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Listen closely/carefully as you step on the brake with the ignition on. You should hear a single "click" coming from the area near the shifter.
There is an electric solenoid mechanism (thanks, Audi) that prevents the shifter from leaving park until the brakes are firmly applied. If you look in the owners manual you will find directions for using a manual over-ride procedure to actuate the mechanism without using the brakes.
Often behind a blind plate near the shifter which must be removed to access the mechanism. Mine requires a medium size flat blade screwdriver to release the locking mechanism.
The next time you can't shift out of park be prepared to use the alternative method. If that works the most likely problem is an intermittently sticking shift lock mechanism..not an uncommon problem.
I just thought that I would check in with the group. ---- My vehicle now has 62,000 + miles. I am taking it in for an oil and filter change today.
This vehicle has been trouble free for its entire life. ------ Now the Camry is my "back up" vehicle, since I purchased a new 2010 LTZ Chevrolet 4 cylinder Malibu.
As an experiment, I purchased a two inch thick piece of foam, and cut it to the design of the base of the front seat of the Camry, and covered it with a gray towel. ----- Now I sit on the foam. ------ It has made a BIG DIFFERENCE in terms of comfort on long trips. ----- I liked the idea so much, I purchased a one inch thick piece of foam for the Malibu. (Two inches would be too thick for this vehicle.) ---- I covered this one inch thick piece of foam with a brown towel. The seat is now very comfortable. In the future I can now purchase any vehicle that I like, because I can make the seat base comfortable.
Best regards. ---------------Dwayne :shades:
I'm glad you found a fix for the Camry seat. But it's the back of the seat that felt odd to me, along with the bottom. Did you do anything for the back?
What kind of foam did you buy? There are different hardnesses I learned when I visited a reupholstery shop to borrow some pieces for my son's cushion in an egg drop experiment for physics a couple years back.
How many miles on the Malibu? Does it have a 4-speed or 6-speed transmission?
Good luck with both cars and good health to you.
Imidazol97
Keith
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
MODERATOR /ADMINISTRATOR
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Thanks for your help.
it should also be an easy self help problem if your bar is not twisted (like mine was) and is just loose, you would just need to tie the bar up so it doesnt drop down and touch the speakers.
notmybmw is correct as to the location of the trunk torsion bar.
Thanks
Christian
I hadn't experienced the problem for about a month, and then today it occurred again. I turned off the ignition. Restarted the car. Then I mashed down on the brake. At that point I was able to get the car to shift out of brake and into drive. Maybe it was just dumb luck, but it seemed to work.
I have no codes coming up tire pressure is 32 My car has had many shifting issues which the dealership says is normal though I questioned that.
My last tank I got 15mpg local driving. I do let the car warm up for 5 mins in the morning on these cold winter days in chicago. I've never seen this kind of drop before from summer to winter.
The second factor is that most engines experience lower than normal gas mileage whenever the ambient air temperature is below 55 degrees F. This is due to the increased amount of engine heat lost to the atmosphere through the cooling system in cold weather. The colder the weather; the worse your gas mileage will be.
The third factor is the greater percentages of volatile compounds and oxygenating additives (typically ethanol) used in fuel during wintertime. This is done to reduce carbon monoxide emissions and improve starting. But these compounds create worse fuel economy. If you can find gas which has less ethanol in it; your fuel economy will increase. The colder the weather is; the greater the mileage loss will be with ethanol in the fuel.
The fourth factor is that Camry V-6 motors tend to carbon up spark plugs in cold starting and idling. The stock plug design was chosen for use in normal driving. We have found that using a plug with the stock heat range; but with deeper projection of the electrodes and insulator into the combustion chamber will significantly improve cold engine running and fuel economy. NGK and E3 both make plugs of this type. But, if the replacement plug type is chosen by an ignorant or inexperienced person; this type of change can potentially cause engine damage.
Over the years; Toyota has occasionally revised the computer calibrations on their motors, when experience with a given model was found to result in poor performance. When a revised engine control calibration is released by the factory for a given model; an instructional advisory called a TSB (technical service bulletin) is sent to the dealerships. The dealerships can apply this upgraded calibration to applicable models. However; not all dealerships are motivated to keep accurate records of the TSBs they have received; nor to freely apply them to vehicles without some persuasion by owners. It might take some research to accurately determine whether there is a TSB available for your model; but there were several upgrades for shifting and engine response issued during the late 2000s.
