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Toyota Camry: Problems & Solutions
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Now if a person is willing to do what you do, that is, carefully monitor tire wear, your approach might work. But I don't think most people would want to be bothered. So as a general rule, going with the car maker's recommendations would be better than inflating the tire to just under its maximum rated pressure, IMHO.
My own Camry provides a good example. The '97-99 Camry 4-cylinder came with 14-inch tires made by a number of manufacturers. Some like Michelin had a max tire pressure of 35. Others like General or Dunlop had a max pressure of 44. I had the Michelins and kept them at about 32-33. They wore evenly and I obtained nearly 50K miles from them (rotating them along with the full-size spare). Now I have Kumho tires on the car (don't laugh -- I got a good deal at work). These have a max. rated pressure of 44, yet they are wearing out slightly more in the center, despite my keeping the pressure at 32-33. Otherwise, I can't tell any difference in ride, handling, or noise compared to the Michelins.
Later 210delray
In Toyota’s Technical Service Bulletins (TSB) for 1998 Toyota Camry XLE Sedan V6-2995cc 3.0L DOHC MFI; ( found this at www.alldata.com ) 59. SU001-00 JAN 00 Front Suspension Support Noise - Change Made , and, 28. SU003-98 AUG 98 Front Suspension Groan Noise.
It scares me the way it has slight side to side motion like it is starting to spin out of control. My previous car, a 95 Dodge Stratus with 92K miles, never had this trouble. My '94 Honda Accord did not act like this either.
I think Camry's suspension is too soft. I do not believe the car needs new struts. Does anyone have this problem?
What type of tires do you have on the Camry? Are they M&S (Mud and Snow) rated? M&S tires will give good traction in most snow situations, but are still not as good as true snow tires. I have owned a 92 Camry V6 XLE, a 98 Avalon XLS and currently own a 2000 Acura RL. Both toyotas did fine in the snow, but I generally did not encounter any true ice conditions. Have not yet experiened any snow/ice situations with the Acura, but expect this car to be quite competent. If you are concerned about traction in icy conditions, the best tire that I have used are Bridgestone Blizzaks. I have used these tires on a rear wheel drive 1988 Mercedes 300 SEL. The M/B slipped and slided very eaisly prior to the Blizzaks. Once installed, the car felt incredibly safe in ice and snow road conditions, but as many automobile experts have stated, ice is ice and requires extreme caution in any driving manuevers that are normally considerd to be routine. Happy driving.
Thanks for your comment.
I do have bilzzaks on my wife's '97 Dodge GC. The blizzaks probably help Chrysler's weak transmission from too much tire spinning. Blizzaks are amazing on ice and snow. The soft block treads really do a nice job.
The tires on the Camry are some type of four season tires. I know they are not M+S tires. The Camry has too soft of suspension. It is more like Buick Regal, than Honda Accord. My '94 Accord had very little suspension travel; very sporty ride, but very hard to get in and out of the car. I just hate to stack 8 snow tires/wheels in my garage!!
My Dodge Stratus was doing fine on icy roads with cheapy $39 General G4S tires from Sam's Club. I am surprized that this Camry is on second partially worn set of tires with only 43K miles. the car has not been abused, and there is no pulling or shimming in the steering. The brakes pulsate slightly, not to the point to raplce the rotors yet.
what bugs me is that this strut issue was around since AUG 98 and the dealer did nothing about it while my car was still in the 3 years/36k mile warenty. my dealer claimes that when a recall comes in to them, they will fix it without me asking for it. does anyone else have experiance with this situation?
thank you
The quality (or lack there of) issue in the Toyota is significant. Toyota's hallmark has been long-term reliability. I believe this is NOT the case now. It may well be a myth perpetuated by Toyota. Owners are likely to have false hope based on this myth.
