I have a 1990 Toyota Corolla Hatchback (AE92). I first noticed a problem with car's performance when I bought the car; it was extremely sluggish. After a week or so with putting up with this I popped the bonnet and checked the air filter (photo below) and noticed it was totally black. I installed a new air filter and it was like a totally new car! Anyway, maybe after 4 weeks I inspected the condition of the new air filter and whilst it wasn't in the condition of the original filter, it was quite dirty for a 4 week old filter, again - sluggish performance with a few misses whilst accelerating. Any ideas what could be causing the air filter to become black really quickly? It's not "dirt", it's more of an oil colour on the filter.

hmm looks like ur PCV pipe is putting alot of blow-by back into ur carby intake hat man,

 

you could put a catch can on it and itd fix ya problem

What he says!

 

Divert the vent pipes from the tappet cover to a plastic bottle and see what that shows. Do a compression test too and see how bad it is.

 

I've never see it that bad... I wonder if a ring is broken... Any rattles or tapping sounds??

Can you guys show me some photos how to do that?

hmm looks like ur PCV pipe is putting alot of blow-by back into ur carby intake hat man,

 

you could put a catch can on it and itd fix ya problem

Sounds good, how do I do this?

guys?

OK not familiar with the engine in your car but on the K engine (and the 4ac engine) there is a PCV valve and a hose coming out of the middle/back of the top of your rocker cover. disconnect that hose from your air filter housing (not sure if it is ok to just plug this or if you need to at least let it drain??).

As suggested you may want to connect it to a bottle instead so you can see what is coming out (be careful that it isn't left touching something that gets hot).

 

This will stop the filter getting covered in oil and blowback as quickly but does not address the issue of why it is happening!

Where do these hoses go??

 

One goes to the air cleaner, the one that is bleeding oil fumes into your air filter. I expect the other goes to the inlet manifold and will have a PCV valve in the line. That one allows the motor to suck the fumes away and burn them.

 

How much oil is it using??

Edited July 8, 201313 yr by altezzaclub

Looks like the engine doesn't have much oil on the outside - is the black stuff on the filter sooty or oily ?

Not sure what happened to my Text couldn't get rid of the line through it !! I think you will find that the Air pulse valve for the exhaust is leaking back into the air cleaner housing . Does the air filter smell like exhaust gasses & does the car sound like it has a exhaust leak under the bonnet with the engine idling ..

Edited August 11, 201313 yr by lexsmaz