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.
Hello, I am trying to troubleshoot this issue, my car starts but shuts down after a while 20 minutes or so, the engine cranks but it does not restart, i have to wait sometime between 20 minutes or 2 hours...i am not sure what could be the problem, i have already changed the spakplugs wires, but its not that...any ideas where should i go next..thank you!
its a 1993, 4 cylinders, it has 140,000 miles on it..lol. no major repairs done recently on this car.
it has an intermittent problem, sometimes it starts sometimes it does not. and when it starts it could stop without any warning even if i am on the free way...
the cranking speed sounds fine,
it does not have a check engine light on.
It does not sputter while in idle mode,
thank you!
2 things come to mind on your generation when a car just dies when warm and takes some cooling off time to restart. First is the coil inside the distributor and the second is the fuel pump. My money is on the coil. You can check it for being out of range with a digital volt/ohmeter and the specs from any manual. If you don't have a manual you can download one for free over at the top of the Camry forum over at AutomotiveForums.com. Download the generation 3 manual. It will have the procedure for checking the coil. You can also remove coil from the distributor and check it for hairline cracks. That's another known problem with these coils as they rack up lot's of miles. 140,000 is a lot of miles.
thank you for your help, i have checked the fuel pump, and it seemed fine, i check the coil, there was a crack on it. i replaced the whole distributor, (50$ from a junk yard) It seem to do the job, i have started the car about 10 times now and so far no miss fire.
Thank you again, your help was really appreciated.
why? this car has been in the family for a long time, I never had major problems with it, its a very clean car, i would like to keep it for a long time.
I believe coils within a distributor that have cracks in them can easily arc to ground within the distributor, rendering them useless. I suspect heat opens that crack up a bit more to make it easier to arc out. Not sure if the crack originates only because of the material used in the coil, or if internally the windings start to fuse together, causing heat and lower secondary voltages. I guess it doesn't matter though, the fact that you saw a crack in that coil is sufficient to consider it bad, and your new distributor is doing what you want, so you are good to go.
I should probably go out and get a spare distributor assembly from a salvage yard for my 93 Celica 5S-FE - seems to be a good insurance policy.
"You can also remove coil from the distributor and check it for hairline cracks. That's another known problem with these coils as they rack up lot's of miles. 140,000 is a lot of miles."
Glad the problem was what I suspected and that it was simple to fix. I would keep that old distributor around since the one from the junk yard may be as old as your original one. You might even want to shop around for a cheap aftermarket coil and install it in that old distributor and keep it around as a spare.
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