91 camry no power, misfire, rough idle (kind of long)

jeopardy98 · #1 01-28-2006, 07:56 PM

Hello all, I need some help with my 91 Camry. I drove to work the other day and everything was fine as I was making a left turn I dropped down into second to climb a very steep hill that was upcoming. The car bogged way down as if I had just shifted into 5th at 15 MPH. (this is just to help explain what it did.) When I tried to accelerate it acted like it had no power. Now when I start the car it idles rougher and I get more vibration from the engine. Also whenever I give the car gas it tries to die, knocks and bucks a little and then the rev's come on up. It also does this while driving. I have not received any SES lights. I was pretty sure that it was only firing on 3 cylinders so I did some things to try and fix it. I have already replaced the plugs, wires and distributor cap. I replaced the wires because one of the metal contacts had broken off one of the boots and was stuck to the top of the spark plug. I have also checked to see that all the plugs to the injectors were seated securely and I am going to run some injector cleaner through it with my next fill up. I also tested my theory by removing one boot at a time from each plug to see if it made my problem worse since I suspected only 3 cylinders were firing. When I removed the boot from cylinder 1 at idle I got absolutely no change in idle. When I removed the boot from cylinder 2 I received a very little change. When I removed the boots from cylinders 3 and 4 the car dried to die immediately. This leads me to believe that the problem lies in cylinder 1 and possibly 2. I plan to check for spark on all 4 cylinders and I plan to check compression on all cylinders when I can get the gauge from my father. What I am wondering is if there are any other common things that I should be checking/looking for in the meantime. I read the camry FAQ's and they were great but nothing seemed to really address this problem. If anyone has had anything similar or just has some suggestions I would greatly appreciate the help. Sorry this is so long also.

Mike Gerber · #2 01-29-2006, 01:42 PM

I would start by reading any codes that might be present. Then, if there are no codes I would move on to the compression check. If that checks out fine, I would move on to replacing the rotor, since it is so cheap to begin with and you will have replaced all the simple ignition system components. That probably isn't the problem, but I would do it just to eliminate it. Next I would move on to checking and probably changing out the coil inside the distributor. You will need a DVM and the specs from any manual. Generation 2's have a known problem with the ignition coil developing a hairline crack and shorting out internally to any metal inside the distributor housing. Your's may also be weak and be giving out just enough juice to fire plugs 3 and 4 which are the shortest plug wires so they probably have the least resistance. You mentioned plugs 3 and 4 fire, while 2 barely fires and 1 not at all. 1 is the longest wire and 2 the next longest so they probably have a little more resistance, if you follow my thinking. This is just a wild guess on my part, based on the information you provided, but as I said, the coil is a known trouble area.

Good luck with the problem.

Mike

jeopardy98 · #3 01-29-2006, 02:35 PM

apparently I am mistaken on my cylinders then. I thought 1 was the shortest plug wire and 4 was the longest. If this is not the case then, 1 and 2 are firing very strong and 3 is weak and 4 seems not to fire at all. However the dist. cap I bought had the shortest wire hooked up to the number 1 on the cap and the longest wire on 4. can someone tell me which wire should go to which plug? I might have that incorrect which could be part of my problem. Thanks for your help.

Mike Gerber · #4 01-29-2006, 03:05 PM

Cylinder 1 is the one closest to the passenger side fender. Cylinder 2 is the next closest and so on. Number 1 should be the longest wire.

As far as the distributor, if you are standing by the driver's side fender and looking at the distributor cap, the number 1 plug wire should be at the 4:30 position. The rotor rotates counterclockwise inside the distributor and the firing order is 1-3-4-2. That means, 3 is at the 1:30 position, 4 is at the 10:30 position and 2 is at the 7:30 position. I hope this all makes sense.

