94 camry dies at idle p0300 and p1300 related

[teddyastuffed]

hey guys, sorry for my ignorance but i am not a car wiz at all. BUT i am totally willing to learn and very poor, so ya. but anyways, my car has been having this issue where it'll die at idle or even sometimes when driving in all conditions; freeway, residential, streets, etc.

main symptoms:

1. the car will sputter once or twice and then die. before i used to be able to hard press the gas and it would correct itself and drive really rough. lately it'll die before i get a chance to do anything.
2. this happens usually when im in drive at idle (ie: stop light, drive thru, etc.), but its been known to do it while cruising to a stop or even when accelerating for the freeway.
3. when the car is not having issues, it runs amazing, everything working very well, doesnt sound rough or nothing.
4. when car has issues, it feels like some cylinders are not shooting off as if the system was hesitating and the rpms drop, and the car has known to correct itself if i get past a certain point.
5. i added chevron fuel injector cleaner w/ techron additive to gas and the car ran great for about 2 1/2 days, then same problems started but became even more frequent as in i could barely get a mile down the street before car died.
6. added toyota emi? cleaner (the fuel cleaner in a little black bottle) earlier today after i couldnt get down the street and now the car runs well 4+ miles (i plan on driving a good 30+ miles later today, so i hope it stays up). also since i added the toyota cleaner, after turning the car on 3 times the CEL has gone away.

i have no idea where to really start, but i checked the trouble codes before the techron additive and i had p1300 (ignition bank #1) and p0300 (random misfire). the only things i have changed recently are the fuel filter, the air filter, and thats about it. the car is 94 camry v6 with 241K miles on it. someone told me it has something to do with my air intake boot (which i had a mechanic tape up at one point cuz it was ripped due to broken motor mount, but 2+ mechanics said that it PROBABLY is not the real issue)/butterfly but then the fuel cleaner addition doesnt make any sense for that. maybe this might have something to do with the coils as advised by someone else, but then again i still dont understand y the fuel cleaner would make a difference.. in other words.. thoroughly confused. and please, assume i dont know much about cars so more details = more helpful ) thanks everyone in advance for any advice u can send over.

ps: this car was working fine 4 months ago. i had stopped using it for about 4 months where i had just left the car in my parking spot for the entire time. then now when i tried using it its been having all these problems (all within the past week). thanks!!! sorry if this was too lengthy ;o

[Mister_Perkins]

[96paseo]

At that mileage, the coil may be original and should be tested and the boot inspected. Check for any carbon tracking in the spark plug tube and near the coil. Remove the plug from the offending cylinder and examine. A dry, black soot coating on the plug will indicate poor spark condition.

[Mike Gerber]

^ I agree with 96paseo on checking the coil inside the distributor, since you received a P0300 code. That code is a random missfire code, meaning any or all of the cylinders are missfiring. Add that to the fact that these coils are a common trouble area for these cars as they rack up lot's of miles on them. That would be the first thing I would test. To test the coil you will need a digital volt/ohmeter and the specs from any manual. If you don't have a manaul you can download a Toyota factory service manual for free at the top of the Camry forum over at AutomotiveForums.com. Here's the link:

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=497839

Mike

[teddyastuffed]

hey thanks u guys for the quick responses. i ended up going to check the coils and it looks like the second coil (the one in the middle - i have 3 of them) had a bad connection with the wiring cuz when i pulled off the electricity connection, the insides of the connector were stuck to the coil. then when i went to take the insides off of the coil, it kinda broke apart in my hand!!! i hope that is the only issue causing all of this (it seems to make sense) and that it hasnt done any damage to anything else, but i pulled the resistance of all 3 coils and they all came out good, exactly in the parameters they should be in. also the spark plugs all look like theyre in good condition. im going to a junk yard on wednesday to look for that connector and some other things (the shielding for the wiring right next to the coils was almost completely melted... i think it has something to do with when my radiator had a hole in it and i was experiencing bad overheating), so ill repost when i set it all up. thanks again

[fenixus]

you may also have a fuel delivery problem like dirty fuel filter since your car reacted well (at least temporarily until debris got moved around maybe) to adding chevron to the gas tank. I suggest you replace the fuel filter (get new OEM from dealer for best results) and air filter (any will do even cheap paper FRAM is OK) and reset the ECU by pulling the battery negative wire for 1 minute.

