Camry Stalling

[o_miss]

Hi all,

I have a similar problem with my 93 4-cyl Camry (~130,000 miles).  My car's been stalling when I'm stopped for the past week or so.  It's only happened 5 or 6 times, and has only happened when I'm sitting on the brakes or in park.  It usually doesn't start up right away (after dying), but on the second or third try, it starts normally and runs fine.  It's happened both at the beginning, and the end of the drive, so I don't think it's a hot engine / cold engine issue. 

It has been idling a little rough lately.  One time (since the stalling happened), l noticed that if I let off the gas and coasted, then gave it a little gas, my rpm's dropped a little, then jumped up (and the car physically jerked at this time).  This happened for a few blocks, but stopped after a few minutes.  I'm not sure if this is related, but it's something that never happened before the stalling began.

The car stalled several times the first day, and has happened less frequently since then.  The only changes I've made are:

*I put some fuel injector cleaner in my tank when I filled it up (shortly after it stalled the first time). 

*I took it in to a local shop where I have periodic maintenance done and they could find nothing wrong (did an engine diagnostic, but not much more - they didn't charge me for any of the tests). 

*I took it to my local toyota dealer.  They drove it and couldn't find any problems.  They checked everything and decided it was one of three things

1. VSV (he said it wasn't opening and closing properly, but thought it might be closing at the wrong times and killing the engine).  He did block this and wanted me to drive it for a week and test it.  The car died at the first stop sign after leaving Toyota.

2. Fuel pump - He thought this could the the problem also, but didn't think it was the most likely candidate.

3. Coil - If blocking the VSV didn't fix it, this was his next guess.  When I told him about the car dying right after leaving the lot, he seemed certain that this needed to be replaced and wanted me to come back in to have this done.

Since I took it to Toyota, it's only died once (and I've been driving it a lot since then).  Could the fuel-injector cleaner have done any good?  Also, does it sound like the coil could be the problem?  He seemed pretty certain, but it sounds like some of you have tried replacing it to no avail.  If it restarts fine, is there any harm in continuing to drive it and having it stall occasionally (besides the annoyance factor?)

I just don't want to drop any more money at Toyota until it either happens often enough for them to duplicate it, or until I know for sure what needs to be replaced.  I'm not exactly a car mechanic myself, but any advice would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Chris

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[o_miss]

Seems to be a common problem, have a 96 4cyl Camry, 100k miles not a day of trouble until this stalling, very similar to all of the other posts. Thanks for suggestions; will post after a visit to my brother in law-- the toyota mechanic!

[Ive]

Problem found and resolved on my fiancés 92 Camry: coolant temp sensor.

After exhibiting all the same symptoms as you all, I went down to the Toyota dealer who misdiagnosed the distributor and igniter as being at fault. After they charged and arm and a leg, it stalled at the next stop light on the way home. Furious at Toyota, but tired and wanting to get home, I waited for the car to cool enough for it to start again and carefully drove home, doing the gas/brake deely with both feet.

I then took the car to a friend of a friend, a trusted non-Toyota mechanic that came highly recommended. He had the problem figured out and solved in 2 days. As I came to pick up the car, he explained to me what he did and how he figured it out. He had a snap-on computer, just smaller than the size of a laptop hooked up to several sensors in the engine compartment; he actually drove the car with wires hanging out of the hood going through the window to his computer, which acted like a real-time analyzer and data logger. As soon as the symptom arose, it was the temperature sensor that caused the fault.

As most of you may know, temperature sensors are just over-sized thermistors, which are devices that output a change in resistance in proportion to the heat that is detected. The ECU measures this resistance to determine the temperature of the engine, and based on such, gives the appropriate amount of fuel to cylinders to combust. The problem is that over time (at least so I've been told with Toyota temp sensors), they can fail after getting to a certain temperature. They would function cold and as they get hotter and hotter, they short/open and produce a false reading to the ECU. The ECU then sees this as a malfunction, and thinking that the motor is cold in an effort to avoid detonation, dumps WAY more fuel than needed and basically floods the engine. This is why after the car stalls and you try and start the car unsuccessfully, you can smell a heavy gas odor in/near the engine compartment. It's putting too much fuel for the temperature of the motor/air and stalling the motor. This is also why it stalls only when coming to a stop: because you don't have your foot on the gas to let more air in to balance out the extra fuel that is being sent into the engine.

