surging idle on 1992 2.2l camry

[97vulcan]

Hello all,

I've been experiencing some mild surging at idle in my Camry for a few months now. it doesn't do it all the time, but enough of the time. I figured it was time to change out the cap, rotor, plugs, and wires. I did this with an Autozone Cap, rotor, autolight wires and NGK plugs.

The surging is now worse than before I change the original wires. It happens when I'm at a stop light, and can happen when I'm rolling with my foot on the brake at idle. It happens pretty frequently now. I thought changing out the parts would be helpful, but I guess not. Car has 128,000 on it.

any suggestions welcome

[hill8570]

Those wires are going to be trouble, but that's not your immediate issue.

When was the last time (if ever) you cleaned the throttle body and idle air control valve?

[97vulcan]

grrr on wires. Whats a good aftermarket brand for our cars??

I've never cleaned the TB, or the IAC..when I had the air snorkel off I opened the butterfly and it was dark with carbon in the intake, but with it closed, it looked pretty clean. Is the IAC the port on the bottom of the TB? before the butterfly?

What's the best way to clean these without taking off the plenum?

Thanks in advance!

[hill8570]

Originally Posted by 97vulcan

grrr on wires. Whats a good aftermarket brand for our cars??

I trust NGK and Denso for the high-voltage (plugs, plug wires, coils, ignitors, etc) stuff in Toyotas...nothing else. Cut corners on your paint job or your seat covers or your little deodorizer hanging from the mirror -- don't cut corners on something as mission-critical as the spark plug wires. Heck, if you use one of the cheap mail-order dealers which are constantly mentioned in this group, OEM wires (typically Denso) are pretty reasonable.

Originally Posted by 97vulcan

I've never cleaned the TB, or the IAC..when I had the air snorkel off I opened the butterfly and it was dark with carbon in the intake, but with it closed, it looked pretty clean. Is the IAC the port on the bottom of the TB? before the butterfly?

What's the best way to clean these without taking off the plenum?

Thanks in advance!

The IAC is the port on the bottom of the TB just on the other side of the throttle valve (butterfly valve). It's on the other side of the throttle valve because it's whole function is to throttle air to the engine when the main throttle is fully closed.

I like to dump a load of throttle body cleaner into the hole containing the IAC and let 'er soak for a while (engine warmed up but off). I also take and old toothbrush and give the throttle body a good scrub with TB cleaner as far as I can reach ( I think this is gone into in gory detail in the DIY at How to: Cleaning Throttle Body -4 Cylinder Engines- With Pictures ).

This isn't guaranteed to fix your idle hunting, but it's dead easy compared to a lot of the other options, and if you've never cleaned your IAC, it's pretty much guaranteed to be really crudded up. Always do the easy stuff first