99 Camry LE - 4 cyl, auto, 100000 mi, hard starting ??

Does it run bad to or just starting hard, if running bad try new gas, I had gas so bad once it took nearly a gallon of alcohol to get it going good. Or cold start valve, moisture under cap, bad coil, it is hard to say if electrical or fuel related

Seems to run fine once it gets started......idles OK, runs smoothly, doesn't die at lights, mileage seems fine, etc.

Don't think it is bad gas.....have already filled up tank again with fuel from a decent gas station where I have bought gas regularly in the past without problems (not that that necessarily means much these days, but it's probably better than nothing :-).

Interested in exactly what you mean by "cold start valve" ? Maybe I have heard of it by some other name, but don't think so.

As far as moisture under distributor cap, bad coil, etc.....don't seem to have any correlation to damp days vs dry ones and so forth which usually come to mind in this sort possible electrical-related ignition pblm but once again I don't want to rule anything out.

I will check the service records and see when the wires were changed last. I **think** that I did that awhile back around 60,000 miles but will make sure. Maybe it is time ?

If you find it possible to keep the engine going by blipping the throttle,..then one possibility is the dreaded "Idle Air Control" (IAC) valve which lives in the throttle-body. This can stick denying proper mixture for a smooth idle. To clean it,..remove the intake hose at the throttle body. Get some quality carby cleaner and moisten a tooth brush with it. Then gently scrub the area where this valve sits which has a small square appearance on the firewall side of the throttle bore.

Take care to sponge the dirty crud outa there with a clean rag soaked lightly in cleaner.

If you can use Google search,..its beneficial to pull-up previous posts on this group on your prob.

Jason

Most permanent cure is to have the throttle body properly cleaned and adjusted and the idle air control valve replaced. That will restore operation to like new condition. This topic has been discussed many times previously. You could try searching the group for "IAC" (idle air control valve). For several years, I found spraying emissions control safe carburetor cleaner into the small rectangular hole at the bottom of the throttle body opening (IAC air intake) worked well enough. Lasted apx. six months, and had seen quotes for replacement over $250, but eventually, at around 125,000 miles, that only worked for a week or a few days. The factory service manual section for IAC removal references the preceding section for throttle body removal. This section also describes procedures for checking calibration of items on the throttle body like the throttle position sensor and - sorry, forget just now what they call it - the vacuum dash pot that regulates the return of the throttle plate, as well as how to clean the throttle body including the three vacuum ports that supply the EGR vacuum modulator. In my case, surprisingly, I found everything they mentioned needed to be corrected, so there was improvement in several areas with this work. The automatic transmission seems to take readings from the TPS so I noticed some improvement in transmission response - that is, downshifting only just before full throttle - easily regulated by pressing accelerator pedal fully to the floor or not. Not sure, but the low end, just off idle seems improved too. There's an adjustment with a vacuum line removed, setting throttle adjustment to idle around 1,500 rpm, and I needed to adjust that also. TPS was off by a few thousandths of an inch, but apparently is enough to make a difference, since the specification calls for precise calibration. Also, the smallest of the vacuum line hose nipples was at least partially blocked (judging by the dark brown or black goo that came out after being sprayed with solvent and air pressure as directed in the manual). There was also quite a collection of dark residue at the back (accessible only with removal) side of the throttle body near the PCV port. Mine's a '94. Your '99 might be different, because I think I saw the PCV hose routing moved closer to the center of the intake manifold rather than right next to the throttle body as on mine. In summary: Simple cure - $2 of carb. cleaner, only need to remove 1 10mm intake hose clamp bolt, whole process takes less than ten minutes. (spray while engine is stumbling at cold idle to open airways) Complete cure - remove, clean and adjust throttle body and replace idle air control valve

you seem to have some good info from Daniel and Jason, but if all else fails i go to Lakewood Toyota and like their service dept. their a bit pricey but i've never felt like i was screwed. i have a "99 and an '02 camry and have been to the Lakewood service dept. a couple of times and don't feel like i was screwed. they are a bit pricey, but it is a dealer.

good luck..........

mike..........

Many thanks to the group for the various replies. As suggested by several helpful folks, I investigated the topic of Toyota IAC on Google and ended up carefully giving mine a couple of thorough shots of cleaner (along with the throttle plate, which has been known to get sticky a couple of times in the past for me). Although I was tempted to use a spray can of carb cleaner I already had on the shelf in the garage, I ended up buying a spray at Pep Boys ostensibly intended for just this purpose [cost a bit more, not too much, and the can said something about being safe for the coatings on the parts involved so I figured what the heck]. The toughest part was getting the big black air intake tube off of the main throttle body once I had loosened the screw clamp ...... boy, it was really on there! But I did keep at it, and after a minute or two had gently worked it free with no harm done. In any case, the problem has (at least for now, about a week later) completely disappeared; while I understand that such relief is more often than not temporary, so far so good and certainly cheaper than paying dealer big $$ for cleaning, new IAC valve, etc.

minute

Hello,

Can you please tell me about the Can you bought at pep boys? Brand, price etc.

I have '99 Camry as well close to 100K miles. I used to clean the Throttle body myself using STP throttle body cleaner and the results were good. Last time I cleaned is about 8months ago.

Offlate when I start the car the engine starts right away but it seems to hesitate for about 0.5 sec. Just seems like trying to shutdown. But car starts and I can drive very well without any problem. May be time to clean the throttle body again. But I used to clean earlier only when the accelator pedal sticks and each time I find black gum at valve.

TIA

It's a grey spray can marked "Gumout Air Intake & Throttle Body Cleaner". I don't remember the exact price (and nowadays everything is done with the scanners so prices rarely if ever get marked right on the item) but I would guess about $5 or $6 at most.......like I said, more than the plain old carb cleaner sprays which were only a couple of bucks per can but not really that expensive.

Yes. that sounds ***exactly*** like my situation. Very pleased to report that it's been several weeks at least since I liberally used the Gumout spray & a rag in that general area [with special attention to getting the solvent down into the IAC and its opening into the throttle body area in front of the plate] and have not had any recurrence so far.

results

throttle

Very interesting!!

I will do the cleaning this weekend. I am somewhat familiar with the procedure. Dealer once offered to clean the entire throttle body in a solvent for $50 but I declined.

I used STP cleaner bought at autozone. the sales guy said that is better than Gumout. Well I think they both are about same.

Thanks