Hi all, need a little help here please:

I have a manual 2003 Camry and it was not used for 5 days. On the day that I tried starting it up, it tried to crank, but did not start up. I gave it a jump, and drove for about an hour and shut it off. I waited about 4~5 hours, tried again, and it would not start up again. I jumped it and it was fine again.

At this point, I thought since the battery was 7 years old, it's going bad.

I took the battery in the next day, had it checked and it was not taking a charge so I bought a replacement battery. Put the battery in, started the car up (it fired right away), but the car was shuddering/sputtering in neutral. Giving it some gas kept it alive. I took the battery back, thinking that it was bad off the shelf. The battery tested fine and so they checked the car, and starter and alternator were both working correctly.

So now it sounds like a fuel/fuel system problem? I'm not sure. The car has 78k miles, never had a problem or been in any accidents. I bought it new back in 2003. There is no Check Engine Light either.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to check for? If it's something I can take care of myself, that'd be great (since it's Sunday and all the shops are closed.... )

Thanks to all in advance.

 

If the engine ran OK before the battery change, disconnecting the battery may now require the cars computer to reset itself. Typically the engine straightens itself out over a short period of time.

 

^^ toyomoho,

Just talked to the wife and found out that prior to the battery replacement, it was shuddering on her too. She had to give it a bit of gas to keep it alive as well.

Any other ideas/suggestions?

 

What engine model, 4 or V6?

 

4 cylinder model, sir. There aren't any V6 manual for the 02~06 model, unfortunately....

 

Help, anybody?

 

Might be bad fuel, happened to me before. Another reason I can think of is spark plugs, if you have a malfunctioning one that will cause the engine to run abruptly. Since you bought the vehicle new you might wanna have it inspected by the dealer, the engine has 100000 miles warranty so they should take care of the problem.