Friday 7 October 2011

Check engine light keeps coming on and smell strong fuel fumes from exhaust?

I have a 1996 toyota camry that i bought 2 months ago. (2.2L engine.)

I had a check engine light come on recently. I took it to Aamco and they ran a diagnostic test for free. They said %26quot;it was misfiring in 6 areas and it needs a major tune up.%26quot; I decided to do it myself and save $$$. I did a good job. I replaced spark plugs, wires, PCV valve, air filter,distributor cab and rotor. I did each spark plug(gapped) and wire one at a time. After job was completed. Check engine light still on. Then changed air filter and PCV valve. Nothing. Then I change distributor cap and rotor. Bingo! The check engine light went off! My car ran great for two weeks. Then today i was driving and the %26quot;check engine light%26quot; comes back on! I smell strong odor of fumes from exhaust pipe. Maybe needs fuel injectors cleaned professionally? I think thats a waste of money. Could it be oxygen sensors? Mass Air flow meter? Fuel filter? Gas cap. I'm tired of wasting my money. I need help please.Check engine light keeps coming on and smell strong fuel fumes from exhaust?The strong fuel smell in your exhaust means your misfire problem has not gone away. Since the cap, rotor, plugs and wires were all recently replaced, pull the plugs and examined them. If there is a sign that they are all misfiring, check your cap and rotor, and if needed, see if there is a problem with the coil. If the coil is going bad and is damaging components down the line, get it fixed and then do your tune-up again if needed.. (If your plugs, wires, cap, rotor, etc... have been damaged) Get your check engine light scanned for a code again, and make sure you know what you are fixing first. I would be willing to bet that your misfire code came back. Also, if you're getting a lot of fuel down your exhaust, check your O2 sensors as well. Fuel can get on them and they will no longer function properly and you'll have to replace them.

Start with the code, and go from there. Hope this helps.
Check engine light keeps coming on and smell strong fuel fumes from exhaust?
you could have bad catalytic conveter, they create a bad smell, and they turn on the check engine light also

you should also take your car for another diagnostic test to see if anything has changed
Check engine light keeps coming on and smell strong fuel fumes from exhaust?
your cars ecm monitors several things. when a fault is detected it stores a code and triggers the check engine light. go to local auto parts store such at autozone they will scan for any codes for free. the code (s) will tell you exactly what has failed. more than likely it the oxygen sensor but before you go replacing parts get the scan. it will save you lot of money. i bought a code reader for myself for about $50 and it works great. mine also resets the computer after the fault is corrected. as far as oxygen sensors go my vehicle has three on in each exhaust manifold and one after the cat and an o2 sensor will throw a code. the last one i had to replace threw a code which was for the o2 sensor heater r.b.
Unfortunatelly there is no real way to tell without knowing why the check engine light is on again. Something to check is to make sure all the wires are all the way down on the spark plugs and clicked on. Aftermarket wires have a bad habit of creaping off. Next I would pull the cap and look for some type of carbon tracking inside will prob look like a small lightning bolt. Otherwise there are a lot of places that will scan your car for free. Good luck
Most cat converters do not throw trouble codes by the way because the O2 sensor is before the cat. You are probably running very rich and all of the repair procedures you mentioned will not fix this problem, you probably are misfiring, but this isn't always the spark plugs. If you have a multipoint spark coil (magnavox coil) or seprate coils instead of a distributer then one of your coils could be bad, autozone checks these for free.