hey everyone, i know this is supposed to be for SC's only, but i feel like this is the best spot to ask for knowledge. the problem is my mom's camry...and its a little strange.

today i was driving on the highway taking her home from work, when suddenly the stereo started to cut out, lose sound and make snapping sounds every now and then, then out of no-where the engine totally bucks and loses power and RPM's fall, the CEL pops on, then out of no-where the RPM go back to normal and the CEL goes off...then about 30 seconds later the stereo acts up again and the same thing happens. i have an iPod cassette hook up to the stereo and when we took that out, the problems went away for a few miles before the engine cut out again and the CEL goes on for the duration of the time that the engine is cutting out, then it goes off...

can anyone please make a suggestion? i'm taking it to autozone to see if they can call the last CEL on the system.

 

what year is the camry? 4 or 6?

 

camry is a 2000. 4cyl, 150k miles

 

well now that its moved to car chat i'm sure someone will see this a year or 2 from now...

 

sounds like a typical toyota egr valve problem. if the valve stays closed or even open you will loose power and it will come back if it starts to operate again.

 

would that throw the CEL on and off? hmmm maybe i should clean it out?

 

yes it would throw a CEL. you can try to clean it but it will most likely need to be replaced.

 

Older Camry 4-cylinders had some issues with the ignition modules (igniters) that would make the engine cut out and sometimes not start again. I thought that they had that problem fixed, though, long before 2000. Since your engine has 150K on it, that's a lot of wear, and the igniter could (?) be getting a little weak. If so, that could account for the periodic engine stumbling. I'm not sure, though, how that could be affecting the I-Pod, stereo and CEL, unless the car's battery is also weak, and, when the engine loses a lot of RPM from stumbling, the battery can't make up for the momentary losses and gaps in alternator output.

I also agree with 97-SC300 on a possible valve problem, but, on Toyotas, as I understand it, that affected the valve stems more than the EGR.

 

it could also be cause by oil leaking into the spark plug tube area. on those 4 cyl engines they had a problem when they reached high miles that if the spark plug tube seals were worn out, oil would get into there and could cause a problem with power and electrical issues. one way to check is to pull the spark plug wire off and see if there is any oil in the tube and on th plug itself. its eas to fix, you would need to remove the valve cover and reseal the tubes that the spark plug sits in with new FIPG.