Did you know that some owners are experiencing sludge in the engine and being denied warranty claims? Did you know that these same owners are paying $5,000-8,000 for new engines? Did you know that some 2000 Sienna owners are having torque converter replacements within the first few hundred miles of driving? Did you know that others have had total transmission failures after after a few thousand miles? Did you know that there are other problems common to this vehicle? Have you had:
1) Persistent drifting/pulling to the left or the right
2) Uneven wear of tires with need for early replacement
3) Premature brake component wear, including rear brake drums
4) Power steering problems, including inner tie rod or total rack and pinion replacement
5) Vibrations, esp. at speeds above 50 MPH
6) Premature transmission problems or failure
7) Torque converter replacement, sometimes just after delivery
8) Sliding door latch problems with sticking and difficulty opening
9) Oil sludge in the engine related to a contaminated system
IF you have experienced these problems, please write to the following agencies and file a report detailing your case. THEN, network with others by visiting sites where owners post experiences.
U.S. Department of Transportation
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Office of Defects Investigations
NSA-10.01
400 7th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20590
1-800-424-9393
1-888-327-4236
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov
Center for Auto Safety
1825 Connecticut Ave., NW
Suite 330
Washington, D.C. 20009-5708
http://www.autosafety.org
The Complaint Station--click "T", then "Toyota"
http://www.thecomplaintstation.com
Car Trackers Discussion Forum
http://www.cartrackers.com
Phil Edmonston's Lemon-Aid Car Guides
http://www.lemonaidcars.com
Also, use the USENET groups:
alt.autos.toyota
alt.autos.toyota.camry
Charlene Blake
cblake@erols.com
SU001 and SU003 for 97 and 98 camries.
these 2 issues deal with a defect in the front strut. i found 2 postings here that show other customers found these same problems and luckely they were found while their camry was under warenty.
my car is a 97 with 50k miles (out of warenty). i contacted toyota customer service and they said that if the car was under warenty they would have fixed it, but in my sutuation they can't help (i will need to pay).
can anyone recommend what i should so for my local toyota dealer will repair the defective strut thats been know defective since aug 98.
thank you
The next week I was promptly at the dealership. A different service manager was there. He was a pleasant man. I explained the sound to him. He said it was the strut tower and that it needed to be tightened or replaced. Depending on where the car was manufactured determined which of two strut towers were used and thusly a replacement or tightening. Tightening seemed to me at best a temporary fix. In my view, if the defective strut tower got loose once, it would get loose again sooner or later. So, I quickly said I wanted the parts replaced not just tightened. I mentioned the TSBs. I made clear the severity of the noise in that the parts sounded loose and would soon snap off. That got his attention. (by the way, the sound seemed worse on colder wintery days) The service manager then said we ll put it on the lift and see what s wrong first, then we ll talk about it. I came back in an hour and the first service manager was now in charge of the problem and he said they would definitely replace the two front strut towers. I came back in three hours and my car was ready. The service invoice said that the two front strut towers were replaced. The parts and labor for the job were completely covered by the warranty. I test drove the car over bumpy roads for about one hour and was please with the results of the repair. While driving the car for a few days and closely listening for a sound remnant of the problem only good solid tha-dumps sounded out from bumps. Of course, now begins the test of time.
Please forgive the length of my post. I wanted to give true help to anyone else with the problem I had. The details of the solution were essential to it success.
Be that as it may, it seems that the problem is not Toyota (Sludge or whatever), but with the one who delivers the message.
What do you think?
...and this is separate from my previous ABS question.
With the Camry's brake fluid reservoir, there's not much of a difference between "minimum" and "maximum" so you have to look carefully.
The Toyota Celica, Echo, 4Runner, MR-2, Prius and Land Cruiser are all built in Japan, not the U.S.
If you subscribe to the "Live to Sue and Sue to Live" philosophy touted by crusaders like cblake, things ain't so good with Toyota.(But you have to put her claims in perspective--she has had trouble with literally every car she's owned, and she only publishes info which supports her side of the story.)
Whatever, I wouldn't be to hasty in judging Camry quality--especially since so many of them are built in our "Great White North"!
Gotta go now; I think I'm starting to sludge up.....or maybe my tranny is failing!
