Recently got married so now I have another car to maintain, here's the problem. The car drives fine for a few miles with no signs of any problems but then shuts off as if the key was turned off. After it shuts off it won't start up again, after it sat for a few hours, however, it started right up like there's nothing wrong and dies again after 10 or so miles. Is there anything common to the camry that causes this symptom?

This is my first time working on this car and I figured I'd ask the camry community for some help before I tear into it.

Thanks in advance

 

it's an LE with a 4 cylinder and automatic transmission.

 

Not common for this year of car.

The next time this happens determine if the ign system is generating spark.

Your stating if the car stalls it will not start again until the engine is now cold? Or maybe the car only stalls after the engine is hot?

When does it stall: at idle, when driving does it just die?

 

The dist. cap had oil sitting in it and the cap/rotor electrodes were coroded and had carbon buildup. I replaced both and the car hasn't died yet.

 

Great!

Suggest you keep an eye on the oil issue. Sometimes the seal on the dist shaft goes bad allowing oil to get in.

 

I replaced the valve cover gasket, but the auto parts store couldn't find any kind of seals available for the distributor.

 

There used to be dist kits having the seals offered on ebay.

 

the car kept shutting off even after replacing the cap and rotor, I replaced the ignitor with multiple units from the junk yard with no change. I finally decided to pull the distributor and just replace the whole thing, but saw this after I pulled it:


(click to enlarge, click again to see full size)

So I'm pretty sure this is the cause of my problems. I'll post results once I've put in a new coil.

 

A cracked coil can cause all kinds of issues.