Camry :: 2003 4cyl / Auto - Hesitation Under Load
Nov 8, 2011
Our Camry has about 105,000 miles on it. Car is well maintained, I change the oil every 3 k or so and the air filter is clean (although it is not a factory air cleaner- it is a K&N filter). Other maint is done as specified by the warranty/maintenance book although the car is long out of factory warranty.
We occasionally pull a 800 lb pop-up tent trailer and just got back from the Sierras after driving up some pretty tall passes with it. Car ran great, got great mileage, temp gauge rock steady. I say this because it is probably the most stressful driving we do with this car. While we live in the city we are retired and the car is not exposed to constant heavy traffic, dust or snow. Mileage seems to have remained pretty steady, even with the hesitation.
Got home from the mountains and a couple days later the car began to hesitate when under load. The hesitation shows up as a slightly uneven surge when the car is going up a hill or when it is cold. About 20 mph the car seems to momentarily stop accelerating, then evens out and upwards of 40 mph I don't feel it at all. The hesitation is getting a bit worse over the last couple days in frequency, but still isn't felt on the freeway. I don't know if the hesitation is related to the recent trip to the Sierras.
I hooked up my OBD II computer to see if there are any DTCs, none shown, even left the computer on the car for a day to see if anything might pop up when the car surged, but the computer isn't seeing trouble codes.
My other thought was "got some bad gas", ran the tank out and put in new gas, fuel injector cleaner and dryer. With one new tank it hasn't worked. I haven't replaced the fuel filter yet.
Tried driving the car in 1st and 2nd gear only and found that the hesitation isn't dependent on what gear I'm in, but seems to be more about the speed and load. In neutral, slowly revving the engine, I don't detect anything that sounds or looks like a hesitation (just watching the tach).
Been reading about problems some Toyotas have had with unintended acceleration but I'm not sure that is my problem. I have to admit I didn't know that my Camry was "drive by wire" and maybe I don't understand it enough. Maybe a "reflash" might be needed?
My sense is that I should go ahead and do the next major maintenance items including plugs, but if I had a bad plug or plug coil wouldn't that show up as a Diagnostic Trouble Code item?
Could this be a bad injector or fuel filter? Wouldn't they produce a DTC? How do I break down the next steps?
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My 2003 Camry loses power and starts to hesitate or miss-like under load, but when cruising along not under load it runs smooth. There is no check engine light coming on.
I have changed the fuel pump and fuel filter in the tank.
I have changed the spark plugs.
I have added injector cleaner and fuel treatment to the fuel.
I have cleaned the air filter and air filter compartment.
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The check engine light is not on and hasn't as much as even flashed on at any time so there must not be any hard misfire codes. I want to stop by Autozone and see if they will scan it to find any stored codes but haven't had time. I would think that if it was a coil pack that it would be a hard misfire. I'm stumped. This car is in great condition...no oil leaks, interior is near perfect (replaced a worn shift knob, and door panel pieces around the window switch). Also car has 160k miles.
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The steering wheel vibrates (shakes) it makes light clicking sounds too. I have not been able to diagnose the problem by myself. I think these two things may not be related but engine is really loud. Does timing chain needs replacement? and if it does what else along with it should be replaced?
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2003 Camry 2.4L 4cyl
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So I recently went out to start my car one morning and it decided to just crank and not start. A few days prior to that I was on my way into work and it shut off on me 4 times but started back up every time, it was only 5 degrees Fahrenheit that morning and I was under 1/4 tank, so just thinking I got some bad fuel or moisture in there I ignored it and went on about my business until it didn't start that morning. Since then I've searched on here and found a couple people that had similar issues and I tried what they had done to fix theirs, this is everything from trying the second key and on.
There is no power at the fuel pump except for the sending unit portion, and I did check with someone cranking the engine, it just has no power... So I thought, relay...well apparently they don't have a fuel pump relay on this car? It's all controlled by the ECU? I decided to hook up my scanner to see if there were any codes getting thrown, this would show if it was CPS or the like, nope, no codes at all showed up. I'm completely lost at this point, and have resorted to buying a subscription to all data as I used them in the past and had luck, well this time they've got nothing for me that I've found useful. I'm about to send the car off to the first person that's willing to pay a fair price. Glad it's warm enough to get the summer car out!
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I have a 2010 Camry Le with the 2.5 4cyl. What I'm trying to diagnose started in the last 2 weeks, the engine just seems like it's lost some power overall but there is no unusual sounds coming from the engine and it has not triggered and codes. I have checked the simple stuff like the air filter and plugs but am not sure where to turn next.
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