also maybe time for a seafoam treatment?
just $6.99 in autozone or advance auto
http://www.ruralking.com/sea-foam-mo...33393830303036

[teddyastuffed]

u think i should change fuel filter and air filter again?! or did u not see that i said those two -_- i changed the fuel filter maybe 2-3k miles back and air filter maybe 500-1k back. i havent done a seafoam treatment tho.. i didnt even know about that stuff. but i was thinking that same thing about the poor fuel delivery. honestly when i used the techron cleaner, i thought that was the only issue!! since it had temporarily fixed the issue that is. but do u think its okay to use this seafoam stuff right away? i have about half a tank left in my car that is in essence filled with both a bottle of techron and a bottle of efi toyota cleaner, which im thinking is already probably not so good for my car, although i did put one in w/ a quarter tank less of gas. maybe i should wait till next fill up?

[fenixus]

you might had lots of crap in tank or fuel delivery system which got moved around after you started using fuel system cleaners (techron), so it's possible those particles are already clogging your new fuel filter - it might have gotten overwhelmed with the amount of it. just saying.

air filter is fine, no need to touch it if it's been changed 1k miles ago only.

don't add sea foam to whatever you have in the tank now. drive it down until Low Fuel warning light comes up and refill with some good fuel from top tier gas station. Chevron is probably safe to be mixed with sea foam, but I am unsure with the EFI cleaner... don't mix too many kinds of additives, just to be on the safe side, you never know what comes out of such mixtures ...

[teddyastuffed]

okay, so my coil connector idea didnt work. replaced it and still the same problem. so i went about trying to change the fuel filter and for the life of me could not get the top nut to come off (damn mechanic that i let do it before tightened that thing to all hell and for whatever reason decided he didnt need to use the washers... the strength of all greek gods cannot unscrew that thing!!!!!) im kind of at a loss of wat to do too cuz this car doesnt make it down the street 1/4th of a mile before dying. and i was kind of skeptical about the fuel filter i had purchased because it came with no mounting bracket attached to it (is that normal? do i need to buy the bracket separately??). also i noticed this last time that i turned the car on to see if it died on me that when the car begins to sputter, a black smoke comes out of the exhaust, then the car will die..

[BamZipPow]

Black smoke usually means yer not burning the fuel.

Pull the plugs, take piccies of the business end, and post them up fer us to see the condition.

[Jason.MZW20]

Your 1994 1MZ actually has 6 coils. Sounds like your igniter went bad. These electric igniters are actually quite complex as they control ignition dwell time. The igniter has IGT 1-6 (firing signal) and IGC 1-6 (confirmation signal). The ECU sends the firing signal to the igniter, while the igniter sends the confirmation signal back to the ECU via the IGF line.

P1300's fail-safe function in the ECU is to initiate MAXIMUM timing retardation, which can cause stalling and/or very poor performance.

Find a similar igniter at the junkyard and see if it helps (buying one new is very expensive). If not, you definitely have a wiring issue.

[teddyastuffed]

haah ur right about 6 coils (i didnt see the ones in the back, i assumed there SHOULD be 3 more, but i couldnt find them till today). i dunno how to get access to testing those ones tho, and i remember about a year ago i had a mechanic change those back spark plugs (charged me an arm n a leg too.. i wish i knew about this forum before that -_-). BUT on the note of the igniter, i bought one from ebay used for about $25 bucks that should get here some time in the middle of the week. ill post back once i get it. i never ended up changing the fuel filter because i need to get an OEM that has the firewall bracket welded to it as the ones i see at autozone and pep boys dont have that.. but toyota dealer wanted $55 for it :/ i dunno that seems really steep for a fuel filter. anyways, thanks for everyones advice tho!

[fenixus]

PM toyopartsman about the fuel filter. he offers 30% discount off MSRP over the counter and reasonable s/h for small items. other than that you may try online dealers like toyotapartsoutlet.com or 1sttoyotaparts.com or toyotapartszone.com or others ...

[teddyastuffed]

thx fenixus, ill look into those..

BUT I HAVE GREAT NEWS!! TY TY TY Jason.MZW20, i changed the igniter with the used one from ebay and my car runs SOLID! drove 50+ miles with no problems all within hours of changing the igniter. thanks again for all ur help. i couldnt have fixed this car without all of ur help. and coming from someone that doesnt know ANYTHING about cars, i saved myself a lot of diagnostic and repair money by doing it myself. thanks again everyone!!