Stalling and/or hesitation when humid

[car_boy_16]

Whenever it's humid outside, for instance raining or just plain old humid, my car ALWAYS sputters at low RPM. Say I'm at a stop light and I start to go, if I lay into the gas just a *little* too much then the car will sputter and usually stall. The trick is I have to press the pedal very light until the RPMs get above 2000rpm or so, then I can press the gas down more in order to get to an acceptable speed. If I just push the gas down from idle speed, the car will stall out.

I checked the distributor cap and that seems to be dry. The outside of my spark plugs seem to be rusting a bit, but not so much. I know that's not normal or whatever, but when these sputterings happen I take off my plug wires and plugs and inspect them for condensation and I really don't notice any.

I don't know if the sputtering problem (in humid weather) is ignition related or caused by something else entirely--I just don't know.

I only ask this because my car is sitting down in an industrial part of town, parked on the curb. It may get towed by tomorrow and I have class AND work as well. If I don't get my car back up and running I will have to miss a big test and work as well. I just hope the car is still there in the morning!

I accidentally drove through a nearly 2-foot deep body of water and got stuck right dab in the middle of it! I was stuck until a tow truck came and pushed me out. But the car will not start any more...I took the plugs out and cleaned them and such, but the car refuses to start.


HELP!!!! Ideas, possibilities, probabilities?

[white90dx]

You have a cracked ignition coil... happens all the time on this generation Camry. The coil is under the distributor cap and can be replaced separately. Look for the other threads on here about the ignition coil (there should be at least one on the first page) for more information.

-Charlie

[car_boy_16]

Originally Posted by white90dx

You have a cracked ignition coil... happens all the time on this generation Camry. The coil is under the distributor cap and can be replaced separately. Look for the other threads on here about the ignition coil (there should be at least one on the first page) for more information.

-Charlie

THANK YOU FOR REPLYING!! I'll check into that ASAP! Do you think allowing the coil to 'dry out' (in a sense) say in an oven at like 150 degrees, for a couple minutes, do you think I could epoxy this crack up? I'll look more into this cracked coil issue, that's probly what it is then. I just got new plugs and I am getting a spark, but it's very weak! I'll update as soon as I can, the past 15hrs have been HELL for me...I actually drove into a flooded street and had water up to my black bumper mouldings on my door! Now I also have this groaning/rubbing noise from my drivers side wheel or axle or something around there...before I drove into the flood my outter CV boot was ripped pretty well and grease was oozing out so maybe water got into there and cleaned out the grease and replaced it with water and sediment

[fredk]

check the plug wire tubes that go down into the head for black spots too

[car_boy_16]

I checked the plug tubes and they are pretty dry except for some dirt and crap that should get blown out with an air hose.

I had my dad's friend, who owns his own shop, tow my car and he is going to look at it tomorrow. So he should figure it out for me... I'll let everyone know what happens, if anybody is interested, and if nothing more then to document this for archiving reasons.

[Mike Gerber]

I think whitedx90 is correct. The coil is a trouble prone area on this generation Camry that shows up as a problem in wet/damp weather. The coil developes a crack over time and shorts itself out to ground on any wet area inside the distributor. A replacemnet coil is around $40-$50 for an aftermarket one and about 1/2 hour of labor time. Book labor time may be a bit more.

Mike

[car_boy_16]

OK I got the car back! It actually was the distributor after all! It looked dry when I took the cap off, but that was midnight so I guess I didn't see it very well. My mechanic said all he did was take the cap off and put a blow dryer to the distributor for 10 minutes...then it started right up!!

Thanks for all the help, guys, sorry for the late reply

[Mike Gerber]

Originally Posted by car_boy_16

OK I got the car back! It actually was the distributor after all! It looked dry when I took the cap off, but that was midnight so I guess I didn't see it very well. My mechanic said all he did was take the cap off and put a blow dryer to the distributor for 10 minutes...then it started right up!!

Thanks for all the help, guys, sorry for the late reply

This sounds more like curing the symptom, not the ailment. What caused it to get wet in the first place? What was done to prevent it from getting wet again? You will probably have the same problem on the next wet/damp day.

Mike

[car_boy_16]

Well I drove through a flood, so that's why it got wet. But the seal should have done it's job a little better in sealing the distributor cap and the dist. housing. You're absolutely right, the symptoms were the only things that were 'fixed', but I need to buy a coil and put that in, with a new seal. That ought to fix the problem. I will update this thread as I do things, it's not going to be anything great or undiscussed, but I'm sure it might assist others in the future.