Hello, I really need some advice on what it do with my moms current car. We bought it from a really good friend of mine who had it as his first car and it had treated him well all his life he was genuinely looking for a new car. Instead if taking it to a dealer lot, my mom agreed to buy it at $1750 and 177k miles. The car ran great for the first 3kish miles. One day out of the blue I got in turned the key and no noise. Started ended up being dead, which was strange because it had been replaced maybe 3 or 4 years ago with an OEM. Just a fluke I thought, this one should last forever now. Then about 1000 miles later my mom was taking my sister to a doctors appointment and the car started misfiring and running horribly and unfortunately this is where the nightmare starts for us. We get it towed and taken to the same mechanic that put the starter on. He has it for ar least a week and then eventually sends me pictures of a mangled spark plug (bent and contorted) a melted/smashed coil from compression of the engine, and another spark plug that was as black as a tire. On the plug hole that had the mangle spark plug my mechanic had to thread tap a new thread in because the old one had destroyed the threads.
Finally we get the car back and it runs great for 1 whole day then starts misfiring again. Mechanic takes blame for this and says he should have let it sit a little longer and should have driven it. We get it back again and this brings us to about current times. I drove it about 3 or 4 times, short trips only about 10 or less miles and now today I can hear the famous popcorn misfiring sound yet again. The last repair bill topped about $1000 and now the problem is coming right back. Is it even worth it to continue putting money in this car? And also why have we been so unlucky my friend drove it problem free asides from the one starter repair all his life and the second we buy the car it does nothing but <profanity removed> the bed. It's at about 183k miles and while it has no codes I can tell it is misfiring horribly. What do I do at this point?
Also I forgot to mention when we had it at the mechanic for a week he replaced all spark plugs and coils cleaned the throttle body changed the MAF sensor and changed the EGR valve. He did this to fix a lean code as well
Please don’t use foul language. It’s against forum rules, thanks.
After all the money you put into it, with no improvement, why not buy an inexpensive scanner to figure out what's going on here?
You say 1 spark plug was black as a tire. That seems like you have one cylinder suffering from incomplete combustion.
You say one cylinder had a a melted/smashed coil from compression of the engine. If you're referring to an ignition coil, that wasn't from compression.
Also, if you have that picture of the mangled spark plug, post it to the forum so we can see the damage and try to assess what could have caused it.
You didn't mention if the Check Engine Light is illuminated.
When your guy pulled the COP coils were any of them oily? Maybe a valve cover gasket is leaking down onto a coil and shorting it out. (that will "mangle" an ignition coil AND create incomplete combustion).
If you go to the TOOLS link on the upper right of this page, click on Diagnostic Tools, you'll find an ANCEL AD410 scanner that Scotty recommends. $46 on Amazon.
If you can plug in a coffee maker you can plug a scanner into your mom's Camry.
You can spend all of 40 minutes watching a few youtubes on how to pull up the DTC codes, pending codes, some sensor data, and fuel trims.
Is this a problem with 1 cylinder or cylinders on both engine banks? Is one bank running rich or lean? Are the fuel trims "spiked" positive or negative on either or both cylinder banks?
Between Scotty and the forum moderators there's over 100 years of experience here.
Then you have us forum members with our own repair experience.
The thing is you brought it into your mechanic for a misfire(s) and he went and replaced all the plugs and coils, cleaned the throttle body, and changed the MAF sensor. That makes me suspect he's a "parts bomber" and isn't looking for more "subtle" issues.
Come back with a little more information and we can be more helpful. Buy a scanner
If you had read carefully I mentioned at the bottom there are no codes at the current moment in time, I obsessively scan that car man. I wish there was a code that would let me begin to know where to start and my mechanic replaced all the plugs and coils because they were factory... Very understandable especially given the circumstances. No oily plugs either and how can I post a picture without making a new post? Also it's hard to explain over text chat but basically where the spark plug wasn't firing the compression of the engine pushed the spark plug up every revolution which broke the sparkplug and made it smash against the coil.
Well the post was pretty long and I I'll confess I did start "glazing over" a little if you admit that the whole "starter history" was irrelevant to the current issue.
No offense, Some people think that I can be a little "long winded" too.
You can just post the URL of the picture into any "Add a comment" box.
You won't see the picture as you're posting. To see how it will appear to the forum you can click the "preview" text under the text box.
Or you can just reply to your own post, post the picture, and more members will probably see it.
So you know which cylinder was previously not firing, You know which cylinder had the black spark plug.
Were they on the same cylinder bank?
Did you pull those plugs to see if there's any evidence that the problems persist?
Did anyone check the coil and injector wires at their connectors to see if they're getting voltage AND signal from the computer?
Did anyone do a fuel pressure leak down test to see if an injector isn't closing (possibly a short in the computer ground signal wire or a faulty injector)
If you want to subscribe to the theory that the reason that spark plug and coil got damaged is because the raw fuel in the cylinder couldn't be compressed within the cylinder's volume area at TDC of that piston in the cylinder, and started pushing that spark plug up, then you're talking about Hydro-Lock.
With the force to damage the plug threads, if the plug didn't blow out, then you'd likely have engine damage.
I don't see that as plausible. Because when you got it back it ran good for four 10 mile trips.
Like I said (before I was aware you already had it) Post some of that scanner data. Post the pic. Also tell us which 2 cylinder numbers are the ones "acting up"
Stop putting anymore money into it. It’s time to look for another vehicle.
Oh & next time, avoid buying vehicles from family & friends, for this very reason..
I agree with the money thing, but I would love some constructive response in regards to what the actual issue could be. Obviously at this point we aren't going to put another thousand into it, but why does it just start to go bad after we buy it? Our car luck as a family has always been notoriously bad...
Do a compression test to check the condition of the engine. Does the engine burn oil? Do you have the complete service history of the vehicle? Lol, don’t beat yourself up.. Did you have this vehicle inspected by your mechanic, before purchase? A pre-purchase inspection usually reveals any major faults a vehicle might have. Also, feel free to have a read through this very useful link - https://carkiller.com/scottykilmer/qa/misfire-4/
I don't believe the compression is bad in any of the cylinders however I will check. The engine has a notorious valve cover leak for all the 1MZ engines, front and back. We do have the extensive service history which was a buying point. The vehicle was inspected and since it was running perfectly when we bought it it was given the green light. Also I appreciate the misfire link and I have already viewed it many times unfortunately
Please post back with the results of a wet & dry compression test. Does the engine overheat, at all?