Apparently, this is something of an issue with Toyota coolant temp sensors after a long period of time (at least told to me). I'm so ****** off with the Toyota dealer you cannot imagine. They cringe whenever I go down there because they couldn't fix my problem and charged me for something that wasn't even causing the issue. As far as I'm concerned, dealers can only fix problems to which they know the cause of, and do not know for the life of them how to troubleshoot issues! For this they can all go :censor:.

I tried all the other suggestions here before sending it to my friend's mechanic friend, with no resolvement. And no offence to anyone that offered such suggestions, but I was skeptical of them to begin with because none of them really seemed to be affected by heat, which our problem does. I did find comfort knowing we weren't alone in this, and thank you all for this great site and thread - in which I found by google.

After replacing the sensor, not only did the problem go away completely, but our gas mileage got considerably better, and the car exhibited a lot more power when hot. I hope this info will give you some insight to your dilemmas of the same nature, and provide you with much needed relief - and a good nights (worry-free) sleep!

Kind Regards,

Ive

Vancouver, BC

P.S. If anyone needs a perfectly working used distributor and coil, courtesy of my local Toyota's misdiagnosis, email me as I have one for sale. :)

[j1s15n]

I have a 1992 Toyota Camry, Japan Model, and I have the same, well kind of, problem that everyone else is having.

92 Camry

4cyl

5 Speed

Below are the symptoms:

When driving on the highway/Freeway and coming off an off ramp, (I usually take it out of gear and keep it in neutral, so the car drops from 2500+ ROM to an Idle RPM) the engine will act like it is going to die when I am slowing way down, like coming to the stop light/stop sign.., RPMs fluctuating between 200-1100 in 1 second intervals, but it will not die.. If I rev the engine up to about 3ooo rpm, the problem disappears.. What I get from this is that it would be a fuel or air flow problem, am I right? Well, My handy dandy Toyota dealer told me that my injectors were dirty, so I let them do the flush, and now I'm out $150, and the problem still exists..

There is no black smoke, so It can't be running too rich, and I looked at the intake pipe (the plastic one going to the air filter) and did not find any cracks.. How Can I check my IAC/SCV, and my EGR? If it was one of these 2, what other problems would I encounter?

The other question I have is, could the PCV cause this problem?

Now that I have found that mine only does it when coming from high speeds to a stop, does anyone think they have my same problem?

[pnyklr]

91 Camry same problem....

Have changed the fuel filter .... didnt happen for a few days then happened again

also have changed the whole distributor ($500) the alternator and the starter

have about 110,000 on the car now and have no clue

Oh and not to mention the check engine light does not come on when the car stalls or is trying to stall so the place that did diagnostic on the car couldnt get any codes

any ideas ???

[Ive]

pnyklr, did you actually read what I wrote ?? <_<

j1s15n, just because you don't see black smoke come out of the tail pipe doesn't necessarily mean your not running rich. Does your car have difficulty starting when the engine is still hot? Do the symptoms only happen after the car gets warm/hot? Most of the cases here are very much temperature dependant.

[pnyklr]

pnyklr, did you actually read what I wrote ?? <_<

yep yep I read through the whole post hoping its that sensor I might change it this weekend

[pnyklr]

pnyklr, did you actually read what I wrote ?? <_<

I bought both the fan switch and the coolant temperature switch ... have to find where the coolant temperature switch goes though ... anyone have a picture?

