This problem started last Thursday when the high temperature during the day was about 8*F... not sure if it's relevant, but my car (purchased about 4 months ago) behaved perfectly until that day. She sat outside all day while I was at work, then started rough (not much rougher than I'd expect considering the temperature) at the end of the day... driving home, about twenty minutes into the drive she started chugging and exhibiting loss of power. I thought maybe water in the gas, so I added water remover and drove her the rest of the way home. She was fine the next day and fine the day after that, then Sunday she started doing what she's doing now, which is: she starts and runs absolutely perfectly for between 20 and 25 minutes (worth noting that this is about 10-15 minutes *after* the engine has reached operating temperature), then RPMs start fluctuating -downward, but jumping around a bit while they drop- and she starts chugging and sounding like one or two cylinders are being missed. If I press on or try to feather the gas, it gets worse. She also starts smoking... not heavily, but noticeably. I tried to see what color the smoke is, but haven't yet been able to tell. Typically at this point, she'll die... definitely will die if under load, and then can't be started again for about an hour (when the engine is cold again). Then she'll start up and run perfectly for another twenty-ish minutes. Occasionally (I've spent a lot of time in the garage with her the past few days) if I'm just letting her idle, she'll pull through that rough patch without dying, and then will be fine... but 9 times out of 10, she'll die. For information, I have verified that this is NOT being caused by: alternator, battery, plugs, wires, cap, or rotor, as these items are all brand new. I also have a new ignition coil on the way just in case the cold cracked the one I have or something, but that seems doubtful. Anyone have any thoughts? I'm pretty much open to suggestions at this point... Thanks in advance!
SOURCE: 1988 Celica GT Cold start problem and smoke on startup
blue smoke is evidence of oil burning and is most likely valve seals. this can be done on most cars with head still on by applying air to the cylinders this keeps valves up while spring is removed
It does sound like fuel pressure is low or intermittent. Here are some check procedures p172 on
http://www.turboninjas.com/camry/eg1.pdf
Is the check engine light showing a trouble code on the instrument panel? That may pin the trouble down.
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