Okay, so I might ask some pretty obvious questions to some of you... Just keep in mind, I have only had my tC for about 6 months, and I'm a Paramedic. My professional field has nothing to do with car knowledge, but based on the fact I've read PAGES of crap that never answers my questions, I decided to try here.

Okay, first off I have a 2007 Scion tC base. I love it to death, I really do. As of lately, there are a couple issues I'm trying to figure out here.

1) The car is misfiring in Cylinders 1, 2, and 3. Based on the fact that it is running like complete CRAP ( crap being the largest understatement of the century here ) and the CEL flashes at me like an idiot light as it's sputtering for life, and at first is was only 1 cylinder and now it's 3 ( when I switched the 4th it's fine wherever I put it ) I've determined it is my coil packs. Now, being a smart person and wanting to just knock out any future issues, I have ordered all 4 coil packs, just in case the last decides to go. ;) My question is... will running my car the next few days with these bad coil packs do anything to my car? Is it going to cause further doom? I don't really have another mode of transportation, so I'm kind of screwed without my car. I realize they're super easy to replace, I just have to wait for them to come in. =( There's no oil on the packs, no fried wires, just bad packs.

My second question. I realized today I have random puffs of white smoke coming out of my exhaust. Of course I was like wtf? It smells like gas, or oil... or both? It's terrible, not rotting eggs terrible, but definitely not pleasant to smell. Not a steady stream of smoke, just random puff puffs. Literally for a minute or so when I start it, and maybe occasionally in between. I live in Florida, and it's Summer, so please don't give me a herp derp answer like it's cold and just warming up. The car has been warm throughout the day when it happens, and it's 90 degrees on top of it. The car has a small leak from the V/C gasket. Scion pointed this out at my last oil change. My oil is still golden and shiny... Plus, it's still full, so the leak can't be that bad since it's been around 5k miles since I changed it and the level is still perfect.

Lastly, my car is randomly losing radiator fluid. I've determined someone is siphoning it... Seriously, I can't see it leaking anywhere. There are no puddles below my car, there is no sign of it under my hood, nothing. All my hoses appear new, and Scion did a pressure check and everything was perfect with that. I NEVER have to fill the reserve tank, it's only the radiator itself, and about every 2 weeks it's taking a quarter thing of fluid. The reserve will be completely full, but the radiator is empty... -_- Seriously, what the hell... Also, I'll point out that the radiator fluid missing in action thing has been happening since I've had the car, the white smoke just started when I noticed the coils were super dead. =/

So yeah, if someone could give me ANY insight, that would be super. I love my car, and I baby it I really do... I just keep getting a bunch of round about answers and people scratching their heads... =/

Thanks in advance!!!

<3

 

Just for future reference for people that may have the issues or some that I was experiencing...

I took my car to Scion today and just bit the bullet to pay them to look into it deeper. Turns out, all of these issues were caused by the one thing I was fearing the most, a blown head gasket. -_-;

So, again see some of the issues? Don't rule it out. I had no idea where I was leaking the radiator fluid, and it turns out, it was leaking all through my cylinders and everything else in existence. Luckily, I caught it before it cracked the block, or got WAY too bad, it just needs the head gasket. Still a ridiculous price tag of $1800.00 to pay, but at least I know I won't have to worry about it for a good while. =/

Have a good one, and good luck if you have those symptoms! =( <--- Those about sum up my emotions at the moment...

 

That's some bad luck. Unfortunately, these cars are popular with teens and early-20-somethings who often run them hard and mercilessly. Fingers crossed that you don't find any other premature wear.