[pnyklr]

I bought both parts... the fan switch is mounted in the coolant pipe tube

no clue where the other part is located yet ... even the chilton's book has the same picture for both :(

This BS is from autozone's website

On your 1991 TOYOTA CAMRY, the COOLING FAN SWITCH is:

UNDER HOOD, PASSENGER SIDE, UPPER ENGINE AREA, MOUNTED IN COOLANT PIPE TUBE

On your 1991 TOYOTA CAMRY, the COOLANT TEMPERATURE SENSOR is:UNDER HOOD, CENTER, UPPER ENGINE AREA, BELOW DRIVER SIDE END OF VALVE COVER, FRONT OF DISTRIBUTOR, MOUNTED IN WATER OUTLET

[pnyklr]

i'm confused

[pnyklr]

ok I installed the coolant temperarue sensor so easy it wasnt funny it was also not toight like a tiger I dont know why I'll see if thats my problem ... hopefully

[j1s15n]

pnyklr, did you actually read what I wrote ??  <_<

j1s15n, just because you don't see black smoke come out of the tail pipe doesn't necessarily mean your not running rich.  Does your car have difficulty starting when the engine is still hot?  Do the symptoms only happen after the car gets warm/hot?  Most of the cases here are very much temperature dependant.

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Starts great all the time, even after a stalling problem.. However, I may have found a fix. On the 3 Vacuum hoses that go to the top of the intake, I noticed that the one "P" did not match up with the EGR vavle, so I swapped the Vacuum line P and R, and ever since then, I have not had a problem. I found this 2 days after my last post.. I also cleaned the intake butterfly with a rag to eliminate sticking at idle. So after this swap of vacuum lines, I have been getting better gas mileage also.. I'm at 290 miles, and the gas gauge says it's just below 1/2 a tank..

[Ive]

ok I installed the coolant temperarue sensor so easy it wasnt funny it was also not toight like a tiger I dont know why I'll see if thats my problem ... hopefully

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Sorry I didn't reply sooner. I'll throw up a pic later on of what I changed just to see if it's the same as you. Let us know your results regardless - I hope it cures your problem like it did for me.

j1s15n: seems like a you may have had a different problem after all, especially if your symptoms weren't temperature dependent like the rest of us here. Glad to hear you've resolved your issue.

[o_miss]

Seems to be a common problem, have a 96 4cyl Camry, 100k miles not a day of trouble until this stalling, very similar to all of the other posts. Thanks for suggestions; will post after a visit to my brother in law-- the toyota mechanic!

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Good news! It was the ERG valve-- new valve, installed $200 and no problems to report for the last two weeks. Gas milage is the same (good.. 30ish highway)

[infie]

I have a 1995 Toyota Camry and it's been stalling at stopsigns and street lights. The rpms would just drop out and it would sputter and die. I generally don't have any problems starting it up. I just have to hit the accelerator a bit when I start it.

I brought it to a local mechanic that specializes in imports. He said it was the ERG valve. He also said that my timing belt was making some noise and that I might want to replace that in the near future. I stuck with the cost of replacing the ERG valve and I will probably get the timing belt replaced in a few months. I'm a poor grad student and couldn't get it done all at once.

Cost of part and installation for ERG valve: $372 U.S. Dollars

Cost he quoted me for replacement and labor for timing belt: $350

I really hope replacing the ERG valve fixes this problem!!! DAMN IT!

[bubbas42]

Thank you Thank you Thank you! I was amazed to find the exact description of my symptoms. I just replaced the coolant temp sensor on my 95 Camry and she now runs as great as a ten-year-old Camry can.

[joanna.jennings]

Hello, hope this thread is still active! I have a 94 Toyota Camry (automatic transmission) and I have started experiencing some of these problems too. I bought the car from a dealer about a year ago, and had a lot of work done on it initially --timing belt replaced, oil leak patched, new brake shoes; and later a new fan belt; new radiator; and the majority of a new exhaust system.

