5s-fe Stumbling/Low RPM/Plz Help/Mulititude of problems :(

[JCamry94]

So recently I have finally planned out my future suspension, rims, brakes, and chassis mods being very creative, organizing all of my thoughts down on paper and in real numbers, and then the last two days everything comes to a crashing hault. This thread is MOSTLY a cry for help, but also a little venting...

I am flat broke aka in debt, pretty deep.

I go to school full time, and have a girlfriend who can look past all this (don't want to lose her).

And... of course I have a very selfish, impulsive need to mod my car

TO BEGIN about a week ago I was on my lunch break at work, when I decided to drop my paycheck off for deposit at my bank. I did then got back to my car, and it wouldn't start. The key in "ON" made no clicks in the motor, nor did it attempt to rotate. Since I was on a time crunch and very tired my first thought was "gas tank was very low, I bet it is empty", so I went to the nearest gas station, bought a can, 2 gals of gas and tried to start 'er up. Nothing. Not even a budge. I called my stepdad and he reminded me about the starter, so I hit it a couple times with a wrench and we're golden! I'm driving back to work. Thankfully I have a lifetime warranty on this starter, I just have to find it first... but me being lazy as I post this I still haven't looked for it...

SO Yesterday I went to America's Tire Co. and found out one of the rims I got (I have two different styles on the front and back) is bent

AND THEN I got home and decided my oil needs changing, it was low and very dark. I changed it and found a mystery connection broken off in front of the distributor, it is shown in video.

STUPID ME also likes my car a little loud, so for awhile I unbolted my cat partially not thinking it would hurt anything but I think I may have.

AND THEN as I was driving home from class yesterday when I needed to merge on the freeway, so I floored it. My car felt great all the way up until it shifted, super early @ about 4300rpm!!! I got closer to home, put the trans into "PWR" mode and it shifted at the same point On non-pwr it usually shifts at about 5800-5900rpm, what the hell?

Anyway this morning it all came to a head and blew up in my face. I tried to start the car and move it so my grandma could head to work, and it would start, but then the second I applied throttle; DEAD. I slammed on the starter and still same result. I neutraled it down the driveway so she could get out and left it sitting at the end of the driveway idling. The rpm is like 500ish, and the motor is very loud and shaking extremely hard. I put it into gear and it finally went up my driveway

Video:

You Tube

You Tube

So here are my questions:

The mystery connection shown in the video, what the hell is it? What does it do?

Is there a chance I screwed up my exhaust by unbolting one side of my cat for a little while? Would it be clogged? Would the gasket be broken? How do I check?

Why would my tranny shift at such early points? Is it trying to avoid damage? My fluid needs replacing soon, but it's never done this before.

Since the motor is bucking I am assuming it is a fuel/ignition problem, but why would it die after hitting the throttle when at idle speed? The rpms are very low and the motor struggles to stay alive, could the problem be worse than I think?

I am attempting to stay positive about this entire situation, but I need blunt truths about what could be happening here. I am trying to avoid what happened to me about 2 months ago... I got very sick and a bit depressed because I didn't have the car for 3 weeks, since someone broke into my car and tried to steal it, and I owed $500 to the shop to fix it (I STILL owe it, just to my Dad) after ins. and everything.

Please help.

[JCamry94]

Originally Posted by hill8570

Don't see any video...

Had to convert it from .avi to .wmv, because it was gonna take 2 hours on youtube

It should be up within the hour, check back please

[JCamry94]

Video is up now.

[inuhbad]

Hmm... With the check engine light on, I'd be inclined to check the onboard diagnostic codes first to see what the problem might be.

Sarcasm aside, I'd guess your problems are actually a combination of things, and more information may be needed to narrow it down.

It could be a wide variety of things. I've seen an engine shuddering, and dying for many reasons - some are fuel related, some of them were related to such obscure things as a faulty transmission sensor that caused the shift speeds to screw up, which caused a muli-cylinder misfire, and made the engine shudder to a stop on the side of the freeway.

Could be any number of things, and I'm sure a more experienced person than myself could likely help you more...

[JCamry94]

Originally Posted by inuhbad

Hmm... With the check engine light on, I'd be inclined to check the onboard diagnostic codes first to see what the problem might be.

Sarcasm aside, I'd guess your problems are actually a combination of things, and more information may be needed to narrow it down.

