98 camry stalling issue

[grimm]

My girl friends car (98 4cyl camry) has started to stall out right after ignition.
There is no check engine light

when she tuns the ignition, the car starts every time no problem, but it will then instantly stall out unless she hits the gas. on one of the start ups, then engine started up fine then rev'd it's self up to around 2k rpm, and then slowly lowered its self. Once the car is started and she has driven it, it drives fine and hasn't stalled out at a light or anything? only when starting the car.

At first thought i was thinking it was the fuel filter, but after reading some posts on other forums, i'm thinking its the valve in the throttle body. They say that after some time, that valve tends to loose tension and get stuck shut.

has anyone else experienced something like this, or have any insight?

[The Captain]

Hmm at first i was thinking "she needs a tune up" but now that you mentioned the throttle body, it reminded me of my old camry. Not sure if they have the same powerplant but mine was a '94 4cyl and the throttle body kept getting frozen up on it so that i'd really have to stomp on the gas to get it to open. If i remember correctly (this was around 5 years ago), I just lubed it up real well and problem was solved.

[grimm]

hmmm... well we are going to check that scenario out tonight. But it does seem to be a common thing, thanks for sharing your experience.

[teh DIRT]

easy way to see if is an issue of not gettin air is to create a huge vacuum leak while starting it. Pop off the brake booster line where it connects to the intake manifold or some other large line. then crank it, if its starts fine...you have an induction problem.

[Renegade_]

This is 100% what my fathers car does every now and then. Its not really a detriment, it just sucks. I was thinking stuck IAC or something of the sort. It most definitely is vaccuum based I believe.

[teh DIRT]

IAC is what it sounds like to me, atleast they are easy to clean.

[grimm]

thanks for the advice. i'll have to check that stuff out as well. on the other forum, it mentioned the IAC as well, but some stories said that they replaced it and still had an issue, so i thought before going and buying things, to try the easy fixes first. i'll keep this updated. But yea if there are any other suggestions or possibilities let me know.

could this have anything to do with a fuel filter? or is it most likely a vaccum/induction problem?

[teh DIRT]

fuel filters show problems under heavy throttle conditions when clogged. Although they can be clogged enough to prevent starting but that would cause an extended crank condition.

[grimm]

gotcha, thanks again. I'm hoping it's just a stuck valve in the throttle body, on occasion she has experienced pressing the gas and it not accelerating until finally it almost launches. And she hasn't experienced any problems once the car starts to go. It's only on start up.

[The Captain]

gotcha, thanks again. I'm hoping it's just a stuck valve in the throttle body, on occasion she has experienced pressing the gas and it not accelerating until finally it almost launches. And she hasn't experienced any problems once the car starts to go. It's only on start up.

Would the car not go or the gas pedal? Cause if it was the gas pedal almost feeling "stuck" and then, once having enough pressure, breaking loose and making you give it too much gas, that's exactly what mine was like.

[grimm]

not sure. i'll have to ask.

Her exact words:
The gas pedal was stuck. It wouldn't go down when you pressed on it.
You had to kinda like bump it with your foot until it moved.

[05OCsrt-4]

clean the throttle body and either clean the IAC and replace, car should run fine, ran into this a multitude of times

[Renegade_]

could this have anything to do with a fuel filter? or is it most likely a vaccum/induction problem?
I still think its a vacuum issue. The IAC may be fine but the source for it could be filled with gunk... who knows. I was meaning to check it out on his car when I was driving it around a bit but I never got to it.

[The Captain]

not sure. i'll have to ask.

Her exact words:
The gas pedal was stuck. It wouldn't go down when you pressed on it.
You had to kinda like bump it with your foot until it moved.

same exact problem. Lube up the TB and you should be good.

[grimm]

well i finally got around to looking into this problem. I first tried the whole vacum test. I took the vacum line for the brake booster off the intake manifold, and the car started up fine, it just rev'd quite high. Like 2k+ RPM. i then also took the intake off and wiped down what i could. I didn't have any TB cleaner so i didn't get it too clean. None the less the problem is still there.

[KINGRICHARD]

What did the throttle body look like? was it all black and sooty around the throttle plate? you got to clean all that stuff off if it is.

[grimm]

throttle body was pretty clean on the intake side, couldn't see how bad the manifold side was since i didn't remove it. i'm wondering if it's more of a vacuum problem? and how to resolve it, if it is.

[grimm]

so is this a vacum problem? also where can i locate the IAC?