Last winter I started experiencing some starting problems. I would attempt to start the car, and it would be very rough and not 'catch' (sorry I'm not very keen on carspeak) and would soon stall out. Sometimes by the third attempt, I could get it going; other times so long as I held my foot on the accelerator and put the car in gear everything would be fine. And if I were to go out on errands and the car had initially started with difficulty, I found that when I started the car up again it started normally. One morning, however, I couldn't get the car started even by holding my foot on the gas, and by the third attempt, it was dead. At this point the alarm system went off (I didn't even know I had one!) and the car was not responsive to a jump-start. So I had the car towed to a garage. They didn't really find anything wrong with it...they pulled the spark plugs and those were fine...and recharged the Battery. After that it was fine for awhile.

Then a few months later the same problem started happening again. I brought it to two different mechanics and they both thought it was the starter. So I had a new starter put in. And for awhile again it was fine.

Then one day something scary happened. The car had been sitting for a few days perhaps and I started it, went about five or ten feet and then it stalled and everything locked, including the brakes. I put the car in Park, and restarted it and everything was fine for awhile again. This problem has repeated itself maybe three times. On another occasion the car had been sitting for three days and I started it up--with some difficulty-- and went about a half a mile without a problem. At about the third stop sign that I hit, however, it stalled and everything froze. I restarted the car again, and it was kinda iffy for awhile, but after a half hour or so I stopped worrying.

Lately the starting problem has been recurring (perhaps it has something to do with the coming of the cold weather?!) A few days ago, I couldn't get the car going again. It was dead. The car alarm went off again (the dealer never gave me the clicker so I couldn't turn it off.) I bought a new Battery as I knew it was time, and a friend put it in for me, but we couldn't get the car started. And the damn car alarm kept going off.

I called a mechanic and he told me I had to deactivate the alarm before the car would start up again-- apparently, it was in antitheft mode. I couldn't figure out how to do that as there was no reset button under my dash board, so I called AAA to have the car towed. When the AAA guy arrived I told him what had happened, and he happened to know a secret code to deactivate the alarm, which involved the locking and unlocking of the doors so many times. After that with some difficulty he was able to get the car started. He told me that the starting problem might have been related to having so little gas in the tank (I had less than a quarter of a tank at the time). He suspected that it had froze and as a result of the expanding a trace of water had gotten in. So he told me to fill up with a bottle of dry gas. (I bought the kind without Isopropyl alcohol--was I right?!) He told me to try to keep as much gas as possible in the tank in the winter time.

But I am STILL having problems starting the car, and yesterday after the car had been running for a half hour as I shifted into reverse the car nearly stalled.

Anyone have any ideas?

There is one other problem (probably unrelated) that I have. In the winter time, if I don't have the defrost and the AC running at all times, the car will get all steamed up making visibility impossible!

[viraj_hegde]

I have a 1994 Camry LE with 149000 miles on it. It is a very good running car, as per my experience with it in last 1.5 years. It had a radiator problem, which I got fixed installing new radiator. There was 3 inch of snow during last week, it ran fine, week after that it stalled in a stop sign. I had to get it towed through AAA, and AAA recommended new Battery, replaced Battery,again the same problem. Runs when cold and stalls after 5-10 mins. I took it to a imported car mechanic and he replaced the ignition coil with Toyota OEM part, adjusted iginition timing, put in new spark plug. Cleaned the engine. Now it runs great. Parts cost about $110, labour cost me about $230, so total $361 car is up and running.

[jdw13]

Problem found and resolved on my fiancés 92 Camry: coolant temp sensor.

[...]

Many thanks! As soon as I read your suggestion re: the coolant temp sensor I realized it was the one part that could explain all my problems:

- auto transmission sometimes shifting down then back up (sometimes repeatedly), even while coasting or on the brakes;

- idle speed sometimes shifting between normal, fast and slow;

- stalling when accelerating at low speed, followed by hard starting and strong "gas" smell;

I'd disconnected the EGR vacuum line following another suggestion, but it hadn't improved the problems.

