2000 camry engine problems help? LONG - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

jotka · 03-05-2006, 07:03 PM

I was driving home and noticed my check engine light turned on and im barely at 92k. When i came to a stop light i noticed my RPM needle was twitching. Not like the normal up and down motion but twitching fast like the engine is unsteady or something. The first time i noticed this was when i wasnt driving and is explained down there. Any clue what this is?

Ive been having strange problems with my camry after getting my 90k tuning. Every time i filled up with gas (4 times) and started the engine the rpms jump like normal then just dropped to 0 and the check engine light came on. So i turn the key again and the needle just goes up to like .4krpms and starts vibrating and i notice im holding the ignition too long since im hearing the ignition thing grinding. So i let it go and i hear the engine is on but the rpm needle is vibrating like crazy between .4-.6 rpm like the engine is unstable and is going to die. So i tap the gas a little bit and it falls down to .5 steady like normal. Now let me try to get more specific about how the engine starts. The first time i start it goes crank crank crank... Vroom... RPM needle jumps to like 1.7 and drops to 0 and engine not on, so basically everything normal when starting the engine but it just dies. Then when i turn the key again it goes crank crank crank... (im waiting for the needle to jump and engine to go Vroom! but...) grind grind grind.... and the needle just vibrates around .4-.6 and engine is ON but i never got a Vroom or the normal indication that the engine is on.

Porkch0p220 · 03-06-2006, 08:30 PM

i have said this before 3 basics, spark, compression, fuel. check if u have all 3 then post also read the codes, its no fun to play the guessing game

Camrymatic · 03-06-2006, 09:39 PM

You said these problems appeared after the tune up? What was done during that tuneup? Go to another mechanic and have them check those same things out. I had problems similar to these when my car would not rev under medium acceleration. Turned out to be a small chip in the plug wire cover. Its probably something small like a spark plug since that camry is too new for major problems.

hooRAH · 03-07-2006, 03:35 PM

You need to get the code scanned. I'm going to guess throttle position switch or something in that area, but without the code guessing is just wasted time.

jotka · 03-15-2006, 01:28 AM

I took the car to a shop and saw right away the oil filter cap thingy was leaking and i was completely out of oil :X So after replacing/refilling everything I didnt bother to check the code and they just reset it but now it turned itself on again. Where could i have it checked? Free if possible would be great. O btw the problem in my first post has been like that for a while apparently but i didnt know about it since i just got the car.

hooRAH · 03-15-2006, 08:11 AM

Well, its beyond me why you would go through the trouble of hooking up a scanner to the OBDII port and not read the code, but hey, I've seen dumber stuff done.

Autozone reads them for free.

jotka · 03-17-2006, 05:13 PM

Well i didnt hook it up, just thought it was obvious what was wrong but i guess it was more than a single problem.

Also i did get a read now and i got code P0401 EGR flow insufficient. So anything i should know about? Im not looking for someone who can just tell me whats wrong but things i should know about camrys such as P0401 being common problem in camrys or stuff like that. I was on the phone with my soon to be former mechanic who told me i should go to a dealership because autozone is only 50% right

. So i called the dealership and found out they would also use the OBDII to read the code which is what i used. Maybe P0401 is the least of my worries now.