Rough Idle

[mgcastillo]

Hi All,

My dad has a 1994 Camry 4cyl and it has a rough idle. It doesn't totally stall but its really shakey. A local mechanic told him a faulty sensor is causing the problem, referring to the Vac Assy Sensor thats located on the back of the engine compartment towards the center.

Something is telling me that may not be the answer. My gutt tells me it could be a faulty air flow sensor or something like that (I had a similar problem with a '94 Mazda 626). Usually cleaning the sensor should do the trick. The "check engine" light did come up but my Dad (a very smart dude) disconnected & re-connected the car Battery to turn back off the light.

What do you guys think?

[MyV6Flys]

Check the Air filter and the plugs.

Both are reasons for those types of problems.

[mgcastillo]

Already done. New plugs (regapped). New air filter. New gas filter. Full tune-up and still the rough idling.

[MyV6Flys]

feel the wind coming out the exhaust pipe. There is a puff of wind every time the car/plug fires. The puffs should be like a drum beat, never missing a puff. If you feel missing puffs, then that is a missfire.

So start checking spark plug wires, to make sure all the ends are on the plugs tight. If you have a Dist-cap make sure it's clean, so on.

[mgcastillo]

So, you don't think its a sensor problem? The problem is only there during idling. The acceleration is ok. Would the car accelerate normally with bad spark plug wires?

My dad also has a '88 Camry and when the wires were bad, the car poorly accelerated and didn't have much power.

I still think its a sensor problem.

[MyV6Flys]

You may well be right, I was just thinking it was a free way to check for a miss. Before spending money on other things.

And yes it should have power issues in Most cases going through the gearsif it's loosing spark. But some cars will miss at idle and not at higher RPM's.

I'll be watching to see what the problem was. Always interesting to find out.