Hit a curb hard - acceleration lags, inconsistent RPM, & strange humming noise (at higher speeds)

Godot
Fri, 13 Dec 2013 20:01:41 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

Yesterday I lost control of my roommate’s 1997 Toyota Camry LE, spun out going about 50mph and plowed into a curb head-on, popped over it and slid down the ditch. Sadly I was driving his car because my 97 Escort crapped out & I’m waiting on some parts to arrive. Now there are 3 symptoms since the accident.

1. First thing I noticed, at idle the RPM is inconsistent. The needle wavers back & forth, somewhat slowly and not a lot, but it does by probably a few hundred RPM & I can hear the difference too. No noticeable vibrations though (and if the alignment is messed up I can’t tell) and it hasn’t dipped low enough to stall.

2. When i push down on the gas the car barely moves forward. In fact, I think the speed at which it’s moving forward is the same speed as just being off the brake. I can give it a ton of gas or just a little and for a second or 2 nothing really happens, then the RPM jumps up to I want to say around 3,000 and the car starts moving forward quite quickly. This effect seemed to be only coming from a stop, but I noticed today it seems to do the same thing (but much more mildly) if I get completely off the gas while at speed and then start giving it gas again. If the car is already moving along though it seems generally just as responsive to the gas as always. My initial thought is that it might have something to do with the main air intake hose being wrecked - I can’t say for sure if it was cracked before the accident or not, but it certainly has a large hole in it now. I thought covering that hole with some duct tape (just as a test, not permanently) might mitigate the problem but it doesn’t seem to at all so I’m not sure if this is related. I’ll obviously replace this regardless.

3. I didn’t notice this right away because it’s so quite at low speeds or maybe not even present at all. But once I get going a decent speed, maybe above 30mph, the car makes a humming noise. It’s a medium tone, not real high pitch, not real low pitch and it’s… cyclical? Don’t know how exactly to describe it but to say it’s kind of like: mmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmMMMMMMmmmmm
haha, sorry for that, but I hope it conveys my meaning. The interval seems consistent, and it definitely gets louder the faster I go, and is quite loud as I get up to 65-70mph.

I gave the car a once-over immediately after the accident. Nothing under the car appeared to be damaged and looking under the hood… well we’re both broke recent college grads and this is old car that isn’t mine, so it’s tough to say, but that’s when I noticed the damaged air hose. I assumed I caused that because the end not attached to the engine is attached to something that can move up & down a lot, the hose is somewhat brittle, and hitting the curb seems like a probable cause. I could not visually identify anything else. No new smells, no smoke, exhaust amount & color seems the same.

Any ideas? Between us we could maybe come up with a couple hundred dollars to put into this, but before taking it somewhere and just saying “Please figure out what went wrong” I’d like to have some ideas. OH! Almost forgot, roommate had said that a fuel vapor something or other had a leak, possibly a vapor recovery or purge control valve… something like that. Sorry I can’t ask him, I’m at work & he’s home with the flu.

Thanks everyone, very much!

34 posts - 14 participants