89 camry starting troubles...help! - Page 2 - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

88 LE · 02-01-2006, 04:23 AM

^ Have you checked for fuel, spark, and compression?

And the timing belt is good? A broken timing belt would cause what your describing.

PoR2GeEzCamry · 02-01-2006, 05:59 PM

I changed the spark plugs but it didnt work. How do i check for fuel spark and compression?

The timing belt is not that old, it was changed 2 years ago. Ill check that though just incase. The only way to check the timing belt is to look from under the car correct? The only thing thats wierd is he "oil" light came on. Could that be linked to the oil light?

pentegron · 02-01-2006, 10:06 PM

first try to knock out some problems. see if there is spark- pull a spark plug boot and put a spare plug in it and hold the end against something metal. have someone turn it over to see if there's spark. if no spark, take off the distributer cap and see if the rotor turns when the engine is turned over( no turn timing belt is broken). if all that is good then spray some wd40 in the air inlet to see if there is a fuel problem(if it fires then there's a good chance that the problem is in the fuel system) if neither of these help then you might want to take it to a shop for a more in depth diagnosis.

PoR2GeEzCamry · 02-01-2006, 11:44 PM

Ok so i check the spark by taking one of the spark plug wires that come from the distributor, put a spare plug in the boot, and hold it up against someting metal and have someone crank it? If that checks out fine i take the distributor cap off and see if the rotor turns when the egnine is cranking? This will let me know if my timing belt is broken. I will try that when i get the chance.

If those things dont work i spray wd40 through the intake pipe? If there is a problem with the fuel system, will spraying the wd40 throught the intake start the engine?

As to the fuel system, when i tried to start it a few days ago and it would just crank, i got a strong smell of gas. What could that indicate?

PoR2GeEzCamry · 02-04-2006, 05:31 PM

Today i tried to get it started. I did the diagnosis for the check engine light, but the CEL light flashed every half seconf multiple times when i diagnosed it, so the CEL never turned on in the first place. My dad had told me he thought it did, but this shows that it did not. Only the "oil" light came on.

Then i checked if there was spark by using a spare plug and connected it to the spark plug wire boot, and touched the end of the plug to metal. I checked all 4 plug wires, and there was spark from all of them. So there is spark.

Then i took off the distributor cap to check if the rotor was turning when i cranked it, and it turned, so the timing belt is fine.

Then i sprayed wd40 in the air inlet while starting and it didnt do anything. I then bought carburater cleaner and sprayed it in there to clean it up and shit, and then tried starting it agian. It almost turned on. I could feel the whole car shake and the engine was so close to turning on! What else can i check?

Im pretty sure now its the oil pump. I tried everything and nothing worked. Plus, the oil light came on which indicates low oil pressure, it has to be the oil pump. How hard is it to change the oil pump? Does anyone know a tutorial on how to do it, or could someone give me instructions on how to do it if its not that hard? Thanks

PoR2GeEzCamry · 02-07-2006, 12:18 AM

Anyone have any ideas? I talked to someone today and they said the oil pump shouldnt have anything to do with starting the car. What could it be! He also said it may be a major problem with engine

. I really hope not, i love my little camry. Can anyone give me some advice.

hooRAH · 02-07-2006, 10:18 AM

I'm not sure what the difference is, but perhaps some starter fluid might be a bit better than carb cleaner for starting the engine.

Are you mechanically inclined enough to pull the fuel rail and see if your injectors are spraying?

My guess is that the ECU is not firing the injectors due to the fact that it thinks there is low oil pressure. Whether or not it really does have low oil pressure is another matter, but I think thats why its not starting.

As far as the oil pressure, you have to take a gage and hook it up to the sensor port. No 2 ways about it. Let us know what you figure out.

PoR2GeEzCamry · 02-23-2006, 09:00 PM

Well heres what the update is guys. I got it towed to the mechanic, and he said that he would look over all of it and see what the cause was. He called me yesterday and said that the internals in the engine are ruined. When the oil light came on, no oil was being pumped into the enigne, so the engine was runing without any oil pressure the whole ride from my house to my dads work, which is about 20+ miles. So the mechanic said that the engine is ruined, and has to be replaced.

Now, there are a few options i can go with. I can replace it with a 3SFE with 60,000 miles, go with a new engine conversion, or ditch it and go with a new car. I was thinking maybe swapping in a 3sge? If i were to swap in a 3sge, is it a direct swap? Will the stock engine mounts and harness' from my camry connect to the 3sge engnine with no modification? Let me know what you guys think i should do. thanks.

PoR2GeEzCamry · 02-26-2006, 02:14 PM

The mechanic said he could get me a new 3sfe engine with 60,000 miles from a junk yard and replace my ruined 3sfe with the new one. The engine is $400 and labor is $300, so a total of $700. Do you guys think it is worth it?

Also, is there any way to check if the engine did indeed crap on me? I want to make sure this mechanic isnt bullshitting me and is trying to get money out of me. Let me know what i can check to make sure the engine is indeed gone. thanks.

PoR2GeEzCamry · 02-28-2006, 11:15 PM

Can anyone help me out? I really think this mechanic is playing me. Im going to get the car towed to me house. Is there anything i can check to see if the engine is indeed dead?

hooRAH · 03-01-2006, 09:19 AM

First of all, when the internals of an engine are ruined due to low oil pressure, its usually (from what I've seen) more "noticeable" than just not starting. What I mean is that you might hear a loud banging noise, the cams and lifters making noise (no oil to the head), or the engine siezing and refusing to turn over. Because your engine turns over, its obviously not siezed. Now, if you did run with low oil pressure, you may have damaged the internals to the point where you are losing compression with none of the above symptoms. Because you never reported back with a compression check, we don't know if this is the case or not.

Many people believe that once the oil light comes on, its too late to fix anything. This may or may not be true depending on the situation, but if the mechanic is one of those people that believes that, then that may be why he is saying it, rather than him actually investigating the problem. On the other hand, he probably sees more engines on a daily basis than I work on in a month, so more often than not, if he sees a car with the oil light on, its done.

Now, I'm not trying to offend you, I'm really trying to help you make a difficult decision by giving my honest opinion. I think that you don't really understand how to check for fuel or compression, and while we could go through a training session to teach you to do this, you will need to buy tools, have access to the car, and have time to work on it. Because its already at the mechanic and you're out of a car, I don't see this as a feasible option right now.

You could have the mechanic perform the above tests on the car to see if the engine is really toast. It will probably be one hour labor to check for compression, half hour to check for fuel, half hour to check for timing, and checking for spark is a freebie. Thats 2 hours @ $75/hr = $150, just to determine if the engine is even usable. You haven't even gotten into troubleshooting the oil pressure light, which, will be a minumum of replacing the oil pressure sender, or a maximum of replacing the oil pump.
$300 labor to install an engine in that car is a pretty fair price from a mechanic. If he has the 3sfe engine available and can install it in a reasonable amount of time, I would recommend you do that and get back on the road. Plus, you'll have new coolant, new powersteering fluid, new belts (I'm assuming). You'll be set for maintenance for awhile.

If you really want to be sure its dead (or really have faith in the motor), tell the mechanic to do a compression check. That will get you started, but will cost you, both downtime and money.

As far as weather or not you can swap in a 3sfe or a 3sge, I have no idea.

I hope this helps. Again, I'm not trying to say anything bad about you not being able to perform the tests yourself, checking compression isn't the easiest thing to do, and most people don't have the tools in their back pocket. It just sounds like you don't have the most experience troubleshooting a no-start condition, and with low oil pressure on top of that, this isn't the time to learn. Let us know what you do, and best of luck to you!