Its my newly overhauled 1988 Camry wagon with the 4cyl 3SFE engine. It still has some bugs to be worked out...the overheat problem is gone and the AC is fixed, blowing cold air now. When I drove it last night, I got some strange indications. Right after starting up, I turned on the headllights. The charge, brakes and lights red indicator lights..all three... were flashing. Not steady on, but all three flickering together. As I drove, the flickering became dimmer, until the warning lights went away entirely. If it does it again before I hit the road, I will put my multimeter on the alternator output...however, The headlights were reflecting off the garage door at first, and they were not dim or flickering....so it seems that it was not an actual alternator intmt low output problem. Its a new alternator, and belt is not slipping. By the time I had gone about 2 miles all was normal, no more red indications.
However, just after this on the same trip, the engine began to cut out/lose power intmt. Then it had such a severe power loss that I had to crawl at 15 MPH to a parking lot. All warning lights stayed off. THe headlights remained normal, and AC blower did not change RPM. Tank had plenty of fuel. Well, all I did was shut the engine off for a few seconds and restart....then I was able to finish last mile of trip, it ran perfectly again! I have seen the engine do this before... losing power, slowing down to a crawl. It went about a week ( lots of daily use) before having this loss of power problem again. IT's not setting the check engine light when it happens. When this happened, I put a fuel press. gauge on the fuel line just past the fuel filter (and before fuel rail), and the fuel pressure had fallen from around 40 or so to just 12 PSI. So I have a suspicion that the fuel press. is dropping real low again. I don't think there is anything electronic in the fuel delivery system except the injector control system. The pressure would be solely dependent on the fuel press. regulator and the fuel pump.....right? It has a brand new fuel pump and fuel filter. I guess I have no choice but to buy a new fuel press regulator and replace (ouch...I think they cost over $100!), and it is a bear to get to it! I have tried that fuel press test in the Haynes manual..you jump two holes on the diag. connector and then read the pressure...and it checks good. Seems like it is something electrically induced....since it can go for days/many miles and not lose power once. But how could that be? Wouldn't a bad fuel press. regulator be bad all the time, or bad once up to temperature? I checked each spark plug some time ago when it had this loss of power problem...when it was only running at a crawl....and the spark was still normal. SO it pretty much has to be the ECU/injectors or fuel pressure regulation causing it, Right?
thanks, Jim