Sudden Engine Failure - Dies while driving. - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

lionheart03 · 01-05-2012, 07:27 PM

It happened today.... my trusted Camry left me sitting along the interstate. Was cruising along at 55 MPH when I notice the check engine light come on, within a second or two I lost power and luckily coasted through the lane next and made it to the shoulder. The car would turn over like normal, but would not fire at all. I was pretty limited with my troubleshooting at this point with traffic flying by, it still being dark and around 20 something degrees outside.

Get it towed back to the house and the car sat all day. I get home tonight and decide to check it out. Turn the key and the car jumps to life running perfectly.

Almost acts like nothing is wrong. I really hate these intermittent types of failure!!

A little background on my car. Its a 91 Camry, 3SFE, automatic, 215k miles. Recently had a tuneup that fixed a slight misfire (the problem went away with a new distributor cap and plug wires). In the weeks leading up to my engine dying, the car gave no indications of anything wrong.

I plan on trying to reproduce the failure or at least pinpoint the problem this weekend. Any suggestions as to what to check out?

I will be watching the fuel pump and whatever (relay) controls it if something goes wrong again. Perhaps something in the ignition?

RolentoGrenades · 01-05-2012, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lionheart03

It happened today.... my trusted Camry left me sitting along the interstate. Was cruising along at 55 MPH when I notice the check engine light come on, within a second or two I lost power and luckily coasted through the lane next and made it to the shoulder. The car would turn over like normal, but would not fire at all. I was pretty limited with my troubleshooting at this point with traffic flying by, it still being dark and around 20 something degrees outside.

Get it towed back to the house and the car sat all day. I get home tonight and decide to check it out. Turn the key and the car jumps to life running perfectly.

Almost acts like nothing is wrong. I really hate these intermittent types of failure!!

A little background on my car. Its a 91 Camry, 3SFE, automatic, 215k miles. Recently had a tuneup that fixed a slight misfire (the problem went away with a new distributor cap and plug wires). In the weeks leading up to my engine dying, the car gave no indications of anything wrong.

I plan on trying to reproduce the failure or at least pinpoint the problem this weekend. Any suggestions as to what to check out?

I will be watching the fuel pump and whatever (relay) controls it if something goes wrong again. Perhaps something in the ignition?

Use a jumper wire (sheathed) and connect one end to terminal E1 and the other to T (sometimes TE1) of your service connector. It's like a little snap box thing right behind your mass air flow sensor casing. Then turn on your ignition to the accessory position (don't actually start the car) and count how many times your check engine light blinks. It could take a second to start blinking, but it definitely will if you did it right. Look at the code list and it'll tell you what is up. When the check engine light comes on, it isn't reset just because it goes off, meaning that your codes will still show by using that method.

I have a current blink blink....blink, which I believe is my o2 sensor. If anyone can confirm this it would be much appreciated. My check engine light came on tonight while driving at around 60mph and when I parked the car, started it back up, the light was gone. So I did the diagnostics thing and that is what I got.

Light · 01-05-2012, 11:51 PM

A couple of things to check. The "missing" you had earlier may have just coincidentally went away with the tuneup but may be the cause and was giving you a warning before. I would check the ignition system. The coils are notorious for causing "missing" and "no starts" on those cars. Look closely for some discoloration on it which will tell you the spark has been arcing. The coils are not that expensive. Another possibility when the car comes back from the dead is that something did not like getting hot and woke up again when things cooled down. I would try another "igniter" from a junk yard if the coil doesn't fix it.

dem2757 · 01-05-2012, 11:56 PM

AFM or TPS also. get that code and we will instantly be able to help ya

lionheart03 · 01-06-2012, 06:48 AM

When the car started up fine last night the check engine light was off. I will check to see if there is a code stored though.

When I changed the distributor cap, I did notice a fair amount of oil in the bottom of the distributor and could see where it had been leaking. I think this is a common problem on these cars. Doesn't someone sell a seal rebuild kit for this?

I was hoping to get a little more life out of this car as I really like driving it. This weekend I am going to drive it out in the country some and see if I can get it to reproduce the problem. If I could get the engine to shut off again, it would make troubleshooting so much easier.

I will check the coil as well. Since owning this car for the last four years, I have found whenever I read about a "notorious" problem on here, then I have already had that problem or will have it soon after. Toyota sure did build a reliable, serviceable, and very consistent (have the same problems) car when they produced these Camrys with the 3SFE!

Mike Gerber · 01-06-2012, 05:09 PM

I second (or maybe third) checking the coil inside distributor. Old coils with lot's of miles on them have a tendency to cause problems as they heat up. You can check the coil for being in/out of range with a digital volt/ohmeter and the specs from any manual. I would also remove the coil and inspect it carefully for cracks. That is another common problem as the coils age.

