Camry :: 2004 Car Running Rough - Temperature Gauge Not Reading Hot But White Steam From Hood
Sep 7, 2015
My girlfriend has a 2004 Toyota Camry SE, 2.4, 4 cly, with 198k miles. All maintenance has been done per book guidance since she has owned the car. The other day the car began running really rough on her way home. as soon as she put it into park and lowered rpm the car stalled out. temperature gauge did not read hot, but noticed white steam comes from hood when i seen she pulled up, Opened hood let cool down and coolant looked nasty as heck. So I did coolant flush and replaced the thermostat as per advised from parts store. Did not make a difference because during test drive, half mile down the road, car temperature gauge was reading hot. Shut the car down waited 10 to 15 minutes and drove back home.
Altogether drove roughly 10 miles max in hot condition is stop and cool down and go again mode. Also note, this is the first time using a forum of this sort. Along with, I'm not a mechanic as some are, but I know my way around a tool box no problems. I'm on the verge of just ordering new water pump, belts, fans, fan relays switches, radiator and all since I'm going to be in there to fix it anyways.
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Was driving my 1992, 3.0 and all of a sudden noticed temperature gauge go to extreme hot, steam from hood and engine stalls. Upon inspection, the heater hose blew out, and van does not start even the next day, plus I think the starter sound different (faster). Saw spark at plug wire, smell gas, and did a quick compression with my thumb on #1, and felt air.
Towed it to the mechanic and within 5-10 minutes told me it was a cracked engine, I was not there but he stated he did a compression test. Is he correct, or can it be a timing chain problem?
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I have a major coolant leak in my '99 Dodge Intrepid. I had both top and bottom housing kits replaced over the summer and for the last month I've been having to add coolant about every 3 days to every day now. Today coming home, my car started to steam from underneath the hood and temperature gauge was rising on the hotter side while I was at the stoplight. When I got home I checked the water pump and it was empty. Not in a financial point to have this fixed right away, am wanting a temporary solution for a couple of weeks to get by before I can get it in the shop.
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Tempature gauge on my 2001 sierra (4.8) has been running low for awhile. The highest it will reach is round 160. It's currently running rough/rich and bad mpg. I replaced the ECT sensor but didn't work. I'm not sure if there are two ECT sensors on this model. I don't think it's the cluster. Is there a second sensor I'm overlooking?
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I have 2002 Camry 2.4L (2AZ-FE Engine) Japan built. Lately, I noted the temperature gauge stay at the 4th mark when engine fully warm up (first mark is at bottom and slightly longer than the next few marks), is this normal? Which mark it is at when fully warm up.
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2004 Mazda6 V6 auto with 220,000 miles on it. Yesterday, in rush hour traffic on the highway, saw a puff of white smoke from under the hood. Tried to get over to the right- by the time I got over, I'd passed the last exist before the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel.so had to keep driving till I could find a safe spot to pull over.
Temperature gauge spiked, so I turned on the heat, on full- and got cold air coming out. Temp gauge then dropped to cold, and all dashboard warning lights lit up. Small antifreeze puddle under car.....had it towed home. Truck driver was able to get it started long enough to roll it off the truck into parking area.
How badly I damaged engine by continuing to drive the 2 miles through tunnel?
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I have a 93 accord ex sedan, 4 cylinder, automatic that I bought in August. I live in South Dakota & it's starting to get cold here. When I first bought the car the temp gauge was working fine in that it would move to the middle of hot/cold range. Recently, I've noticed the interior doesn't get warm for awhile, even after driving 20 miles. It blows warm air but it seems like it should be warmer. I've also noticed the temperature gauge barely moves, if it does at all. Most of the time it doesn't move or just stays on cold. I did some research on here & thought I would try to change the thermostat, upper & lower hose and the antifreeze. I'm hoping this will heat up the interior better because it's starting to get cold here & fix the temp gauge.
Previously, I had a 91 accord & that would warm up great, even when it was bitterly cold here. What would cause the temp gauge to do this? I'm even thinking about changing the transmission control module because I read on here that could cause the gauges to have wrong readings. The speedo & rpm gauges also seem to have wrong readings, especially in the mornings or when I first drive it. I used my gps & found the speedo to be off by as much as 10 mph. The other item I've noticed is that I only get around 23-25 mpg highway & on my other accord I was averaging 28-30 mpg highway. Not sure if this is related or not but thought the more info the better.
