So I recently inherited my girlfriends problem with her 1989 Camry.

Symptoms: Hesitates(and sometimes dies) in acceleration from a stop and sometimes dies when trying to reverse.

I'm no mechanic but I can usually find my way around a car but i'm out of ideas on this one.

Trial and Error: I tried taking the air filter out and driving around the block and that didnt fix anything. I also tried a little seafoam in the main manifold. That smoked out the whole neighborhood but didnt fix the problem.

I am thinking maybe the timing might have somehow got tweeked but was hoping for other possible troubleshooting before I have to pay someone to take a look at it.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance...

 

try checking the EGR valve. if the underside is rusty it might be sticking and letting in too much air at low rpms, causing it to hesitate and stall. the same thing happened to my '00 CE 2.2 and it took me 6 months to figure out

 

replace the oxygen sensor