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96 camry stalling... hmm...

Ok, here's the situation. Maybe once a month, when stopped at a stop sign or stop light, my '96 camry will suddenly drop in RPMs. Sometimes, if I quickly shift to neutral then tap the gas, this will rescue it. Other times, the car stalls outright, and needs to be restarted (but is usually fine after that).

I've already cleaned the throttle plate with throttle plate cleaner, and sprayed throttle plate cleaner AND Tri-flow teflon into the idle air control valve intake.

Still seems like it's stalling, about once a month.

Mechanic told me that I've got a slow distributor O-ring oil leak. Been postponing the O-ring change, but now I'm wondering if the oil is getting into the distributor. If this is the case, would a once-a-month stall be caused by oil in the distributor / coil?

Or could something else be causing my stalling?

Mike Darrett

Reply to
mrdarrett
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Problems like these are THE hardest to diagnose. I tell customers with these problems that the best chance of figuring out what is wrong occurs if the car has to be brought in on a flat bed. It's tough to diagnose what was at fault 20 minutes ago but is now working fine. Anyway, the dist o-ring is to keep oil from leaking out of the head, not into the distributor, so no worries there. Most of these idle stalling problems on your car we see are related to the IAC. The IAC, however, will make your car stall outright as it immediately cuts off air to the engine.

Your description of 'rpm drop' without stalling makes me think it may be a temp sensor on its way out. When they go bad they tell the computer the temperature is about -40F, so it goes into open loop mode and richens the mixture to bring the engine up to temp. Doing this on an already hot engine causes the symptoms you describe - rough running and stalling. It'll do this on and off as it pleases until it poops completely. Anyway, that's what I would guess. We see that from time to time on your vintage camry. A new sensor is about 50 bucks or so, and it's as simple as replacing a light bulb.

Reply to
qslim

Well this is interesting news! When my camry stalls, it seems to vary the rpm from 100 rpm to maybe 600 rpm, going up, down, up, down, then stalling, unless I tap the gas while in neutral.

So, temperature sensor... how many are there? Where?

Thanks,

Mike

Reply to
mrdarrett

Well, a bouncing idle like you describe is a symptom of an IAC problem rather than the ECT. The ECT just makes the thing run like crap until it stalls. This is what I was saying about difficulties diagnosing things that happen every month or so - the only thing you can really do is make a good guess and throw a part on there. Anyway, the ECT is on the left side of the head at the upper hose junction on the 5SFe and on the bottom of the radiator on the 1MZFe

Reply to
qslim

Oil on the coil from the O ring leaking is camrys downfall, Cleaning the coil with alcohol is a 10 minute job that helped me, it may not help you but is easy to do and worth a try. It could be bad gas, a vacume leak, many things. If it happens in rainy-humid weather it could be the coil.

Reply to
m Ransley

Is the coil built-in to the distributor cap...?

Reply to
mrdarrett

It is under the cap on the distributor, problem is to remove the coil you need to pull the distributor. A loose cap can also be a problem, my mechanic left mine loose twice trying to figure out my stalling issue, and never figured out the "oiled dirty coil" issue. All older Camrys with coil under cap get this issue, It is a poor design issue.

Reply to
m Ransley

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

If after a ride on an expressway and the car is warmed up, you come to a stop at a stoplight or something, and then the engine stutters or stalls, then this is a classic symptom of a bad EGR valve -much known to go out on

90's Camrys (as it did on my 96 Camry). A fix at a dealer will be about $330 -probably less at a private garage.
Reply to
Tom Borja

Yes, I'm focusing on the EGR now.

EGR valve or modulator?

The Haynes doesn't give a very good description on how to remove the EGR valve or modulator... the valve seems held down by a sturdy piece of metal (two nuts)... the modulator seems like it's held down by

*something* underneath it (removed the three small rubber hoses, tried to remove it from the clamp, and still won't move.)

In the meantime, I found two "scorch marks" in my EGR filter... the filter nearly fell apart in my hands into three layers. I discarded the rough layer with the scorch marks (saved it in case I need it later) and placed the other two layers back in the filter housing... planning on cleaning the EGR modulator (if I can get it out!) with solvent and a can of compressed air I bought in the electronics aisle at Wal-Mart...

Reply to
onehappymadman

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com:

Sorry, couldn't tell you if it's the valve or modulator (I'm an extreme novice). All's I know is my dealer told me it was the valve they replaced on my Camry.

Reply to
Tom Borja

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