Camry (1999) losing power in low gear

[bobby25]

Dear all:

I have 99 camry and recently I have noticed that car is not getting enough power in low gears. There are two scenerios:

1. When I am stopped on RED signal and give accelerator very slowly (after signal turns GREEN), the car has power equivalent to accelerator given. If I give more gas, the power is not more.

2. The problem occurs frequently when I slow down in traffic and then give gas WITHOUT coming to full stop. The car losses a power a lot at that time and does not speed up quickly.

Once I am in top gear, I don't see any vibration/issues.

I thought that transmission might be bad, so I did transmission flush at Dealer but still have problem.

Should I change spark plugs, rotor/distributor cap and fuel filter?

Thanks.

[davemac2]

Originally Posted by bobby25

Should I change spark plugs, rotor/distributor cap and fuel filter?

Thanks.

That's probably a good start if you have high mileage and they have not been changed for 80k+mi.

Is there any problem with the car stalling or losing more power in wet, rainy conditions? I would check the fuel pressure and fuel flow at the rail to verify that it a a filter or fuel pump issue.

Some other things it could be:

1. sticky EGR valve. Your symptom though does not quite match unless the car tries to stall when coming to a light.

2. clogged catalytic converter. You can try to open up the exhaust just before the cat and drive it like that for a bit to see if it makes a difference.

3. torque converter lockup is not releasing properly in the trans. (low probability).

4. Slipping trans. You should see the RPMs jumping though with the low power symptom if this is the case. I assume you don't.

5. Bad MAP or MAF sensor, TPS sensor, ECTS (temp sensor).

dave mc

[bobby25]

Thanks Dave.

I don't have any problem yet in rainy/wet condition. My car has 95K miles. I will probably change distributor cap/wires and see how it goes. Then I might change spark plugs and fuel filter.
I am just hoping its not a transmission problem. I had transmission flushed at dealer and he told me that transmission looks fine. I did not told him about my problem though.

[Mike Gerber]

"I will probably change distributor cap/wires and see how it goes."

You can change the spark plug wires, but your 99 does not have a distributor, so there is no cap to change.

Mike