I have a 1992 camry with a 151,000km on it, I bought it used, I found out that after three months of my purchase, early in the morning , or whenever the car is cold and if I move the shifter from park to drive , the car bangs real hard and jump up, I have to hold down real tight on the brakes to keep the car steady, but once it is warmed up it doesn't bangs at all, but some times even when warm, it jerks a little, not much as the cold starts.it drives ok on the highway changes gears well , and also when starting up it revs pretty high and takes a while to come down from 2000rpm.
is it possible that i may have transmission failure anytime soon, what can i do to combat this problem. thanks, "canadianboy"
In warm weather, my car hesitates and stalls so much that I am almost afraid to drive it. On several occasions I was almost hit when it stalled in the middle of an intersection. I have to ease the gas very slowly to keep it from stalling, making it nearly impossible to pull out in traffic.
After about 10 minutes, the engine warms up and the problem disappears completely for the rest of the day, until the next morning when I go through the same thing. The strange part is that this does not happen on cold mornings (less than, say 40 degrees). It happens only when it is warm, and then it is OK after the engine warms up, which sound contradictory.
Anybody seen this, or have any advice? I'm eventually going to take it to a shop, but since it has been cold here in NJ for a while, it is not urgent, and I would like to go into the shop with an idea of what it may be.
bnormann
Host
Maintenance & Repair Message Board
'97 I-4 Camry, 25K miles, excess wear of outside shoulder of front right tire (but not front left), I checked with dealer 3K miles ago, no alignment problems. It is getting worse, but no shacking. Any thoughts? Experts out there please help me out in deciding: 1) toe-in or camber problem (I
do not remember which one)? We have to adjust them? 2) replace with a new set of tires, but we have to solve the problems first, otherwise, new tires are going to be ruined quickly. 3) what is your recommendation on the new tires and where I can get a better deal? These are 195/70R14 all season tires. I want good wet traction, long-lasting, quiet and moderate performance all season tires.
Also, '2000 Sienna, bought June, 1999, so it is 18 months old. The battery was weak (could not start) during Christmas Day. I do not drive much (only 9 k miles so far), but I drive everyday during this Christmas, and most highway at least 5 - 20 miles each time. This is in Alabama but the low is 15 - 30 K. I charged battery and it works OK, but I do not think it should happen since the car is only 18 months and 9K old. Can I complain to dealer for a new battery under warrenty or at least ask for partial refund? ALso, for both Camry and Sienna, do we have to recode battery after changing the battery? How? My Camry battery was also weak (could not start) this Christmas, since this is a 3.5 year and 25k old car, it seems acceptable.
Thank you in advance and help is greatly appreciated.
Sha
Sha
I bought the blower resistor at a Toyota dealership for $50. It was probably overpriced, but I wasn't sure I would find such a part anywhere but a Toyota dealer. Anyway, I installed it and my fan now works on all 4 speeds.
I did have a problem finding the old resistor, however. Your post said that it was under ther hood, close to the blower motor. Mine was inside the car, under the glove compartment, against the firewall, approximately where a passenger would have his right foot. I had to remove one under-dash panel to get to it, but I went crazy removing almost everything else inside the car before I found it. I removed the glove box, the radio (and dash trim around the radio), and even the console that surrounds the gear shift lever! I was sure that it was somewhere in the center part of the car, but I finally found it way over to the right side. Oh well, at least I found it and saved a few bucks, and had a chance to clean my center console in the process (it tends to collect a lot of crumbs from my morning bagels).
My car has 215,000 miles, which could have something to do with it. Any ideas?
You may want to have the engine mounts checked. Given the mileage on the vehicle and its age, engine mounts do wear out which will cause vibrations at certain engine speeds. Good luck.
Thanks for any help.
my car still pulls to left .At high speed above 60 mph i feel tire wobbling.I took my car to sears twice and they say the alignment is perfect as per dealer specification.Can any body give me a feed back on this.I took the car to dealer for 15000 service and they did wheel balancing and they did not mention any problem with the tire rod
pls help me ...