Mike

RIP · #5 02-03-2006, 04:31 PM

Sounds electrical but, if you check all that out and still have the problem check your timing. If its off check the distributor to make sure its tight and doesn't twist. If its tight, your timing belt has probably slipped. It happened to me a few years ago. The car downshifted coming to a stop light. Went to pull away and I had very little power. The TB slipped and threw the timing 40 degrees off. Please let us know what you found. Too many don't.

kemical_rob · #6 02-03-2006, 06:49 PM

hi. i seem to have a silear problem with my 91 camery EFI auto. it will kick and spit beween 1000 + 2500 reves but then pick up fine after that. this problem only only seems to happen when its been raining- this to me says its an eletrical problem. but today something stange happened.

it rained so i thort i would let the car warm up. started ok. then would chug a bit at lower revs. then after about 10 mins it toally died. i think it could have been caused but a faultly tempature sentor. it could be cauing the EFI to run a weeker mix too quickly before the car is warm enough.

im thinking if i get the car running i will manually keep the revs high for a while to see if that help.

when i just drive it (chucking and spiting) it works fine after i drive on the motoway for about 15 mins. i havnt worked out wether its to do with the car warming up, or the eletrical problem disipating because it dried up. will keep you posted. any sergestions??

rob

Mike Gerber · #7 02-04-2006, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kemical_rob

hi. i seem to have a silear problem with my 91 camery EFI auto. it will kick and spit beween 1000 + 2500 reves but then pick up fine after that. this problem only only seems to happen when its been raining- this to me says its an eletrical problem. but today something stange happened.

it rained so i thort i would let the car warm up. started ok. then would chug a bit at lower revs. then after about 10 mins it toally died. i think it could have been caused but a faultly tempature sentor. it could be cauing the EFI to run a weeker mix too quickly before the car is warm enough.

im thinking if i get the car running i will manually keep the revs high for a while to see if that help.

when i just drive it (chucking and spiting) it works fine after i drive on the motoway for about 15 mins. i havnt worked out wether its to do with the car warming up, or the eletrical problem disipating because it dried up. will keep you posted. any sergestions??

rob

Problems that get worse in wet/damp weather are usually the result of faulty ignition system components. I would start by changing the spark plugs, distriutor cap and rotor (they are a 1-piece unit on your car if it is the 4 cylinder 3SFE engine) and the spark plug wires. If this doesn't solve the problem, than the problem most likely is the coil inside the distributor, as I mentioned in my previous post.

Mike

Mike Gerber · #8 02-08-2006, 04:13 PM

jeopardy98,

Did you ever solve your problem? If so, what was it?

Mike

jeopardy98 · #9 02-08-2006, 06:28 PM

Well I did a compression test and when I pulled the plug out of cylinder 3 smoke came rolling out of the valve cover. Checked compression on that cylinder and got 120. I looked at the oil reservoir and sure enough it's a thick brown color. I felt confident that it was the head gasket although the car has never overheated. I bought the gasket offline and I am taking it to the shop next week. Head resurfaced, gaskets replaced and new timing belt is gonna cost me $625.00 I thought that wasn't a bad deal so I'm going to let him do it. Hopefully she will run like a top once I get her back.

Mike Gerber · #10 02-09-2006, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeopardy98

Well I did a compression test and when I pulled the plug out of cylinder 3 smoke came rolling out of the valve cover. Checked compression on that cylinder and got 120. I looked at the oil reservoir and sure enough it's a thick brown color. I felt confident that it was the head gasket although the car has never overheated. I bought the gasket offline and I am taking it to the shop next week. Head resurfaced, gaskets replaced and new timing belt is gonna cost me $625.00 I thought that wasn't a bad deal so I'm going to let him do it. Hopefully she will run like a top once I get her back.

Sorry to hear it wasn't something minor.

Mike

mystic67 · #11 02-10-2006, 12:41 AM

I had a very similar problem with my 89 camry. I changed the plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor button. This took care of my problem with the damp weather sputtering.

As for the rpm jump, I checked my codes (as per the Haynes manual). Turned out that the coolant temperature sensor was bad and was sending a false reading to the ECU.

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