3rd & 4th Generation (1992–1996 & 1997–2001)Toyota Camry Discussion for years: 1992-1996 & 1997-2001
Topics of discussion range from fuel economy, safety, modifications, performance all involving America's favorite family car, the Toyota Camry.
ITS ALIVE! WORKS NOW!!! My wife may have killed my Camry!!! Please advise!!!
UPDATE I called my mechanic, and he said to go ahead and hose it off down there by the transaxle. (Like you guys said to do!) The car starts up and ran fine, ran it til the fans came on, no smoke. Could smell some coolant aroma coming from down there, but no smoking!!!
The mechanic said most likely I degreased the backside of the engine with the hot coolant and that was causing the smoke smell. The smell was a mixture of coolant/oil/grease, and this different smell is what made me nervous. I have not hardcore road tested it, but it seems like no damage was done!!!! Just purrs along...what a nice piece of engineering!!!! Go Toyota! No smoke from the tail pipe and oil looks clean!!!!
I am so happy to have Camry back!!!!
Thanks for all your help guys!!!!
1996 Camry, 2.2L w/ Auto Tranny. 137K Miles.
Ran like a dream until yesterday...a bad day for me.
My wife comes home and says the car broke down and I found it with hardly any coolant in the radiator. (brand new radiator too!!) One of the small little hoses near the distributor popped/failed and she drove on! She said the temp gauge never really went up much NOT to red, but the engine sputtered out and quit.
Well, today I replaced the bad hose, refilled with coolant, changed to new oil. It all started and ran fine, revved fine, idled fine (maybe a little bit fast idle?). Once it warmed up though, bad smelly smoke (plastic smell?) NOT coolant smell, was coming from the right side of the engine, somewhere underneath the distributor or right side of the engine. The smoke got worse and as I was getting ready to shut it off it started to sputter. Never did the temp gauge go beyond normal during this test. It took about 5-10 minutes of driving for this to occurr.
Coolant level is still fine and no milky fluid in the oil. What could be burning so bad?
IS MY BELOVED CAMRY dead? If it is, should I get it rebuilt (head job) or pay to have one of those import Japanese engines installed? I love this car, has been so good to me....if I had only been driving it, I would have pulled over and turned off the engine and fixed it instead of running out of coolant....ouch it pains me to talk about this.
Please advise....
A SAD CAMRY OWNER!
I am physically saddened over this...my car might be toast after over 10 years of ownership and I can't let it go!!! I love my Camry!!!!
cpy911
Last edited by eyeball96; 06-20-2009 at 05:26 PM.
Reason: Change status...car works
Might be a stupid suggestion, but does the temp gauge move (i.e. start out cool and rise to normal temp)? Can you check the Engine Coolant Sensor for any melted parts?
Well, she may be right, the temp gauge may not have moved a lot. When my radiator cracked, I drove it home, as the gauge read normal when moving, it only went up when stopped. I also have a scan gauge, so I could see the actual temperature wasn't too far off.
Anyway, you need to figure out exactly what is causing the smoke. I don't understand what you refer to as the right side of the engine. Do you mean the side nearest the firewall, or the side facing the radiator, or something completely different?
The smoke is most likely water, or oil. Is any making its way to the ground? That might help pinpoint the problem.
Also, you need to run the car with the radiator cap off, and watch the coolant for air bubbles - cracked heads or blown head gaskets can also push air into the radiator, instead of getting oil in the coolant, or water in the oil. There are test kits you can buy that will tell you for sure if you have exhaust in the coolant.
You mentioned that you changed the oil, is it possible that you spilled oil on the exhaust? It could be that simple, or it could be much more serious. You have to do more detective work.
When the coolant hose broke, did it spew all over the distributor cap itself?
Are you sure the smell/smoke is not the coolant burning off that spewed out all over the engine?
Like he said.
You might have to pull the dist. cap and rotor, and dry the parts off. Also when the wires are off the cap, dry them off too. There's also some cavities on top of the transaxle that will hold the spilled coolant. You might have to pull the air intake hose to get to the transaxle to mop up the coolant.
Your wife might have got lucky, because the wet distributor might have stopped the engine before the coolant loss and overheating did.
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85 LE 2SE 500K km - died trying to push a semi off the road
95 LE 5SFE 530K km, 530K km changed engine, 549K km second engine died, now 554K Km running with a 98 5SFE block and head
01 XLE V6 310K km
Might be a stupid suggestion, but does the temp gauge move (i.e. start out cool and rise to normal temp)? Can you check the Engine Coolant Sensor for any melted parts?
The smoke (smells like burning plastic or rubber, not coolant) is on the right side of the motor facing the car, somewhere below the distributor. The smoke is near where the old hose failed.
The gauge works normally, starts out cold, then goes up halfway.
I might pull the air intake hose, the distributor cap to see whats down there...
I do see pool of coolant on the transaxle, but the smoke smell seems like burning rubber, not the smell of coolant burning off.
Anyway, I will keep debugging and run with radiator cap off too.
my 93 camry did the same thing last year, the small hose, from coolant bypass to throttle body burst, smoke from hood, dash temp gauge went to red, check engine light went on, i wait until engine cool, refill with water, drove it home 2 blocks away, and replaced both two small coolant to throttle body hose with fuel line hoses at pepboy, and both heater hoses, refill coolant, restart engine, runs fine, no check engine light either.
I would spray the engine bay out with a hose to get any spilled coolant/oil gone (may have to use an engine cleaner spray) and let it dry completely sitting in the sunlight. While it was drying, I would pull all the plug wires, cap, and rotor and make sure everything is completely dried and no cracks. Once everything was dry, I would start the car and watch to coolant in the radiator and watch for smoke. You can move the car to a dry spot at this point to watch for any fluids leaking to the ground.
It doesnt sound like it's dead, just need to find out what the problem is (most likely small) and fix it.
Good luck.
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1993 Camry LE I4 Bone Stock - 380,000 miles (as of Aug '11)
1993 Camry XLE V6 Bone Stock - 260,xxx miles (as of July '11) Blown Head Gasket
2003 Chevy Trailblazer EXT I6 - 107,000 miles (as of Aug '11)
Haha glad you got her fixed! I guess this is Camry revival week-end or something This is the second gen 3 to get fixed so far!!!! Glad to see you liked TN This is the best resource right behind the parts diagram website and the service manual
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1995 Toyota Camry V6 LE-6M1 250K Miles, Fun Car
1997 Acura RL-Gone
2007 Acura RL SH-AWD, Technology Package, Opulent Blue Pearl- Fun Car/Daily Driver
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....tomorrow is Fathers Day yaknow!
This is the second gen 3 to get fixed so far!!!! Glad to see you liked TN
This is the best resource right behind the parts diagram website and the service manual
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