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08 Camry Shuddering for the first time.

2K views 23 replies 10 participants last post by  Wheatwacked  
#1 ·
It was the coldest morning this season at 25 degrees on my Camry's temperature read, and I has turned on the car and then shaved off the frost that enveloped all of the windows I then quickly took off for work. I am wondering if perhaps not giving my Camry enough time to warm up and hopping on the highway fairly quickly caused the engine to shudder and for the "check" warning light to also come on. I pulled over out of concern, popped the hood to look and see if anything out of the ordinary was noticeable and it wasn't and then proceeded to work. The warning light never returned again and the shuddering was gone. Cold weather? Electronic issue? Obviously if it happens again I will bring it in to have it looked at but has anyone had similar issues or any thoughts on what this is or did I nail it with the cold?
 
#4 · (Edited)
has anyone had similar issues or any thoughts on what this is or did I nail it with the cold?
Something similar. During the winter, upon a cold start, first thing in the morning, my engine would always misfire.

Upon a quick visual inspection, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, until I plugged in an OBD2 scanner. Cylinder 3 mostly, would misfire for a second or two and not misfire afterwards, throughout the day.

The spark plugs had less than 15,000 miles on them and the fuel injectors were fairly new, so I suspected a bad ignition coil.

I changed all four ignition coils and the misfires disappeared.
 
#19 ·
"coldest day of the season, it was 25F"
"condensation all over the windows"

When the weather gets cold, did you have a empty gas tank?
When Temp Drops... you get condensation in the gas tank. The moist air condenses on the metal walls, when gas sloshes or you fill up the tank, the new moisture settles to the bottom of the tank and get sucks up to the injectors. Get enough water in there it will not run at all. Add a can of dry gas and baby your car for a while. Winter temps I never let my tank go below 1/2 full. IF weather says temps to drop, I fill my tank up before.

You can get water from the gas station pump for similar reasons....
I keep a can of dry gas in my trunk just in case.... can keep you from being stranded
Try not to use the dry gas it is mostly alcohol and is hard on rubber parts in your system.
 
#20 ·
"coldest day of the season, it was 25F" "condensation all over the windows" When the weather gets cold, did you have a empty gas tank? When Temp Drops... you get condensation in the gas tank. The moist air condenses on the metal walls, when gas sloshes or you fill up the tank, the new moisture settles to the bottom of the tank and get sucks up to the injectors. Get enough water in there it will not run at all. Add a can of dry gas and baby your car for a while. Winter temps I never let my tank go below 1/2 full. IF weather says temps to drop, I fill my tank up before. You can get water from the gas station pump for similar reasons.... I keep a can of dry gas in my trunk just in case.... can keep you from being stranded Try not to use the dry gas it is mostly alcohol and is hard on rubber parts in your system.
I have mixed feelings about the 10% ethanol content of regular gasoline, since I don't believe that it ultimately saves energy or reduces emissions. But it will absorb any moisture in the fuel system which makes the use of any alcohol-based additives redundant, such as dry gas.
 
#24 ·
144,000 mlles it is clogged injectors. It may be a P0171 code (lean bank) or P0300x indicating a specific cylinder misfire. Step One: Add Techron Injector Cleaner before going crazy. You can see it with the scan tool with live data but you'll feel it get better after a while. The Long term fuel trim will be higher than 10% at hot idle. After the techron the LTFTR will start varying between plus and minus 10 (normal). May take several treatments. Quicker and cheaper than paying a shop to hook up their machines and works as well as replacing them. Injectors last like 300,000 miles. P035x (P0351 is cylinder 1, etc.) would be that cylinders primary/secondary circuit misfire. Replacing plugs is advised at 90,000 but not likely your problem today.