I know this is a little off-topic fellas, just wanted to give it a shot, because I know a lot of us have toyotas that aren't trucks.

A coworker of mine had his 85 camry die on him right in the street at a stoplight today. He pushed it off the road and I went with him to take a look at it. It's got a 4 cyl with an auto tranny. He said it just died and wouldn't restart. It cranks over fast and easy, as I guess most engines with 220k miles would. I pulled a spark plug off and had him turn the engine over a few times and I found the spark plug wasn't sparking (I tried it on 2 cylinders to be sure). Since i've got my tools scattered all over my garage working on my latest project, I didn't have any tools so couldn't pull the plugs. Just wondering if anyone has any idea as to what the problem might be. Since I was getting no spark I was thinking could be the rotor or something perhaps? I've never worked on ignition systems that weren't direct fire with coil packs and all, so I'm not to knowledgeable about distributors and stuff. Also, I was thinking perhaps it's something with the EFI relay perhaps? I checked all engine related fuses and they were all okay.

Thanks a lot.

Oh, and I should add that it IS fuel injected, so maybe you guys with the 22RE could give me some ideas if you've run across a similar problem, as I'm sure they sure a lot in common.

 

Maybe the timing belt snapped, pull off the distributor cap and check to see if the rotor is turning. When the belt on my Civic went I had those exact symptoms.

 

My bet would be the ignition coil. I had an old 88 camry wagon 4 cyl. auto, that had a coil die. It just went dead on me without any notice. It would crank over just fine, but would not fire. It sounds very similar to the problem that your buddy is experiencing. I think that those engines are the same model 3S-FE, I think. If it is then the ignition coil is inside the distributor. At least it was on mine. Hope that helps.

Chris

 

We did crank it over, and it sounded odd to me. He said that it seems to be spinning with much less compression than normal. I also thought it was spinning over much to easy, like a spark plug was out of it. So the broken timing belt is starting to hold water. I hear no bad noises though, I wonder if it's an interference engine. I guess we'll pop the cover and have a look at the belt, and if not, start looking under the distributor cap. Thanks guys.

 

Sorry for the hijack but I have a kinda stupid question to you camry owners. I need to change the headlight bulbs out of a 90 camry and the battery and coolant tank is directly behind the left one. Do I really need to them out or is there another way to do it? Thanks just trying to avoid extra work, even if its not much.

 

If it cranks abnormally, fast, sounds like only one cylinder has compression, etc. then it's probably a timing belt. The motor is non-interference so just get the new belt installed and it'll be good to go.