Toyota Tercel just up and died

My niece's car (1997 Tercel) stopped running. The mech she took it to said ignition. So they put a now coil pack (?) x2. Plugs, and wires. Did not fix it.

Next it was the fuel pump. Did not fix it.

Now he says it could be a broken timing belt.

Two questions:

Is there anything more likely?

Is there a way to tell if the timing belt is broken that I can tell her over the phone?

Thanks for the help in advance.

you can remove a couple of bolts and pull back the upper timing cover and see if it is moving when you crank it. Sometimes you can remove the oil cap and see if the cam is turning, i don't remember specifically on this one if you can do that. The noise they make when there broken or have missing teeth is very distinctive compared to the normal starting noise. There should have been no question on where to start looking if the belt has failed!

you can remove a couple of bolts and pull back the upper timing cover and see if it is moving when you crank it. Sometimes you can remove the oil cap and see if the cam is turning, i don't remember specifically on this one if you can do that. The noise they make when there broken or have missing teeth is very distinctive compared to the normal starting noise. There should have been no question on where to start looking if the belt has failed!

Thanks for the reply, I'll have to give this a try when I get access to the car. She says she can't see anything from looking down the oil cap hole.

This car is a real piece of crap. My brother bought it when I couldn't go with him and he did not check it well. The car is so new to her, she doesn't know what it really sounds like. I think she has had it less than two weeks.

Craigs list is not for rookies.

She could definitely save alot of money by switching mechanics, this guy does not know what he is doing, unless coincidentally all of this stuff went wrong at the same time on her vehicle which I seriously doubt.

He should have checked for spark before changing the coil packs then realize that wasn't the problem.

He should have checked to see that it was getting fuel before swapping out the fuel pump and realizing that wasn't the problem.

What's he going to do when he orders the timing belt and realizes that wasn't the problem. Has he even physically seen that for himself yet. If I was her I'd ask him to show her where it's damaged. I would also ask him to give me back all of the old parts he changed, check them myself or have them checked, and when they are found good, I would tell him I'm not paying for the parts or his time installing these items and if he wants the new parts back he can swap them back out, free of charge or he can take me to court, that's what I would tell him.


She needs to get a new mechanic and never take another vehicle to that guy again, he'll probably change out everything on the vehicle before he finally finds the problem, adding stuff she don't need, charging for the parts and his time which I'm pretty sure is a high dollar rate and the guy in my opinion isn't worth minimum wage an hour.