92 Camry 5SFE won't start when it rains

[hwyflier]

I have verified that when it rains or is extremely damp or humid out my 92 Camry won't start. This has happened for the third different time.

When the weather finally dries up for a day or so it starts right back up again.

Any thoughts..?

Kevin

Edit on this post... I had a problem two years and four months ago with the car not starting. I had it taken into the shop and they had replaced the coil that you are refering to.
The car has been running fine until about two weeks ago when it would give me this trouble with it not starting when it was damp outside.
I tried again this morning after it has been dry outside for two days now. Still no start.

I'm thinking it has to be either the distributor cap or this coil again. I'm not sure when they replaced it if was OE or not since I had it worked on at a Goodyear service center.

I found my old receipt and by looking at what they charged me for the coil ($113.23) I would hope that it was OE but I know how these places overcharge.

Also looking at my receipt I see that I have only driven the car 10,000 miles in the last two years and four months.

Could that coil go bad that quick..?

Come this weekend I'm going to get a new cap, rotor and plug wires and try that and then get a coil if the other stuff doesn't work.

Any other thoughts..?

[Mike Gerber]

You don't mention the mileage on the car or what, if anything, you have done to rectify the problem. It is usually best to start tracing a problem like this by replacing the spark plug wires, distributor cap and the distributor rotor. If that doesn't solve the problem, then you will need to replace the coil inside the distributor. They develope a hairline crack over time and then when it is damp out, it shorts itself to ground on any metal part inside the distributor. A cheap, temporary fix to determine if it is the coil causing the problem, is to seal the distributor cap to the distributor with a bead of silicone all around the outside edges. If your problem then goes away, then it is the coil inside that is defective. Remember, this is only a temporary fix. You will still need to remove the silicone and replace the coil.

Good luck.

Mike

[Toysrme]

Distributor cap is damp on the inside.
Water doesn't conduct electricity, so when it get's moisture inside the cap, the spark can't jump from the rotor to the contacts.

Replace the cap & rotor, normally $10-15usd worth of parts at an autoparts store.

[hwyflier]

Thanks,

I'll try the suggestions... The next time it gets dry enough outside to work on it..

[DeafBy30]

I had the same problem with my 90 camry, when it would rain or if it was damp outside it would have a lot of hesitation problems and sometimes the engine would die on me. so i first changed the distributor rotor and cap and also the little gasket for the cap. well that didn't work and it ended up being the coil.
good luck