No, I haven't replace the distributor. The car only has 95k miles, but of course its 25 years old.

I did some reading, and from what I read the egr valve can be an issue when the engine is cold so I took it off, and let it soak with some automotive paint thinner.[ not the diaphragm, just the egr body]

I'll do a test drive down the road, and report back.

Also, the engine don't bog under no load, only on the that 1st to 2nd gear change.

Starting out in 1st gear its fine, then second gear is fine [I live at the top of a small hill so when I start out of the driveway its down hill on both sides of my driveway].

Its just when I get to that stop sign, and start up that low grade that I get the bog.

Like I said, it may be something that I have to either live with, or wait for it to get worse so I can better find the cause. Its strange as the old coil was cracked in the epoxy so we KNOW it was part of the problem.

 

Well, I took yet another test drive today after cleaning, and reinstalling the egr valve, and there is a very slight hesitation, but no more bog.

I did notice that the vacuum line going to the bottom of the egr valve had some carbon in it. So that may have been a source of the bogging when the engine was cold.

Anyway, I'm done for now, and am happy with the car as it, IMO, beats the new cars hands down for simplicity, reliability, and cost of replacement parts.

 

A bit of an update.

The trans still shifts late when cold [like not driven overnight]. It shifts from 1-2 at around 2900 rpms, and 2-3 at around 3200 rpms, and it takes forever to shift into overdrive [way higher than 3300 rpms.

Anyway, today I pulled the valve body, and took it all apart, oh, and there is NO DIAGRAMS on the valve body check valve so I will post them. Everything was clean, and moved freely, no dirt, or metal shavings, etc.

The shift solenoids were cleaned in automotive paint thinner [as was the valve body parts] as that is what we used when I ran a trans shop waaaay back in the '90s. [just don't leave anything with rubber in the thinner too long, just to be safe].

I tested the solenoids with a battery, and they worked fine. I put everything back together, with all new fluid, [I changed the fluid/filter when I first bought the car this past Jan so it was still good, even reused the gasket].

Still shifting late when cold. I'm stumped, as were it an internal problem with the transmission it would still shift late even after everything warmed up, but it don't, it shifts fine after about ten minutes of driving.

I've been playing with the adjustment of the kickdown cable, but one thing I don't know, hence my question. After adjusting the kick down cable, does the computer need to relearn the shift points?

Here are the pictures of the valve body, and fluid lines { I had to print out a picture of the fluid lines to get them back on correctly].

This is for a 93 Camry with an A140F. Here is the little filter.


This trans have four plastic/rubber.




Also, there is a very small valve that might pop out, and leave you guessing where it came from. Here is a picture of where it goes. The valve is at the bottom left corner of the pic, right beside a hole in the corner of the valve body.


There are two more steel check valves in the separate, upper part of the valve body. I was pressed for time so I didn't get a shot of them. When you remove the upper section, make sure you have all of the hold down bolts off, then flip the whole valve body over, and while holding the top part of the valve body in your hand pull it off the main valve body. That way the check valves "should" stay in place, as well as the little rod you see in one of the pictures [it took a while to figure out where it went], and a tiny clip that goes on the kick down valve. Take pictures of the check *****, clip, and tiny rod locations just in case they get moved. You can spay that part of the vb with carb cleaning spray, which may not disturb the *****, clip, etc.

When you're ready to put things back together, grab a jar of Vaseline. Put a big gob of Vaseline on the check *****, cover them with it. Same thing with the clip as this will keep them from falling out when you flip it over to reinstall it. Do the same the check ***** in the main valve body as it will keep them in place during re-installation.

 

The trans shifts OK (hot or cold) after 10 minutes of driving?

The trans computer functions solely by a programmed map. Much later Toyota started to have the "learn" ability.