Then, a week ago, I replaced the coolant temp sensor, and I've have had none of these problems since.

I'm especially glad I found this site (and your post) when I did. The stalling was getting worse, and I was about ready to give up and go to the dealer. Who knows what they would have sold me...

John

[marionbjmbjm]

It looks like I found the thread for my 2001 Camry Stalling issue. My car has 100K miles, when I hit the brakes the lights dim and the car dies or almost dies at times, when I am just driving down the road the lights are micro flicker on and off, on occasions the power locks deactivate and the radio goes off/on. The car will start right back up. The problem has progressed from a rare problem to severe in the last two weeks. In the last year my car alarm has set itself on about 5 times - I never set my alarm. During the last year the Battery has been a magnet for corrosion and I have cleaned it many times and used various substances and changed my Battery cables and the corrosion resurfaces every few months. A few days ago my engine light came on and the Mechanic determined that an O2 sensor failed and I had that replaced, my engine light is out, however my car still stills. Also I have changed my fuel filter. It looks like I may be headed into a major challenge in solving this issue? Any suggestions are welcome. Bob M

[flywill]

I am a new member here and experiencing difficuties with my 94 corolla standard model. It is automatic transmission with fuel injection. About 2 months ago after sitting for 4 days, it is hard to start. finally by press gas petal hard, it started and after that it seems running fine. about two weeks ago, the car died in a parking lot when reversing. But it can re-start and drive smoothly, only feels a bit more viberating in stop light. Days later, the car will die when stoped in parking lot or at light stop. but can be avoid by pressing a bit gas pedal. Since then, i have replaced spark plug, air filter, does not help much. Used carbulator cleaner to clean throttle plate and idle control valve. The car stayed healthy for two days and all the symptom came back. After that I checked Oxygen sensor, coolant temperature sensor, idle air intake sensor, throttle position sensor, idle control valve, seems they are all in the spec. Tried to locate EGR valve and vacuum switching valve, but can not locate them in my car according to harness car repair manual. On the throttle body upside, I only see 1 vacuum hose instead of 3/4 to the manual.

currently, the car can start each time, and will not stall at cold. when car temperature goes to normal and stopped or at very low speed (<5 mph), wheather it is in gear or not does not matter, the car dies sometime. right after that, car can be re-started without any difficuty. No diagnostic error code found by jumping TE1 and E1. I can tell when the car will die, the car will viberate more at that time, by applying a bit accerating pedal, the car will not die.

Any suggestion will highly be appreciated!

[big fish]

Hi all,

I have a similar problem with my 93 4-cyl Camry (~130,000 miles).  My car's been stalling when I'm stopped for the past week or so.  It's only happened 5 or 6 times, and has only happened when I'm sitting on the brakes or in park.  It usually doesn't start up right away (after dying), but on the second or third try, it starts normally and runs fine.  It's happened both at the beginning, and the end of the drive, so I don't think it's a hot engine / cold engine issue. 

It has been idling a little rough lately.  One time (since the stalling happened), l noticed that if I let off the gas and coasted, then gave it a little gas, my rpm's dropped a little, then jumped up (and the car physically jerked at this time).  This happened for a few blocks, but stopped after a few minutes.  I'm not sure if this is related, but it's something that never happened before the stalling began.

The car stalled several times the first day, and has happened less frequently since then.  The only changes I've made are:

*I put some fuel injector cleaner in my tank when I filled it up (shortly after it stalled the first time). 

*I took it in to a local shop where I have periodic maintenance done and they could find nothing wrong (did an engine diagnostic, but not much more - they didn't charge me for any of the tests). 

*I took it to my local toyota dealer.  They drove it and couldn't find any problems.  They checked everything and decided it was one of three things

1. VSV (he said it wasn't opening and closing properly, but thought it might be closing at the wrong times and killing the engine).  He did block this and wanted me to drive it for a week and test it.  The car died at the first stop sign after leaving Toyota.

