Hi, I'm new to the forum

Ive never worked on a modern car but have done basic repairs / swapped parts to some old cars when i was first driving (120y, Escort, Renault 16 swapped radiators, bumpers, gearshift ball joints , basic tune ups gaskets etc ).

Now i have a 2002 camry station wagon, that i've had for about 2 years. It has done alot of km 260,000 and was serviced at the dealer regularly before i got it.
I have the full service history. When i bought it I had the timing belt changed .

I've just taken it for a service a few weeks ago and things have not gone well since. First service all the plugs were changed to long life plugs, they had only been changed once before. In the past the owner had complained of some difficult starting from time to time . I found this too . It might stall reversing out of the drive a couple of times may be tow days in a row , then no problems for several months (regardless of the weather or season). About a week after the first service it started stalling on me while driving, once going up a hill once slowing to a stop behind traffic, then again stopped waiting to turn into a main road. I took it back ( to the garage not which was not the dealer) He checked and said their were no fault codes, and cleaned the throttle inlet ? which the dealer had done before.

Now a week and a half later , it the engine malfunctin ligh comes on while driving and the car grinds to a halt. I restart the engine all is fine for a kilometer or so then again. this happened on Friday , I took it for a long Drive on Sunday no problems. Then Monday night its done it again twice in a row , and again this morning. Its a bit scary If this happens at high speed or in traffic or turning things could get ugly for me. It doesn't feel safe to drive. On the long drive on the weekend 100 kms or more the engine felt great on the freeway really smooth. I'm so glad that nothing happened then.

Anyway , at the same time I also had the shockers and a rear trailing bush replaced at the garages suggestion. 260 000km and they had never been done before , seemed reasonable. I want the car to be safe for my young baby and wife you know. The left one is ok , but the right on made noises when i turnend. I went back, and they changed the baring for no cost , it still continued to make scrunching noises. I took it back again and they took the bearing apart and re lubed it / greased it ? Again for no cost , though they suggested it might need a new rubber mount for $200. It was better but again it making noises only on part of a turn.

I though i'd drive it for a week or so see if the noises got worse , and its now that the engine malfunction light comes on!!!

I don't know if i should go back to the garage and get them to fix both problems or to take to a toyota dealer straight away.

The car feels at the same time much better to drive but less safe than it was before the service

What can i do to fix this problem? Its cost me total $2k so far for the service, including all plugs, two new pirelli tyres, wheel alignment , oil, two new shockers , and a rear trailing bush .... something like $500 + of labour charges? Thats two days in the garage for the work and a couple, a and two other days when i left it so they could look again at the right shocker. ( I only paid rough $7500 for the car when i got it and $670 for the service to replace the timing belt)

Is their anything I can do my self? what can i do to get my car fixed.

Looking at the forum i see that it could be sensor ... would this the cause the car to loose cut all power and stop the engine? Could it be a build up of carbon to do with EGR Inefficient Flow.

What should I ask the garage or the Dealer , so that i know whats going on , and that my car will be safe and that i, wont be throwing good money away.

This is very frustrating!

Cheers

Neil

 

What country are you in and engine model?

If you don't know the engine model is it a V6 or 4 cylinder?

Insufficient EGR flow would not cause the engine to stall, too much EGR flow would.

If the check engine light is on, a code(s) should be stored.

Are you sure it is he check engine light, not the alternator light, etc?

 

I'm in Australia (Melbourne). The vehicle a 2002 TOYOTA CAMRY MCV20R CSI WHITE 4dr WAGON with a Automatic 6cyl 3.0L 1MZ-FE Engine

its the orange light that is the shape of an engine. the battery and oil light also come on, after the car looses power. Firstly the car feels underpowered for a moment then the orange light flicks on and off then it stays on all within 30 seconds 1 minute and the engine dies, and power steering is gone. The car comes to a halt and i have to restart the engine. This all happens while the car is driving.

 

To review:

The engine is running OK. The engine feels like it is losing power then the check light comes on. 30 to 60 seconds after the light comes on the engine quits, then the oil pressure and battery lights come on?

You wait a period of time, restart the engine and everything is back to normal.

Is this what happens?

It is possible that when the engine is restarted and now runs OK again any codes are cleared.

The computer does not monitor every aspect of the engine. There are many problems that could cause the check engine light to come on, however most would not cause the engine to quit.

From what you write. A problem is occurring with the car causing the engine to lose power. The source of the power loss is one of the systems that is monitored by the computer (not all systems are monitored). The computer detects a problem with this system then sets a code, the code being set turns on the check light.

The problem gets worse causing the engine to die.

If the car sits for a period of time and is restarted the problem seems to fix itself (or reset), the computer no longer detects a problem, the engine runs normally. The problem having gone away the computer reset and the codes are cleared.

You best bet is to find a code reader. Borrow, rent, lease, buy a cheap one. Then when the problem happens again plug the reader in and check for codes before restarting the engine.

By doing this you can determine what the trouble code is and make fixing the problem much easier. Otherwise intermediate problems are the hardest to find.

 

Thanks Joey , thats a really good idea.

Yep the light comes flicks a bit, it seems to loose power then is ok, then very quickly the light goes on solid and the power dies and the oil and battery light go on (not sure if the engine has stopped each time or it goes into 'limp mode' as someone suggested and i've stopped it when i've pulled over) . When i pull over it appears that the engine then stops. I can restart the engine straight away and it will start up and i can drive away ... but then the same thing may happen again withing a couple of minutes. From memory it appears to only happen two or three times in a row then its ok.

someone suggested it could be the fuel filter , but that was changed only a few weeks ago , so were all the plugs.

 

When the oil and battery light comes on the engine has died.

Would seem strange if a fuel filter, as in it plugs up then unplugs? Suppose it possible under heavy load. If failing under load might be a fuel pump that can't keep up or the fuel pressure regulator.

Fuel pressure and flow are not monitored. What would be is if the computer were being forced to increase fuel injection rate/duration to compensate for something causing it to lean.

Is there any speed, time duration associated with this change of events?

 

It seems to happen within a few after starting. After several failures it then is ok .However last night I couldn't get it to start at all it wouldn't catch too a couple of minutes to get it to start , then it did the same thing before i was out of the car park , then again around the corner .... i drove it up and down a side road for a few minutes then left it parked motor running and opened the hood to listen . Once it started to fail then kicked in again , like the light flicking on quickly then off. I decided to drive it home ..... it failed at the lights , then a couple of kms after that , but was mainly .

Started up fine this morning, no problem, but within 2 kms or so it failed 3 times the last time as i pulled into the Garage so that it could be looked at. Didn't restart it so hopefully the error codes won't be wiped if there were any.

Anyway i'll ask the mechanic what the error codes were when they call and post back here to see if it makes any sense.

 

The Mechanic has just called to say , he thinks it could be one of the ignition sensors .... and that with some equipment that he will have tomorrow he will be able to tell which one is faulty . He said that there is one that sends messages and two that are reactionary. If he replaced them all it could be thousands of dollars!

 

Hi , turns out that there was a short in the loom from the igniter. The mechanic replaced the igniter as well, as apparently these can be damaged if there is a short. Anyway it starts fine now and seems to drive ok. Will have to monitor it for a while But hopefully it will be ok. They also managed to fix the problem with the shocker mounting grommet or bearing which was making such a terrible scrunching noise after the shocker had been replaced. Cost me $450 all up.

Thanks for you help toyomoho