Desperate need for Help - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

tnguyen3125 · 12-21-2009, 07:13 PM

OK so my parents want me to use the old 90 Camry because I'm a new driver. SO when first driving the car it was driving fine until after 20-30 mins or so. IT would make a bucking noise and shut off and it would not start again. We would have to wait a while ( like 3 HRS) before trying to start it again.
Now lately it shuts off after 10 mins or so.

My father said this only occurred after driving through some water. It was running fine before.

I don't think it's a heat related problem because the heat gauge thing is normal.
but I'm not an expert.

ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED

Also Its a 1990 DX Fuel Injected

and i have spent time looking at other threads
and have not found anything smilier to this.
at least i haven't recognized it since i have no knowledge about cars.

SO Thanks in advance
Please i really need this car

joeykrim · 12-22-2009, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tnguyen3125

OK so my parents want me to use the old 90 Camry because I'm a new driver. SO when first driving the car it was driving fine until after 20-30 mins or so. IT would make a bucking noise and shut off and it would not start again. We would have to wait a while ( like 3 HRS) before trying to start it again.
Now lately it shuts off after 10 mins or so.

My father said this only occurred after driving through some water. It was running fine before.

I don't think it's a heat related problem because the heat gauge thing is normal.
but I'm not an expert.

ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED

Also Its a 1990 DX Fuel Injected

and i have spent time looking at other threads
and have not found anything smilier to this.
at least i haven't recognized it since i have no knowledge about cars.

SO Thanks in advance
Please i really need this car

i am by far an expert but some more detail might help.
when it makes a bucking noise and shuts off, then not starts again. what happens when you try to start it? does it crank and not start? does it make any sense? have you noticed a certain speed or RPM when it shuts off? just looking for some more detail and patterns....the more detail you can provide the better!

tnguyen3125 · 12-22-2009, 11:28 AM

well. it would start up fine and run a for little.

going like 25 MPH it would be fine but when i would slow down it would start to stutter. When that happens the stuttering gets a lot worst and just shuts off. I don't have a RPM gauge so I couldn't tell you.

and when i attempt to start it back up
it cranks ( if thats the right term)
but does not turnover.

BUT sometimes it just skips the stuttering part and shut off

and i guess my definition of bucking and stuttering are the same if that helps.

camrygt4 · 12-22-2009, 12:07 PM

take off the distributor cap make sure there isn't a bunch of oil inside

white90dx · 12-22-2009, 04:37 PM

Check for water and/or oil under the distributor cap (like CamryGT4 said).

It is most likely either an oil leak causing ignition problems or a cracked ignition coil (located inside the distributor on this car) causing the problem.

Let us know what you find out.

-Charlie

fredk · 12-22-2009, 05:26 PM

water in the cap

tnguyen3125 · 12-23-2009, 02:39 PM

Thansk for the advice.
Im going to check on that today
when i get a chance
and
see what happens

TVISMR2 · 12-23-2009, 11:03 PM

Find anything?

tnguyen3125 · 12-24-2009, 08:55 AM

No I asked my dad about it and he said that he checked those problems already.
He think maybe something wrong with
the thermastate(spelling) maybe?
Or the water pump?

Could those be possible reasons?

atobe · 12-24-2009, 12:44 PM

no it can't be the thermostat.... that would cause your temp gauge to move around when you're driving.. and if the water pump is leaking you'd know it.. you'll have a big pool of coolant on the floor. and if it's stuck the car would over heat... we're all pretty sure that your coil is bad and that's built into the distributor..

270+Camry · 12-24-2009, 06:27 PM

fuel pump/filter? dirty injectors? gas spark air make ur car run, if ur old man says u got spark, and a good spark, check gas and air next.

MrBill91Camry · 12-25-2009, 09:04 AM

Sounds like a module problem in the Distributor. My brothers 92 did the same thing

Zod · 12-25-2009, 06:52 PM

I'd do a tune up with a new coil. Plugs, cap, wires, rotor and coil. Air filter as well..
You'd be surprised how many drivability issues can be cured that way..

***zythr*** · 12-26-2009, 08:30 AM

Could be fuel injectors. We owned a car that did that, turned out it was the fuel injectors.

joeykrim · 12-26-2009, 10:25 AM

As Charlie mentioned earlier, cracked ignition coil inside the distributor happened on my 90 Camry at 180k miles. It was only slight and just starting, but my great mechanics knew to look for it based on the age and history of our cars.

A tune up is also a great maintenance item as mentioned by Zod, plugs, cap and wires. It could clear up your issue, but when I used some generic napa parts and the plugs and wires feel apart after 1-2 years, I experienced a long lag on acceleration and as they got worse a lot of stuttering when accelerating. Now, I only use the Toyota cap and wires along with the Toyota recommend plugs, Nippon Denso and NGK. Let us know what it turns out to be! These are great cars but on occasion they need a lil love to keep them running smoothly!