toyota camry starting idle is not contstant

[BATZ TECH]

93 toyota camry le 4 cyl
when ever i start the car it starts and runs for like 2 secs and then when the idle lowers it lowers and lowers and shuts off with jerks. around the spark plug areas there seem to bee oil and when i started it today it gave out some black smoke and smeeled like burning oil

[somick]

What is the car's maintenance history: distributor cap, wires, spark plugs?

[Mike Gerber]

You have 2 problems.

The starting and dying when first started is most likely caused by a dirty idle air control valve. I would suggest a throttle body cleaning paying particular attention to spraying the cleaner (spray throttle body cleaner or spray O2 safe carb cleaner) liberally down in to the square or diamond shaped port in the base of the throttle body. That port leads to the idle air control valve where your problem probably exists. Let the cleaner soak down there while you go on to clean the rest of the throttle body. I would let the cleaner soak down there for about half an hour. While it's soaking go on to cleaning up the inside of the throttle body and both sides of the throttle valve. Then reassemble everything and take the car for a 15 or 20 minute ride to clear all of the cleaner out. Check the fast idle speed the next morning when the car is cold. If that doesn't solve the problem try cleaning the idle air control valve again. If that still doesn't solve the problem you will probably have to remove the idle air control valve for a more thorough cleaning.

The problem with the oil around the spark plugs sounds like leaky seals under the spark plug tube nuts. You need to clean the oil out from inside the spark plug wells and then you can try retorquing the 4 30MM nuts under the spark plug wires to 17 ft lbs in 3 even passes. First 6 ft lbs, then 12 ft lbs and finally 17 ft lbs. Start with the number 1 plug, then move to the number 3 plug, then the number 2 plug, and finally the number 4 plug. This will insure even tightening of these nuts. If oil still goes down in to the spark plug wells you will need to replace the seals under the nuts. They are not too expensive. If you end up having to replace the spark plug tube nuts, I would change the cam cover gasket at the same time.

Mike