[rdiggidy]

My wife was driving our 2002 Camry 4cyl Auto today. She said it felt like it was “shaking” (possibly idle problems?) for part of the day but seemed to be running pretty normal

When she made her last stop of the day the car made a kind of “thud” when she stopped the car and turned it off. She thought she might have nudged something.

I went to go look at the car and tried to start it, the car attempted to turn over and than began to click as if it didn’t have enough battery power. I tried to jump the car but it kept producing the same clicking result. There was some build up on the battery cable so I tried to scrape that off….didn’t help any so I went and bought a new battery, put it in and the car started, but the motor was running very, very slow. I went and looked and it was idling at something like 200rpm. When I would step on the gas the engine would kind of bog (but not die) and then after getting passed 1000rpm it ran like normal. I drove the car around the parking lot and as long as I didn’t stop or drop below 1000 rpms the car ran as good as the day it was bought. If the car was gently stopped it would idle really, really rough, almost dying at 200-300rpm mark. If I stopped quickly it would die altogether.

I was able to get the car home (about 5 miles) by putting it in neutral and stepping on the gas to keep the car above 1000 rpm’s whenever I came up to a stop light.

The car sat for about 3 hours and I went out to mess with it. The first couple of times the car started up fine, but died almost instantly. After 3 or 4 starts the car would allow me to rev it up past 1000 rpm and it would run fine, but if it dropped below that it would die.

I read the “won’t run guide”: http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=424744&page=3

And I’m planning on following those steps, but it seemed when the problem first started that it was electrical?? Now it seems like it’s not electrical at all. I cleaned the battery terminals to no avail. I tested the old battery and it’s showing 12.5v so it doesn’t seem like that was every the problem…but I’ve only heard that clicking (I believe the starter) when lack of power is the issue.

My question is, does it sound like electrical can pretty much be ruled out and I can move on to the “won’t run guide” above? Any other thoughts are appreciated!