I have a 1999 Toyota Camry with 175K miles. UEsterday when merging onto the highway, the car suddely lost power, turned off, and the check engine light and battery light came on. I pulled into the breakdown lane, waited a few minutes and started the car up again. Any ideas?
These type of things happen to cars that do not recieve regular maintiance or were just in the shop and a repair was not done correctly. Am I describing your situation correctly?
Oldschool makes an excellent point as always.
I’ll add that an intermittant connection (read: corroded battery cable end) can cause this sort of failure also.
In truth, in a 175K mile car lots of possibilities exist.
The car receives regular maintenance including oil changes every 5k; its last major tune up was at 165K, and I had the transmission flushed as well at that time. I still have the car serviced at a Toyota dealer. No recent issues or repairs.
The Same Mountainbike’s explanation seems plausible; the car is driven less than 7500 miles per year now, and sometimes can sit for more than two days without being turned over. This has not happened again but since inspection is due this month, I’ll have the battery cables checked out, as well as the battery when I’m at the dealer for inspection.
Thanks for your time.