 

Yep, it shifts just fine after about 10minutes of driving. My thoughts were, that when the trans is completely cool the fluid is thicker, and that there might be either trash, or sludge keeping the fluid from moving like it should. After everything warmed up, the fluid was thinner, and better able to move though the valves, etc., which is why there isn't a problem when the car is warmed up.

But, today, taking pretty much everything apart, I couldn't find even a hint of sludge, or trash. I also thought that changing fluid might help just a bit with any trash, but its still high rpm shifts before the trans is fully warmed up.

I even blocked off the EGR valve since its function dependent on engine temp, but to no avail.

I've tried adjusting, and readjusting the kick down cable, but again there is no change.

The only one little change today was that I've got the accelerator cable turned almost all the way in [its supposed to increase line pressure, and I've been driving the car this way for a few days just to see if it had an effect].

Well, after getting everything back together, and taking a test drive that seemed to make things even worse. The trans didn't want to even shift out of second gear until around 4k rpm. At that point I slowly drove to the church parking lot, and adjusted the kick down cable more towards the factory setting [but not quite]. This helped a bunch, and the car started shifting correctly, but everything had warmed up by then.

I waited until the car had cooled off just a bit, about an hour, and took another test drive. It worked better than before shifting 1-2 at 2900 rpms, and 2-3 at around 3k rpm. So I adjusted it even more to the factory settings, waited another hour, and no change at all this time.

Do you think its the ecm having issues? I've heard these things rarely go bad, and with the cars relatively low miles, I wouldn't think it would be having problems, but there again its 25 years old.

With my 05 Nissan I went though Hell trying to get a used ECM. Nissan no longer makes the damned thing so Ebay was my only hope which helped since I at least could sent it back if the unit was bad [vs a junkyard with no returns]. Problem was, with every used computer I bought I had to take it to the dealer****s, and pay $150 to "find out" if the used ECM was good, or not. When all was said, and done I had paid $600 to the dealer****s, not counting the money I spent on used ECM's.

So the question is, first, does anyone in the aftermarket make a good replacement ECM for a 93 Camry? Also, where I to buy used, I'm assuming the numbers of the used ECM have to match the numbers on my factory ECM.............thanks.

 

Suggest adjusting the kick down cable per the manual and calling this good for the cable.

How was the trans oil filter and its connection pipe to the trains, any possibility of leaks? Ditto for the valve body mating surfaces.

Can you check line pressure? Perhaps the system pressure changes too much, warm versus cold.

ECU typically work or they don't. But sometimes replacing them can cure engine problems and false check light issues. Can you try using a hair dryer to heat the ECU to simulate a warm condition. Might also try this with the TPS.

Try Ebay for used ECU's, which at times some can be very reasonable. Get the exact part number or if applicable its superseded number.

 

Everything was fine in the trans when I looked.

We drove it to town, and its the same thing, drives us nuts until it starts shifting normal.

The only other thing it could be would be the temp sending unit which I replaced.

I may have to try another computer from Ebay, as from what I've read on the shop manual I can't think of anything else. At least I won't have to take it to the dealership after installation.

 

Keep us informed!

 

OK, will do.

 

Well, the parts came in today, and I've installed them with no change in the shift points for the trans, nor getting rid of the code 12.

What I received was a new dist cap, and rotor [Standard Ignition]. I had just bought a new cap/rotor a few weeks ago, but it looked like the rotor was hitting the metal prongs inside the cap.

So, I figured this was where the code 12 was originating, but its obviously not.

From more reading, and digging on code 12, I have pretty much changed out all of the problem parts except for the ignition pickup inside the distributor. For some reason, there is NOBODY making these parts, and Toyota no longer sells them.

I also pulled the distributor, and found its an aftermarket so it would seem that someone else had a problem with the ignition.

I decided to check everything on the dist again, and all tested just fine [ignition pickup, and coil] The only things that were out of specs were the air gaps on the pickups. I reset them to .006. No shaft side to side play [which one would expect with a re manufactured dist.].

I will reinstall the dist tomorrow, and see if there is any change, or not.