Greetings all,

I have a 1992 Camry V6 that just did a something very strange. While traveling down the road only a minute or two from my home, it suddenly lost power and acted as if it was was going to die. The Check Engine light came on and stayed on. After getting home, I connected TE1 & E1 on the TDCL as I have done many, many times before, and then was expecting to count the number of blinks to get the diagnostic code(s). However, this time the Check Engine light does NOT blink - it stays on. Anyone ever seen this before? Has my computer finally bit the dust?

 

Update: by resetting the ECU (pulling the FI fuse) it appears all is well again. Apparently the ECU lost it mind and caused a multi-code failure syndrome - I guess. Perhaps it is on its way out...

 

Good job in fixing the issue.

Might check the wiring to the terminal box.

E1 is connected to chassis ground. TE1 goes to the computer.

 

Thanks for your reply. I thought about a possible wiring problem too. This year model (pre-OBD II) has 2 terminal blocks - one under the hood near the firewall and one under the dash near the emergency brake. I tried both to no avail. So that ruled out a wiring problem. The ECU was in a very confused state and would not go into diag mode (blinking). In fact when this problem occurred, the transmission would not shift into 1st gear after a stop. I had to manually shift it into "L" but the trans was actually in 2nd. It did shift to 3rd, but after reaching a speed where the OD should have kicked in, it did not. At first I thought my transmission was shot. The engine was also running very rich.

Since everything is controlled by the ECU, (transmission solenoids, fuel/air mixture, etc.) and resetting the ECU fixed all of the above, I came to the conclusion that either my ECU may be on its way out, or it was just a weird day (were there sun spot eruptions that day? lol ).

 

Good job!

Could be an ECU glitch as it also controls trans shifting. If needing a new ECU try Ebay. Get the exact part number as the current one.