I have done all the basic maintenance-oil & filter, plugs & wires, valve cover gasket, air filter, tranny fluid but have never done anything with the heating/cooling system.
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I have a 2003 Passat and the engine temperature gauge will read 190 normally and then suddenly drop to almost zero, stay there for a while then head back up.
I purchased a temp sensor to replace the old but for the life of me I can seem to locate it. I know it's in the back or rear of the engine somewhere.
BTW, the car has the 1.8 engine.
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I recently went on a road trip and at one point white steam started coming out of my AC vents. i pulled over on the side of the road to take a look under the hood and everything was fine. no burnt smell or anything. i was driving through some high temps (around 100) and it was a bit humid. i figured it might have been because of humidity, but I've never seen that before. now a few days later I'm back in arizona and this morning i saw the steam coming out again, but very faintly. Its also very humid right now. The AC works fine, blows cold air like it should.
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1991 Ranger STX, 4.0. Had a leak from the rubber seal on the thermostat. Changed the thermostat (stat 195) and seal. Now my temperature gauge is not showing a constant reading, goes to half way and when the thermo opens the gauge falls down to a quarter. The gauge is cycling this way every time the thermo opens.
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I have an 02 f350 7.3 power stroke...Yesterday I noticed the outside temp was reading wrong,it was jumping from 67 to 86 to 92 back to 67..Temp was prob around 90 with high humidity and my a/c was on..So I got to where I was going and when I restarted my truck to go home the fuel gauge dropped to empty(I just fueled the day before) and fuel light came on and outside temp still wrong on the overhead digital display...Are these two things related???
Stopped the truck restarted it and fuel reads correctly again....Went out today and fuel light back on and on empty...Outside temp wrong again,a/c is on .....I disconnected the batteries when I got home to "reset the system"if there is such thing, fuel gauge working but outside temp wrong..?? Where is the outside temp sensor ?could condensation be running onto the sensor and throwing off my temp gauge? Just strange that both these things happened at the same time......I don't think its a fuse or they wouldn't work at all. I should mention all the other gauges work correctly...
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So I bought an 04 3 months ago everything seemed good all deltas were good had a small leak nothing serious. I had the egr deleted then i did the mistake of flooring it 1 morning at top end and the mech is telling me threw a valve. The truck was stumbling and running ruff with white smoke. looks like cycl. 7 took a hit and shows 10 psi of compression. The injector are in working order and so are the rockers. the bill is 3500 all in for new gaskets and oil cooler head work, arp studs and labor.
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I've owned this Toyota Camry 2004 LE for two years now and this issue started couple of weeks ago , I the tempreture gague is always at cold , mean less than 25% . where it used to be always in the middle and at the 50% right in the middle . heat still works , have not tried AC yet , it is still in the 20-30s here in Minnesota . I am suspecting maybe a thermostat or some other heating cooling sensor somewhere .
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1996 Miata. The hood of my car is so hot that you could fry an egg on it. The hood is so hot that you can not put your hand on it. The heat actually comes through and can be felt on the legs of the person in the passenger seat. The temperature gauge reads normal. This began recently. I took it to the Mazda dealer who said it was normal?
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So, this may sound strange but from the get-go of owning my Prius I have always sort of doubted the accuracy of the outside temperature reading. I am not totally worried about that part, as I don't really care about the reading, but I would love to understand something. When the thermometer reads the temperature as "37 degrees" it displays this bar that states it as such. The same bar where it notifies you if you change the temperature or volume via the steering wheel. So, I guess my question is , is there something specific about that number or is it just a quirk of my individual Prius? Also, it is worth noting that no other temperature causes it to display this message, only 37 degrees.
