It died please help me

[Bubonic]

My car is a 1992 Camry LE 2.2 i believe its the 5sfe the better of the two 2.2 liter engines and its an Auto... The car has about 175k miles on it.

I am not all to sure what happened and was wondering if some of you might be able to help me . I was driving and I noticed a slight lifter tick (I think) between 2,000rpm to about 4,000rpm and between 5,000 to 6,000 rpm there was no accell.... Well I was driving it on the freeway home because I was worried about it and then at about 2,700 rpm where it was at because I was going 75 or so it was like kinda jerking like it was misfiring so I took my foot off the gas and put it back on to make sure it wasent the tranny. and it was kinda doing it still then the lifter tick or whatever it was got really loud scared me to i took my foot off the gas and put it into Neutrual. I have an Auto. And it then died and wont start agian. All I hear is a click one click when i try to start it... I am not sure what happened and any help would be great.

I checked the oil and it was about the L mark. There is enough oil in there I dont think thats the problem... but then agian I dont know..

Thanks for your time.

[crazycamrywagon]

sounds like a dead battery to me if it doesnt turn over the battery may be dead giving that it clicks when you try to turn it over and now fo rthe noise you heard maybe alternator givin why ur car died just a thought worth a try

[BlackCamSe]

Sounds like a broken valve spring, or something with the valves. And when you say it clicked do you mean wile the starter is turning the crank?, or the starter doesnt turn and just clicks?

[Cyorke]

It sounds like you are explaining two different problems. IF the starter jsut clicks when you try to start i that is normally an indication of bad starter contacts. It can also be a dead battery but most likely bad contacts.

If it is a dead battery and the alternator is also bad then that could explain the missing. When the alternator goes out the car has to run off of the battery only. when the battery goes dead the car doesnt ahve enough electrical power to run and will start missing until the abtter is completely dead.

You could also have valvetrain problems like someone else mentioned since you are hearing the noises.

[Bubonic]

It died on me while on the freeway... The auto shop said the engine is dead and yeah.. Kinda vague on the details though... He said it was the lower end that gave out.

I did try to jump it and it didnt work. No it didnt turn over just a one click. The starter was replaced not more than a few months ago.



So if it is the valves the engine is dead like the shop said? So the ticking could have been the valves? Cuz it got real loud when it died. I would like to fix it the car always ran great, and this seems so random.

A week ago I took the car in to get the cv joint fixed. The engine check oil light had been on for a few weeks even thought even though I had just changed the oil and i checked the level everyday. But the light was no longer on when I got the cv joint fixed and it even ran a little better or so it seemed. That was 2 weeks ago it was fixed , Now its dead so i dunno...

Thanks everyone who replied.

[skyliner650]

possibly your pistons kissed the valves.....
worse comes to worse u would need head work......
if its the head then i think its time to let go of the car...
but if i were to paya shop to fix my engine head i wouldnt pay more then 1000 usd

[BlackCamSe]

IF your oil light was on that doesnt mean u dont have enoph oil. It means that there isnt enoph oil presure. Sounds like you seazed your engine

[tojo mojo]

Ok we have a seized engine: quite unfortunate

We were driving the vehicle with the engine oil light on: not advisable.

I think the finger of suspicion is pointing towards the oil pump and the oil pressure resulting in eventual bearing failure in the bottom end. Ensuring sufficient oil in the sump is not a sufficient check to overide a engine oil pressure warning light.

a failure of this type is very un-camry like

[Cyorke]

well if the shop is saying the bottom end is shot then that would explain the clicking when you try to start the car. IT is the starter engaging and the piston rods are siezed onteh crank shaft and cant turn. When that happens the strater will click, more like a knock really, because it cant turn the engine over.
IF it really is the bottom end then you are looking at replacing the entire engine or having a major engine rebuild done if it has not been damaged past the point of repair.
You should prbably start looking around for a replacement engine with farily low miles on it. Should be able to find a pretty good deal on one online maybe eBay or you local junk yards. THere are tons of places that sell used engines. With as many Cmarys as there are on the road with that engine in them you should be able to find one fairly easy.

[hooRAH]

Considering you posted this yesterday and you already posted that the car is at the shop, this advice will do you little good, but it might help someone else searching on the forum.

Based on the symptoms you gave, I might guess that the alternator has given out. Like someone else said, if the car is running off the battery, it will eventually run out, start misfiring, and then just die. It won't restart. A few quick confirmations of this problem are that the lights won't work, jumpstarting works, etc. Given that you heard ticking with increasing volume before ultimate failure, Im guessing this is not your problem.

More likely is the scenario that the engine suffered oil starvation due to low oil pressure and has siezed. To test for this, you can put a breaker bar on the crank pulley nut and try to rotate the engine.

Because you heard ticking, and jumpstarting didn't work, and you had a sporadic low oil pressure light days before, I would almost put money down that you starved the engine of oil. However, since the car is already at a shop, I guess it doesn't matter what I think. I wouldn't rebuild the engine, its not worth it. Go enjoy your new car.