General car question

selavia · Nov 30, 2006

This is in reference to a 1995 Toyota Camry 4cylinder (now I realize this is a BMW board and that this question may be better suited in a toyota forum, I respect the mechanical opinions on this board and I am looking for General ideas, not specific fixes).

Won't start. Turns over, but doesn't fire up. Engine not flooded, checked for that already. The car already has an oil leak at the rear main oil seal and the head gasket is worn.

I'm thinking maybe the plugs might have oil on them (the place to fill the oil sits on top of two wires and plugs, so when anyone goes to fill it, usually spills on to the top of the plugs/wires.

Could it be a fuel issue? Fuel filter? Fuel pump?
It's not electric, and I don't think it's emmission.

Other than that, I'm wondering whether the engine is just done (e.g. head gasket blew, piston cracked / slammed a wall, etc), but upon cranking/ starting, no funny noises, no metal on metal; sounds normal except for the fact that it doesn't fire up.

Bear in mind the car has well over 230k on it and is most likely on its way out to begin with (being used as a city car and a junk hauler), so if it's a major problem, the car is not going to be worth the time / effort / money. So I'm trying to get an idea whether it's likely to be a small thing (like clogged plugs, fuel filter) or something major (like a complete rebuild).

Thanks

mclarensmps · Dec 1, 2006

it is most likely a fuel pump issue i think. easy test, pull out the plugs, spray in a bit of gas in each cylinder and see if it fires up for a couple of seconds. It will either confirm or rule out that as a problem (thats how my fuel pump issue was also detected)

Doughnut · Dec 2, 2006

It could be that the rings need replacing, im not to sure how easy/hard it is to pull the head and sump off to have a look, but if it has done city driving and hard pulling all its life the piston compression would be the second place id look if it passes the fuel presure test.
230k is a fair amount of k's on a 11 year old 4 banger, is it manual or auto?

Militant-Grunt · Dec 2, 2006

mclarensmps said:

Agreed, smell the engine for fuel, after cranking for a bit you should get a smell of fuel flooding the engine, if that doesnt occur your pump may be screwed. In the Discovery the pump sometimes freezes up, I take a metal pipe and hit the fuel tank a few times, while someone is cranking, works like a charm haha. I wouldnt reccomend doing that on a camry tho!

selavia · Dec 2, 2006

I'm leaning towards Doughnut's suggestion.

As far as the fuel pump goes, I held the gas pedal down for a good 30seconds and rhen tried cracking with the pedal all the way to the flooor. No start, but a tremendous smell of gasoline...made me cough.

The car had EXTENSIVE city driving. Over 150k miles were city driving. It's an auto. What's the best way to check piston compression? (Preferably something that does not require a tear-down of the top half to check. The car was flogged...I mean severely...those were not a pleasant 230k miles....the car was the "first car" for three agressive drivers in my family. And I know from how I drove it, I was not gentle at all. I know that the head gasket is frayed pretty bad, and it has a tremendous oil leak; the main leak is from the rear main bearing. There are others; a couple around the valve cover, one or two around the head gasket.

BTW, military grunt, LOVE the new signature...

Doughnut · Dec 2, 2006

My old man has an "engine compression tester" (pressure gauge hose that goes to a rubber taper with a hole at the point of it) , the idea being that it retro fits in any hole where the spark plug goes. what you do is you dissconnect the coil and crank the engine with the guage's taper pushed into one of the spark plug holes, testing them one at a time, im not sure what the compression of your 4cyl is but, check them all and if you get all different readings it is the rings for sure, but if the readings are all the same, consult your workshop manual to get the propper compression,

let me know what happens.

mclarensmps · Dec 3, 2006

For reference, my car gives 215/195/215/195 from 1/2/3/4 respectively (remember to mark the coils you pulled out to put em back in the same order haha)

Kirby · Dec 3, 2006

It's getting fuel, you said it's not electrical. How do you know? Did you pull a plug and check for spark? Based on what I hear so far the next highest suspect (after fuel delivery) IS an ignition problem.

Crank the car for 30 seconds or so, and pull the plugs. If they are wet, you are getting fuel and no spark. If they are dry, you are not getting fuel. It's as simple as that.

Unless a car is severely abused (i.e. overheated, run without oil, etc.) compression problems creep up on you slowly, not overnight.

selavia · Dec 4, 2006

I spent 5-10 minutes playing with it yesterday. I went to start it first, it fired right up?!? However, idle would fluctuate, even when reved to 1500rpms, 2000rpms. It did not steady even after warm up. (fluctuation was about 50-100rpms...but it has been doing that for a while)

I was thinking the plugs might be clogged, but now that I think about it, I think I remember that the rotor cap has a slight crack in it.......and it was raining when the car was not starting...

maybe I should check that too.

Any other suggestions? (I have found all of the above comments VERY helpful and appreciate each one & would love to hear more suggestions, no matter how unlikely they maybe...within reason of course)

Sean

Doughnut · Dec 5, 2006

I do aggree with you Kirby, "poor compression does not creep up over night", though poor compression would most probly be a main suspect along with electrical. Selavia, how long was the car parked up before you decided to start it and it wouldent? was it driven every day, or only once every now and then and was it mac'd from start up?

It really does shite me when a car doesnt start one day, and then starts well the next day, it really could be anything,
I know because my bmw does it frequently

normally when i have money in my pocket...

selavia · Dec 5, 2006

It was being used as a daily driver, and then one day it just didn't start. It sat for a day before trying to get it to start; pushed it into the garage and then it sat for a day. Tinkered with it and it started.

I don't really have time to fiddle with the damn thing until after exams; so, it's just gonna sit. It doesn't need to be used as a daily driver, but since that car was already so abused, we figured why not use it till it dies, then junk it. If it's too much work or unreliable, we'll probably just offload it, but if it's something simple and relatively easily diagnosisable (meaning not trial and error of replacing parts, which can get costly) we'll repair it.

I'm enjoying these suggestions because I'm just going to write down a check list and inspect everything after exams and hopefully that may lead to the issue.

Please, more comments welcome!!

Thanks for the already posted comments as well!

Sean