Hey Folks,

First time poster here. My mother has a 94 Camry, 4 cyl automatic with about 170K miles on it. Out of the blue one day, her car started running rough. When I drove it, it seemed to act exactly like there was water in the gas. It wasn't a steady miss (like a dead cylinder), it just ran erratically at all engine speeds, with load and with no load. I had experienced water in the gas with another car many years prior.

I dumped in some water remover and fuel injector cleaner in the tank and drove it for several miles at highway speed and it gradually improved and then seemed to be fine...until the next day. It's been a few weeks now and still the same problem but with varying levels of intensity. It always runs fine when cold and seems to run fine until it's shut off for some number of minutes. After re-starting, it runs rough again, then seems to improve after driving it for awhile. The check engine light has never come on.

I've seen others post about similar issues and I've seen recommendations for plugs/wires, EGR valve, ECT sensor, and replacing the coil. Hopefully my description is detailed enough to narrow down the diagnosis. Anyone care to weigh in ??

Thanks in advance for your help.


Mark

 

Test your engine coolant temp sensor, sounds like flooding when hot. Could also be leaking injector that floods cylinder after shut off. Remove plugs just after hot re-start when engine runs rough and look for wet plug. Also look for black plug which would indicate rich running.

 

Pedro,

Much obliged for the insight. I'll give those ideas a whirl and see what I come up with.