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It's held in place mainly with plastic clips which have to be pried off. I believe there's a few small bolts holding it too. You'll likely have to replace one or both halves -- these should be readily available at a Toyota dealer. Plan on buying some replacement clips as well, because these tend to get damaged as you pry them out.
On a long shot, you might try a salvage yard, but the odds of finding a decent, undamaged one are low.
It happened to me yesterday
I banged bumper on the side and it had a 6 " dent
after an hour it is gone!!!
just kidding...delray is right...he usually is...see my original story...
but in my case
it was night
and car was parked inside garage
at it was 65 degrees!
My question is about the trans. Right from the beginning I have had a downshift (or is it upshift) jerk. When I slow down and come slowly to almost a stop and then have to accelerate, if I don't press the accelerator very gently, I can experience a jerk. I know if I take it to the shop they won't find a problem because it's not consistent. Has there been any documented problems with this transmission?
PS: I would agree with the comments about the seats. They do need more comfortable seats. On the other hand compared to our previous Fords the other interior comfort features are above average. The climate control features are great. My wife drives the car and she loves the heating system. On the coldest day the car warms up very fast compared to what we used to drive.
Sounds as if you're describing a "form", effect, or maybe partial fix, of the 1-2 second transaxle downshift delay/hesitation. For more details see the Camry TSB issued in the spring of '03.
I have a 2003 Camry XLE 4cly, my first Camry that I purchased used at 46k miles certified and I really like it but the heater core just leaked and coolant is all over the driver’s carpet all the way to the back floor. Car now has 62k miles but two months ago at 60k miles I took it to a non-Toyota local shop to get the coolant flushed. I didn’t put two and two together at the time but after that service I noticed a ‘running water’ sound under the driver’s side dash after starting. It would eventually go away. I now know from other posts and forums that the noise was probably air in the heater core. I’m not sure it caused the leak or if it was the green antifreeze they used instead of Toyota red, but when I called for estimates, two local Toyota dealers said that it was very unusual for a Camry with just 62k miles to have this problem. The non-Toyota shop I eventually had the car towed to, which is different then the one who did the flush service, said they had not seen it at that low of mileage either. So the question is did the shop that did the flush cause the problem by leaving air in the lines or by using green antifreeze? This is going to set me back $1,000 and if that’s not bad enough, I’m hoping the carpet can be cleaned enough to not smell antifreeze.
Or did they maybe replace the radiator cap with a higher pressure, too high, one..??
PS: My '92 LS400 used the factory original coolant until a few years ago at 100k plus miles when it started appearing a bit murky.
The flush shop also didn’t give me an option with the green antifreeze. Not that two months and 2k miles using green instead of red would make a difference, but they basically precluded me from making a goodwill appeal to Toyota to possibly go halfers on the cost since we currently own three Toyotas. Once I told the dealer it was green, he said too bad. I’ve also asked the current shop that’s doing the work to save the core so I can inspect it, but my thinking is that I still can’t prove it was shop error. Looks like I’ll have to eat this one.
She will never drive it on a highway and lives in a small town.
We were thinking about a good used camry.
Here are my questions,, a man in her town has a 98 or 99 camry with 28k miles and wants $8500 for it. When I run the blue book values on it he seems to be asking about 2000$ to much.
Is there any way this could be a good value??
My brother thinks it is and I think it isn't.
Any good reason to pay extra??
There were a few things that have made me question the actual miles of this car.
While I was looking at it I was blabbing about how my wife puts about 50K miles per year on her camrys,, this man told me he used to put that kind of miles on his cars, before he retired.
I have known people who would disconnect the speedometer/ odometer to conceal the mileage.
also the tires had been replaced and it looked like they had a fair amount of wear on them.
1) The heater core was defective from the factory that supplied it to Toyota in the beginning, and it was likely to breech soon anyway - the flush may or may not have sped up the process. YOUR OPTIONS?: the car is out of warranty, and the manufacturer has no obligation to guarantee the car forever. Although this is unusual it seems, and not really justified - stuff happens, and they most likely won't, as they don't NEED to step up on this one.
