Engine dies, NO Check Engine light!!!

[Doug S]

Hi,

I did it this time.....and I'm not normally a putz!!!!

1994 Camry V6, threw a code, I reset the light and noticed an intermittant miss at higher speeds. Decided to check the throttle body and I bought plugs since it was almost time. The throttle body was filthy, so I'm cleaning it and I had my neighbor crank the engine once to make sure the cyclinders didn't load up with fluid-As I started on the plugs I asked him if the ignition was off. Well, I'm installing the last plug when I hear a solenoid start clicking over by the battery or atleast on the driver side...sure enough he had left the ignition on and I was busy plugging and unplugging the coils and Map.

So, now the car starts and runs like a champ, 60-70mph no trouble, smooth idle...until it just dies. It will die idling, or driving and when it does and you try to restart, the check engine light does not light up, all the other lights work and it cranks. Cycle the key a bunch of times or wait awhile, or unplug the efi solenoid or ignition trigger and the light will come back on and the car will start and run fine...for few minutes. Sometimes when you turn the ignition on after it has died the check engine light comes on a second or two later-noticabley slow....

I've searched and googled and have not turned up much in this reguard, it's not the efi solenoid as I tried one out of my truck...

HELP..I'm guessing!!!

Doug

[toovira]

Did you remove TPS when cleaning throttle body? If you didn't, I would check the resistance against the factory spec. Did you also clean the IAC solenoid?

What was/is the code that the car keeps giving?

Check the resistance of the ignition coils. I don't know how to check the MAP.

Have you checked continuity of the ignition switch?

Have you crank the engine and put a spark tester on each plug to make sure you have spark on all cylinder and the spark is strong?

Then other than that, it's the basic. Air + Fuel + Spark + Compression. Check compression, check fuel pressure, test for spark as described, and make sure engine can get air.

[Doug S]

I don't know the code, I was told it was OBD1 so I just cleared it, it did have a slight miss at high speed but since I cleaned it and replaced the plugs that is gone..except it dies..

It's something electrical, last night we ran it until it died (no light) and I heard a faint clicking near the fuel rails or TB. I then started to unplug things one at a time to see if the check engine light (MIL) came back on-(I turned the ignition off each time..LOL). I got the light back on and it threw a code so I reset the ecu again and I could not get it to fail again. I drove it about 30 minutes and 20 miles as well as letting it idle 10 minutes...

I can't beleive that I fixed anything by doing this but it seems to be working so I'm taking it to work today...hello AAA....

Doug

[toovira]

OBD1 doesn't mean there's no troubleshooting:

http://www.troublecodes.net/Toyota/

I have OBD1 and it indicates the problem. You just need to jump the TE1 and E1 pins, then counts to see what code you get. The connector is underside of the dash panel above the brake pedal. It does not necessarily will truly indicate your problem nor will it tell everything. If you find nothing, do the basic things like I mentioned - inspect for spark, fuel, check air passage....inspect plug wires, connectors, etc.

Don't be in such a hurry to reset the code. At this point, we have established that it's a matter of time your engine will have some kind of problems. Read the code off the car, then I'd start check for spark....buy the spark gap tester ( a few bucks) and run through each cylinder.

[bigbird]

first, it sounds like it shorted something out. you leave the ignition on while screwing with the ignition and you may have jumped to the chassis when ya didnt know it. Second, your 94 is an obdII. Third, like he said, ya need to check that code. The code will tell you what is at fualt or at least give ya a hint. How are you going to fix it without kinowing what the car is finding a fualt with?

Sounds like your getting it fixed and if ya do let us know what happened. It would be good to know in case someone does the same thing.

[Doug S]

Hard to explain but the original code was a secondary issue, the fact that the engine died and the Check engine light would not light when the ignition was turned on was the real problem..

I unplugged all the sensors under the hood, one at a time and switched the igniton on each time-(no start). This caused the check engine light to stay on and with multiple codes. I made sure everything was reconnected and ran the car. I then disconected the battery and reset the ecu and that was it, 150 miles later it's still OK. I also managed to fix the original issue of a slight high speed miss by cleaning the intake and replacing the plugs.

I think I scrambled the EPROM, BIOS, or whatever the ECU uses to store it's program, getting it to throw multiple codes and then clearing it somehow reset the board. Whatever it was it took a ton of luck to survive this bonehead move in leaving the ignition on...

I need to complete a couple drive cycles, check the monitors and take it for a couple hour ride befor I will be confident that it is OK.

Thanks for your replys
Doug

[toovira]

Not really hard to understand, if you did that, then I would expect "false code". My point was that read the first CEL that came on....reset it....then if it comes on again with everything properly connected, then you know you got a problem. Typically, ECU is really hard to break.