QuestionHi Tim
I was having a drivability problem with my 1995 4 cylinder Japan built Camry with 150K miles. The car would not idle at a stop sign and the car would try to stall. I removed and cleaned the IACV which seemed to help a bit but did not completely resolve the problem. I also replaced the PVC valve but it was not frozen.
A few months after cleaning the IACV, I found an oil leak in the distributor. Oil was on the motor side of the top of the coil and also on the underside of the coil running towards the high tension terminal on the opposite side of the coil. I replaced the O ring and the car ran well for two months and about 700 miles.
Then the car started to lose its idle again. I could tell when it was going to lose its idle because the car would start to buck a bit around 2000 rpm and a speed of 45 mph. Then at a stop sign the idle would bounce between 250 and 750 and then stall. Depressing the accelerator did not smooth out the engine but would stop the car from stalling. The bucking or stalling never happens until after the engine was at operating temp and driven about 9 miles. When the car stalls, I must press gas pedal to the floor for the engine to start or the car will not start.
To trouble shoot this problem, I pulled the vacuum line from the EGR valve and plugged the line with a screw on Sept 22nd. Running with the EGR line removed and plugged made the car run normally with NO idling issues. Oct 10th, I reattached the vacuum line to the EGR and the same idling and bucking problems returned. After driving the car like that for two days, I plugged the EGR vacuum line again which made the car run without bucking or idling issues. How correct would I be in assuming the EGR valve is sticking?
Here are my questions about fixing the EGR issue.
First, how do I know that the EGR valve is the culprit and it is not the VSV?
Second, if I remove the EGR valve from the intake, how well will spraying throttle body cleaner in the valve clean the pinot valve and how long will the valve stay clean and not stick again?
Third, how hard is it to remove the two bolts that hold the EGR to the intake? When removing the big nut on the bottom of the EGR that holds the metal tube that brings the exhaust gasses into the EGR, how do I hold that metal line while loosening the nut? The threads look pretty rusty where this nut screws onto the bottom of the EGR valve. How hard will it be to get this nut lose from the bottom of the EGR valve? Will just WD 40 do the trick or does one need heat?
Fourth, if you recommend replacing the EGR instead of cleaning it, what’s the difference between buying an EGR from a Toyota dealer and an aftermarket EGR valve from an auto parts store like AutoZone?
Many Thanks!
AnswerMichael,
By the way thanks for the specifics up front about your vehicle, 99% of the time people don't include any of that and its just a guessing game. Its like some emailing a doctor and saying I have a pain but I don't know where.
I rarely see EGR's go bad on a Camry. The easiest way to test one
is with a vacuum pump attached and the car idling, pump it up and the
car should start running rough and die, then its ok. Closely inspect all vacuum hoses for cracks, deteroration, or looseness.
First thing I would do is clean out the intake, I see problems with
a dirty intake all the time with higher miles. remove rubber air intake from air filter housing to aluminum intake. Inspect it for cracks. Now jack up the passenger side of car near front tire.
Hold open throttle with one hand turn your head away and spray a full can of carb cleaner in the alum intake, this will clean everything out. The reason for jacking up the car is so a lot of the gunk will
run out of the intake. Let it set for a few minutes, then replace
all components, lower the jack. Start the car, it will smoke tremendously out the tail pipe and run rough for a couple of minutes.
Check for oil in the distributor again.
If you replaced the external oil ring on the shaft its not the problem. There is a pressed in seal inside the distributor that's
the culprit, your better off getting a used distributor from a junkyard. The external oil ring is just for keeping the oil from
leaking past the distributor the outside of the engine.
Let me know the outcome,
Tim
