I have a 1994 V6 230,000 good miles. Suddenly Engine was hard to start when warm but ran well after that. I felt like is was "flooding". A couple of days later driving about 30mph and it just died. I waited few seconds and finally got is started. I added injector cleaner and later some Heet to desolve any water. I had the fuel filter replaced. Two days later it started fine at 49 F outside (warm-up fast idle was fine) 3 hrs later when the engine was warm it went back hard-start again. The Check Engine light has never come on...it does work.
Any help/thoughts would be greatly appreciated...thanks in advance

 

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When was the last tune up done? I'm thinking that it is a dirty sensor reading incorrectly but have replaced anything recently, let us know so we can rule that out.

 

What V6 model, 1MZ-FE or 3VZ-FE?

 

Yes to the engine type 1MZ...and last tune up was 35,000 ago. Everything was fine. Also, this issue was almost instantaneous like a component failure. I'm a computer guru and I think in terms of gradual "software-type" vs instantaneous "system stopped working" malfunctions. This borderlines instantaneous but somewhat recoverable.

 

Last tune-up 35K ago everything was fine. Took the car on a 5500 mile road trip and been back almost 2yrs it ran fine until two weeks ago and then instantaneous mess. Hard to start when warm ...starts great when cold...driving at 30mph engine stopped like in turning off a switch. The check engine light does function...but no chk eng when hard start or during failure.

 

Did you get my reply?

 

I think you have a fuel problem but I'm not quite sure what. A car that starts hard when warm is usually a result of a fuel being affected by heat. When you try to start the car when it is warm, does the engine turnover just fine or does it seem hard to crank over?

 

Thanks for staying with me on this. I initially suspected that I got bad fuel because I was at just about empty so I got about 12 gal of an off-brand (at a popular station). When I left the station the car started normally (there was still old gas in the filter). I drove about 15 miles to s store and did a little shopping. When I came out I had my first instance EVER of a hard-crank. Later I added some good gas (Chevron) and continued home. I suspected there was water in the gas so I added a can of Heet which is designed to desolve water in gas and the next day I had the fuel filter replaced. A day or so later I drove the car about 30 miles did some shopping and car was cool-warm and it started fine; drove 23 more miles did some shopping car was warmer; again and back to hard crank. Once it did start I had to idle it up to about 4K to clear it out then it ran fine.
Thanks again for your input.

 

So do you think that you are just running out some bad gas? When you say "hard to crank" do you mean that the starter has a hard time turning engine over or engine turns over just fine but does not fire?

 

When I stay "hard crank" I mean it's hard to get the engine started. The starter motor is working fine. The car has been in my driveway for a couple of days and I had to use it yesterday. It appears that the additives I put in while the tank was 3/4qrs full finally did the trick. I drove over 100 miles with some stops to pick up some materials and each time it started fine when warm. I'm at less that 1/2 tank now and holding my breath each time I do a warm start. I'm a little "gun shy" right now. I should be down to less than 1/4 tank by Tue. The true test is to run a couple of tanks of good gas with no failures. My trusted mechanic who has been maintaining the Camry for the past ten years tells me that it's one of the quietest running engines that he's worked on for a 1994 with 232,000 miles on it. Thanks for all the suggestions and comments along the way. I will keep you posted.