Figured there's more than a few of you with Toyota knowledge on here so I'd ask you guys.
My buddy has a '89 Toyota Camry wagon with the 2.0L I4. 20RE I believe it is?
Anyways, it's BADLY in need of a tune up. Car chugs and coughs and sputters at idle and is way down on power. Has occasionally given him trouble starting but always worked after a few tries. I'm dealing with him on letting it get this bad but I need some advice before we start throwing money at stuff beyond just the usual tune up parts. He's not a car guy, they're on a tight budget, and I've only lived near him again for a month now.
Three and a half hours ago his wife calls me from the parking lot of her work. They only have this one car, it won't start, can I come help or get her? Sure. Thing would turn over but not catch. You could smell the fuel and it had plenty of electricity so it wasn't a dead battery or shot alternator.
Naturally just after I get there she gets it to start after a decent bit of cranking but it's chugging along barely above stalling. Burning way rich but I figure it had a decent number of attempts to start it in the system too. However as I followed her I had to keep my windows cracked to keep my eyes from watering. This says something as my Blazer's a diesel.
Meanwhile every time she stops or slows down it starts chugging and idling rough again. However at speed it runs okay but pokey.
The hard starting had me wondering about the fuel pressure system or maybe the fuel pump but then it ran fi...okay, as well as it did before...when it was at speed.
While driving it in this first 25 degree day of the winter she said the temp gauge never moved far off of cold. It'd sat outside for almost 12 hours so I figured okay it's just really cold but even after 20 minutes of driving she barely had heat and the needle hadn't moved far up the scale. That got me wondering about coolant temp sensors and the like.
After we got it home it was idling a bit better than when we first had it going but it was still chugging and stumbling. We checked the air filter and wow...grey. Yep, I talked with him some more about this. Naturally there's no where open at 9:30 at night in Lexington, KY that has an air filter for this. In fact, we're finding it's a rare application anymore...even with a Toyota plant 30 minutes from here. Anyways...we started it without the filter and it ran better but not right. He's going to run it with a t-shirt over the air tube's intake tomorrow morning so she can get to work and he can get the filter.
He drove it around the block after we did this and it's pokey but working. However now interestingly enough it starts up as well as it did before this incident and the temp gauge seems to be working and the heat is working.
So...random thoughts? I'm not that great with these little Japanese engines, my OBD-I fuel injection knowledge is primarily Chevy TBI based, and I only own diesels now anyways. I'm thinking we are definitely giving it a tune up but looking for inspiration on other things to check?
My buddy has a '89 Toyota Camry wagon with the 2.0L I4. 20RE I believe it is?
Anyways, it's BADLY in need of a tune up. Car chugs and coughs and sputters at idle and is way down on power. Has occasionally given him trouble starting but always worked after a few tries. I'm dealing with him on letting it get this bad but I need some advice before we start throwing money at stuff beyond just the usual tune up parts. He's not a car guy, they're on a tight budget, and I've only lived near him again for a month now.
Three and a half hours ago his wife calls me from the parking lot of her work. They only have this one car, it won't start, can I come help or get her? Sure. Thing would turn over but not catch. You could smell the fuel and it had plenty of electricity so it wasn't a dead battery or shot alternator.
Naturally just after I get there she gets it to start after a decent bit of cranking but it's chugging along barely above stalling. Burning way rich but I figure it had a decent number of attempts to start it in the system too. However as I followed her I had to keep my windows cracked to keep my eyes from watering. This says something as my Blazer's a diesel.
Meanwhile every time she stops or slows down it starts chugging and idling rough again. However at speed it runs okay but pokey.
The hard starting had me wondering about the fuel pressure system or maybe the fuel pump but then it ran fi...okay, as well as it did before...when it was at speed.
While driving it in this first 25 degree day of the winter she said the temp gauge never moved far off of cold. It'd sat outside for almost 12 hours so I figured okay it's just really cold but even after 20 minutes of driving she barely had heat and the needle hadn't moved far up the scale. That got me wondering about coolant temp sensors and the like.
After we got it home it was idling a bit better than when we first had it going but it was still chugging and stumbling. We checked the air filter and wow...grey. Yep, I talked with him some more about this. Naturally there's no where open at 9:30 at night in Lexington, KY that has an air filter for this. In fact, we're finding it's a rare application anymore...even with a Toyota plant 30 minutes from here. Anyways...we started it without the filter and it ran better but not right. He's going to run it with a t-shirt over the air tube's intake tomorrow morning so she can get to work and he can get the filter.
He drove it around the block after we did this and it's pokey but working. However now interestingly enough it starts up as well as it did before this incident and the temp gauge seems to be working and the heat is working.
So...random thoughts? I'm not that great with these little Japanese engines, my OBD-I fuel injection knowledge is primarily Chevy TBI based, and I only own diesels now anyways. I'm thinking we are definitely giving it a tune up but looking for inspiration on other things to check?
