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Sedans Toyota Camry Toyota Camry: Problems & Solutions 
5279 messages, Last post on Aug 22, 2006 at 1:43 PM
You are in the Toyota Camry Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
I hope that you all can give me some help. I currently own a 99 Camry with 117K miles. I was just going to trade it in for a new TCH, but when I started my car yesterday afternoon, I noticed a big plume of white smoke coming from the tail pipe.  The mechanic that I use specializes in Toyotas said that it would most likely be the seals and maybe the rings. Now, to fetch a good price for the car, I should probably fix is, but then it means that I am spending more for a car that I was planning to. I would like to get an idea of how much it would cost to repair. If it is significant (the car's trade-in is only $4000), I would rather fix the other problems are are more minor as well. The engine gets really bad gas mileage when I use gas with lower than 91 octane. (20 mpg with 87 octane but about 29 mpg with 91 octane) Is this something wrong with the car or is this just how the car was built. The mechanism that enables the release of the fuel tank panel - Is it easy to replace and where can I find the replacement cheap? Other than that, I have loved this car since day 1 (bought it new). I had the problem starting but not maintaining the rpm to keep the engine running for a while and no one know how to fix it until I found the mechanic that I use now. He only charges me $150 for the idle control unit and it has only been changed once. It will probably be time soon. It seems to go out every 60K miles. Once I fix the seals issue, I would like to know how long people have had before needing additional repairs other than regular maintenance. I am just wondering whether it would be better to just keep the car once I fix it rather than buying the new TCH, great as it may be. Please help. 
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Replying to: toyoman1 (Aug 08, 2006 12:09 am) 
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Re: my concern about rear seat air conditioning vents on 2005 Camry LE, when I switch the airflow to the floor I do get cool air out of the rear seat vents BUT in a typical hot Texas summer day it is virtually useless so I have to switch back to regular front seat vents and try to direct the air to the rear seat which is also not very effective. Is there an e-mail address direct to Toyota where they respond to questions like this?
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Replying to: smile1017 (Aug 08, 2006 11:28 am) |
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Replying to: suydam (Aug 09, 2006 5:54 am)  90K. I have been very happy, but now I'm wondering whether I should retire it and buy a new one.
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Replying to: eg3941 (Aug 09, 2006 4:40 am) That will "baffle" the dash outlets airflow, "forcing" more of the cooled system airflow out of the rear high level air ducting. I have often considered adding booster fans inside the rear ducting to increase the rear airflow. Luckily we don't often have rear seat passengers plus do not have a lot of HOT weather here near Seattle.
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Replying to: wwest (Aug 09, 2006 8:33 am) There are vent outlets under the front seats only, and I haven't yet checked to see if cooled air comes out of them. |
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Replying to: smile1017 (Aug 09, 2006 8:33 am) Are you comparing apples to apples: multiple fillups in the same kind of driving conditions? One way to check would be to take a long trip using regular going one way and premium coming back. Of course, this will only work if the traffic conditions are similar both ways and you're not going uphill one way and downhill back!
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Replying to: 210delray (Aug 09, 2006 11:14 am)  The mileage issue was notice about 1 year into owning the car when I started community about 45 miles one way to work and the premium gas was adding up. I switched a couple of time to 87 and I notice a huge difference in the mileage because I was going to the pump more often. When I asked the mechanic, he just said that it was a typical occurence in cars built in the 90s and early 2000s. When I did the math, it ended up costing me the same so for the convenience of not having to get to the gas station so often, I opted for 91. But this is not major issue. I need to consider whether I need to fix the smoke problem or buy a new car. If I can fix the smoke problem affordably, I would then see about fixing this gas issue. Update: I contacted several mechanics today and they seem to think that it is the head gasket that needs to be replaced. If this is true, they quoted about $1200-$1300 to fix. This would be worth fixing, but does that sound right to the mechanically abled on this page.
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Replying to: bildow (Aug 08, 2006 9:09 pm) 
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