Woah!! Glowing Red HOT pipe under hood?

[Neog2]

1994 Toyota Camry 4cly Automatic Sedan

For about a month now my car has been idling rougher than normal. Its been acting like
it wasn't getting enough gas or something of the sorts.

So I replaced my spark plugs, and wires, and just recently changed my battery.
One of my spark plugs was completely burned up, and just about all of the had carbon
deposits on them. (Think its carbon, or something.)

Anyways that didnt solve the problem the engine was still acting the same.
Ideling and even when driving. The engine would sputter even when I was reving
the engine up past 3 and while driving on the highway above 60mph.

So today a few minutes ago I went to pick up a friend and while I was waiting for him to
come out of the house I was waiting in my car and of course the car was sputtering acting
like it wanted to cut off. So I revved up the car a little bit because that would usually stop the sputtering for sometime. So the sputtering slowed and my friend came out of the house.

I was getting ready to drive off and the car is sputtering and barely moving engine wont rev over 3 when I put it in netural. So I stop and wait. (This has happen to me before)
When this has happened before I would just wait rev up the engine every now and then and wait for the car to start acting normal. (WHen its doing this it seems like the engine isnt running on all clyinders or something. It dosent even sound the same it sounds like a minature version of my 4cly and it wont rev past 3.)

So I happened to look out the reirview mirror and notice I dont see any smoke out behind the car and since its 20 degrees here I should be seeing the smoke. Then I notice the inside of the car is getting a little foggy.

I turn off the car and pop the hood and I see a Glowing RED HOT pipe that is covered by the heat shield on the engine.

The whole pipe wasnt Red just about 1foot and a half, directly at the bottom part of the heat shield and back towards the back end of the car.

Whats the deal?

Whats going on here?

At first I was thinking my feul injetors might be going bad so I was replacing other cheaper things hoping that it wasnt the feul injetors. But after replacing some things It was beginning to look like it might be them until today.

When I was in the car I thought out loud that the car seemed to be acting like it had asthma. Then after I saw the red hot pipe, and that there was no smoke coming from the exhaust pipe and little air coming out.

I am now thinking that the car just isnt getting enough air or something I dont know.

Thats why I posted this here to see what you guys/gals think about this, and what parts should I look into.

Any help would be greatly appriecated.

[500KCamry]

How about the catalytic convertor? Would it be plugged? What kind of motor and year?

[Neog2]

I know nothing has been done to the muffler or its parts in atleast 4 years.

[Your Uncle Moe]

I think hes talking about his header being hot, not the exhaust. But while your down there check the exhaust and make sure you didn't run over something and bend/crush the pipe and restrict air flow.

[500KCamry]

What year and motor? The muffler is at the tail pipe section. The catalytic convertor is just after the motor underneath. In the old days they used to just cut out the convertor when it was plugged, but you can't do that anymore, environmental rules.

On a 5sfe the catalytic convertor and flexible pipe is all one piece that connects the exaust manifold to the tailpipe system. It is faily easy to change yourself. The part costs $600/$700 CDN from Toyota, or less from an aftermarket.

Sounds like a plugged exhaust cause of the heat build up and the loss of power.

[Neog2]

Called my uncle he is a mechanic and has done more than a few things on a couple of my other cars and truck.

He is saying the same things you guys/gals or saying and he told me to go to a muffler shop and get them to check it to see what the deal is.

Thats cool, thanks for the help everyone.

[Ostornadoe]

You don't have to go to a muffler shop, you could check it yourself...

If you do it yourself, just wait a long time after it is driven to let the exhaust system cool down. Then go under the car and check all the piping to make sure it is not crushed or bent. Then take the catalytic converter off. Probably just 4 bolts on each end of it if it's like a corolla. It would save money and it's relatively simple.

[Neog2]

They said it wasnt that.
Now I went to a muffler shop but it wasnt a name brand shop.

The way he checked the catalytic converter converter didnt really make since to me
because all it consisted of was

1. Using a torch to burn a hole through the pipe infront of the catalytic converter
2. Plugging the hole with a hose that was attached to some type of hand held guage.
3. Starting the car and revving it up a couple of times

Now while I was at there shop I was kinda of thinking this seems stupid because it seemed like they were checking the air pressure, but they where doing it infront of the catalytic converter and not after it.

Then upon further thought it still seemed kind of dumb but it also made me think that the part of the pipe that was red dosent have a blockage since its infront of the catalytic converter and he plugged the hole with the machine infront of the catalytic converter.
But if they where supposed to be checking the catalytic converter shouldnt they have put the hole behind the catalytic converter and plugged it with the hose and machine then?

The guy that torched my pipe said I should check something else maybe the piston compression ratio's or something?

I dont know im gettting fed up with the daily driver though, but I have the 94 camry since it was new and really didnt have any problems until its 9th birthday, but since then I have poured tons of money into this car to keep it running. Plus it has great gas mileage and at 30 bucks a tank (Yes in the camry) around here it saves me a bunch of money.

