Toyota Hesitation on Acceleration

6 months ago, I bought a used Toyota Camry, 1997. The Car is automatic, with 4 cylinders. The car hesitates ALOT when you pull away from a stop, which can be awkward when you cannot accelerate past 5 miles per hour in an intersection, or for around 35 feet after. Sometimes it just flat out dies at an intersection, as you begin to accelerate again. Everynow and then, whether it’s idling, or going 50, it’ll buck, like a hesitation of some sort. It’s got new spark plugs, new ignition coil, changed fuel and air filters, and added Heet, and different type of injector cleaners. Those things have not helped in the slightest, and perhaps even made it worse. The car has 192,000+ miles on it, but other than the hesitation, it’s a good car.

Were the plug wires replaced at the same time as the spark plugs and everything else?

I (as always) think your computer is too old and is fried.

They were shortly before, and then again shortly after.

How can we confirm this?

Have you had your computer scanned? Autozone, etc., could do this, see if any codes are present.

Check the Throttle Position Sensor as that sensor influences the richening need for throttling transitions (like the acceleration pump in carburators). It is best to use a digital DVM to check the end point readings and an analog VOM to verify that the resistance changes linearily with throttle opening.

Hope that helps. Get back to us with what it took to solve this problem.

I would vote for the TPS. Don’t go changing out your computer. Computers rarely go bad in vehicles. I talked to a guy who refurbishes many computers for different manufacturers, he loves his job. He said of all teh “core” computers he gets in, 95% of them have zero problems. So he runs the series of tests on them and turns them out as rebuilt/refurbished, and sells them back to the retailers. With a problem as serious as yours, it should be pretty easy to nail down. Check fuel pressure? But as researcher says, just take an analog vom and look for smooth needle swing as you open the throttle and close it.