intermittent sluggishness

[ihartmacz]

As some of you may remember, I was in an accident a couple of months back. Car is fixed now, except for the body. Drives very well except for one thing.

Ever since the accident, the car has been very sluggish when taking off from a stop light under normal throttle. It feels like I'm just feeding it air with the gas pedal, like its just running lean intermittently, then about a few seconds later the engine perks right back up. I had a CEL but it has went away on its own. I can't read the memory codes because I had to unplug the battery to fix something. The CEL hasn't come back on, though.

The only thing that confuses me is that half of the time the car has good power and picks up right away.

Tranny has new fluid and filter.
Fuel filter is new.
New Bosch O2 sensor.
Spark plugs, wires, rotor and cap have about 7k miles on them and they look good
Timing Belt has 20k on it
My car ONLY gets Mobil gasoline.

The spindle, lower control arm, and wheel bearing are new.

I was thinking it was transmission problem, since I was in the wheel and I know direct shock can break transaxles.

My buddy thinks that it maybe the TPS.

Is there a test procedure?
How do I read codes on the camry?
What do you guys think?

BTW: 1993 i4 auto, 210K miles. Also, it's getting around 18 mpg in town.

[Kep]

If you're lucky, it might be a dirty throttle body. Pull the big air hose off and look inside. If it is dirty get some throttle body cleaner, a toothbrush and a rag and clean it out.

The thing that bothers me is in an earlier post you said that you were getting 35 mpg and now you're relating 18 mpg. There may be some other factors at play here. It is usually a process to track this down but it can be done. Initially, clean up the trilogy. Check the wires, plugs and sensors to be within spec.

Getting the CEL codes just requires you to jumper two contacts of the diagnostic port. However, I forget which two. Someone may chime in or you can search it. It comes up a lot. Once you jump the contact the CEL light will flash a code that can be interpreted.

Kep

[ihartmacz]

I haven't ever gotten 35 mpg from it. The most was 22.

When I changed the trans. fluid I cleaned the throttle body and inspected the plugs, wires, cap and rotor and they're fine.

[Dave's]

Think it's TE1 and E1.

[ihartmacz]

Has there been a lot of problems with the TPS with Camry's? Is the test procedure basically the same on other cars?

[ihartmacz]

Update:

TPS sensor seems to be the culprit. Why? When reading the terminals IDL and E2 ALWAYS reads an open circuit especially with a 0.020in feeler gauge.

Would this problem cause the sluggishness when accelerating with about 20% throttle (mainly apperant when accelerating from a stop light)? All other readings taken from the sensor were with in specifications.

Would adjusting the sensor work to resolve the problem?

Can this problem be due to the universal O2 sensor that's installed (Bosch)?

I bought a new sensor, but I can/want to return it ($105) because I don't like just throwing a part at it If it can be adjusted.

I have no CEL, though. Any other time, the car runs like a champ, starts up really fast, idles at 750rpm in D. and drives smoothly accept for the sluggishness. It's really dangerous, I have to wait for so many cars to go before I can make left and right turns because the car will just kinda chug for a heart stopping instant until it just goes.

Timing appears to be fine, the timing belt was installed by a professional garage about 15,000 miles ago.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Kep]

I think that you need to get a little more accurate with the TPS clearance(s). Check out the Engine section of the manual (currently at: http://www.camrystuff.com). Do a search for "Inspecting Throttle Position Sensor" and it will list out the various clearances and related resistances to check (my gen 3 was on page EG1-205).

Kep

[ihartmacz]

I replaced the Denso as normal maintenance, nothing was exactly wrong with it. I pulled my Bosch O2 today and found it was black as coal. No wonder the car was bogging down so much when it warmed up. I'm surprised it didn't bog down all the time. I'm putting the Denso back in tomorrow before I leave for work. I took it out to redo the wiring, so right now my exhaust manifold has a tee-shirt around where the o2 sensor goes to prevent shit from getting in there.

I can't believe this happened. I wasted $40 on this sensor!

Hope this solves the problem

[ECale3]

bosch sucks.

[Kep]

Definitely looks like the Bosch got filthy. Wouldn't the Denso have gotten just as dirty if you had left it in? I understand silicone will clog up an O2 sensor. Have you used any silicone sealants for the oil pan or valve cover (etc...) recently?

Kep

[Kep]

OK, this silicone thing stuck in the back of my head so I looked for and found an excellent reference by Tim Giles on line at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Yn9F0RhJ0EkC&pg=PA364&lpg=PA364&dq=rtv+%2 BO2&source=web&ots=S8B7xNVCt4&sig=I7BomNzco91p6gPA tX0WZB1StOw&hl=en#PPA365,M1 Check out page 364

Summarizing his points on O2 sensor contamination:
*Chalky white deposits on tip = silicone
*Brown residue = oil (slows sensor speed)
*Black coating = rich air fuel mix
*White flakey deposits = coolant
*Exterior blockage of ambient air might include: brake fluid, power steering fluid, oil (valve cover leak, etc), dirt (Lack of ambient air flow results in slower comparison of ambient O2 and exhaust O2)

He points out that it is important to track down the cause of the initial contamination before installing a replacement O2 (because it will also clog up.). He also mentioned that if it is the black coating from an over rich mix that it could be burned off by making the engine run lean (pull a vacuum hose for a few minutes). I’ve also heard that you can use a propane torch to do the same thing.

Thought you might be interested.

Kep