Hi - I have a manual transmission 95 camry 2.2L with 372,000 miles. This week it started to hesitate around corners when downshifting
should happen but I didnt or up hills. It hesitates but doesnt stall. It idles OK then stutters, then idles ok. It seems to start fine at this point.
Its very intermittent, it will hesitate and lose power and then catch and be normal. I am on my 3rd ignition coil and think maybe this could be the problem again.
The hot resistance reading on the primary I think was just slightly off. Its hard to say since its such a low ohms reading to begin with.

I also tested my spark plug wires. I was a little surprised to find my cylinder 1 wire completely open. Luckily i save all my old wires and was able to replace it.
Unfortunately it still hesitates. Could a bad ignition coil burn out a spark plug wire? I am getting a replacement coil tomorrow.

Is it possible this could be the fuel pump (original), fuel filter (original), fuel pressure regulator or possibly the effects of a bad head gasket (I think I have had a small leak for quite some time)?

Thanks for your help
Kev

 

Here is some other info that might be helpful. I changed the timing belt and all components at 355K. I never did go back in and adjust the tensioner bolt.
Not sure if you are supposed to after a certain amount of miles. I figured Toyota never called me back to do that when they did the timing belt so I didnt. How would I know if the belt slipped a tooth?
Would it be a constant poor running engine or intermittent like I am experiencing?

The 1st coil was replaced by me at 285K in May 2012. I figured the original lasted so long this one would last forever. I was wrong, it failed at 305K in Jan 2014.
Toyota replaced this one as my "bias" on never having to replace that part again made me ignore a weak spark. My mistake was buying the coil on ebay. But even still is
5 years and about 70K miles the expected life of a replacement toyota oem coil (or whatever coil they use)? I measured the resistance of the distributor signal generator coil on the distributor and both cold and hot resistance was in spec. What would the signs be if the distributor was actually going bad? Could it be causing the coil to fail?

Also I changed the cap,rotor, wires and plugs (denso Platinum) at 343K in OCT 2016. Usually I do this every 60K.
Also I noticed a little bit of oil in my dist cap (not much ) and a little on the bottom of the coil. I wonder if Toyota put a new o-ring on the dist shaft when they changed the coil or just re-used the one I put on in 2012.

Thanks again for reading
Kev

 

A Toyota dealer installed the timing belt? The belt DOES NOT need periodic adjustment.

If the belt slipped a tooth the engine would never run normally and have idle issues but it may still run.

Is this an internal or external coil?

Is this current coil a Toyota brand purchased from a dealer?

Any change in weather related to this miss issue. Wet, damp, etc?

The open ign wire was from the 343K wire/plug/cap change?

 

I replaced the timing belt in NOV 2017 myself with the help of you and the forum. So its been running like a champ well over a year up to this week.
I did everything - water pump, all seals, pulleys, etc

It is an internal coil. I put in the first one - Toyota put in the 2nd one. So yes the current coil is from Toyota. HOT primary resistance readings were too close to
edge or just out of spec. As you know you have to short out ohm meter first to see what ohms is between the two leads ( not a perfect zero on the lowest ohms scale)
and then subtract that reading from the reading across the + & - terminals of the coil to get the actual reading. It was right on the edge if not over. so hard to tell because meter kept fluctuating 1/10 of an ohm which is critical for this precise low reading.. In fact the first reading leaned it to being just on the low end of the range and then my second conformation reading actually ended up on the edge of the high end spec. Readings were no more than 1 minute apart. Dont know how much the car could have cooled down in a minute to effect resistance.

Dont think weather was damp, but definitely cold, in CT. I had driven the car and it ran fine, then it sat in the cold for an hour. When I started on my way home as soon as I turned onto the main road it started hesitating. I thought maybe I hit 3rd gear too fast (which I probably did) but it just lost all power and crept along. Then improved and then hesitated. Had this cycle repeat all the way home for 1/2 hour, especially up hills. I will say I thought over the past few months I might have felt a little bump of hesitation but that was it and it was so slight I wasnt sure if it was just my foot readjusting on the gas pedal or not.

Yes bad wire was from my last tuneup at 343K. Do you think they are bad wires? They were Denso wires with a beck/arnley cap & rotor. and Denso platinum plugs.
Should I just do a tune up on it? I do have a Spectra Premium C-623 Ignition Coil coming in today.

Dont know if you saw this as I edited it in to a previous comment after your reply -
Also I noticed a little bit of oil in my dist cap (not much ) and a little on the bottom of the coil. I wonder if Toyota put a new o-ring on the dist shaft when they changed the coil or just re-used the one I put on in 2012.

 

Also just noticed the coil face where its epoxied has 2 small hair line cracks - not very noticeable and not sure if a crack in this "potting"
material really matters. My first coil (original toyota) had a crack in the black casing of the coil. However I could not see that crack until it was removed from the dist.

 

Would start with the easiest.

If you have more old plug wires can try changing them out and determine if this makes a difference.

Have you tried observing the engine in the dark for ign spark arcing or glow?

Youtube has a few videos on diagnosing ign coil issues.

https://www.google.com/search?ei=HMt...71._rCKzrxKblQ

 

Hi Joey - thanks for reeling me back in and reminding me to start with the basics. Im sure you could tell I was trying to condemn the coil.
I always keep all my old tune up parts if they are salvageable and since all the wires were on my old cap I just put on my old cap with
the old wires and I also decided to use my old rotor. Well the car ran fine! So Im going to assume that Denso wire set with only 29K miles
on them are no good. Im pretty shocked that they failed - I thought Denso was a quality product for Toyotas.
I think going forward I will order a full tune up kit - wires, cap, rotor and plugs. I think I will try the NGK wires and plugs this time.
Do you recommend any type of cap & rotor?
Do you think that little bit of oil I found in the cap could have destroyed the wires?
Does the oil in the cap indicate that the dist shaft seal is damaged? Do you suggest changing the shaft seal? Could the oil be coming
into the cap for some other reason?
The video link you suggested was great. Alot of good info. I did try and look for arcing of the wires at night but I did not see any.
Thanks again for all the help
Kev