92 Camry Intermittent No Start

[wllewis]

I'll start with the basics. The car is a 1992 Camry, 2.2 L 5S-FE engine, automatic tranny. The car has about 215k miles. A couple of days ago I couldn't get it to start, it would crank over nicely, but no start. I left the car over night in the parking lot and came back the next day to being troubleshooting. Before doing anything though, I tried to start it again and it look off on the first try. I didn't (purposely) do anything, it just started right up. With that I packed up my tools and headed home, the car ran fine the whole way home, no issues. I was able to start it normally about five more times and then last night got stuck again. Same scenario, it would crank just fine, but wouldn't start. I tried to start it a couple of times, but no start. I then put the shifter in neutral and it started right up. My wife thought I was brilliant and we headed home. I let her know it was a fluck, but I'll take it.

We were able to start the car 3 times without issue and then this afternoon it did it again; it would crank but not turn over. (My wife and kids had the car at the time so I appropriately looked like a heal. The road from hero to zero is very short.) So she put it in neutral, but couldn't get it to start. I told her to go back and forth between park and neutral 10 times or so and then try again. Still it wouldn't start in either park or neutral, it would only crank. I then headed over to pick them up. I tried to start it, but wasn't successful. I stroked the shifter the full length, from "P" to "L" and then back to "P". I tried to start it again and it took off. Hooray, I'm a hero again.

At this point, I need some help. I'm not really sure what to check. I was prepared to go through all of the troubleshooting on the ignition and the distributor with my voltmeter the first go around, but haven't had it available the other times I've had the no start condition. Since it seems like there is an interaction with the shifter, that makes me think it might be something with the neutral safety switch so I'm planning to clean that tonight. However, would the neutral safety switch even allow the car to crank? Most of the information I've found on this site related to the NSS are when cars won't start and won't turn over. I'm planning to be gone for the next couple of days with our other vehicle, so any assistance is appreciated.

[Mike Gerber]

Have you checked to see whther you are getting spark and/or fuel during the time when it will not start? I would start trouble shooting there.

What was the temperature of the engine each time it wouldn't start? Was the engine hot or cold? If hot, I would suspect ther coil inside the distributor is possibly out of spec or has a crack in it. To check for it being in spec you will need a digital volt/ohmeter and the specs from any manual. To check for a crack, remlove it form the distributor and inspect it visually. Weak coil have a tendancy to fail when they heat up.

Mike

[wllewis]

Thanks for the reply.

I haven't been able to check spark or fuel because both times the car wouldn't start, I was without my tools. I'm planning to run through the distributor diagnostic that Mister_Perkins wrote up and check the intensity of the spark tonight. If the resistances are high, I'll likely replace since it is intermittent. The temperature of the vehicle was warm, it had been driven for ~15 min. and then sat for roughly an hour each time before the no start episodes. Twice it happened in the evening with temperatures in the 60 F, once in the afternoon.

I'm not sure how I'd check fuel unless I can repeat the no start condition. Any suggestions? We've only had the car for like two years so I haven't dug into this car much yet. This is my first experience getting deeply acquainted with it.

Even though I didn't think it was related I took apart the NSS. It must have been replaced or cleaned recently as the thing looked nearly flawless. I feel comfortable crossing that one off the list.

[wllewis]

Just got done checking the resistance across the distributor. I got the following actual results compared to the recommended ranges found in the diagnostic write-up:

Resistance
Cold (ohm)
Actual
G1 and G
185 - 275
233
NE+ and NE-
370 - 350
476


I did it with the distributor still in place, looks like I'll be removing it and replacing it. I haven't replaced a distributor before, any advice on making sure the timing doesn't get out of whack? Does anyone have instructions on how to put it to TDC as recommended by Mister_Perkins?

[wllewis]

As posted previously, the distributor resistances measured:
G1 - G : 233 ohms
NE+ - NE- : 476 ohms

I also checked the ignition module and got a high primary resistance reading:
Primary : 1.6 ohms
Secondary : 12.9 ohms

Are the two high resistance measurements related? Should I be replacing the distributor or the ignition module or both?

Anything else to try while I'm at it?

[wllewis]

I ended up replacing both the distributor and the coil. It came as one unit so I thought I would just absorb the cost and get the distributor too. I checked the resistance on the new distributor though and it was very similar to my old one, ~230/417 ohms on G1-G/NE+ - NE- respectively. The primary resistance on the coil was roughly 0.6 ohms.

It started up without issue, but it will take a day or two to find out if it really fixed anything given that it is (or was) an intermittent problem.