When my Toyota first starts, the engine hums and runs great. But recently, after it warms up, it suddenly burps and dies. After resting awhile, it may or may not start. After resting a long while, it will start, but a mile or two down the road and it dies again. I have been reading about vapor lock…It is awfully hot here, but this started BEFORE it got really hot, and directly after I filled up with gas at a Pilot Gas Station in Cottonwood, AZ.
The car has a history of burping. My husband “treats” the burp/die event by changing the plugs, rotor & distributor cap and plugwires (they come as a unit). This he did. The car ran beautifully…for about 15 miles, then burped and died and wouldn’t start so AAA had to tow us. He changed the rotor (again) because we had an extra one, and it ran nicely…about 5 miles, then coughed and sputtered it’s way home. Then he changed the fuel filter, and it ran great! But only about five miles, then wouldn’t start and I had to get towed home…but soon as I got it home, it started and ran around the block just fine.
Now, heat could be an issue. It was in the 90’s in Cottonwood, but here in Parker, it’s more like 110 or more. It’s running the same way, just fine then suddenly dying.
Always before, changing the plugs, rotor cap and wires “fixed it” when it started to burp. When this was happening in the past, it would just burp, and only occasionally die. Now it burps and dies regularly, with everything new.
My husband put a bottle of fuel additive in, too, thinking perhpas this is just bad gas, but the tank was full so the additive may not have mixed well.
What do you think, folks. Is it bad gas, vapor lock, or could this be a dying fuel pump? Or what else?
cadillac converter stopped up try replacing that.
What a coincidence! I live in Tucson, AZ where temps have been in the 3 digits for the past 6 weeks or so. My 1989 Toyota Camry has been doing the same thing for at least a month. It runs well when I 1rst start up, but after about 15 minutes of driving, it sputters out at every stoplight. I had a thorough 90k recommended maintenance done a few months ago, and it ran great until recently. Does anyone have any answers ? And what is vapor lock ?
Type in ‘vapor lock’ in the search link here and read what Uncle Turbo said.
Thanks
Uncle Turbo suggests a pressure test for the fuel pump. How do I do that?