2003 Camery V6

[sam defranco]

I wonder if any 2003 Camery owners have had this problem and had it corrected ...

Car details: 2003 Camery V6 LE; 3500 miles on OD; Car is normally garaged. Location is Houston, TX.

Problem: Car ran fine for weeks after purchase until one morning I went out and it would not start until I cranked the engine three different times. I drove to work with no problems. Car sat in covered parking garage all day. Left work at 5 pm to go home and car would not start. The engine turned over just fine. Battery is obvisously good.

I had the car towed to the dealership, where it was parked over night outside. The mecahnics tried starting the car the next morning, it wouldn't start so they pushed it inside. They tried again, and the car started. There were no error codes shown on the computer. They kept the car for two days with no starting problems. I received the car back and it ran fine.

Just today, I started the car as normal in the morning and drove to work, first stopping at the post office. Upon returning to my car, it would not start. It cranked just fine. Had the car towed to the dealership. They unloaded the car, and it started just fine.

To prove that I'm not crazy, I asked each of the tow truck drivers to try and start the car. The car wouldn't start for them.

While driving in today, I noticed that the engine wasn't behaving quite right. Nothing major, but it surged slightly at times, and hesitated slightly at other times.

I am perplexed and would appreciate any advice.

Thanks!

Sam DeFranco

Houston, TX

[aidan]

I had a Peugeot once that had a similar problem, which turned out to be the flapper valve in the airflow meter being stuck open occassionally. When this happened, the car would overfuel and not run, as the ECU thought that there was a large airflow to the engine, when in fact there was none. Of course, your problem could be many other things, but just an idea. I wouldn't expect this to be a problem on car as new as yours, but there are always going to be faulty batches of equipment, just on a stastical basis.

Worth a look in any case.

[Robert M]

the only thing i can think of is that there is a fule problem. like the pump is going bad or your filter is getting cloged. i had a car that the filter got so bad that it would not want to start and it would surge while driving. it wouldnt stall but as soon as you gave it gas it just didn want ot go. all that happened after putting in a bad batch of gas from AM-PM. sence then its Chenron or moble only for my cars.

[Toyota Driver]

i think you may have a bad fuel pump....or your flapper value is getting stuck and staying open, which will then cause ur car to flood...cuasing starting trouble

[wot]

do you have a lot of key ring, 2002+ camry key have a chip inside. make sure no key ring is on top of it. it may interfere with the signal.

if unsure, use only the key w/o key ring and start.

[sam defranco]

Thanks very much to all who responded. There were some great tips.

As it turns out, the car would not start the other day after lunch, so I called the wrecker again. I was fully expecting the car to start again, just like I mentioned in the original post.

Thankfully, the car did not start and the dealer determined that the problem was computer related. The tell tail sign was that while the engine was turning over, the security LED on the right side of dash flashed.

The dealer replaced the engine computer and so far - so good.

Again, many thanks!

Sam