QuestionI bought a used 1995 toyota camry 2.5 years ago that
worked beautifully. Over the past year, i have been
having trouble starting it up. When the ignition key is
turned on the car turns over but you have to hold the key
in the ignition position otherwise it shuts off. This was
working but now i have to hold the ignition longer and the
car turns over, sputters and finally after about 5-6
seconds actually stays on. Then the whole car rattles and
vibrates. On two occasions in the past week, the car was
started in this fashion and while driving it one tenth of
a mile it just shut off. I have taken it to our mechanic
on several occasions and he has no idea what is going on.
The car has 62,150 miles on it and the spark plugs were
changed on 12/29/05 which made no difference. Any advice would be incredibly
appreciated!
Thank you for your time
AnswerThere are two areas to check, the timing belt may have jumped due to wear so the cam timing may be off.
There have been known problems with distributors on these models, remove the distributor cap and check the coil inside for any cracks, remove the rotor and the plastic coil cover, if there are no visible cracks try replacing the distributor. Is this a 4 cylinder or V-6?
