1991 Toyota Camry Engine runs rough/stalls

Tiny
BLINGEORKL
  • MEMBER
  • 1991 TOYOTA CAMRY
  • 4 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 195,000 MILES
I've recently run into an interesting problem with my Camry. I bought a new car a few months ago, so I haven't been using the Camry much and it's mostly been sitting on the curb. It did run well though.

The problem is every time I start the car the engine will run fine (or idle) for about 5 minutes until it starts to cough and splutter and shoot out some black smoke from the tailpipe, before it stalls. Thinking it was the air flow meter, I swapped it with another one, resulting in the exact same outcome. I also just replaced the spark plugs, and while it runs better, it still coughed, spluttered, and stalled in about 5 minutes. I can start it and put on some revs, but it sounds like it misses occasionally without a pattern. Just as an experiment, I unplugged the air flow meter before starting the car and it seemed to idle better, but not like it should.

What can I do to help diagnose the problem? I'd like to avoid bringing it into the shop if possible because I plan to sell it and don't want to dump a bunch of money into it.
Thursday, January 14th, 2010 AT 4:55 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
RASMATAZ
  • MECHANIC
  • 75,992 POSTS
Welcome to 2carpros and TY for the donation

Lets clean out the idle air control valve, PCV and EGR valves and test the throttle positon sensor and check the fuel pressure -fuel pump could be on its way out
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Thursday, January 14th, 2010 AT 5:06 PM
Tiny
BLINGEORKL
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
Are these tests doable without a lot of equipment?
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Thursday, January 14th, 2010 AT 5:13 PM
Tiny
RASMATAZ
  • MECHANIC
  • 75,992 POSTS
You need a fuel pressure gauge designed for your fuel system and also a digital multimeter
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Thursday, January 14th, 2010 AT 5:55 PM

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