I'm new here and thank you for all the help. I have read a lot and everyone here is a tremendous help

So, my father got an oil change 1 month ago. Check engine light went on showing p0303 and p0300 indicating a cylinder 3 misfire

I checked his oil and it was very low...it took a full 2 quarts for it to get back to the full line. There is no oil leaks so engine is burning oil

I read online that low oil can cause a cylinder misfire.

is the car screwed? will it be ok with normal oil levels now?

prior to adding the oil, the engine would sort of shake during idle...worked fine when actually driving

after adding the oil, the shake is much less, but still present during idle

did he just kill the engine?

So worried for him, he doesn't have much money to buy a new car at this point and I'm not in a position to help him buy a new car, but can help him pay to get it fixed. thanks

Please help

 

Year of car? 4-cylinder or V-6 engine?

How many miles driven between oil change and finding engine was low on oil?

The codes are typically for a bad ign coil, P0303 is for cylinder No 3. Check ign coil on cylinder No 3. A bad coil can also cause engine shake.

However there are other issues that can cause these codes.

Being 2 quarts low is not good but would not assume this causing the problem yet.

Check for leaks when the engine is running. If a 4 cylinder look for oil dripping out the timing cover area when engine running.

 

I'm sorry I forgot to mention details

It is a 1997 Camry XLE V6

 

Check No 3 ign coil.

Measure ohm resistance between +/- 12V power terminals.
Cold 0.70-0.94 ohm
Hot 0.85-1.10 ohm

Check ohm reading between positive power terminal and high voltage terminal (where coil connects to spark plug).

AISAN brand Cold 10.8 – 14.9 kohm
Hot 13.1 – 17.5 kohm

Diamond brand Cold 6.8 – 11.7 kohm
Hot 8.6 – 13.7 kohm

If the resistance is not as specified, replace the ignition coil

No 3 cylinder is center cylinder near firewall. All coils are the same. Can also swap the coil to another location and determine if the code now changes to that cylinder location.

Place cardboard under engine after driving and look for drips. Do same when engine running.

Also check PCV valve system for plugging.

 

I'm also getting a misfire in cylinder 3 on my 98 Camry LE, 4 cylinder. I first noticed the problem as hesitation when trying to accelerate from a light or on the freeway. I Googled it and thought it might be a bad throttle sensor. I checked it on an ohm meter and didn't see anything wrong with it. I took the sensor from our 4 cyl Highlander and tried it on the Camry with the same symptoms. It idles fine and cruises fine, just hesitates and misfires when I try to speed up. Could this be a bad injector?

C

 

Is the check engine light on, any codes stored in the computer and if so what are they?

Injector failure is rare.

 

Yes, the code is P0303, cylinder 3 misfile. The code comes in mainly on the freeway, when I'm trying to accelerate and the engine has no power and is missing, then the engine light flashes. Once it didn't stay on, and once it did. It seems to need to misfire heavily to light up. I cleared it with my ODB reader. I checked the plugs tonite and the 3rd one from the front of the engine did look a different color from the others. I swapped it with another cylinder after I cleaned it a bit. I'll try to get it to throw a code on the way to work tomorrow and see if it is still on cyl 3. If I don't accelerate quickly, it seems to run fine. It has over 280K miles on it. What's really strange that if I keep the speed constant, even at 75 MPH, it runs smoothly, but when I try to accelerate, it hesitates and misfires. Oh, I checked the voltage on the throttle position sensor. The voltage varied smoothly from about .3 to 3.8 volts through the throttle range with the key on and the engine not running. I didn't see any dead spots.

 

Check ign coil.

Don't drive the car if check engine light is flashing, light steady on is OK. A flashing light indicates a severe misfire that could damage the emissions converter to over rich exhaust.

 

Just wanted to post an update. Installed a new set of plugs this weekend after cleaning and swapping plugs 3 and 4 made a definite improvement and I made the 75 mile round trip to work and back today. The camry had no hesitation and is noticeably peppier. I suspect the cylinder 3 plug wire was arcing to the metal inside the plug tube during high gas mixture in the cylinder. When the mixture is rich during heavy acceleration, more voltage is required to jump the plug gap. I'm thinking that, since the plug wouldn't fire, the voltage rose to the point of arcing at the plug wire. At any rate, it seems to be fixed. Thanks for pointing me away from a possible fuel problem due to defective injectors.

 

Great job! Thanks for posting back with the find and fix.