Mike

Sturdavj · 01-07-2012, 04:16 PM

Quote:

When I changed the distributor cap, I did notice a fair amount of oil in the bottom of the distributor and could see where it had been leaking. I think this is a common problem on these cars. Doesn't someone sell a seal rebuild kit for this?

You might want to checkout a valve cover seal set, including the distributor O-ring

lionheart03 · 01-07-2012, 09:29 PM

Took my distributor off today. The coil looks pretty rough, quite a few cracks. The coil was also dripping oil.

I recall when I changed out the distributor cap that the lower screws were a little loose. I wonder if these being loose allowed for oil to leak out and not build up around the coil? When I put the new cap on, I made sure everything was good and tight, and just a few days later the thing was dying on me. Perhaps with the new cap, the oil accumulated and got into the cracked coil?

Anyways...now I need to decide how to fix this. The cheapest way would be to replace the coil and to buy a seal kit and rebuild the dist myself. I can buy a rebuild from the local places for around $150. The rebuild would be the easy way out though.

With 215k miles on this distributor, is it worth fixing and continuing to use? Or would I be better off buying a new or reman unit from a parts store? I really just don't want the damn car leaving me sitting on the side of the interstate again!

Thanks for all of the help so far. As expected, I've received some great info and help from you guys!

auto_robotics · 01-07-2012, 10:30 PM

RolentoGrenades: Two 0.5s blinks, a 1.5s pause, then one 0.5s blink is code 21: main oxygen sensor. I suppose the problem could be in the wiring between the sensor and the ECU too.

lionheart03: Where are you finding distributor seal kits? I only have been able to find the outer o-ring seal.

I can't advise on the reliability of a rebuilt dist as I haven't tried it yet. Personally I'd be willing to try it with a new coil and seal kit to keep the oil out. I did see both re-manufactured and new dist. assemblies on RockAuto for $120-220 which sounds pretty reasonable (OEM part is around $550 including plug wires).

jonsey1886 · 01-07-2012, 10:30 PM

Buy a new one from www.rockauto.com and no way is that picture of a distributor from a 3sfe 91 auto...I know I just changed mine right before thanksgiving.

Sturdavj · 01-08-2012, 09:37 AM

I R&R my top end seals last spring, inspected my distributor for wear, was in good shape so I R&R the O-ring and installed.

Car just crossed 304,500 miles on the way to 500,000 (my objective).

Toyota distributors seem to take allot of use/abuse. If you can find worn parts in your's I would R&R them. But I not would be afraid to continue to use the same distributor once you have found your oil leak.

Hint:
Play close attention to the end of the valve cover, above the distributor, where the cam shaft notch is located. The seal after returning to the flat part of the head can at times be very tuff to stop oil seepage / leaking.

As for the coil in your pic, if it tests bad, I myself would get one from the local salvage yard (why else would anyone own "an old Toyota", if you wernt planing on salvaging parts).......... Save the new parts for the new Toyota's

lionheart03 · 01-08-2012, 07:39 PM

auto-robitics, here is the seal kit that I was mentioning: http://www.kbox.ca/catalog/product_i...roducts_id/242

I went ahead and purchased a rebuilt distributor and installed it today. I drive a fair amount of miles every day with this car, and with it being out of commission I have been forced to drive my truck, which gets roughly half the MPG that the Camry does. So getting the car back into service faster will save me fuel costs (around $50 a week to drive the car versus $100 or more for the truck!).

The reman Dist was by Cardone. Once setting the ignition timing, the car is running great, if not better than it was before. Hopefully this was the problem that caused it to die in the first place. I test drove it a fair amount of miles tonight and didn't have any problems. The old coil actually had oil inside of it when I took it apart! Not sure if it was around the windings or not, and I did not test it with my DMM before getting rid of it.

It will be a nervous drive tomorrow morning. I have to cross the I65 bridge into Louisville. For those of you not up to date with the situation in Louisville, last fall they had to abruptly close the I64 bridge due to a crack in some structural steel, which diverted I64 traffic onto I65 and created a giant bottleneck and traffic nightmare. My car broke down on the on ramp to I65, so I had yet to hit the bad traffic and had a place to pull of the side of the road. A few more miles up the road I would have been sitting with a dead car on the badly congested bridge or on a section of the interstate with no shoulder to get the car out of the way. Needless to say, at any sign of trouble, I'm aborting my drive to work and making an emergency landing with the car!

Thanks for all of the help and suggestions on here! When I have time I plan to inspect a few more potential problem with this old car.

lionheart03 · 01-27-2012, 11:41 AM

Well its been a few weeks and about a thousand miles. Car is still going strong!

My fuel economy isn't where I would like it to be though, only 26-27 MPG. But with the car having to warm up every morning and hours of stop-n-go traffic, I can somewhat understand why my numbers are lower.