QuestionI wrote to you a year ago about this drivability problem, and
since it is tolerable, I have "put up" with it. Being that I don't
believe in the (expensive) guess and replace method, I will
probably have the dealer try to fix.
'91 Camry, 125K, 3SFE. New (OEM) Cap, rotor, wires, plugs-car
has been full maintained throughout its life. No check engine
light. Doesn't use oil/good milage.
The car runs great, except when cold the car lacks serious power
at low RPMS. No bucking/missing-very smooth-just don't pull
out in front of a semi! As the car warms up (not just water temp,
a good 10 minutes of driving), it improves. Hot weather is the
worst. Humidity makes no difference.
I drive up a steep hill on my way to work. Gently driving, the car
is accelerating fine, and suddenly it is as if someone flipped a
switch-the pitch of the engine changes, without any real change
in RPM, and the power is much less. It is almost as if the timing
suddenly changed (It is set correctly, 10 BTDC) Maybe unrelated,
even when warmed up, during harder acceleration, the engine
slightly surges. The power is there-just not the smoothest
acceleration
My question: what is the likelihood a dealer can repair this
problem? Oh, sure, given time, I have no doubt they could track
it down. I know with the OBD-II cars, you can go in and look at
the data, and have a better picture of what is going on. But what
about with the '91s? (UPDATE: It took me a month to get this
posted, and I just saw your answer for the ODB-1, and not
having any form of data stream)
I don't mind paying the dealer to fix it, but I don't want to spend
big $$ in labor as they try one thing, take a road trip, try
another, repeat, wait for car to cool, replace this, road trip, etc.
Or, do your dealers have tools similar to a data pack that you
can hook up, take a drive, and have it record the data?
OBD-II seams like a blessing and a curse :-)
AnswerI'm sure that the dealer can figure this out, if the check engine light is not on there will be no trouble codes in the computer anyway.
There are some conditions that can driveability problems that will not turn the check engine light on such as an intake system air leak which may be intermittent because the rubber intake hose from the air cleaner to the throttle body is cracked somewhere and leaks air into the intake, you can check for that yourself,this is the most common problem for this condition, another may be a loss of fuel pressure or a malfunctioning air flow meter.
