Well I've searched and read the stickies but still have an EGR related question - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

M4Carbine · 03-15-2011, 12:42 PM

Well as you can tell i am a new member here. To be quite honest, I'm a Mazda man (2002 Protege5)

but I also own a 1999 Camry 2.2L, which has been a fantastic car. I've owned it about 9 years and its been dead reliable until now.

So, a little backstory. I have been having a stalling problem with it. Well, actually my wife has. She says it will stall when coming to a stop or going from one. The CE light never came on either so no codes to go off of. Now before I became a member here I read thread on others with the same problem and have since done these things:

-Replaced both O2 sensors
-Replaced the coolant temp sensor
-Checked the IAC sensor, which tested fine
-Replaced the spark plugs
-Replaced the battery

I also took it to a mechanic who looked at it and couldnt find anything wrong. Now I'm trying to eliminate the EGR being the problem. I found a thread about how to test and bypass it, but I think it was on a 6, not a 4. So I took off the vacuum hose to the EGR and put a plug in it, I also put a cap on the port it was plugged into. I noticed it seemed to idle at a stop in drive and little smoother and it idles a little higher in park than before. The CE light came on too of course. So my question is, if it does not stall on her in this condition, does it mean I need to replace the EGR? I read the sticky on how to clean it but I know her, she would prefer me to just buy a new one. Thanks for your advise and for a very helpful site.

Mike

bigbird · 03-15-2011, 04:14 PM

the valve may be bad (stuck), if it is then its dumping too much spent exhuast back into the engine, which can cause it to stall.

M4Carbine · 03-15-2011, 05:37 PM

Well I'm hoping thats what it is. Its getting old as this has been going on for a couple months. Whats really strange is that it never stalls on me. I drove it for a month to see if there were any other signs before or after it stalled but it never happened. Then I give it to my wife and it stalles the first day.

bigbird · 03-15-2011, 08:24 PM

perhaps she is stopping quicker then you? that was the issue i had. if i stopped too quick the revs couldnt recover fast enough to even out the AFR...and thus stall.

M4Carbine · 03-15-2011, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigbird

perhaps she is stopping quicker then you? that was the issue i had. if i stopped too quick the revs couldnt recover fast enough to even out the AFR...and thus stall.

Very very possible. She drives like......well, a girl. I've been meaning to ride with her o see what's going on because it literally only stalls with her. It's done it about 8 times and I would drive it for a week to a month after Tue stall and it would never do it for me. Then the day I give it back to her it stalls. What could case an issue like that? I would think no matter how fast or slow you stop the engine shouldn't die.

ghettosled · 03-16-2011, 11:34 AM

have you tried just cleaning the IAC valve? the sensor might check fine, but the valve could be gunky and sticking. hey, this seems to have the same symptoms as you describe and you can do a quick cleaning very easily to see if it helps.

M4Carbine · 03-16-2011, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghettosled

have you tried just cleaning the IAC valve? the sensor might check fine, but the valve could be gunky and sticking. hey, this seems to have the same symptoms as you describe and you can do a quick cleaning very easily to see if it helps.

Actually, no I haven't. Do you just use some carb cleaner and spray it off or does it need to soak in some sort of carbon killer?

ghettosled · 03-17-2011, 11:59 AM

sensor safe carb cleaner will work. they even make a throttlebody cleaner as well. just take off the intake hose and spray some in. especially in the port on the bottom of the throttlebody before the butterfly valve.

M4Carbine · 03-17-2011, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghettosled

sensor safe carb cleaner will work. they even make a throttlebody cleaner as well. just take off the intake hose and spray some in. especially in the port on the bottom of the throttlebody before the butterfly valve.

Will do, much appreciated. Well, its been two days of her driving it and no problems so far. I'll give it a few more days and if it still hasn't stalled, I'll put in a new EGR.

tchiman27 · 03-24-2011, 09:22 PM

My mom has a 2000 Camry w/ ~90K miles that also stalls when she comes to a stop. She has no issues at all starting the car, but sometimes it stalls when she stops (either when the car has or has not warmed up). I'm going to try Seafoaming the intake and the vacuum line at the brake master cylinder. I thought it might be the EGR valve, but I was under the impression that a stuck open EGR valve only causes warm stalls.

M4Carbine · 03-28-2011, 03:19 PM

Just to keep this thread updated, I had no stalls while the EGR was unplugged. I left it off for about 8 or 9 days. I just plugged it back in and still no stalls in the 2 days its been plugged in but I'm hoping to have something happen in the next day or two before I go and replace the EGR.

fgarrido408 · 03-28-2011, 07:36 PM

i had a similar problem with mine.
i did everything imaginable to try and fix it myself.
i had no CE light or anything
the first mechanic i took it too said it had to do with something needing tightening in the distributor cap or with it? not sure, but all in all when he removed the distributor cap to tighten it all the wires inside were round up and basically to shit, so i replaced everything there and never had the problem since.

tchiman27 · 03-28-2011, 09:25 PM

I finally seafoamed my car, but it doesn't stall often enough for me to know yet whether or not that fixed it.

Just a thought, but a lot of people have had issues with the EGR VSV (causing CEL) rather than the EGR valve itself. So I was wondering whether a bad VSV could also be causing the EGR valve to open up when it's not supposed to.

tchiman27 · 04-07-2011, 07:05 PM

Well, seafoaming (both the throttle body/IAC valve and through the brake line) didn't help. The car stalled again about a week after the seafoaming. I suspect the EGR VSV or EGR valve, and I plan on pulling the vacuum line to the EGR valve and driving around a few days to test it. Is it OK to run the car long term with the EGR vacuum line pulled off? (FYI, the ECT was changed a while back on this car that fixed a rough idling issue)