I have a 97 LE that misses badly when stopped at a stop light - if I shift to neutral the idle comes back to normal. When I accelerate it comes up and runs normal. Coincidentally, my sister also has a 95' Camry and it does the same thing, only has progressed to the point that it now dies when she approaches a light and steps on the brake. We've had the car maintained normally and everything seems to be up to date. Car has 150k on it. Any ideas? I was going to start with the fuel filter, but wanted to know if maybe there is something else I should look at while I'm at it?

 

hmm, good option, try it out and update us here what would be the result.

 

"We've had the car maintained normally" = confuses the post; which car are you talking about working on?

your car sure as heck doesn't sound like a fuel delivery problem.
say car accelerates well ... so it's getting all the fuel it needs.
so xnay on fuel filter being plugged as the problem.

 

Does the engine miss or is the idle speed just too low?

 

I've watched the tach when the missing is going on and it jumps all over the place, but typically runs at between 3 and 500 rpms - then if I flip to neutral it jumps back up to 700 rpms or thereabouts. I've also used the accelerator to run the rpms back up to 700 or 800 when my foot is on the brake and it is in gear and it runs more smoothly, but still misses.

I'm thinking that when it is in gear, there is some strain on the fan belts or something that is making the engine strain a bit more and bring the rpms down - I think there is a problem with fuel something that is minor and doesn't show itself independantly, but when it's under a little additional strain, the rpms drop and the problem is exagerated. But, I'm just a backyard mechanic - I do my own brakes, change the oil, occasionally do the belts or spark plugs, much more then that and I head to the local shop - I don't have all the computers and time to dig into it too deep. Just hoping it's something simple I can fix myself. My gut tells me it's a simple problem. Thinking of changing the filter and adding some sea foam and seeing what happens.

 

When in gear, the trans places a load on the engine.

If the car has AC, what happens when you turn it on? The engine should pick up RPM to compensate for the compressor.

If the engine has good power the fuel filter should be OK.

If the engine has a miss and is not just vibrating because the RPM is too low suggest checking the plugs and ign wires.

If using Sea Foam, spray it into the throttle body when the engine is running. You will need to pickup the RPM or the engine will die.

You can try cleaning the IAC valve, this controls idle RPM but would not explain the miss. A Google search on cleaning 5SFE IAC valve should turn up hits.

 

It's definitely a miss as opposed to just low RPM's. It also has new plugs and plug wires - about 10k ago - doesn't seem to have originated from the plug and wire change either. A/C on and off doesn't affect the problem or the lights and power steering or anything else for that matter - although I do notice the RPM's drop a bit when the Alternator clicks on.

I'll work on it a bit this weekend and report back on Monday, I appreciate everyones input and will look at the fuel filter, but what is being said about the filter makes sense to me. Thanks again for the help and I'll post again on Monday anything I can figure out.

 

Okay, dove into it over the weekend and took the IAC off and cleaned it up. I guess you guys were right that it was not a miss, but just low idle as the problem seems to be "mostly" resolved. The day I cleaned it up it ran great and even seemed to have more power - I cleaned up the whole throttle body while I had it apart. On sunday however I took the car out and the same problem although much diminished showed itself a bit. I'm thinking the core of the problem was resolved, but maybe a little debris is built up in some place I couldn't access to clean properly. I'll run a couple cans of Sea Foam through the fuel system and see if it clears up - if not, I might just break down and buy a new IAC - theres a small electrical component attached to the IAC - A solenoid?? - I couldn't get it off as the head of the screw stripped out (I watched a little you-tube video where the mechanic used an angle screw driver to remove the screws and recommended that I do the same to avoid stripping out the screw - against my better judgement I did as he suggested and stripped out the screw - went with my first intinc on the rest and had no further problems). Not sure if cleaning inside the area where that solenoid covers might have helped or not??? I could drill and tap it out, but figured if I take it off again, most likely will just replace with a new one - I'm guessing the solenoid will come with the new IAC.

 

The valve body has a small motor inside. The motor moves an air vane to adjust bypass air around the throttle plate.

Did you spray the cleaner into the port on the bottom of the throttle bore?

New valves are not cheap. See link below:

RockAuto Parts Catalog

Given the screw heads are damaged maybe someone else tried to remove it before you.

 

Toyomo,

Thanks for all your help. Not sure exactly where you are suggesting that I should have sprayed the cleaner. I did remove the throttle body as it was the only way to access the IAC. When I had it off, I cleaned every part and piece of it and sprayed SeaFoam and carburator cleaner and scrubbed with a toothbrush. It was almost new looking when I was done with it. I also shot some SeaFoam down the intake manifold, but did not scrub or brush it at all - as I did it, I wondered if maybe that was a mistake as I didn't want small pieces of grunge getting stuck in the injectors. So beyond the throttle body I didn't do much cleaning.