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stanno · 03-18-2009, 02:00 PM

bought my first toyota yesterday. rhd '90 camry lumiere. 3s-fe engine auto tranny. didnt get it with a service/maintenance manual, so there are couple things i'm unsure of. instead of a bombardment of questions, i'll just ask them as i go along. first question is, on the arm rest console, there's two buttons, one marked 'power' and the other 'manual' what is that for ?

white90dx · 03-18-2009, 06:07 PM

The "Power" button changes the shift pattern of the transmission to be more aggressive. It will upshift later and downshift earlier in this mode.

I'm not sure what this "manual" button is that you are talking about is... can you post a picture or describe it more? Is it the lever down there, or something else? Have you tried pressing it?

-Charlie

nuron · 03-18-2009, 08:15 PM

Cool! Can you take a lot of pictures so we can see what Jamaican Camrys are like?

TBayToyotaBoy · 03-19-2009, 01:40 AM

Welcome to the Camry family! I agree, post some pics if you can. I love seeing the Camrys from different countries...the ones in the Dominican Republic and in Cuba make me jealous for their complete lack of rust.

As for the "manual" setting, is this on the same button that says "ECT" and "power"?

typesix · 03-19-2009, 09:34 AM

US versions have a manual release lever for the motorized shoulder belt in that location.

91_ToYoTa_CaMrY · 03-19-2009, 11:20 AM

I'm guessing Power is the ECT button and Manual is probably that shift button above the gear shifter.

stanno · 03-19-2009, 11:42 AM

Thanks for the welcome. it's actually two small square buttons side by side, and they're located between the shift lever & the arm rest. reason i'm concerned is the previous owner had stuck a paper, sorta wedging the power button so it'd stay depressed, and i dont really want to remove it til i know wat it's for, for certain at least. will post pics as soon as i get home this evening so u all can see what i'm talking.

stanno · 03-24-2009, 10:57 AM

In the mean time, i had these pics from before. seems i have a idle problem, whereas when the engine is at idle in "park", it does so at around 1000 rpm. if i selected "D, 2, L or R" (any other gear except neutral) the transmission engages and the idle plummets to 500 rpm, & panels start vibrating. i went searching in the engine bay and took a few pics:

the device circled below appears to be a vacuum diaphragm device with a air screw on the end (smaller cirlce) mounted on the intake plenum. the arrow is pointing to the firewall

this pic is of the back of the plenum. arrows point to where apparently, hoses are to be, i suspect they are suppose to connect from there to the vacuum device shown in the first pic.

i tested this by putting my finger over each opening, both on the open ports on the plenum and the ones on the vaccum device and the engine went down a couple hundred rpms.

what exactly is this device for ?

bkbajan · 03-24-2009, 11:28 AM

welcome to the forum...its the best.
to the guy tht said 'jamaican camry'....its basically a japanese camry.
im from barbados and my dad had a few of the camry's..which were from japan...which is where
the caribbean gets most of its cars from..i had an 87 starlet years ago..

white90dx · 03-24-2009, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanno

In the mean time, i had these pics from before. seems i have a idle problem, whereas when the engine is at idle in "park", it does so at around 1000 rpm. if i selected "D, 2, L or R" (any other gear except neutral) the transmission engages and the idle plummets to 500 rpm, & panels start vibrating. i went searching in the engine bay and took a few pics:

the device circled below appears to be a vacuum diaphragm device with a air screw on the end (smaller cirlce) mounted on the intake plenum. the arrow is pointing to the firewall

this pic is of the back of the plenum. arrows point to where apparently, hoses are to be, i suspect they are suppose to connect from there to the vacuum device shown in the first pic.

i tested this by putting my finger over each opening, both on the open ports on the plenum and the ones on the vaccum device and the engine went down a couple hundred rpms.

what exactly is this device for ?

The device on the side of the plenum (first picture) is for A/C idle-up. The two small vacuum ports on the top should be connected to a solenoid (VSV in Toyota terms) on the firewall behind the motor. If you A/C has been removed, these should be capped.

I'm not exactly sure what the ports on the back of the manifold do, but generally they should just be capped. It may be the port that goes to the cruise control. Also check the operation of the EGR (if equiped), it should have at least one connection to the manifold, I think. You can also check for the sticker on the hood that should show the routing of all of the lines.

Your idle should be around 650-700 when in park or neutral and it will drop in R/D/2/L down around 500-600. Sadly, the vibrating in gear is fairly normal... you can check your motor mounts for wear, but it may not get much better even if they are replaced.

-Charlie

stanno · 03-24-2009, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by white90dx

The device on the side of the plenum (first picture) is for A/C idle-up. The two small vacuum ports on the top should be connected to a solenoid (VSV in Toyota terms) on the firewall behind the motor. If you A/C has been removed, these should be capped.

charlie, can't tell you how helpful ur info has been. i now kno exactly where those hoses should go, i saw the vsv and was puzzled as to what it was cuz nothing was attached to it except for the electrical connection. however, i noticed that the front of the vsv has a knob like part that can be rotated. what happens if it's turned ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by white90dx

I'm not exactly sure what the ports on the back of the manifold do, but generally they should just be capped. It may be the port that goes to the cruise control. Also check the operation of the EGR (if equiped), it should have at least one connection to the manifold, I think. You can also check for the sticker on the hood that should show the routing of all of the lines

okay, will block them off after i've checked if there's an egr valve equiped

Quote:

Originally Posted by white90dx

Your idle should be around 650-700 when in park or neutral and it will drop in R/D/2/L down around 500-600. Sadly, the vibrating in gear is fairly normal... you can check your motor mounts for wear, but it may not get much better even if they are replaced.

-Charlie

as u mention bad motor mount, on the weekend i discovered the one to the rear (back to the firewall) is badly worn. will be seeking one this weekend. thanks again

stanno · 03-24-2009, 01:41 PM

btw, my cabin fusebox is located near/ next to the accelerator pedal to the side. didnt get it with a cover to show which fuse is for what. by any chance does anyone happen to have a pic of the cover ?

white90dx · 03-24-2009, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanno

charlie, can't tell you how helpful ur info has been. i now kno exactly where those hoses should go, i saw the vsv and was puzzled as to what it was cuz nothing was attached to it except for the electrical connection. however, i noticed that the front of the vsv has a knob like part that can be rotated. what happens if it's turned ?

Hopefully that doesn't do anything. The screw on the front of the valve on the manifold (in your picture above) adjusts how much extra air is let in when the A/C is on.

If you have a multimeter, you should also check if the VSV is working - make sure it measures between 10 and 20 ohms between the two terminals. I found that over half of them at the junkyard are no longer working (when searching for a replacement of my own!).

-Charlie

stanno · 03-25-2009, 04:38 PM

ok. i'll ensure to have it properly checked before purchase.

stanno · 03-25-2009, 04:48 PM

i'm now trying to figure out the switches on the indicator lever. up and down obviously control turn signals. pulling the lever back & forward to and from the steering operates the bright/dim feature of the headlamps (although i see a headlamp button on the top right side of the gauge cluster on the dash, i assume that's for the yellow foggies that neighbour's the headlamps). now turning the end of the lever closes the circuit for the park lamps, 2nd turn, headlamps, but there's a third turn, & in my camry, it's strange. why is it strange u might ask? well, sometimes, when it's turned, the headlamps are still on and there's no difference with anything, other times, the headlamps just switch off. what exactly is it suppose to control ?