Hi - I have a 95 camry, 4 cyl, 2.2 L with 305K miles. I changed my Autolight platinum
plugs because the car started to miss once in awhile (they had almost 30K miles on them). The new plugs NAPA suggested were
the NGK V-Power (I believe nickel not platinum). The car ran fine for a week or two although I thought it ran a bit rough especially during idle. Then it appeared to start mis firing with the new plugs. So I removed the wires and made sure the plugs hadnt loosened up. When I put the wires back on - the car cranks but now doesnt start.
Any ideas? Did I ruin my wire set? If one wire out of the four is bad is that what would happen? The wires have almost 30K miles on them as well. Cap & rotor also has 30K miles. I usually change my cap, rotor and wires at 60K miles.
any advice would be apprciated.
Thanks
Kev

 

Update - I tested for spark this morning. All plugs have good spark. So now I wonder if its a fuel problem. I thought I had smelled gas a couple of times but brushed it off because my truck had to have the entire fuel line replaced due to corrosion so I just thought it was my brain still smelling the fuel from the truck.
My camry really went out of wack yesterday when i entered the highway. My ramp is long and blind but has its own lane when you get to the highway so 65mph is standard on ramp. But at end of ramp they had exit lane and slow lane blocked and only high speed lane open. Basically making a right hand turn onto the highway (an awful sign pattern by someone in DOT). As I breaked hard and made my right hand merge the car bucked and hesitated (5 speed manual transmission). For the rest of the day it did this following that incident. So now I wonder if the fuel filter (which has never been replaced - Toyota always said they were lifetime parts that never needed to be replaced) is blocked or the fuel pump is shot (also original). Could the car make it home and then because I shut it off the blockage settled or would it have turned over for a bit then died due to lack of fuel.
Thanks (sorry so long winded)

 

Unless somehow fouled platinum plugs should last at least 100K miles.

Was the engine running rich causing fouled plugs?

If you removed the spark plug wire plugs by only pulling on the top of the socket, not wire they should be OK.

The can fuel filter in the engine compartment seldom plugs up and if so would show up as lack of power.

Did you make hard turns or braked hard. Suppose something in the fuel tank could have gotten loose, debris, water and into the pump. The pump has a sock filter.

The pump can be accessed by removing the lower rear seat cushion and oval sheet metal cover to access top of tank.

Look inside the engine compartment on the passengers side strut tower area for a small black box. Inside the box are electrical terminals. Use a section of wire or paper clip to jump the FP and B+ terminals. This will force the pump to run when the ign key is on.

Remove plugs, turn on switch and crank engine, then check for signs of fuel going into the cylinders.

 

I tested for codes by jumping TE1 and E1. No codes.
I jumped FP and +B and I could hear the pump come on.

I will remove the plugs and see if I can smell gas after cranking when I get home this afternoon.

I do have to add a quart of oil every 3000 miles. And this time around it
was almost 2 quarts. The oil light never came on but does work when I turn the key to on. If the engine was damaged from this low oil would I get spark (which I do).
Im sure I need an oil pan gasket and a valve cover gasket. I was surprised to have to add so much this 3000 miles. I do complete oil and filter at 6000. All highway driving.

I think I read somewhere where you can squirt a bit of oil in the cylinders to help
compression. would you advise this after i remove the plugs and check for gas?
Thanks
Kev

 

I dont know if I did this right but it made an awful noise when I tried to crank the engine with the plugs removed. How long do you need to crank - I might have cut it too soon because of the noise.
I also shorted FP and +B again and did not smell gas in the spark plug hole. How quickly should I smell gas? How bad will the gas smell be? Is shorting these points only going to put gas at the filter?
Does cranking it make it go to the throttle body then to the cylinders?

I can hear the pump when I short FP and +B.

Its odd - it drove home the other day (with hesitation on occassion) and then I just pull
the plugs and reinsert and now it wont start. Its always started right up.

Any chance of sludge from the low oil? If so I guess that would be it for the car.
Thanks

 

What type of noise and at what location? If required use a section of hose as a stethoscope. Also check for noise under the timing cover on passengers side of car.

Removing the plugs allows the engine to turn over faster, nothing else should change except the engine cranks faster.

With the terminal connections shorted and ign switch on, the fuel pump will pressurize the complete fuel system including can filter in engine compartment. The filter in the gas tank is a screen placed before the pump, fuel is drawn through the screen.

The fuel system is a return design, meaning the fuel runs to the injector rail then any excess not going through the injectors will return to the fuel tank through another fuel line. There is a pressure regulator attached to the fuel rail on the passengers side that may have vacuum hose attached to it. This is what controls fuel rail pressure.

Note, there may also be a pressure pulse dampener on the other end of rail that looks like a small can having not hoses. Its purpose it to dampen fuel pulses.

The fuel never goes to the throttle body as the engine is fuel injected. Follow the fuel line from the can filter on the drivers side of engine next to firewall to the fuel rail on the back of the engine. Looks like a long narrow tube (fuel rail) to which it connects to the top of all four injectors. On the other end of the rail would be the pressure regulator and a hose to send excess fuel back to the tank.

If cranking over for say 10 seconds you might smell something, put your nose to the spark plug tube. The fuel is not going to be squirting out as it sprays in as a mist.

Two quarts low should not blow the engine. Low compression can cause a non-start. The oil in cylinder trick is to check for bad rings. The compression is checked (ideally engine hot and throttle full open) then oil is added and compression rechecked. If the compression number go up the oil is acting as a seal for worn rings/cylinders.

