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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