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Car doesn't want to idle....fed up! Think its good bye : (

3K views 17 replies 14 participants last post by  AliRazoR 
#1 · (Edited)
I think this is it guys... My camry is going thru some hard times right now. We are the first owners of this car.. my dad drove it brand new off the dealer lot with the plastic still on it. We love this car to death spending 5 times more then its worth on it but now Mom and pops want to junk the car or give it in to the dealer :facepalm:

Its having a serious problem... when ever we come to a stop it doesn't want to idle. When stop the RPM needle with drops very low... the car will start shaking... the needle will rise back up to normal idle... but then drop again and one again the car starts shacking and then finally it shuts off. We live in NY and theres thousands of stop lights AND traffic so you can just imagime the pain we been going thru:headbang:

To counter when it acts like this.. before I come to a complete stop I throw it in Neutral and gas it to keep the rpms up so they dont low and shut the car off. When the light finally changes I throw it back in Drive and the car jerks and off we go.. but i have to do this every time we stop.. its so bad that I cant even get to park the car... I tried parking it last night and it shut off about 3 times while trying to get it inside a spot.

We are having ppl tell us its the Idle Control Sensor (ISC) never heard of that before and we are looking into gettin that right now but if that isnt the car this car is as good as gone sad say. We have spent I believe more then 5 grand fixing this car... and ppl keep telling us why are we puttin some much money into this car. IDK whats goin on guys we had our baby for 18 years now and this year is the first years it has been going us serious like this. The car looks great and I get complements all the time on it... some ppl cant believe its a 92. It just turned over 100k miles and I see camrys with wayy more miles then mine... idk what the problem is... we are having soo many issue all at one time. The car almost killed me yesterday but thats another story for another thread..


:facepalm:
 
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#2 ·
Do a search on the IAC(idle air control) valve. There are a couple of threads that show how to clean it, which usually solves an idle issue. Other than that I'd check for a cracked or broken vacuum hose, which would cause a vac. leak, and lead an idle issue.

Others will chime in with more ideas soon enough. Don't give up yet.
 
#3 ·
agree with uibalinme - sounds like it just needs the IAC and throttlebody cleaned. maybe a broken vacuum hose. really, if you are somewhat handy you can clean and fix this easily.
 
#5 ·
Had exact same issue, cleaned throttle body (LOTS of white smoke!) and temporarily disconnected EGR Valve - now car doesn't idle rough and stall out. I heard the cost of replacing the EGR is about $200 according to my mechanic. I would disconnect it and clean my current one out but I rather have the peace of mind that my car won't stall on a new valve.
 
#6 ·
same thing happened to my car...i think its just a broken hose...for me it was the big tube that connects the maf sensor to the engine (or some part of the engine)...check everything before junking it because that part only costed me 100 from the dealer, but it was worth it in the long run, cus i still have the car until now..
 
#8 ·
Coming across that idling problem is common in these Camry's. Most have been fixed by following the IAC cleaning DIY guide.

But almost anything else can cause it to idle like that on these engines.

I first came across this at 64,000 miles. Dealer replaced the timing belt and said it was worn. At 114,000 same exact idle problems. Blown out flex pipe.
 
#11 ·
Success !!!


Went out and brought some throttle body cleaner and cleaned and did what the video said to do and now as far as I can tell the car idle fine now.

Thanks guys. :)



Should I have used the how bottle ? I used about half and not alot of white smoke was emitted

Lucky you. Tried this solution on my 97 Camry but didn't make any improvement. My idle is not as bad as yours, only on cold start and after 1 block of driving, everything seems ok.

I understand how you gas, break, N to just getting the car in and out of parking lot, moving from stop sign.. I remember my old car did the same thing. It was a pain!!! And guess what, you get used to using both your left and right foot :)
 
#15 ·
Great news Travis...happy for you...one more proof that TN is doing a great social service in these bad economic times :)
 
#17 ·
sea foam is still a tad controversial as it may do harm on very high mileage (200k?) cars with lots of carbon deposits in the engine. it will loosen them and there is a risk of clogging narrow oil passageways.

however good things about sea foam are, 1st it works and really cleans carbon deposits quickly, 2nd it's a quick procedure even including oil change before and after pouring it to crankcase (and driving up to 100 miles but no more than that). however remember that if you have some leaky gaskets on engine, sea foam will make it worse, because it will remove the oily dirt particles that actually help sealing it now.

Personally I am the sea foam follower ;) and did it for the first time to my '00 solara (5s-fe) when it was at 64k miles or so.
now planning to do the same on '02 solara (1mz-fe) at 124k miles.

there is also a milder engine cleaning alternative which takes lots of time (2 oil change cycles) and that is auto-RX treatment.
 
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