On Apr 15, 8:09 pm, videokid...@hotmail.com wrote:

I got the idea from this site, when I was researching my stalling
problem:

http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?s=2fc32630ecb777e2fca9117f1047d31c&
showtopic=8158&pid=618097&st=75&#entry618097

First post.

Pasted here, for your convenience:

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Problem found and resolved on my fiancés 92 Camry: coolant temp
sensor.

After exhibiting all the same symptoms as you all, I went down to the
Toyota dealer who misdiagnosed the distributor and igniter as being at
fault. After they charged and arm and a leg, it stalled at the next
stop light on the way home. Furious at Toyota, but tired and wanting
to get home, I waited for the car to cool enough for it to start again
and carefully drove home, doing the gas/brake deely with both feet.

I then took the car to a friend of a friend, a trusted non-Toyota
mechanic that came highly recommended. He had the problem figured out
and solved in 2 days. As I came to pick up the car, he explained to me
what he did and how he figured it out. He had a snap-on computer, just
smaller than the size of a laptop hooked up to several sensors in the
engine compartment; he actually drove the car with wires hanging out
of the hood going through the window to his computer, which acted like
a real-time analyzer and data logger. As soon as the symptom arose, it
was the temperature sensor that caused the fault.

As most of you may know, temperature sensors are just over-sized
thermistors, which are devices that output a change in resistance in
proportion to the heat that is detected. The ECU measures this
resistance to determine the temperature of the engine, and based on
such, gives the appropriate amount of fuel to cylinders to combust.
The problem is that over time (at least so I've been told with Toyota
temp sensors), they can fail after getting to a certain temperature.
They would function cold and as they get hotter and hotter, they short/
open and produce a false reading to the ECU. The ECU then sees this as
a malfunction, and thinking that the motor is cold in an effort to
avoid detonation, dumps WAY more fuel than needed and basically floods
the engine. This is why after the car stalls and you try and start the
car unsuccessfully, you can smell a heavy gas odor in/near the engine
compartment. It's putting too much fuel for the temperature of the
motor/air and stalling the motor. This is also why it stalls only when
coming to a stop: because you don't have your foot on the gas to let
more air in to balance out the extra fuel that is being sent into the
engine.

Apparently, this is something of an issue with Toyota coolant temp
sensors after a long period of time (at least told to me). I'm so
****** off with the Toyota dealer you cannot imagine. They cringe
whenever I go down there because they couldn't fix my problem and
charged me for something that wasn't even causing the issue. As far as
I'm concerned, dealers can only fix problems to which they know the
cause of, and do not know for the life of them how to troubleshoot
issues! For this they can all go ........