Zaken1 gave a good, comprehensive explanation of possible causes for your diminished gas mileage.....but there is one more critical factor for you to consider while "warming up your car for 5 minutes in the morning"!
During this period of time, your fuel consumption (while cold) is INCREASED for all the reasons zaken1 outlined. On TOP of that......you're going nowhere while warming up.....therefore getting ZERO miles to the gallon.
Modern engines require next to NO WARMUP, so, when you get into your car on a chilly morning....start it up....and go. Wait just long enough for all the warning lights to go off (about 5 to 10 SECONDS...not minutes), then put it in gear and GENTLY proceed down the road. Don't hammer the accelerator while your car is in 'warm-up mode', but don't be afraid to get moving on your journey. This will help things warm up even quicker than if you were standing still......AND get some "mileage" out of that higher-than-normal fuel/air mixture the car is running on!
Cheers, from the chilly white north!
Michael
You're not kidding when you say, "not all dealerships are motivated to keep accurate records of the TSBs they have received; nor to freely apply them to vehicles without some persuasion by owners."
The donkeys in my local dealership, Performance Toyota of St. Catharines, Ontario, practically had to be beaten over the head by Toyota Canada before they would even acknowledge that there WAS a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB) regarding shifting problems on the 2007 Camry including the directive to reprogram the Engine Control Module (ECM).
Performance's service staff, including the manager, did their best to make me look like a fool when I walked in with a print-out of the Toyota USA TSB. Their response: "That's not an real TSB.....that's not even an official Toyota document!" They seemed STUNNED that a "lowly customer" had actually even HEARD of a TSB!
It took a week of nagging and prodding....AND three calls to Toyota head office (plus a call from head office back to the dealer) to smarten these guys up, but they finally (reluctantly) performed the TSB.
The thing that really baffled me was that a dealership would be so reluctant to perform a procedure that they were obviously going to be paid by the factory to carry out!
Once again, these guys proved you don't have to be SMART to own a car dealership......just wealthy!
Michael
Catch 22 involved. Most TSB's state that they ONLY apply with/if SPECIFIC customer complaints, and generally only during the initial warranty period.
Under these corporate "rules" why would any dealer service personel bother, what would be THEIR modivating factor, for keeping up to date on TSBs...?
Toyota, by default, is making it quite clear to the dealer service personel that under NO circumstances are they to volunteer information contained within a TSB.
I am also wondering if you can touch on what my car is doing when I am coasting from 45 mph and going through some gears I am experiencing a severe engine braking which isn't normal. The dealer tries to say it is normal. My questioned then would be why on some days the car is engine braking heavely and on other days it is rolling freely without much effort. I have always said my car seems to be in two modes. Sometimes i can just tell I'm not using much Gas to drive around and the car is in this rolling freely mode and other times it gets into this stiff hard engine braking mode and I feel I have to push deeper on the gas pedal to achieve performance.
Hope that wasn't to much but trying to get to the bottom of all my problems. Thanks for your help chuck
But your report of the difference in rolling effort at different times sounds very much like this car would benefit from the computer reprogramming TSB which could be applied by a cooperative dealership. Here is information on two TSBs which may be relevant to your problem:
Vehicle: 2007 Toyota Camry
Nature of Defect:
POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:TORQUE CONVERTER
Bulletin Number:
T-SB-0061-08
Bulletin Date:
May 2008
Summary:
AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION/TRANSAXLE TORQUE CONVERTER SHUDDER IN 2007-2009 CAMRY AND 2008 AVALON. ( NHTSA ITEM NUMBER - 10025103 )
Vehicle: 2007 Toyota Camry
Nature of Defect:
POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION
Bulletin Number:
01506
Bulletin Date:
Dec 2006
Summary:
TCM CALIBRATION UPDATE MIL ON DTC P2716. ( NHTSA ITEM NUMBER - 10020867 )
The second one has to do with fairly aggressive downshifting once you touch the brakes even ever so lightly. Shifting into this more aggressive shift pattern, DOWNSHIFT pattern requires two "trigger" events.
A) The vehicle is gaining or maintaining roadspeed even with the coastdown fuel cut technique in use, active. In other words you're probably coasting downhill.
You apply braking even ever so lightly, or just touch the brake pedal briefly.
