Camry check engine light flashing?
Asked by BEL19VE Nov 01, 2014 at 12:45 PM about the 1996 Toyota Camry LE
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
The check engine light started flashing on the freeway earlier today on my 1996 Camry. It
felt like it is choking and loosing power wile accelerating. A few days ago my father in law
took a look and said that there is oil in one of the spark plugs. What could be the
problem?
8 Answers
A flashing CEL indicates a more serious fault has been detected by the OBD than a steady on light. You 1996 has OBDII, get a scan soon, very soon
I did one 3 days ago when the light came on. Autozone said 1 of 3 things: Air leak somewhere in the exhaust, O2 sensor or Cathartic converter. Today the light started flashing
P0420 I am guessing. It might just be shop time, unless you are experienced at these things. They have to be eliminated one at a time until culprit is found See http://engine-codes.com/p0420_toyota.html if that is what the code is, or if I am wrong, plug in the code at the same site instead of 0420 and it will help point you on what to do
Your catalytic convertor may be plugged up, or getting hot..they get very hot normally but hot to the point of glowing red, it's running very lean, if the cat is 10-15 years old or 100,000 miles at least, that may be it
Yeah the car is 1996 and 205000 miles.
Those old Camrys and Corollas of that generation are better than the new ones IMO. Take care of her and you will get another 200k
Guru95C99V answered 3 years ago
Mine was doing same thing acting like it was smothering out with check engine light flashing with over 200,000 mileage it ended up being the charcoal filter which had to be order from Toyota about a 300$ part plus 75$ mechanic fee