I moved my post to the general tech section.

 

See response to your other post.

 

I do not have another post. My post was not put in the 'general tech' section after all.

I am eager to hear your advice. If possible, please post it here.

THANKS

 

To refresh your memory, here is my original post. TODAY is my 2nd day on this site, as you can tell! I have a 1985 camry LE (gas, not diesel) with 123,000 miles. I bought it new and it always has started with 1 turn of the key.
I drove the car home on 4/5/20 and the check engine light came on for the 1st time since I bought the car. The car was running fine, so I was surprised. I got home and shut off the engine and saw no fluid leaks. THE car was not running hot and never has run hot.


A few days later I got in the car and it would not start. The battery was fine. The car sounded as if it would start, but it would not 'catch,' so to speak. A friend who is a mechanic (HE specializes in 1975 or older cars) said that the problem was the fuel pump, which was original. He also said that I would have to replace the fuel filter, as it was original and would be too dirty for the new fuel pump to function properly.


The car sat in the driveway until my friend finally replaced the fuel pump and filter on 7/7/21 (His wife would not let him leave the house because she was afraid that he would get covid and bring it home to her; she is a semi-invalid and a tad domineering) and put in a new battery. The car starts, but I have to turn the key 7 or 8 times and when it catches, it begins with a 'put put put' sound before the idle picks up a little.

The car then suddenly stalls 2 or 3 times in the driveway in 'park,' but restarts each time with 1 turn of the key. I warm it up for about 3 minutes without pressing the accelerator (without revving it, I guess you could say) and the idle picks up and I drive away; the acceleration is poor, though. I can barely go 10 mph for the first 1000' or so.


I can go around the block without stalling and pick up speed as I go. I can stop and keep my foot on the brake for 1 minute and the car will not stall, but when I press the accelerator again, the car barely moves. THE tachometer does not go above 2 or 2.5 rpm (On a scale of 7) at the most.


After driving for 4 or 5 minutes on side streets, the car warms up a little and I can go 40 to 45 mph, maybe more, but as I accelerate a popping sound SOMETIMES is heard from the side of the engine that is immediately in front of the driver (the driver's left, but the 'right,' if you were standing in front of the car facing it. The battery is on this side). I am FAIRLY certain that the sound emanates from that spot; I almost thought that the sound came from the front driver's side tire, but that idea is ridiculous. I am not a mechanic by any means; if I were, my descriptions would be much better.

The gasoline probably was not as good as it should have been after having sat for 15 months, but I drove to a station and topped it off by adding 10.5 gallons of 91 octane 2 nights ago; the tank holds 14.5 gallons. The car still does not start until 7 or 8 turns of the key and the driver's side of the engine still pops SOMETIMES when I accelerate, but not always.

My friend has some ideas. As I said, I know nothing about cars, so I need help from experts. My friend has said that maybe

1. the EFI needs to be replaced;
2. the ignition coil and/or distributor are bad;
3. the fuel injectors are clogged;
4. the thermostat is bad;
5. mass airflow sensor is bad; and/or
6. the oxygen sensor is bad;

My pal has no proof that any of these pieces is bad and he has no way to check them, other than by having me buy new ones and him replacing the old ones until he discovers what the cause of the problem is. I do not like that approach to fixing the car, but I do not want to drive it to a mechanic in its present condition, as the distance is too long and I fear that I might just get stuck on the road.

THE check engine light has NOT come on again. WOULD buying an OBD be worthwhile or does it work only when the check engine light is flashing?

ANY help would be appreciated. THANKS very much.

 

Thanks for reposting! Are you stating the car sat for 15 months after the engine quit before it was fixed?

Will respond to 1 to 6 below.

1. EFI needs to be replaced. Doubt it.
2. Ignition coil and/or distributor are bad. See below.
3. Fuel injectors are clogged. Doubt it.
4. Thermostat is bad. Doubt it. The reason is engine runs poorly all the time.
5. Mass airflow sensor is bad. Doubt it. Can try to clean it.
6. Oxygen sensor is bad. Possible but the issue is the engine runs poorly all the time.

Off hand, might have also have started with changing the fuel pump, fuel filter at the pump and the can type fuel filter in the engine compartment.

Check the ign system!

The ignition coil can fail. One issue is the coil case cracks.

The distributor has two sensor pickups inside it that can start to fail. This results in hard starting and other problems. These coils can be checked with an ohm meter. they are visible when the distributor cap is removed.

Check inside the distributor cap area for water moisture. Condition of cap and rotor.

Check ignition wires.

The engine has something called a cold start fuel injector. This injects fuel into the engines intake manifold when cold. It's powered by 12v and on a timer to shut off. Check if he injector is stuck in the on position.

If ethanol fuel in the gas tank it can go bad but you added more fresh fuel. Eventually the old and new will mix and the engine would run better. Might try adding some kind of ethanol fuel treatment to the tank.

If there is a chance, check for rodent damage to wiring, vacuum hoses, etc. Rodents can build a nest in the air filter box.

