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I have a 96 Camry LE 4cyl that won't ilde reliably. On one start, it runs great, idling around 900rpm Another, it ildes a little low, around 400-600 by the Tach, and on other occasions it won't idle at all. This morning and on a few other occasions I have started the car to have it die immeidately after firing up. We got the car from my Grandma who passed away recently, and we don't know how well she maintained it, although we took it into a friends shop and he said that other than the tires, plugs, and timing belt everything looked great. All three of these things were replaced, tires don't matter with this but he put in new platinum plugs and a new timing belt. The engine runs much smoother, but the idle problem persists. What could cause this? It didn't do it any of the times they started it. He said it might be the idle motor but that he couldn't be completely sure. What is causing this and what is the fix?
does it idle up and down while its cold and or hot? if it does it could a vacuum line/hose, gl locating it if it is, my borthers supra does that. If not, take notice the environment around you and when it idles different, temp outside, weather, is the engine cold/hot, do u half almost no gas or alot of gas stuff like that. Try to pinpoint what may cause it. you may also beable to adjust how much gas it recieves while idle. if it idles around 400 icant see it doesnt idle rough, mine usually idles around 600-700 with my v-6, i dunno about the 4.
Okay thanks, It doesn't usually idle rough, but sometimes when it is low it either idles rough or dies. Do you mean does the idle change with engine temp? Usually it idles better once it warms up, this morning it would die when I cranked it. I held the throttle open a little bit and it came up and idled fine. This afternoon around 12 it idled around 400 pretty smooth and didn't die.
id say def rule out the 02 sensor, although, unlike the 92 and 93 camrys, they are self heated, but until they get up to their proper workin temp which will take a couple minutes the ecu will operated in an open loop default mode. his problem is mainly just starting the car. because of this his startup should remain the same everytime if it was the 02 sensor. If it is a sensor keep a close eye on ur check engine light, if it is one it will light up the majority of the time otherwise its something else undetectable by the computer which rules out quite afew things.....like i said check vacuum lines and stuff like that as a preliminary step
Well, the check engine light is on when I turn the car to "On" but as soon as the engine is running it goes off. Same with the oil light. Sometimes it idles fine right about ~800-900, but others it is below 600rpms.
Your 96 Camry is the first year of OBD II. Start by taking the car to Autozone, if you have them in your area, and ask them to scan the computer for trouble codes. They will do this for free. This may give you an area of where to start looking for the problem. If no codes are present, then I would start by cleaning the throttle body, as someone has already suggested. If that doesn't help, I would next clean the EGR valve. Dirty (carboned up) egr valves can cause idling problems. Do a search on this forum for "EGR cleaning" and see if this is something you feel comfortable doing yourself. If EGR valve cleaning doesn't help the idle, then I would look at the IAC (idle air control) valve. You can do a search for that on this forum also. It may need cleaning or replacement.
id hit up advanced auto if u have one, i dunno about ones around u guys but the autozones around me, the ppl that work ther are really pretty dumb in my experience, they normally end giving me the wrong part for the job and end up being more expensive than advanced auto. thats just in my experience.
as for the check engine light and oil light turning on when u start the car thats perfectly normal, now if it stayed on then u have a problem most likely. u dont even have to go to an auto shop to figure out wut is wrong with it although it is easier. Normally there is a way to check wut may be wrong manually, like w/my 93 thers a diagnostic check under the hood and one under the steering wheel, the one under the steering wheel i would just bridge a certain two outputs with a wire i had and the check engine light will flash codes, if u have a hayes manual or sumthin check that it should tell u how to do it urself.
Okay, I don't think I have an advanced auto, but the check engine light does not stay on, just when the engine is off. Sometimes the idle comes up, like when it just dies if I hold the throttle for a while it won't die, but others it continues to run at really low idle.
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Camry Idle Problem
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