Hello everyone,

I have a 94 DX, 2.2 4cyl, (201,000 mi). So in the last couple of days I noticed the car was acting up (when I would start it up it would idle real low and it shut off on me at a low speed 0-10mph), that was friday, it sat over the weekend and monday on the way to work it ran fine till mid-day, I was going home for lunch and I turned on the car and it started idling real low below 1000rpm, since I was in the parking lot at my job I decided to check out what might be going on, so I opened the hood everything seemed fine besides the low idle, so I had a buddy accelerate the vehicle while in park, I went to the back of the car and saw a bunch of water coming out of the muffler, the more he accelerated the more water came out, I checked the radiator andthe the coolant was good also the coolant container was right below full and its green, thefluid that came out of the muffle was clear, even though it kinda smelled like coolant, anyways I decided to take it for a spin in the parking, lot more fluid came out but not consistently, the car shut off on me at low speed, since I only live a mile away I brought it home, on the way once it got over 1,000 rpm and over 20mph it ran good but once I slowed down it would act up again and when I would accelerate it would hesitate big time to reach speed, once I got home I checked out the spark plugs and they shot, I replaced them with NGK's and once I did I tried to turn on the car again and the problem persisted exept now no fluid came out of the muffler. The oils is good not milky, I've heard people tell me it might be a clogged cat, I believe the camry has two?, some say O2 sensor, I checked for vacumm leaks and found none, no garage in town has a device to hook up to my camrys diagnostic because they say my car is too old. Any advise or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Water out the tail pipe is normal especially in wet or humid weather. Was the weather damp whenthis happened?If your plugs were bad then I suspect your ignition wires also need replacing along with a rotor and cap. Do that first and see if there is an improvement.Normalidle when warm should be about 750. Stalling at idlecould be dirty IAC or leaking EGR - clean both is solution.

Your car is OBDI. You can trace codes but not as easily as OBDII. If your check engine light is not on don't worry about code.

 

Thanks,
The weather was dry and sunny, I will look into changing the spark plug wires along with cap and rotor. Im sorry about asking but whats the IAC or EGR?, thanks again.

 

Idle Air Control valve and Exhaust Gas Recirculation valve. Do a seach and you'll find all you needto clean both.

 

Is the Idle air control valve the same as the Intake air control valve, I tried lookin on the Haynes manual under Emissions and Engine control systems section and I cant find the Idle air control valve, is it the same?

 

Sounds the same to me. Basically the throttle valve used to be adjusted open to control idle. Now the throttle valve stays closed when foot is off the gas and the ECU and the idle air control valve control idle.

 

Well I tried to clean the EGR, I undid the 2 nuts that hold it onto the engine but could not undo the aluminum line attached to the bottom of it because of lack of tools, I will try this weekend when I have more time, but as I did this I purposely moved the EGR back and fourth to see if there was a problem with the seal afterwards I put the mounting nuts back on, I started the car and it idled like a champ, the next couple of days I decided to take it to work, until today on the way back home from work , as I turned on the car it shut off right away while making that sputtering sound and idling low after a couple of tries it stayed on andafteracouple of seconds my engine light turned on and simoltaneously as soon as this happened the idle went back to normal (950-1000) after that let the car warm up and drove back home without any problems, any ideas? or advise? . I will clean the EGR this weekend, the plugs look good along with the wires, what about the O2sensor? would that cause anything like this, is there anything I should look into replacing? THANKS.

 

You will probably need a 15/16" crows foot with a 1/2" drive rachet. Don't forget the nut is upside down so you will need to turn it CW when viewed from the top. Clean the aluminum tube as well.

Only if it's causing flooding, not likely. Clean EGR first then IACif problem continues. It's always nice to know what fix worked instead of guessing after you've done 5 things at the same time.

 

Dude, THANKS A MILLION!, Your advise worked excellent, the car acted up on me again today, so after work i decided to take it to the local auto hobbyshop, I rented a toolbox got a rachet with a 3/8 six inchextension, the 15/16 crows foot and a uni-wiggle, broke the torque on the aluminum line then loosened the mounting nuts, after removing the EGR I found a whole bunch of carbon residue both on the EGR and the part that it mounts on (whatever that is) I took a scribe and started removing the residue, put the EGR back on, proceeded to turn on the carand for a couple of minutesit had a mind of its own the idleling was jumping back and fourth between just under a 1000-1200, I guess the system was flushing itself or something but after that it idled like a champ, since I had a spare one I decided to replace the PCV. Thank you, it was a big load of my back, I appreciate it.

1994 DX, 201,000 miles GOING STRONG.

 

On a 94 with over 200K you may be getting some oil burning whichwill carbon up the EGR faster. I usually use a combination of carb cleaner and mechanical cleaning to clean the EGR. Be prepared to do this again in the near future.