The system will then shift into the more aggressive downshift pattern in order to aid your braking with engine compression braking.
You might want to check and make sure the brake pedal light switch is not activating too easily, or with no brake pedal pressure...say VIBRATION.
Is toyota aware of these spark plugs?
Thanks again for your help. Chuck
Mt question is it related to spark plugs can I be sure it was the coil and what causes a coil to go bad?
Thanks for any info. chuck
Yes, I can fully appreciate that a dealer wouldn't spend money/time searching out TSB's and TRAINING their staff on how to perform them.......BUT, when a customer (me) brings them......a) a complaint that is a genuine safety issue and .....b) hands him a document downloaded from the Internet that has a Toyota logo on it AND the letters TSB.......AND a detailed description of a procedure to flash the eprom on the ECM of a specific range of Camrys based on build date and serial number........they ought to sit up and pay attention......NOT try to make me look like an idiot in front of their staff and other customers.
Their performance was shameful!
I don't expect them to "keep up with TSB's", as you put it, but when I do the research, bring the TSB in and hand it to them on a 'silver platter'......along with a description of my vehicle's behaviour that matches the symptoms the TSB describes, I don't expect a "fight" or "pushback" from my dealer......I want cooperation.......if not outright thanks for doing half their job for them.
Bottom line: I don't expect dealers to "volunteer" any information that puts 'their' product in a bad light......but when I'M the one with the information........and it was sourced at TOYOTA.....I don't expect the DENY, DENY, DENY routine that I got from the Performance Toyota dealership.
Scotty
It is possible that a spark plug which was frequently misfiring from fouling deposits could damage the coil which fired it. This is one of the downsides of coil on plug ignition; which was virtually unheard of with distributor ignition or even with dual fire distributorless coils. A set of E3 plugs would be an appropriate remedy for such a problem.
Incidentally; ND (Nippondenso Spark Plug Co) which is owned by Toyota, pioneered the "needle electrode" design which is now used in the NGK plug I specified. The equivalent ND part number is # 3426 (FK20HR-11). My experience has been that the ND plugs run better than the NGKs; but they also are much harder to find. Rock Auto and Sparkplugs.com carry this plug.
You also might find that cleaning the fuel injection throttle body and adding a bottlefull of Chevron Techron fuel system and combustion chamber cleaner to the fuel tank just prior to filling it up will clear up running problems which have seemed inherent in this model. It often takes 50-75 miles of driving for this unique formula to take effect; so please don't settle on other brands of cleaner. This one is really different. (Available at Chevron gas stations, Wal Mart, Auto Zone, Checker, Shucks, Murray, Kragen, and O'Reilly Auto Parts.)
What happened to the transmission? Was it slipping? Shifting problems? Did they tell you what's wrong? Our 2007 camry has 91k miles already and I wonder if I should be worried that the same thing might happen.
thanks,
tony
Assuming the tranny has been serviced according to schedule, or sooner even, then IMO, a LOT longer than 80k. 80 k is only 4 or 5 years of use. Now if we were talking 180k well that is a different story, altho I would still not be too thrilled to have to do a tranny even then.
Some newer auto trannys have a (stated) (Subaru) life expectancy of 180k so why should a Camry auto not at least match the competition? I think it is fairly obvious by now that the 6 speed used in 07 and newer Camry's have issues that, IMO, Toyota should take responsibility for.
I was wondering did you have problems before the trans went out?
Also what size is your engine?
Other than knock due to engine lugging if the knock sensor detects knock/ping PRIOR to spark ignition it simply enriches the mixture to compensate regardless of fuel grade.
Most modern day automatics come from the factory SEALED in order to help prevent dealer or customer "servicing" that more often than otherwise leads to damage.
Would you say the Torque converter is defective and could you give me any advice how to deal with the dealership to get them to verify the problem. The dealership has kept telling me the car is operating normal which I strongly diagree.
Thanks again for your advice, chuck
Toyota has always pride itself on quality. Assumably, a Toyota trans should last over 5 years & 100K miles, at least. Apparently this problem is not isolated to only myself. My question is why would Toyota sell a faulty product? Unfortunately, I put in too many miles on the car in the first few yrs due to job distance, otherwise I would still be covered within the 5 yrs warranty.
Forget about going through the dealer; most of them are money hungry b**tards.
Mike