Hi I am new here and a novice with cars. I will try and explain my problem. We are in Tucson, Arizona. The vehicle sat in my brothers garage for 7 years and we had the vehicle transported her. The vehicle would not start, We had the fuel pump replace, 2 of the 4 injectors replaced, fuel filter and had the fuel system flushed.. We have 57,000 miles on our vehicle and everything was fine. Over the past year we have noticed when we drive distance on the highway the vehicle suddenly loses power and the engine shuts down without indication. The battery, engine and oil light comes on -- no power. I wait for a couple of minutes and the vehicle starts and I can go. We have taken it to the mechanics and they say they cannot duplicate the problem...and until the car breaks there is nothing to do. The problem was intermittent but it appears to be happening more frequently. It does not happen when driving around town, only when i get on the highway. Today I noticed that it started at approximately 50 miles into my drive and it happen several times thereafter until I could get the vehicle home. I wonder if it has something to do with the vehicle being hot (it is over 100 today) and maybe shorting something?? I am worried that this is an accident waiting to happen. I have read various things on this site but am really at a loss...any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for any and all help!!!

 

intermittent problems are indeed the worse to diagnose, god knows, i had my share of 'em. it does "on the surface" sound to be electrical in nature. i would first guess it to be the ignition ingniter or or coil pack, which ever this car has. when it gets hot, circuits open up and shut down, car cools down and re-starts. it;s all in the all the car dies............for instance does it shut off right away or slowly. if right away, electrical, if slowly, fuel problem. since you say it shuts down without warning, i'm going electrical. see if you can obtain a coil pack or ignigter maybe a used one (maybe from a salvage yard?)if only for diagnostic purposes, then if the problem is found, get a new one, but get a factory original, not a auto parts store brand. now also, make sure you have a very good ground connection. start at the battery, and completely clean the battery terminals. also make sure the battery is good, not weak. poor ground connections will make electronic devices not work properly. re-check all the wires from the fuel pump. make sure there is a ground wire from the engine compartment (firewall area) to the battery. make sure there is a good ground connection from the uni-body to the engine as well. and lastly, that fuel pump can be defective as well.

 

Thanks for the response. I have some info to update. We just went out this morning to run some errands and for the first time we have experienced the problem we have on the highway. After being out for 1/2 hour we were at a stop light when the vehicle started losing power. I put the vehicle in park and rev'ed the engine for a bit and then was able to drive. As driving we found the same thing happening, the car would start to lose power and I would have to try and rev the car. At each stop light I had to do this. The car did not lose power immediately but slowly started to die (as on the highway). While we were driving I could feel the car start to die and had to hope and pray that I didn't stop...again I rev'd the engine. I was able to get the car home without an accident happening, but this is new...in that it has now happened while driving in the city. Based on your response earlier is this more "fuel pump" related or electical. One difference today was that the car did not actually lose power (as it did yesterday and I had to put it in park and restart) but as the engine, oil and battery light did not come on today (as it did yesterday when the car would completely lose power). Any suggestions on how I can determine further if this is fuel pump related or electrical??? Thank you for any and all assistance.

 

you will need to check that 12 volts is getting at the fuel pump. you will also have to check the "throttle position sensor" located at the the area of the throttle body. i do not have specs as to the voltage required there. i would also remove the air snorkel and check to see if the intake is gummed up. if it is, there are spray cleaners to remove the gum. however, usually a dirty air intake will not affect driving per say, but will affect idling. you could even have a dirty "mass air flow sensor" located in the air snorkel tube. if that is dirty you can have problems. again, you can spray clean this too, with a mass air flow cleaner. i would also suggest that you make sure the battery is good and can hold a charge. the car computer needs a full 12 volts at all times. make sure all connections to all electrical points are clean. i'm still thinking its electrical, but at times, fuel problems can mimic as well. usually fuel problems, the car sputters then dies slowly. where in electrical, it dies suddenly. if you have an electrical problem, it is going to be intermittent for sure.check each and every electrical wiring you can under the hood, that car sitting for so long, little critters could have made a meal out of the wiring insulation and you maybe getting a bad connection.

 

Check this post, I have almost identical problem as you described. https://www.camryforums.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=18769

In my case, if the car goes say 5-6 min, then it will never die. I replaced Thermostat, o2 sensor, radiator coolant, cleaned throttle body and IAC when this issue happened 6-12 months back. Apparently none of these helpded as I had the exact issue happened 2 weeks back. It is been running without any issues since then, nobody (3 dealers and 2 shops) was able to pinpont the problem (because no check engine light). As you noticed, in my case both time the temp was around 100 and the car was in the heat for 2 days without starting.

Since the problem is not happening right now, I don't know what to do. As a precaution, I am going to clean EGR valve and replace Fuel Filter.
I am going to clean my bettery terminal as Glenn suggested, never cleaned it before.

If you ever figure out the problem, please post

Thanks
John