I didnt leave my lights on and kill my battery, butI am having an idle issue. Yesterday I did some work on my camry's sound system and it didnt get driven until today. After getting off the highway I could feel a hard knock as I slowed to a light, when I stopped I watched the tach drop to zero and stall. I have an automatic. I also noticed it getting rather hot.I did check the coolant and that's all set and the only other thing I can think of is if the thermostat is siezed (someone else's opinion). Does anyone have any other thoughts? It has to be fixed soon, My girlfriend commutes to college in that car. if I find anything new I'll update asap. Anything would help.

 

so have you had any other problems besides that one time. Or is this a regular occurance. Does it start right back up and idle fine? Also your saying this is on the camry?

 

Yea its the camry, and apparently my girlfriend has had the issue before and didnt tell me. I did read into one issue on the camryforum, it mentioned the IAC valve, so I passed that along to djbdez. What I got from the other forum was:

Any other thoughts? I did have the power cable for the amp unplugged from the battery, which does disconnect it, but I never had this issue in the past. And the 94 camry didnt have the learning computer, so its not that.

 

water pump?? i dunno... it'd explain the knocking and the temp raise.... dunno if the stall as well... im sorry i just cant think about what could it be...

 

i would definetly just start with the thermostat. Because if you car isnt really overheating and its just the gauge thats telling you it is, then thats what i would think is the problem

But once again on the idling issue. Did it start right back up. Has it happened since. Do you notice the idle jumping up and down at all. Little more detail needed

 

Ok, details, it happens on occasion, it stalled 3 times that first day, it would have stalled 5 times but twice I threw it in neutral and revved it a little over 1000 rpm. When my "father in law" took it for a test drive, it didnt idle low, it ran normal but idles high once. Way high. He let off the brake and it took off, maybe 10 mph. The next day it stalled once and the temp hasnt risen except for that first day, so I think the temp is a separate issue with the thermostat. When its ready to stall, the tach will jump a little as its going down, and sounds as if its about to run out of gas. I figure the IAC valve might explain it as well as why it revved over 3000 prm as opposed to the usual 2200 before switching to second gear. If the IAC valve is blocked off and sending bad signals to the computer, which controls the tranny, wouldnt it throw off shift points as well as idling?

 

now it sounds like a lot of things now... it even sounds like vacuum issues

 

Well, there is one little update, something that was brought to my attention. While in the process of fixing the cat converter pipe, the end with the flange after the cat had appeared to be loose. In order to fix this, a pipe was placed inside, an adaptor from advance autoparts, to seal the leak coming from the converter. That pipe was pushed back to the screen inside the converter. Could this be throwing off the flow of the exhaust and screwing things up?