Hi,
This is my first time here, so I hope someone can help me. I'm confused. I have a Toyota Camry 1994 Le 4-door sedan, with 114,170 miles on it.
I've visited my non-Toyota mechanic twice. He has a good reputation in the neighborhood for being very honest.
Back in 11/07, I had my tune up, as well as new spark plugs and timing belt replaced. All of a sudden in January, my car turned off while waiting at a stop light. It wasn't particularly hot or cold, but it was while I was out of town and had driven about 75 miles that day. It turned back on right away. It became an intermittent and entirely random problem, maybe once every couple of weeks or days. I don't drive that far usually, so my car doesn't normally get too hot and I couldn't find a particular pattern.
I barely drove it at all, but since I'm moving cross-country, I decided to get it checked out, as well as my oil change. The mechanic said this is a very common problem that the throttle is dirty, so they cleaned and lubed the assembly. The next day, it turned off again while at a stop light. I noticed that the idle dropped real low before it did so.
I brought it back. He said, it wasn't the assembly and he'd have to do testing and it wasn't going to be easy to find the problem. He couldn't replicate my problem and couldn't find anything wrong with the car, he ran all his diagnostics and drove it 5 miles without any problem. He said he "put chemicals in" to clean the fuel. I think he meant injectors (?) This was Friday. I drove my car about 5.5 miles later that night. It was super smooth (big difference in performance). Parked it. Three hours later, got in. Every time I stopped, it would hesitate. It didn't turn off but when I pressed the gas, it would hesitate.
Then I parked. When I tried to start the car, it cranked but wouldn't start. Ten minutes later it started fine and drove great.
It drove it twice today. In the morning it was fine but a little weird. The RPM almost went up to 3k just up a slight incline. While at a stop sign it seemed to idle a little loud and when it quieted down, I noticed the idle dropped very slightly. On my way home it was totally fine. Tonight, I drove it 5.5 miles, it hesitated at every stop light, even when warm (after a short jaunt on the freeway). A couple of hours later, I drove back and it didn't hesitate at all, but when I went to parallel park and was in reverse without pressing on the gas, the engine turned off. It did the same thing as yesterday and wouldn't turn on... I waited a few minutes, it turned on long enough for me to finish the parallel park and it turned off again.
What is going on? I'm so confused. I'm gonna take it back Monday to the mechanic but can't find any other posting with a story similar to mine...