What else could it be?

[Neog2]

Another problem not sure if its related, but im pretty sure it has to be since my car
never did this before this junk started.

When I try to start the car after I have just driven it sometimes it wont start.


I turn the key and absolutely nothing happens. No clicking sounds nothing.
The electrical stuff will come on a work. Lights, radio, wipers, windows.

Like I said in my first post I have Brand New Wires, Spark Plugs, and Battery.

Ny starter is about 1 year old, Altenator 1 year and a half.
Disturbutor cap and feul pump or both a year old.

If I let the car sit for like an hour it will start fine.

The strangest thing is the last time it did this I parked my car in my driveway and I have a slopped driveway.

I tried to start the car 4 times nothing, no sound of anything. I checked the electrical stuff everytime and they all worked normally.

Then I put my car in neutral and let the car go down the driveway backwards a little bit then stopped it with the brakes, put the car back in car and tried to start it.

The car tried to start with a little chug chug then turned off.

I immediately try to start the car again, and nothing 2 more times.

I then commeced to let the car roll all the way back down to the street, put it back into park
and tried to start it.

It chug chugged and i hit the gas pedal and it started.

I drove about 2 miles to my mothers house parked the car in her driveway turned off the car.
Went into the house and came back outside to try to start the car 5 minutes later and it wouldnt start, just got the chug chug. I tried again and nothing no sound no clicking, nothing.


Now I do know I have a bad flywheel. Its not real bad just a few of the notches or bad.
I know this because when I had my starter changed last year they told me this.
Now before I had my starter changed last year every now and then when the flywheel would be on one of those bad notches when I tried to start the car the starter wouldnt catch and it would make this high pitched noise, I would wait a second, then start the car. Car would run fine and start fine for the most part all the time except when the starter started going bad.
Then it was like every time I tried to start the car I would have to try 3 or 4 times until it caught.

I had my starter replaced and I would say every 15 or 20th time I tried to start the car it would do that, and i knew it would do this because of the flywheel. But about 98% of the time it will normally start on the next turn of the key.

And I tell you all this about the flywheel and the starter so you will know the only other symptom of my car, because I dont know if it could or could not be the cause of all of these new problems.

But I must say The starter and flywheel combo havent been causing me any extra problems everything had been acting normally (every 15th or 20th time) whenever it did it I would wait turn the key and it would start normally.

[CrawlingEye]

Try changing the fuel filter and running some injector cleaner. It really sounds like your car's running VERY lean, I'm surprised you're not getting a CEL.

If there's nothing blocking the exhaust, your cat's good and your o2 sensor's good, I'm going to guess it's the injectors or the fuel filter.

[Neog2]

When my car first started the sputtering I started putting Fuel Injector cleanor in it.
1 month and a half now the sputtering has been going on.

When I put the fuel injector cleaner in the car when I feel up the tank there really isnt all that much of a difference. Except when the tank is above half?

Everytime I have filled up the tank since the sputtering started I have put in feul injector cleaner. I drive alot so I will say I have filled up about 5 times since the sputtering has started.

1 tank atleast every week with a bottle of fuel injector cleaner and like I said only a difference when its above a half a tank.

Oh yeah where is the fuel filter located and how much do they usually run?

And could it be the fuel lines? and can those be changed cheaply.

Oh and whats a CEL?

[500KCamry]

I think you mean the ring gear the starter engages in is missing some teeth?

When you turn the key, do you mean the starter whines but the motor doesn't turn? Is this why you were rolling the car?

What does the temperature gauge read when the pipe is glowing?

[CrawlingEye]

Don't use premium, unless your car's a v6. You'll only clog your injectors further with carbon deposits.

Higher octane = less chance of spontaneous combustion under compression, meaning when you read in your manual and it says to use regular, it's saying that because it will alow your car to perform at its best.

Premium's good on v6's because of the fact that they'll prevent the car from knocking and pinging under load. 5SFE's do not have this issue.

Fill your tank, run some injector cleaner of choice and take it on the highway (while it's warmed up) and try it at WOT. I'd suggest changing the fuel filter first too. (maybe $20 if you have a shop do it, $10 if you do it yourself)

[CrawlingEye]

Originally Posted by 500KCamry

What does the temperature gauge read when the pipe is glowing?

That shouldn't be relevant. The temperature gauge is a coolant temperature gauge, not an engine temp. There's no coolant running through the exhaust manifold, the only way it would get red hot is from running lean.

[CrawlingEye]

Just so you know, the fuel filter is located underneath the air intake (you'll see it coming out of the throttle body, you can't miss it), you just unclip the intake and remove your air filter and you'll see the fuel filter underneath with 2 hardlines coming out with banjo fittings (there will be one line going into the bottom and one coming out of the top)