2. Fuel pump - He thought this could the the problem also, but didn't think it was the most likely candidate.

3. Coil - If blocking the VSV didn't fix it, this was his next guess.  When I told him about the car dying right after leaving the lot, he seemed certain that this needed to be replaced and wanted me to come back in to have this done.

Since I took it to Toyota, it's only died once (and I've been driving it a lot since then).  Could the fuel-injector cleaner have done any good?  Also, does it sound like the coil could be the problem?  He seemed pretty certain, but it sounds like some of you have tried replacing it to no avail.  If it restarts fine, is there any harm in continuing to drive it and having it stall occasionally (besides the annoyance factor?)

I just don't want to drop any more money at Toyota until it either happens often enough for them to duplicate it, or until I know for sure what needs to be replaced.  I'm not exactly a car mechanic myself, but any advice would be appreciated.  Thanks.

Chris

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[QOMTIQ]

I might have the same symptom which is (coolant temp sensor), the idle starts fluctuating 750 - 250 when the temp gauge indicates half, it runs perfect when the temp stabilizes. Any way I have taken it to several mechanics but no fix yet, one of them had suggested knock sensor replacement. Which I have done, unfortunately the problem still exists. my question! Is the temp supposed to change with the speed or it should stay stable on certain value? Mine changes with the acceleration, as soon I speed more than 40 mph the temp starts to drop which causes the idle to fluctuate ending up stalling. The engine check led 5 minutes after start. I just want to make sure the coolant temp sensor will do the job.

Problem found and resolved on my fiancés 92 Camry: coolant temp sensor.

[...]

Many thanks! As soon as I read your suggestion re: the coolant temp sensor I realized it was the one part that could explain all my problems:

- auto transmission sometimes shifting down then back up (sometimes repeatedly), even while coasting or on the brakes;

- idle speed sometimes shifting between normal, fast and slow;

- stalling when accelerating at low speed, followed by hard starting and strong "gas" smell;

I'd disconnected the EGR vacuum line following another suggestion, but it hadn't improved the problems.

Then, a week ago, I replaced the coolant temp sensor, and I've have had none of these problems since.

I'm especially glad I found this site (and your post) when I did. The stalling was getting worse, and I was about ready to give up and go to the dealer. Who knows what they would have sold me...

John

[A Ali]

hello.

I've had pretty much both types of problems, i.e. ones related to the temp sensor and ones related to stalling for no real reason and no one being able to detect what the problem was.

My Camry is a Japanese 94 4cyl auto.

The temp sensor problem made it difficult or impossible to start the car, but once started it would run fine. dealer found a broken wire which was reterminated and now fine. 1hrs labour! This is worth checking if your temp sensor has been replaced but the problem persists. Broken wires are more likely than a failed temp sensor IMO.

The problem with the engine stalling - I read and looked into many of the suggestions made here. Dealer ended up replacing both ignitor coils. These cars don't have a distributor, they have two electronic ignitor coils. If they only intermittently fail to ignite the spark plugs, this could be hard to detect, without the use of a storage ociliscope and a lot of patience!

It's a gamble i admit, but if you're mechanically minded, it's worth a try, they're not hard to change.

A

[Michigan_Mama]

I just want to offer a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who posted on this thread. We have a 1995 Camry that has been stalling at stop lights and stop signs for almost a year. Six mechanics and one dealer later (fortunately only the dealer charged us....and I fought them so it was very moderate). I finally told them what the problem was after reading this thread last night. The dealership was very dismissive and condescending when I asked them to check the coolant temp censor: "Is there any real reason why you want us to look at the coolant temp censor???" WELL, YEAH.... Anyway, this was indeed the problem! The dealership, our local mechanic and good friend who has been trying to fix the car for months, and my husband were all amazed that I found the solution on the web. You are the best!!!

Thanks for being a google search away.

Best,

Michigan Mama