Hello all,


My girlfriend and I were driving back from San Diego and got off at an exit. At a stop light, the car stalled. I turned the ignition but it choked and when the car finally started, it sounded like it was choking. The car still had 75% of the gas tank full, it recently had an oil change and the coolant levels look fine. There was no check engine light that came on.
We pulled into a neighborhood and checked these, all seemed fine.

We left the car off for about 5 minutes and started the car again. It started up fine and didn't seem like there was any issues. I'm not sure where to look since everything looks.
We ran the A/C on our way up but we did not encounter any issues while driving up I-5.


I do no know the total vehicle history since it's my g/f's. The car is a 1998 Toyota Camry with 134,000 miles on it. The car was perfectly fine when we drove down from San Diego from LA. This is the first time I've seen the car do this. I'm going to let the car cool down before I check it again.

If you all have any ideas of what to check for, it would be a great help. I'm in San Clemente right now but have to drive back in a couple of hours.


Thanks!

 

MAF problem?

 

what's MAF?


Here is a picture of the coolant level. The line that the coolant is just crossing says "full". I'm not sure if I'm suppose to top that off.


[img=http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/4325/photoweg.jpg]

 

MAss Air Flow sensor. try googling your problem.

 

Just found a manual for it...the coolant looks to be ok...

 

I thought these cars never break?

Seriously though, when's the last time it had a tune up? Could be plugs, wires (don't know if '98's had wires though), air filter.

 

By 'choking' I'll assume it sputtered and then ran very poorly. Once you waited and fired it back up it ran just fine.

Sounds to me very much like an engine management issue; a bad sensor of some kind, a failing mass airflow unit, etc. Oftentimes, an occurance like that will trigger a fault code in the ECU, which a good repair shop can read by plugging in an appropriate electronic code reader. That's where I'd start.

As far as how reliable it will be on your way home today, that's impossible to know. Just make sure your cell phone is charged should you need to call roadside assistance.

-Mirror

 

Hard to determine, but as others have mentioned it could be an engine management issue. It could also be as something as simple as a dirty fuel filter or even a little moisture in the fuel itself. When was the car serviced? You would be absolutely surprised how contaminants in the fuel can effect a car's performance.

Here's a little trick in regards to the MAF: Locate the MAF and start the car. Let it warm up until operating temperature. Then tap the MAF with a screwdriver handle a number of times. If the car stumbles or dies, then it's definitely the problem. Doesn't work in all situations, but on the majority of cars it's something that can easily be done to diagnose this particular problem.


Terry

 

i would do a simple plugs/wires/filters tune up 1st. If you stilll have the problem we can help from there

 

Is this car a 6 or a 4 cylinder? The 4 cyl Camry does not have a MAF sensor. I had a 99 (same car) and I installed a cold air intake. There was no MAF sensor to be found.

 

Was it raining by chance when this happened or whas it a dry day?

 

Let's not teach people to guess at problems. First of all, a tune up would do absolutely nothing if it had already been tuned up in the near past.

Before we start replacing parts, I would start looking at the 5 major sensors because this sounds like an engine management problem as others have stated above.

O2-O2 wouldn't stall an engine, depending on how it fails, it would richen or lean the mixture... probably will not stall the engine.

MAF/MAP-if the 'load sensor' does not sense air coming in, it will not add fuel, so this is a possibility.

ECT-ECT failing would put your car in open loop, this will not stall your engine. Normally, a bad ECT would cause high resistance or acts as an open. An open signal to the PCM will read ~ -40 degrees. The car will think it's really cold and it needs to pump a lot of fuel.

TPS-TPS sensor really wouldn't stall an engine. It will control how much fuel is added.

CMP/CKP-Cam and crank sensor control fuel. On most vehicles, the PCM will not ground the injectors if there is no crank signal. Some vehicles use the cam sensor, but most use crank. I would check the crank sensor, cause if it failed for that split second, your car could have stalled due to lack of fuel.

From there, I would check your fuel. Might just be bad fuel and like someone said above, there was moisture, an air pocket, something blocking the passage in the fuel lines.

Is the car misfiring? If it's rough and shaky, pull one spark plug wire out at a time. If at any time the engine changes, the plug is good. If you pull a cylinder wire and nothing changes, that cylinder is misfiring.

Compression is highly unlikely, for your car wouldn't run at all if you had no compression.

Check some simple things as well. It usually always comes down to the basic.

Edit: I thought about the TPS again...it might cause an engine to stall. If the PCM thinkgs the TPS is closed when you have the throttle open, it will not add fuel and the mixture will become so lean it will stall. The MAP/MAF will still have to be bad to not compensate for this.

 

now you see, you are taking all the fun out of it. Always part of learning how things work. And new plugs and wires are always good