I recently bought a 1994 Camry LE V6 with 69500 miles. Carfax was clean. The previous owners were not driving the car. I took it to my local mechanic and he said engine oil was leaking a little bit and that the gasket was starting to wear. I subsequently had the front seals and timing belt changed. A front axle was also changed.

A few days later, I took it for a drive. Not 3 miles down the road, at about 45 mph, the gas pedal would not do anything (the engine was still running, the accelerator just wouldn't work). As I was turning onto the side of the road, I noticed that the steering wheel was really hard to turn, so I guess the power steering cut out. The engine stalled. I was able to start the car again to turn it around, but pumping the pedal did nothing as the car wouldn't go past 3mph and the idle was really rough (engine compartment was rumbling).

I had it towed to my local mechanic, but I already spent 1400 on maintenance. Does anyone know what might be wrong with the car? When I had the car inspected (from two sources), they said it should run fine, other than the leaks.

 

If the engine quits the power steering will stop working, doubt the steering has failed.

Pushing on the gas pedal has absolutely no effect on the engine RPM?

Zero power and rough idle might be due to a failed fuel pump. A shop should be able to quickly determine if the pump is not working correctly.

Inspecting a car can only find some much, Some parts can't be inspected, others work OK until the fail, etc.

 

Hey, thanks for the response. I think you're right in that the power steering still works. Yes, at that exact instance the engine idle was rough and the accelerator had no effect. I actually stopped by the shop with a friend and tried to start the car, but it doesn't start. The engine cranks to 1000 rpm and cuts out.

My mechanic is looking at it right now. Hopefully it's the fuel pump and nothing too serious.

 

-Update- Ok, so I talked with the shop today, they weren't able to determine the issue but they said the car wasn't getting any gas. They said they added some fuel and the car started up again.

I asked them if there was any gas in the tank, they said the gas level was low. They are going to look at it again tomorrow.

 

Perhaps the fuel in the tank was too low.

 

I also think the same, what's the best thing to do with this problem.

 

Toyomoho, you're right as that is exactly the case. Based on my tripometer

(which I reset at gas station fill-ups), I should have had atleast 40 miles to go (4 gallons with 20mpg average).

But, as the car was old and the previous owners made it sit, some sediment probably clogged some something.

Full House, I'll update once my mechanic checks back with me, but other than that we could just drive with atleast quarter tank or something like that

 

So I checked with my mechanic today, he said that he thinks it's a bad computer. The OBD error is saying CAM sensor but he thinks the main computer is messed up. He wants to replace it and is looking for used parts (the new aftermarket part costs $600 and he knows I don't have much money).

I found some computers on car-part.com, I think I'll just go for the $50 one and see what happens.

Hopefully it will get fixed without too much running around.

 

This is a US car?

The computer seldom fails.

The CAM sensor would be built into the distributor. The distributor has both a CAM and CRANK sensor. This year setup was before Toyota moved these sensors to the actual crank and cam pulley locations.

Suggest checking out the distributor first before the main computer.

 

Thanks for the advice toyomoho.
Yes, this is a US car, first digit of vin says "4." I actually talked to my mechanic this morning and he said found a used computer with the same id for $100 so I told them to go ahead with it (job costs $300

overall). A friend I talked to said his Toyota didn't start and he had a computer replaced which fixed the problem, so I've got my fingers crossed. Hopefully this solves the issue (and hopefully it's not the distributor).