Low compression would need to be very low for a non-start condition. Record the numbers for each cylinder then compare cylinders next to each other (say only two cylinder are low) for the possibility of a blown head gasket.

When doing the compression check remove the EFI fuse and disconnect the connections to turn off the pump to turn off the pump.

It happens the oil pump drive shaft seal under the timing belt cover can start to leak when engine is on. Given the seal is under oil pressure it have a steady drip when engine running. If an unexpected lose of oil is occurring, check out this possibility. When you get the engine running you would be able to see the oil coming out from the fire wall side of the cover when engine on.

There is also the possibility of a bad coil, the spark needs to be hot, as in able to gap 1/2 inch of air.

Or has happened the timing belt slips, then there is spark but it is miss timed.

Have you tried giving the engine some throttle when cranking? Normally a no, no on fuel injected cars but worth a try.

 

Wow, thanks for all the detailed info.

the noise was like a screech when I turned it over but I did not have the FP and +B terminals shorted. I assume it was from the same place as the normal cranking sound just no cranks just one big constant screech. I just turned it over with the plugs removed. i will test again with plugs removed, those terminals shorted and then turn the ignition on to crank the engine.

I did change the ignition coil back in June of 2012. I replaced the original one which had a crack in it. Do you think the new one could have gone bad? I will try some ohm readings off the connector. do you think I shoud pull the distributor and do the ohm readings right off the coil? The symptoms of my bad coil was the car stalled after running around for 20 minutes or so then it wouldnt restart until the car cooled down.

I tested spark by having my son crank the engine while I held the spark plug wire and contacted the spark plug threads to the metal on the valve cover. All plugs and all wires produced spark. Not sure how to judge how strong the spark was though.

How could I check the timing belt? It hasnt been replaced in well over 100K miles.
The water pump has never been replaced either. What are the symptoms of a timing belt going? Does the car just die or could that have been the small hesitations I felt with my old plugs?
Thanks

I did try and pump the gas, it sorta sounded like it wanted to catch but didnt.

 

just went through all the repair records for the car. Looks like timing belt was last replaced at 141K miles so roughly 164K miles ago - unless there was one done inbetween that I cannot find.

 

Screech? May be starter motor? With plugs out engine should just turn over faster. Find the location of the noise if possible.

Would seem strange a coil fail after less then two years. Strong spark should be able to gap 1/2 inch of air. Place something in spark plug wire socket terminal end to act as an electrode (replaces spark plug) and hold end 1/2 from a ground point on the engine or chassis. Spark should be able to jump this distance. Can use a screw or bolt of the correct diameter as electrode.

If one ign wire was bad the engine should still start but run rough. Fowled plugs can cause engine to turn over and try to start but not. Look at the plug electrodes and determine if they have excessive carbon build up that can short the electricity from the electrode to ground.

For the timing belt, if never changed in 100K miles best think about changing it. They can go longer but they do break however no damage occurs if it does break.

If the belt breaks the engine dies, there would be no spark as the distributor would not be rotating via the cam shaft it is driven by. Has happened the belt strips a few teeth then still spark but the timing is off as the cam and crank pulleys are not longer oriented correctly.

Pumping the pedal has no affect as the throttle body does not have an accelerator pump. The throttle body has throttle position sensor (TPS) which tells the computer how far the throttle plate is open. Based on this and other signal inputs it computes injector timing and duration.

Can only guess.

Try installing known good plugs, perhaps new.

Can remove fuel pump without dropping tank through the access cover under rear seat to inspect the intake screen.

Replace can fuel filter in car, take note the banjo fuel fitting use crush washers so replace this also (although seldom does this filter plug up). The fittings can be very tight, use a fuel fitting flare wrench or you risk rounding over the flats (an internet search will turn up hits on what this is). If you have a Harbor Freight tool store around they sell a set at a low price. When breaking the fuel line it will be under pressure thus wrap a rag around it limit spray.

 

OK - so the "screech" was just as you said - the engine cranking faster. First time I had ever done that. But once you said "faster" I could hear it even though to me it sounds like a screech! Plenty of gas coming in with FP and +B shorted.

Plugs are brand new NGK V-power (nickel) - NAPA guy suggested these since I told him I change every 30K (prior plug was Autolight platinum). I change my plugs every 30K as I have never had good luck. Granted my plug selection was poor as i learned more about the vehicle over time (Champion and Bosch were never good - both started giving me problems before 30K). I think I used NGK Platinum once as well and left them in for approx 70K miles.
It took me a week and can of WD40 to remove them - so ever since then I just do plugs at 30K.

I tested for spark the way you suggested using a thick cotter pin. Seemed to jump the 1/2" and the color was orange.

So if all that is good (gas and spark) would a few teeth missing on my timing belt keep it from starting? Does that mean the gas is shot at the incorrect time that the plug fires?
I assume theres no easy way to look at the timing belt.

I probably couldnt handle that big of a job anyway - dont really have the tools or skills. Was able to do the ignition coil but I assume this would be much harder.
Is there something else I should be testing (sensor, relay, etc) or after 164K miles we just assume some teeth are shot.
If so do you suggest getting the water pump replaced as well - it is the original.
And I assume the two external belts would be replaced at that time as well.
If you think its the timing belt is it best to go to Toyota or a place like a Firestone?
My valve cover gasket is leaking pretty bad as well - is that a hard job?

Thanks for all your advice!!!!