Ok not to get off on a rant or anything... I will premise everything with the following so any reader can see my state of mind...
A pipe broke a few floors above my condo this morning and now everything is soaked, the building I live in (The Bridgewater, Miami) is, i am finding out now, also infested with cockroaches and no one can seem to get rid of them. New owner of my unit, as of yesterday, lives in South America and will most likely refuse to help repair anything, that is even if he is able to be reached. All of this transpired today...
Now on to the car issue...
Backstory: I have a 1998 4 cylinder camry with about 180k miles on it. For awhile (about a year) the CEL has been on and i thought nothing of it as the indicator was for camshaft position sensor. A few weeks ago i noticed my car started to hesitate, almost as if it was missing a cylinder on acceleration and then eventually at idle. I took the car to get the CEL checked and it was the same issue that it has always been... Camshaft position sensor....
So I get a new one from Autozone, $35ish. Go to put it in myself and realize how much fun i was in for with that particular engine. The old camshaft sensor was missing its bottom mounting bolt and i was able to just pull it off by hand. When i went to put the new one in i realized it was missing this bolt entirely. I thought to myself: Great! I find out shortly after that I am able to drive the car without any camshaft position sensor, which I found extremely odd as it didnt cause any additional problems. I end up taking the camry to my trusty neighborhood mechanic and paid him like $50 to install the new one as I didnt want to try to find the right bolt or spend hours trying to fit it in correctly (Hayes manual has a terrible explanation of how to put it back on correctly). Pick the car up, no more CEL on, AWESOME! Only now the hesitation and missing problem is slightly more pronounced... I think to myself, hum, what else could it be? I have recently replaced all plugs, plug wires, water pump, belts including timing and master brake cylinder with 2 rotors, calipers, pads and battery in the past 20k miles (I know none of the last few could be the issue but i just want to put it out there). After doing a little research I find that it could possible be the fuel filter even though they are built to last the lifetime of the car. SOOOOO, I get a fuel filter from autozone and go to put it on myself, only to find that since my car spent about 10 years in northern Ohio, the rock salt corroded the joining bolt of the fuel line to the bottom of the fuel filter. It has been literally impossible to remove without piercing/creasing/breaking the fuel line. SOOO I go to find out how much a new fuel line will be and it is not carried by any auto store around me and most likely not pre-bent.
So there I was yesterday evening with a fuel filter that wouldnt let go of the fuel line. I soak the bottom joining in WD40 over night on the off chance it will penetrate enough to release with two crescent wrenches. This morning: No luck. It is so corroded on that head of the hollow bolt so much that it crumbled as I tried to separate it. I think to myself, hum, how can today get any worse? Enter condo flooding and roaches...
SO I then decide after all those debacles that I might as well put the old one back together so I can drive it for the next couple of days until I can get a new fuel line. In deciding as such I clean the throttle body with a toothbrush and Seafoam as I know a dirty throttle body can also be the culprit. I then put everything back together and actually get done with one hour to spare before I need to take my girlfriend out for her birthday dinner. Prior to leaving, I top off the power steering fluid and partially fill the empty radiator reservoir with water (I know it should be 50/50 but who is counting, right?) as I have been meaning to do so for some time. TO MY AMAZEMENT, the car actually almost runs fine with the exception of one or two barely noticeable slight hesitations upon flooring the gas. I'm thinking I am the best thing since sliced bread as the day is turning around for the better... Enter after movie with girlfriend: I start to drive home and now the problem is back where it was with hesitation and almost as if it was missing a cylinder or two and getting drastically worse.... 3 miles down the road the car is heavily sputtering and to the point of almost stalling.
I think great, if I can just get it home I can drop it off tomorrow and hopefully get it fixed. Enter girlfriend that wants "birthday ice cream" at 9:30pm on a Sunday night: I decide to walk on the wild-side and stop to get ice cream. Car is now smelling heavily like a smokey burning smell and sulfur. We leave to go home, 2 miles away and now the fateful CEL light is intermittently flashing, the car is almost stalling at all points and I have Miami drivers letting me know how much faster I should be going...
All narratives aside... anyone have any idea? globs in the throttle body? blockage in the fuel line? something to do with the camshaft position sensor?
I am seriously lost on this one!
I hopefully will have more info tomorrow when I speak to the mechanic, can there be anything I am overlooking? Anyone wanna take some bad luck from me?!
, seriously though, could it be a failing ignitor?........and I agree with the ignition coil idea, I consulted my manual for the 4 cylinder engine and cylinders 1 and 4 are fed from one ignition coil and cylinders 2 and 3 are fed from the other. If it seemed to miss on 1 cylinder and got worse, possibly missing on 2 cylinders then it may have a dying coil. Check for 9.7 to 16.7 k-ohms on the secondary (plug wire) side of each coil. 
, 430,000 km's.
, 156,000 km's
, 140,000 km's
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