It could be a wide variety of things. I've seen an engine shuddering, and dying for many reasons - some are fuel related, some of them were related to such obscure things as a faulty transmission sensor that caused the shift speeds to screw up, which caused a muli-cylinder misfire, and made the engine shudder to a stop on the side of the freeway.

Could be any number of things, and I'm sure a more experienced person than myself could likely help you more...

I totally forgot in my crazy amount of issues to mention that! That is a code for EGR, been delaying working on that for a long time now.

Also, my vcg leks a small amount of oil

I've never seen the motor shudder this much before. Ugh.

[fenixus]

i think it would be a good idea to re-connect that loose electrical connector you have over there. you need to find the socket its supposed to plug in to. any idea what that is on '94 camry?
since it's located around the TB that might be something like TPS or IAC that could heavily impact your idling speed and throttle position reading seen by computer.

[Eye8Pussies]

not sure what the plug is for since I don't deal much with the 5sfe at all, but a couple things that you have to do first- check your gaskets where your cat is- it sounds like you have an exhaust leak that is making enough sound to make it hard to diagnose any other problems

find out where the plug goes


and the stumbling (due to a low idel) sounds like your iac isn't working properly, or you may need to clean your maf/map sensor

also, you only revved up the motor....what happens when you keep the rpms up? does the engine still die?

[hill8570]

Green connector looks to be the Engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) sensor connector. That's certainly going to screw up your idle. Hell, it'll screw up everything. The sensor is just an inch or two towards the firewall from the upper radiator hose -- there are three things in a row there...starting from the left, the ECT (two wires on connector), the dashboard temp sensor (one white wire), and the charcoal canister purge valve (two vacuum hoses). Connect that connector back up, and you'll be amazed how much better she runs.

[fenixus]

by the way. computer probably already tells the DTC of missing sensor. all OP has to do is to scan it and retrieve list of new codes. it should tell black on white which disconnected/malfunctioning sensor caused JCamry94's ride to behave like that

[JCamry94]

Originally Posted by Eye8Pussies

not sure what the plug is for since I don't deal much with the 5sfe at all, but a couple things that you have to do first- check your gaskets where your cat is- it sounds like you have an exhaust leak that is making enough sound to make it hard to diagnose any other problems

find out where the plug goes


and the stumbling (due to a low idel) sounds like your iac isn't working properly, or you may need to clean your maf/map sensor

also, you only revved up the motor....what happens when you keep the rpms up? does the engine still die?

This morning the motor would just die if I hit the throttle at all. Eventually it gave way and let me put it into gear and drive back up the driveway. GOnna have to check the exhaust tomorrow! I have cleaned the IAC every oil change so it's probably that stupid d/c sensor giving me issues.

Originally Posted by fenixus

i think it would be a good idea to re-connect that loose electrical connector you have over there. you need to find the socket its supposed to plug in to. any idea what that is on '94 camry?
since it's located around the TB that might be something like TPS or IAC that could heavily impact your idling speed and throttle position reading seen by computer.

Originally Posted by fenixus

by the way. computer probably already tells the DTC of missing sensor. all OP has to do is to scan it and retrieve list of new codes. it should tell black on white which disconnected/malfunctioning sensor caused JCamry94's ride to behave like that

Could be, gonna see if I can put it back together! Thanks, will try to run the codes tomorrow!

Originally Posted by hill8570

Green connector looks to be the Engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) sensor connector. That's certainly going to screw up your idle. Hell, it'll screw up everything. The sensor is just an inch or two towards the firewall from the upper radiator hose -- there are three things in a row there...starting from the left, the ECT (two wires on connector), the dashboard temp sensor (one white wire), and the charcoal canister purge valve (two vacuum hoses). Connect that connector back up, and you'll be amazed how much better she runs.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I just have to rig something up to get it back together.

Check out pics to see damage done to connector:

-How would I get it back on there? thanks!

Here is a pic of the alleged ECT Sensor connector:








Here's one showing the broken section on the bottom:







Here's the housing where it broke off of:

[hill8570]

^
WTF? Your ECT is snapped off. Wow -- never saw that happen before. Just take it out of the hole with a metric socket (the measurement escapes me at the moment). New one can be put on with a deepwell socket (you'll get some coolant weeping out of that hole when you remove it, so surround it with rags or drain a bit of coolant before you take it out).

Might as well pull the rest of it out of the green socket -- press the tab on the side of the socket and wiggle the white part out.

[Eye8Pussies]

lol...it snapped off eh....yeah...like hill said....go to the dealership and pick up a new sensor and replace it