Bad fuel? --Fixed!, it was something else Options

[samir0189]

drove the car round trip for 40mi this morning, no problem

Got in this afternoon, and had a slight sputtering? problem that has gotten worse and worse.

ON throttle, i have really no power, the car sounds like its really straining, and the smell out the exhaust is very high in gasoline. Once i get it up to higher speeds (65+mph) it kinda goes away but its still there.

I checked the plugs and wires, all is good.

just bad gas?

This post has been edited by samir0189: Aug 21, 2009 - 4:00 PM

[Bitter]

sounds like a misfire rooted in the ignition system. try to isolate it to which cylinder is misfiring and go from there.

[samir0189]

I agree that is sounds like, and feels like a misfire, but all plugs and wires are working fine.

I would like to believe the problem is in the fuel system somewhere, the car really suffers from 750-3000rpms, and it seems to steady off after that.

Is there some sort of "low speed" anything that would be clogged, blocked, etc?

The car pulses and bucks and kicks like crazy, almost feels like "surges" of power.

Fuel filter was changed uhh, dec 07. And i havent been able to use out this tank of gas yet to determine if its just a baaaddd tank full or not.

This post has been edited by samir0189: Aug 14, 2009 - 12:29 PM

[Bitter]

hows the cap and rotor? does the coil ohm out to the correct spec? it could be a wire grounding out against something.

[samir0189]

Don't really know how to check all that Bitter, don't have an ohm meter anyway, But i can tell you the whole dizzy was replaced early 08.

i tried some lucas injector cleaner in the tank with a fill up of 93 oct. didnt seem to help too much, i had 1/4 tank left and filled it with the 93.

[Bitter]

grab a cheap ohm meter, i know the specs are available online or have been posted here.

you can check the wires by grabbing them and moving them around while the engine is running and seeing if it changes at all. check and cap and rotor by pulling the cap off and inspecting it for burned spots, cracks, carbon tracking, etc. rotor can be cracked, burnt, etc.

[samir0189]

i wiggled the wires, nothing noticeable.

ALthough the plugs look OK (normal greyish-white tips), i am going to replace them tomorrow. they have probably 50 or 60k. And i am gonna put NGK instead of bosch. The car is running so rich that either too much fuel is getting in there orrrrrr the fuel isnt burning completely.

If that fails i will continue to check the dizzy etc. thanks bitter.

[Bitter]

bosch platinum spark plugs by any chance are whats currently in there?

[samir0189]

Yes, please dont remind me. Lol. Ive heard it toooo many times already.

[Bitter]

you should have stated that in the first post. change those and the problem will probably go away.

[samir0189]

Some new NGK 7092 platinum tip plugs in there, no help whatsoever.

[samir0189]

I just took it for a run, the new plugs helped a lot, no more problems at high speeds, no surges or anything,

BUT the main problem remains from idle 750 to EXACTLY 2200rpms--higher than that and the car works wonderfully, like there is no problem at all!

[Bitter]

just run standard denso plugs.

so you have a misfire at low engine speed and high load or just low engine speed or just high load? if you start in 2nd or try to floor it in too high of a gear does it misfire as well? will it do it when parked?

[delusionz]

Injector cleaner doesn't have a high explosive energy content?

[samir0189]

Low engine speed with high load. Only on 50%+ throttle, from 750-2200.

All gears, same rpm values. If i really baby the accelerator problem is barely noticeable.

[Bitter]

it starts up fine?


do you have a good multimeter?

[samir0189]

Starts fine, dont have any multimeter sadly. I need to get some of these things...

[Bitter]

well the voltage from the stock narrowband wouldnt help much anyways probably. i'll admit, without being able to lay my own hands onto the car i'm not sure whats going on. hopefully someone else better at e-mechanics will step in, sorry.

[samir0189]

well the voltage from the stock narrowband wouldnt help much anyways probably. i'll admit, without being able to lay my own hands onto the car i'm not sure whats going on. hopefully someone else better at e-mechanics will step in, sorry.

Well thank you for your help anyway Bitter.

I know its difficult to troubleshoot via the web.

I am going to change the fuel filter next, cause I need to do that anyway, and if it doesn't show any signs of improvement im gonna have to have the dealer have a look at it if no one else has any ideas as to what this can be.

I notice this guy had a similar issue (he had stalling and my car doesnt stall, just sputter and strain), anyone think that it can be this?

http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=67801

although i did have a new aftermarket dizzy put on last year or so, is this possible?

Is the "coil" something separate inside the dizzy? or is it built in?

This post has been edited by samir0189: Aug 16, 2009 - 6:58 PM

[samir0189]

Maybe this will help somebody later.. it was either the new plug wires or fuel filter that solved it, strange, never had symptoms like that for either, but ok, once its better now..

[soulshadow]

Seriously I drove with the same fuel filter on my Camry with a 5S for over 6 years never changing it once. Car drove fine for over 200,000 miles. Don't know why anyone would need to change theres, since the fuel sock usually catches most of the stuff.

[samir0189]

I dunno, There is no real way to tell if it is clean or dirty, the only thing that makes me change it is when the car is running crappy... I just make it part of my normal tune up. "Preventative maintenance" anyway, if it wasn't the culprit this round, it won't be the cause of a future problem.

I've only been through 2 in the 5 years I've had the car, about 100,000mi in those years. ~50k a good interval imo.

And at $35 for an oem toyota one, it doesn't hurt.

i know its probably stupid, but i think if i take care of the car, it'll take care of me.

This post has been edited by samir0189: Sep 10, 2009 - 8:18 PM

[trdproven]

Seriously I drove with the same fuel filter on my Camry with a 5S for over 6 years never changing it once. Car drove fine for over 200,000 miles. Don't know why anyone would need to change theres, since the fuel sock usually catches most of the stuff.

Fuel filter needs to be changed I believe every year. I assume you've never changed one before. With that said, if you ever do change your fuel filter tap the remaining gas, you'll see how black that sucker is. But your right it tries to catch as much as it can but unfortunately, the fuel system is a very delicate part of your car that cannot risk any dangerous particles. basically cleaner, the better for your car overall economy, the better for your injectors, the better for your engine combustion.