[Mustang751]

I recently purchased a 02 Camry le 4 cyl auto to save some fuel,, and enjoy parking the big diesel truck.
I bought the car knowing the check engine light was on.. and I got what I felt was a ok deal on a one owner car.

Other than the gold..and faded paint, I really like this car!!!
Everything works !
After purchasing the car, I took it to auto zone for a free scan , I was told it needed a cat converter and it has a mis fire cyl 3 and 4.

I should mention at this point the Camry has 364k miles
And a receipt for a head gasket done at 320k

okay.. so I ordered a cat from toyota
And then some ngk plugs .. and some cheap coil packs off amazon.

then I bought all new ball joints
Tie rods and struts.
Hoping the misfire was an easy fix

not at all
It has got worse,, and now has a hard time starting..
Once moving it’s fine.. highway speeds no issue

please help me..... I don’t know where to start,,, and I’ll take any reasonable advice.

I am about ready to just drop a JDM motor in it ,,if it comes to that!

 

[Vangm25]

Denso ONLY for spark plugs and coils.

 

[jiantao]

Yes, agreed... try Denso coils first. Most of the others, esp the cheap Amazon ones, are crap.

 

[Sobraoenswing]

Get a 10$ code reader? Scanner obd

 

[Kingdom934]

I would get a set of used DENSO coils from ebay if budget is tight than expensive crap aftermarket ones. Also, the 2002-2006 2AZ in the Camry coils are different than the 2007-2009 2AZ. They will work, but it's a hair longer in the later years.

I think the coil connectors P/N is 90980-11885. Chances are they are cracked and making poor connection.

 

[Mustang751]

I borrowed a scanner from a friend tonite
And as y’all ask
I will buy new coils on payday
I’ll post codes tomorrow, thank y’all for helping!!

 

[guyslp]

I have to disagree on the spark plugs. NGK is absolutely top-shelf, regardless of the make of car you're dealing with, provided you've fitted the correct ones.

Denso does appear to be "the gold standard" for ignition coil packs. That's what was used on a Jaguar XJ8L I used to own. I don't quite know why they are considered "the gold standard" though, as I had at least three fail on me over time and at less than 100K miles for two of them, if memory serves. I did the "used on eBay" thing to lay in a supply and kept them in the trunk of the car along with a hot mit and the few tools one needed in case I ever needed to do a roadside change (and I did for the last one that failed - it takes only minutes to do).

With regard to OBD, I have a real reader, but I like my OBD-II ELM dongles that interface with my smartphone via bluetooth just as well. The Torque app is my favorite for using with these, but there are scads of OBD reader apps for Android and iPhone that work perfectly well with bluetooth OBD dongles. I like the VGate one I have because it has an on-off switch that allows me to keep it plugged in perpetually, and only turn it on with a push of that button when I want to take a reading. Since the vast majority of what can be handled by the DIY mechanic fall under the core codes, specifically the P codes, this is generally more than sufficient. If you plan on getting into ABS, SRS, or several other advanced systems then a dedicated code reader will be necessary.

 

[Vangm25]

NGK is good, Denso is OEM and at less than $6 for each spark plug I don't know what is expensive. Toyota's have been known to be picky with certain vehicle components: spark plugs, coils, O2 sensors.

 

[Mustang751]

okay guys i bought four new coils at toyota dealer
..installed it all yesterday
ran okay for about 2 minutes ---check engine light came back on

grabbed my friends code reader and it says

p0303 (1of4)cyl 3 misfire detected
p0300random misfire
p0303 cyl 3 misfire

 

[guyslp]

Well, it appears you've now got this issue limited to cylinder number 3, which is an improvement.

You can pretty much ignore a P0300 when you get one or more cylinder specific P030X codes. I'd start looking at the electrical supply lines to cylinder 3. But even before I did that, I'd swap out the new coil from cylinder 4 to cylinder 3 to see whether it could, possibly (but not probably), be the new coil. It would switch over to cylinder 4 if the coil is bad. If you get the same result as you currently have I'd suspect something about the power supplied to the ignition coil.

 

[Mustang751]

i will look at wires today ..and swap the coils from three and 4