2) The independent shop did actually damage the core by over pressurizing somehow, and blew out a weak spot that may never have breeched otherwise. One thing for sure is; by switching you from Dexron (pink) coolant to Glycol, you are assured of having Toyota back out of any implied obligation they may have felt, because you had someone other than a Toyota authorized dealership work on the car. All bets are off now, and converting the system from pink to green stuff, is not recommended for a variety of reasons. They did screw you with the dealer by doing this though, at the very least, whether or not they blew out your core, or it just blew out itself. YOUR OPTIONS: If you really want to fight this - ask the dealer to give you some type of documentation relative to the reason Dexron is used as the coolant in the first place, and why it should not be mixed or changed over to Glycol. Then take this to the independent shop and hold them liable for the expense of changing out the core under the premise that had they refilled with Dexron as they should have, the dealer would not have known that an independent shop did the flush, and MAY feel some obligation to help you. But as it is, they are off the hook, and you are screwed. Ask the independent shop to fix the heater core free, or for a substantially reduced price due to their negligence.
Frankly, why a shop would refil with glycol is beyond me, there is no reason for it. Just lazy, or hate cats. Who knows.
3) You have no recourse with Toyota now, because their baby was doctored by neanderthals who are color blind - your only recourse is with the independent shop. You could sue in small claims court for damages, being the cost of the core repair. You'll likely win something, if you care to push it to that level. BUT, in the event this falls under a "Stuff Happens" column, ie: We'll never know why it blew, it just blew, and perhaps nobody is to blame, hey, you drive a car that is out of warranty, plan on a few fixes once in a while. If you lease, or always drive a new car under warranty, you don't have these headaches, but you pay a price for it too.
It doesn't sound like it is, because the level in the coolant overflow reservoir isn't going down.
Thanks for your advice.
Intake Manifold was leaking
Head Gasket was leaking
The head bolts were stripped and needed to be re-threaded!!
For a bonus, I also got to replace the water pump and a couple of belts.
Aside from a broken thermometer a few months ago, this is the first problem with my 2003 Camry LE 4 cyl. It has 130,000 miles on it.
This hurts... where did the quality go...
Has anyone else had this problem??
The intake manifold/head gasket problem started about 30 days later. The first symptom was that I started to hear "slushing/gurgling" noises when I was accellerating from a stop (most pronounced when going up a hill). In retrospect, this was from a combination of the coloolant leaking and air pockets being introduced into the coolant from the leaking head gasket.
The car overheated (to just before the "red" line) only once and only for about 1 minute. (It had lost enough coolant for this to happen -- and I accellerating up a steep hill at the time.) When this happened, I also noticed that there was no heat coming in through the vents. I shut off the car immediately. I doubt this small amount of overheating contributed to the problem.
If the mechanic is to blame for stripping head bolts (which I doubt), that was only $500 of the $2,600 bill.
By the way, two more interesting things:
- the leak was pretty slow. I heard the slushing/gurgling for 1 week+ before the coolant was low enough for a serious overheating problem. Also, at first the mechanic only replaced the intake manfiold. For about another week I was monitoring the coolant level. It took about 5 days to go from the "fill line" to the bottom of the reserve. That's when I took it again and replaced the head gasket.
- the Toyota dealership told my mechanic that he's sold 13 intake manifolds in the past month.
So my advice: if your 2003 (or similiar year) Camry is leaking coolant, either trade your car in now, check the intake manifold and head gasket, or both.
How often should I replace cabin air filter and air filter and which brand Toyota or K&N?
Any suggestions about time intervals for changing coolant and transmission fluids?
What's the deal here generally. Seems like everybody is whining that their car should never break down. It has 130,000 miles of trouble free service on it. It has served you well. Sure, it would be great if it never broke, but lots of variables go into the history of the car, plus, it was nearing the end of its lifespan anyway. If you run a car over 100,000, things may happen.
I would appreciate any input you have, since you seem to know a lot about the situation.