Questions and Answers
Camry Acting Funny
Q. Hello I have a 1989 Toyota Camry automatic 4 cylinder with air conditioning it has 180,000 miles on it. This is my problem, the check engine light came on for the first time since I bought the car and I bought the car brand new from the dealer I have always maintained it as far as oil changes (Mobil 1 since new), air filters etc.
The check engine light comes on and it may intermittently do nothing but come on or sometimes the car shifts as if the over drive button was pressed (the overdrive light does not come on) and the it just shifts out of overdrive and the light goes off and everything is normal other times the check engine light will come on and the engine will stall this typical happens when I am driving down the Highway when the motor has had a chance to come up to operating temperature.
I checked all the physical electronic connection and even cleaned them to ensure good contact, no change.
I dumped the computer codes and they told me the air volume sensor was bad or the ECU, the water temp sender was bad or the ECU, etc., all the sensors that the codes said were faulty led to the ECU. I checked out the individual sensor per manual (check impedance etc.) and they all seemed fine so I bought a used (tested ECU) I installed it and still have same exact problem.
I thought that possibly it could be a problem in the ignition so I bought a whole distributor. I installed it same exact problem????? Now I realize that the igniter is not in the distributor Should I get a hold of one of these?
The car runs fine has plenty of power when it is not experiencing this problem. I was thinking could it be some kind of a fuel related problem? What can cause it to shift into overdrive?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can't really drive the car now because it could stall at any time. And I cant keep on buying parts even though I am getting them pretty cheap from the recycler (junkyard).
Thanks,
TonyA. Since you seem to have the repair manual for that car, I would suggest testing the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS). When you do I think you'll find there is a dead, mid range spot. The shifting in and out of overdrive is a typical symptom of a bad TPS. The first one I had like this drove me and every other tech in the shop crazy for two months (and it was on my brand new van to boot). This usually manifests itself at the same speed all the time, since the dead spot never moves.
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