Alright so I’m looking at buying a ‘93 Toyota Corolla automatic, I’ve already given them a deposit and going there tomorrow to pay the rest. There’s a few things wrong with it, but it comes with 6 months rego. I thought it was a steal for $1500 aud. I’ve only just moved up to where I’m living now and I had no idea that it’s not only illegal to sell a registered car without a safety certificate but that I can’t even transfer it into my name without one, and the seller of the car has to either provide it or deregister it before selling it.

The simple things like the high beam bulb blown and rear wipers not working are easy enough but I’m almost certain it’s not going to pass the roadworthy check with the transmission problem it has so I’m leaning towards having to explain the situation to the sellers and apologise and request the deposit back. But I wanted to get some advice from you lot in case it’s something simple that I can fix for them to be able to pass the roadworthy/safety certificate.

So, for some reason when trying to chuck it into drive, it doesn’t go anywhere. If you chuck it into 2 or L, it takes off fine and then you can shift back into drive and every other gear works fine. So it’s like it doesn’t have 1st gear in drive?? The people selling it are in their 80’s and were not very helpful or knowledgeable at all and the only thing she could tell me was that it started happening when she had the shifter replaced. I’ve checked all the fluids and everything has been well taken care of and serviced/documented so it’s not that the tranny fluid is low. Also when the car is in parked sometimes it won’t start and you have to put it into neutral to start it.

Ive spoken to my dad who’s usually pretty good with this stuff and he said it sounds like whoever replaced the shifter did the linkage slightly off (??). Then he started saying it sounds like even though the selector says it’s in drive it might actually be in neutral. I get what he’s trying to say but then I asked him if it’s actually in neutral, how come once you hit first gear in 2 or L can you then go into drive and it drives and not be in neutral and he was like, huh, good point, dunno. Thanks dad. He said once I go back tomorrow to try and pull it down out of drive ever so slightly (not go all the way into 2) and see if it drives? I’m so confused.

Is it any possibility that the linkage or whatever is out? I know it’d just be a simple lug nut and adjust ion process if it is, but it just doesn’t make sense to me that “drive is neutral” when you can still shift back to drive after initiating first with either 2 or L.

Man I really like this little car and I want to make this work and I’m really hoping it’s nothing serious.

Any ideas what the hell could be going on?

  • givewithoutpay@alien.topOPB
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    1 year ago

    Thanks so much for the reply! It doesn’t only start in neutral, just sometimes spontaneously it won’t, idk if that’s relevant or not but it can still start most of the time in park just sometimes it won’t unless in neutral.

    Okay wow thank you that makes sense, he actually did say something too about the possibility of too much slack or something from P—> D but it might be more tight going from 2—->D ? Or something?

    In the case that his experiment doesn’t work, does that point to what you said about the neutral safety switch / range sensor? And if so what sort of work would that entail? Do you reckon it’s easy enough to fix by myself?

    Again thanks so much for the reply

    • funhousefrankenstein@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Yep, the switch is easy to access. The main thing is to follow the right installation steps (like found in a Chilton manual) to align a new switch with the angle calibrated.

      (Also, when removing the old one, to make sure not to damage the wide electrical connector’s plastic with reckless prying.)

      Intermittent operation is common when those switches begin failing. If you were to crack it open, you’d see a really 19th-century-looking set of copper alloy electrical contacts. They’ll literally wear out to become uneven, over time.

      Toyota used the same basic kind of switch across many years & many models, so for the diagnostics & remove/replace, some online videos would have helpful overviews.

      • givewithoutpay@alien.topOPB
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        1 year ago

        Man thank you so much, AGAIN. I was worried I wouldn’t get any advice before heading back there tomorrow but now I feel like I can go in with a bit more confidence.

        I’ll check out some videos now but going off what you said it seems pretty straightforward so long as I’m not autistically heavy-handed with it.

        Hopefully I can narrow down what’s going on with it tomorrow and finalise the sale but if it’s too much of a hassle I’ll have to let her go as I need it asap for work. Thank you and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day/night!