94 camry has a fuel problem

[beeman5601]

Was driving the vehicle without any problems. Parked in the garage overnight. Next day, camry won't start. This was a 1st time problem. Starter turns engine over easily but engine will not run. Fuses appear ok. Spark appears ok. I loosened the top line on the fuel filter and turned engine over. Gas sprays out. After tightening this fuel line, engine starts and is drivable. Next day , it wont start again. After cracking gas line on top of fuel filter, the engine will again start up. Car has a 2200 cc engine 4 cyl with automatic. 180,000 miles and hoping for many more !!
Anyone have any suggestions. Thanks

[Brian R.]

Measure the fuel pressure and flow volume at the injector rail. There is a procedure in the manual linked in the sticky post at the top of this forum.

Put some techron or seafoam in the gas tank and see if that helps.

Make sure spark is strong and snaps. A weak spark can cause hard starting. If it's weak, check the wires and the coil. Replace the coil if the spark is weak and the wires are ok.

[jdmccright]

Fuel filter and/or pressure regulator may need to be replaced.

[beeman5601]

Thanks guys for your suggestions. However, I've not had the chance to try any of them. Drove the car today. It started without having to release the pressure in the fuel line. Car ran fine for about 15 miles with several stops and restarts. But I know there is still something wrong with it and will probably happen at the worst time too.

Brian. I can't seem to find that "sticky post at the top of the page" you refer to for obtaining the manual for testing for fuel line pressure and volume. Also this was never a sluggish problem, but a simply "won't even try to start" problem. And now seems to be an intermitant problem.
Would the Autozone guys be of any help in this problem with their troubleshooting tester ?

[Mike Gerber]

Here's the link to the factory service manuals:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=497839

Autozone will not be of any help. They read OBD2 codes for free. Your 94 4 cylinder is OBD1. There will be a simple procedure for reading the codes in the manual, although if the check engine light is not on I doubt there will be any.

Mike

[beeman5601]

Sorry it has been a while in responding to this post. I was not able to figure out how to measure the fuel pressure or fuel volume.
I did noticed moisture on the Distributer cap. And Leaving a trouble lamp on the Distributer cap overnight seemed to solve the starting problem. Even though I thought there was enough spark, I changed out the distributer cap, rotor and ignition wires.
Seems to have solved the problem entirely. It has run fine ever since. (knock on wood).
Thanks everyone for all your suggestions.

[Brian R.]

Thank you for the update.

[beeman5601]

Just an update. In Feb 2010, I had a recurring problem of the car just dying while driving. It acted like it was out of gas. Turned out it was a similar problem with the distributer again. The mechanic replaced the distributer. Seemed to fix the problem. And is still running great today after 195,000 miles.