Stalling 91 Camry: mechanic is stumped.

[Chris_KS]

I bought a 91 Camry about 8 months ago (4cl, automatic, 138k miles). Ran relatively fine until a few weeks ago when it started acting up. When accelerating from a stop, it would hesitate and act like it was going to stall before finally kicking in and moving. Now it’s started to actually stall. Restarts right away, though.

I just paid $80 for my mechanic to run a diagnosis. I thought they'd find something like a bad fuel pump, etc, but after two days, they haven't been able to pin-point anything specific. They ruled out several things but couldn’t point to anything definitive. Their final recommendation is a tune-up and replace the ignition coil. They said the ignition coil was checking out alright when hooked up to the ohmmeter, but it could be starting to go bad. Of course when they did road tests, it wouldn't replicate the problem. Just my luck. I've gone back through the forum and seen other folks have had similar problems with hesitation/stalling upon acceleration and some seemed to have been fuel pump whereas others replaced ignition coils only to have that not really fix the problem. Can anyone think of something the mechanic could be overlooking?

At this point, I'm afraid to drive it because of safety (ie pull out in traffic and have it stall in front of on-coming traffic). Since the mechanic couldn't identify a specific problem, it looks like it could turn into a game of "let's fix this at a price of $300 and see what that does" only to find out that wasn't it and then move on to the next expensive repair. I paid $1600 for it and I only drive 15 miles round trip each day, so I don’t really want to be paying hundreds of dollars for “maybe that’ll fix it” repairs, but I know that it could run for thousands of miles more if well-maintained. The timing belt has 80k on it, too, so I know that expense is on the horizon. Trying to decide if I should pay almost the car’s value in repairs to make it last or sell it and use the money for something in better condition.

[fredk]

what codes were in it?

[Jimnist]

Did you change or do anything to your car recently?

I'd check all things that control all air/fuel delivery, mainly air. I.e. clean and inspect throttle body and idle air control valve (IAC), TPS, AFM e.t.c....

[midnightrunner]

I have a suggestion. I also have a 91 that had a problem with poor acceleration and hesitation. If you notice a lot of oil under the distributor cap, which I did, you have a leaky distributor shaft o-ring. It is a six dollar. part. For me, this solved all of my problems. If you do have oil, first wipe it of the distributor components, maybe even brakeclean it. If it then starts, that is definitely your problem. Also, if you have not changed wires, plugs and cap in a while, go ahead and get that done too. I hope this helps, I offered this solution to similar problems for other members but it hasn't helped others so far.

[Doctor J]

If no trouble codes are present, have mechanic hook -up the scope to the car and accelerate on the treadmill; this may help to find ignition problems

[Phils Camry]

I had this problem. It was a tiny hole in the rubber intake hose than runs from the air filter to the throttle body. I was stumped until I pulled on the hose trying to get it off the throttle body and made the hole bigger. Got a used hose from a wrecking yard and it ran fine after that.

[white90dx]

It most likely needs an ignition coil. They are known to crack and cause problem when damp (rain, cold damp weather, washing the engine bay, etc).

-Charlie

[Chris_KS]

I just figured out that my email server has been blocking email, so I didn't realize so many of you had offered suggestions. Thanks for the input. I just picked up the car and got the complete low-down. During the diagnostic, they found no codes stored in the ECU, found the spark to be good at idle but "a little lacking" on acceleration, fuel pressure is good. The mechanic is only guessing on the ignition coil but says it's badly due for a tune-up. I'm probably looking at $225 in parts for tune up and ignition coil and would do it with a friend's help that knows what he's doing.

Part of me wants to do the tune-up and ignition coil and keep the car long-term hoping that solves the problem. However, there are other things that need attention such as 80k on the timing belt, replace leaking power steering pump, replace broken blower motor, and a few other minor things. All that adds up to roughly the amount I paid for the car in the first place. I'm sort-of leaning toward just selling it now and looking for something a little newer. Thanks again for your suggestions. I appreciate them!

[Mike Gerber]

I agree with white90dx. You may have a bad ignition coil. You can test the ignition coil yourself with your friend's help, if you have access to a digital volt/ohmeter. You will need the specs from any manual to do this. Go over to AutomotiveForums.com and download the generation 2 factory service manual. They are stickied at the top of the Camry forum and are available for free downloading. An aftermarket coil runs about $40-$50 and may solve your problem. I would do this first before the other tune-up parts.

Mike

[starrettw]

I second midnightrunner. I had same symptoms. O-ring on distributor was bad and coil was cracked in an inconspicuous place. BTW, the coil always passed the resistance tests.