Engine problems w/ i4 Help!

[seraslibre]

I am having an intermitent problem with my 99 i4 camry. Ocassionaly, when starting the car, it idles below normal speed ( about 300-400 rpm) and sometimes shuts down. After taking it onto the road, it seems bogged down for the first 5-10 minutes, then clears up, and will idle fine when standing still. At other times, the car will start up fine, and will run great, until I'm cruising down the road (at any speed) and the engine will start to intermitently lose power. I notice the tach moderately move up and down about 25 rpm from wherever it should be (e.g. driving at 2000 rpms ...oscilates between 1925 and 2025 rpm) Most of the time however, the car runs fine, although I do feel that it is not as powerfull as it was before. The check engine light will come on only when the latter condition occurs, not when the rough idle is present. After the bogging disapears however, the light turns off. I suppose this could be an oxygen sensor, but am not familiar with the symptoms of a bad sensor. The fuel filter and spark pluges were changed 15000 miles ago, and the car is an automatic with 90k mi. I know I can probably go to a shop and pay a couple hundred bucks to get a reading from the OBD, but would like to hear input from anyone that is familiar with or is aware of something that would cause this. Thank you in advance for your help.

[Nick]

pull the code, one of your sensors is on the fritz

[Meisner]

Your best bet is to go to AutoZone and ask them to read the codes for you for free. The computer has a trouble code stored in its memory and that is the best hint right now as to what's happening.

So far what you're describing could be a bad O2 sensor (although that's not used until closed-loop mode), a coolant temp sensor, idle air control valve, throttle position sensor...it could be a bunch of things.

Even though the car isn't very old in years, it does have 90K miles on it. Things will start to go.

Steve

[xavior66]

I dunno if this'll help you any, but I was having very similar problems with my gen. 2 Camry.

This all happened though before I really started getting into cars, and was more or less just using the Camry to get me from point A to point B. However, after my dad changed out the distributor, spark plugs, air filter, and fuel filter, the problem stopped soon after. Maybe it's simply cuz my car was older and was just in need of regular maintenance.

It really depends on a number of things, like how the car was driven, how it was maintained, etc., etc., but I hope you find this useful.