada door trims panels to poke the Exec's window winder through.

Seats I think are common among all TR/TS variants.