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I drive a 2002 Honda Civic EX with about 105,000 glorious miles on it. I decided to hit the road and made a weekend road trip to pick up a stranded family member. I live in Ohio and drove Lou Dobbs, my car, to Florida. It was about 950 miles one way. All was well until I got to Florida. I hit my first traffic jam and was sitting with the windows down enjoying the Florida air. Suddenly, the temperature gauge started to climb! It got pretty close to the red but traffic began to flow at that point. As soon as I reached 40-50MPH the temp began to fall again. I picked up my cargo and headed back. Each time I would hit traffic or a red light the temp would climb without hesitation. This is without the A/C running. After I got back to Ohio, i asked a friend who knows about cars. Over the phone, he had me remove the radiator cap and reservoir cap to take a look at the fluid levels. After this though, the car has never overheated! I don't understand. Can air get into the system and I let it out by removing the caps? I can sit in rush hour traffic for a half an hour with the AC running and the needle stays right in the middle. Should I still take it in to be looked at?
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02 Passat 4Motion with the 3.0L V6. I just had the car at the dealer 2 weeks ago for the 50K service and to have the temperature gauge fixed. Otherwise, the car was running just fine. At the service, they replaced the water temp sensor, performed a fuel injector service and radiator flush (both recommended).
Now two weeks later, her car rough idles, dies and has to be towed to the same dealership. They first diagnose fouled plugs which they replace gratis. They then tell me the plugs fouled because the ignition coil and wires have gone bad and need to be replaced. They want to do an additional injector/intake cleaning service. They are offering to discount the services slightly. I'm still going to be out another $850.
I called Volkswagen Customer Service and they confirmed that the ignition coils were not covered under the recall.
Something sounds "off" to me. The car was running fine before the initial service. Was the dealer just being "nice" in comparing the plug replacement or did he think that they initial fuel injector service may have fouled the plugs? I don't really want to pay 2x for the same service and now the coil/wire replacement.
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Yesterday I made a 3 hour round trip with my car, and on the last leg coming back into town, I noticed my check engine light came on, and I saw white smoke coming from underneath the hood of my car, along with a burning smell. Luckily I was able to make it home just fine. I've googled this issue, some people have suggested coolant leak.
Also, I checked the oil levels today and they appeared to be slightly below the lowest level tick, which could be why it was having issues yesterday. Last time I got an oil change was November of 2015. I'm surprised it's this low considering I normally don't commute farther than a couple miles each day.
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Have a 2001 Subaru Legacy GT, 5 speed manual, 194,000 miles.
A few months ago, I started noticing that my cooling fans are running more often. Even when it is cold out and the temperature gauge was at normal temperature. The fans would turn on, and just keep running. Obviously, they would turn off when I shut the car off, but if the car is on, they will stay on. However, I found a trick to get them to turn off. If I am in neutral, and I race the engine up to around 3000 RPM's or so for about 10 seconds, and let it come back down to idle speed, the fans are now off. Works almost every time, not just a coincidence.
I know my car, and this has never done this before. I know it is not normal. I have replaced the following- thermostat, coolant temperature sensor, flushed the system, changed the fan relays, and most recently, I put a brand new Subaru radiator in. All of this, and the issue is still there. I am beginning to wonder if it is the water pump. Coolant not circulating fast enough, so the fans come on to cool down, but when I race the engine, the water pump works harder circulating coolant faster? Also recently, the temp gauge starts to climb going up long steep grades. If I pull over and race the engine, the temp gauge drops almost immediately back to normal. The pump is not leaking or making any noise, so I'm not sure if it could go bad any other way.
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I have noticed that my temperature gauge is indicating that usually my truck is running very cool. It seems that it is also somewhat erratic. At times it indicates what I would expect a reading in the middle of the gauge. Other times after running a while it will drop to the lower end (cool) of the gauge and stay there.
I am guessing that the thermostat is sticking open. Is there a way to test the sensors to see if they maybe bad? I have a 99 ranger with a 4cyl. It looks like I have two sensors. If one is bad, how can I determine which it is?
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I have a 1997 Ford Explorer with 5.0, I have replaced the thermostat and the radiator cap, I drive the truck to work in the mornings (12miles) and it is fine. We live on a mountain and on the way home after getting to the top of the mountain the temperature gauge goes past middle and nears the red but does not overheat completely. Once home I open the hood and the overflow is steaming or sometimes boiling, and I have checked thermostat again to make sure and it is operating normal, I have been told fan clutch, water pump, and I don't want to just throw money at guesses.
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