The car does not have ODBII like later model cars. It uses a self contained system which reads out trouble codes by flashing the check engine light. It's pretty simple to use.

Suggest if you are going to keep the car to pick up a service manual. Haynes has a pretty good one for this car. You can get a used manual for under $10. See below.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/toyota...dition=2308817

 

Thanks very much for the very thorough answers. I can say that

1, the spark plugs were replaced 2 years ago and have only 300 miles on them, but they appear to be dirty. I definitely will replace them.

2. The timing belt was replaced at 118,000 miles with all of the other belts. The manual said to replace them every 60,000 miles and I did, so I doubt that it has skipped a tooth.

3. I will have my friend do a test to see what the engine timing is. IF we learn that the timing is markedly off, then I assume, from what I have read in your answers, that the problem likely is timing/ignition.

4. I replaced the cap and rotor 2 years ago, but the distributor and ignition coil have not been replaced in 15 years, which is 5,500 miles of driving; I am fortunate to have a 2nd car and I am retired, so I drive very little.

5. a visual inspection by me (WHICH is the limit of my mechanical skill!) showed that the wires in the engine are connected rather than loose and are not eaten through by rodents or burned through by heat.

6. the car will pick up speed after being driven for 8 to 10 mins, but those 8 to 10 minutes are painful to me as a driver because the car cannot go over 10 mph for the 1st 2 mins and then the acceleration remains pretty poor. COULD this indicate the cold start fuel injector problem that you mentioned?

THANKS!
7. the engine is very cold, as shown by the interior temp gauge. THE arrow does not get above the c (COLD) for 8 minutes or so, but when it does, the acceleration is pretty good--not normal, but okay--and I can go to 40 mph or so, but the car still has that popping sound in the left front at times when I go up to 40 mph. WHEN i get to 40, the popping stops, but if I stop and accelerate again, the popping returns.

 

1.The plugs could be dirty from too much fuel.

2. If the engine ran OK after the belt change then the odds of a skipped tooth are small.

3. Yes, do check the ign coil.

4. The pickup coils in the distributor can be checked with an ohm meter..

5. You can use an ohm meter to check the resistance of the ign wires. When in a dark area watch the wires for electrical arcing during engine operation.

6. Are you stating the engine runs OK at some point in time after started?

7. Does the engine temp gauge get to normal temperature?

Could be a bad O2 sensor. When the engine warms up it goes into what's called a close loop mode where the O2 sensor kicks in to adjust the fuel/air ratio.

 

I drove the car around the block several times last night. The news is that the car started after 4 turns, stalled immediately, and re-started. I let it idle for 2 mins and during the whole time I was certain that the car would stall again, but it did not. THE idle was very low and rough.

I backed up the car and it stalled when I finished and put it into drive. I re-started it and drove down the street. FOR 3000 feet the car would not go above 10 mph, even with the accelerator near the floor. The car made no popping or other unusual sounds.

After 3000 feet--which was about 5 mins of the engine having been on--something seemed to 'kick in,' for lack of a better phrase and the car accelerated much better, up to 30 mph with no popping sounds; however, as I accelerated, the car seemed to be 'herky-jerky,' as if I were going forward and backward simultaneously. In other words, the feeling was somewhat like driving with emergency brake on; I was going forward, but something was holding the car back. As I said, the engine was silent--no unusual noises, but it just did not seem as SMOOTH as it used to be. I am pretty sure that I could have gone faster. The tachometer never rose above 1.5.

When the car began to kick in and GO, the temp was still at the bottom of the c, but after a minute, the temp went up slightly. I imagine that tonight, when I drive the car for a few mins longer, the temp will go up, but I do not envision it going too high. I could be wrong. IF I continue to get a better response--more speed--as the car warms up (when I drive it for 7-10 minutes, for example), would that suggest 02 sensor?

I definitely will have to get an ohm meter to check the ignition and pickup coils and an obd to see what codes show. As I said previously, the only time that the check engine light came on was in April of 2020 and then it was for only a second or 2. The CEL never has come on again. DOES the CEL have to be ON when an OBD test is done?

THANKS

 

If no codes are stored when checking for them the check light will just flash at a steady rate. If the light was on at one time but went off a code may still be stored for the event.Not all of the engine systems are monitored by the computer to output a code if something is wrong.

Try unplugging the first O2 sensor on the exhaust system and determine what this does to engine performance. Try the same with unplugging the ECT sensor. The ECT sensor tells the computer the coolant temp. It's not the same sensor as used for the temp gauge on the dash. It can be tested with an ohm meter.

Harbor Freight has cheap meters. Get a digital meter.

Get tje servoce manual and read up.

 

Thanks for your help. I noticed yesterday afternoon that the car has a big puddle of transmission fluid under the engine. The transmission dipstick showed that the car is borderline low, so I added some, but I am thinking seriously about having the car towed to a garage to repair the leak before I make other repairs. I do not think that the acceleration and idling/starting problems are related to the transmission leak; do you?