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Hey guys just wanted a place to blog about me working on a 90’s Toyota. This is the first time I’m really ever wrenched on a car, and am slowly piecing together the necessary resources to turn this into a worthwhile project. If anybody has practical advice towards what I’m doing then surely let me know. I watch a lot of ETCG and other stuff for repair advice and do have a Haynes manual for helping me along. I’m also budgeting maybe $1000 towards refreshing this car.
My mom’s 1999 Toyota Camry CE has about 245,000 miles of enough maintenance to keep it running ok, drives comfortably as a passenger car and takes her to her two jobs. Because maintenance overhaul was never on her agenda, I’ve taken it on myself to work on it.
I like the car because its easy to understand and work on. Engine is revvy enough to be fun. Manual throttle cable, hydraulic power steering, plenty of road feel communication. But it is a nearly 20 year old car and needs work in order for it to be roadworthy. Driven gently it hasn’t been on any 70 mph highways in years and probably shouldn’t be taken above 65 mph because of the worn parts.
Here’s my list of fix-it items on the car:
steering squeak – FIXED with lithium grease
bad tires – PENDING FIX 4 Michelin
worn suspension (clunks rattles)
worn struts (bouncy)
rusty, grooved brake rotors
Oil leak all over everything – rear main seal and oil pump seal are major causes
fouled cats and CEL code
EGR-related code
Evap code
scratched / hazy windshield
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First thing done was wash the car. Chemical Guy’s Citrus Wash mixed with Meguiar’s Shampoo Plus, tons of scrubbing to remove moss and stuff growing on the paint. Clay bar on the good parts of the paint and windshield. Wax / spray wax. Cleaned the headlights with a DA polisher and some compound. Then vacuum the interior and leather conditioner on the seats. I run a small-time detailing and steam cleaning business so I had everything on hand.
Then an oil change. I drove the car before the change and you could hear the cams rattling against the rockers. Drained, put in a Fumoto drain valve ($20), and added Valvoline 10w30, $15 5qt @ walmart. Wix filter $7 @ amazon. The car probably takes a slightly lighter weight oil but in this old engine it’s probably alright. .
Next, new tires Michelin Defenders in oem tire size. $60 each @ Tirerack, $15 shipped ea, I bought them two at a time to space out the costs. I feel like I got an alright deal, but I got these without any thrift in mind but probably should have looked at some rebate specials or looked for free shipping, but too late now. Tires will be installed when i can drive the tires 150 miles home. Update on that later in June.
Other stuff, stuff like brakes, quick-struts, suspension might be drawn out over the summer. Rockauto is my friend with all that. Here’s a close up vid of all that stuff and what it looks like:
Right control arm bushing cracked:
For the emission stuff, I’m wondering if I could cheat the O2 sensor with a spacer, and look further into what’s up with the EGR problem. Here’s a video of me messing around with it:
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Pics from sunday. So I was cleaning out the back of the car was full of stuff from almost 10 years ago, beach towels, sports equipment like weights and lacrosse stuff, fishing hooks and stuff. My mom just hoards shit in the car when she doesn’t want it in the house so I cleaned out most of the junk.
And I found a prize.
A K&N air filter? I checked the p/n and sure enough it was for a Camry. I ran inside and asked mom why she had a $50 performance air filter in the trunk, and she had no idea where it came from.
Well I removed the old filter and there was a ton of debris behind it including a cigarette butt. I vacuumed out the whole intake box then gassed up the car and hit a back road with it and it sounds good! A little throatier intake noise, you can hear more suction going on there (though there might be a leak). The car was already had a smoothly revving redline and I think this made it even better. Mom thinks its funny that I made her car louder so that’s good.
I have to check but there are places out there with free shipping and price matching. I always do this and have the shop of my choice do mount and balance. You don’t really want to use stopleak if you can avoid it
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Wish list of parts:
Suspension (Front):
Beck / Arnley Control Arms w/ Ball Joints Front Left and Right
Beck / Arnley Stabilizer Links Front Left and Right
KYB Struts Front Left and Right
Brakes (front)
Beck / Arnley brake pads (front)
Beck / Arnley rotors (front)
@Angrysmileyface you’re probably right, if it aint broke don’t fix it on the engine. It runs so great I’d hate to ruin that aspect. I’m antcy to fix the issue when the looming teardown and seal fix does not sound cheap.
I would suggest cleaning the engine first and add a uv dye to the oil to determine where it’s really coming from. If I remember the 2.2 it leaks from the valve cover and the cam seals after a fashion
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Camry FINALLY got the new tires on! They are awesome! Discount tire was pretty darn expensive for mounting steelies I gotta say.
Half quart top-off and a sip of ATP AT 205, which hopefully it will help stop some leaky seals. Going to an oil change after 200-400 miles with a max life 10w30 after, and we’ll see the result!
Might be a good idea to do a Compression test on the engine before you spend to much labor and money on engine. That will give you a better idea how things are holding up internally. Also pull spark plugs look at how they are burning, and see if they need to be replaced. Would suggest just replacing them. Get NGKs preferably.
The Camry has consumed / leaked about a quart of oil since last update about a month and a half ago. No idea if the ATP 205 additive affected the significant oil burnoff or if it is just the severe wear that the engine has at the moment. IMO, I think the ATP 205 did work at stopping some leaks, and I’ll do a spot test in the garage later. I think im losing oil mainly by burning off in the cylinders. Bought another 5 quart, but this time a synth blend of Valvoline MaxLife 10w30 and topped it off, and a Wix filter, oil change is planned for sooner rather than later.
I’m going to need to at least do a couple flushes and a BG 109 EPR cleaning, and then I’ll look into a compression test. Also question, I planned on cycling about 5 quarts old 0w-20 I had lying around to help remove the sludge after running BG 109 EPR. Do you think that would be ok if I just mixed it with some of the 10w30 to rinse it out?
So update from last weekend, had a big maintenance weekend for all my cars, doing various things.
The Camry got a clean / flush with BG EPR 109, which is an engine solvent. Poured the entire can into crankcase, turned car on and idled about 1500 rpms for 10 minutes. Drained the fluid (using a fumoto valve) and filled with old 0w-20 that I had extra laying around. Ran that for 10 minutes to hopefully help the flush before changing the oil filter, drained and added 4 quarts of Valvoline Max Life 10w30, new Wix oil filter. Took the car down the road in 2nd gear and revved her up and baked in the new maxlife oil additives.
No compression results or anything yet. I don’t seem to have any symptoms of engine problems other than my evap and other emissions stuff needing addressing. I need a friend to help me out with further DIY, being honest.
I have noticed a lot less oil burning out the tailpipe or smell since this oil change, so maybe the oil changes and additives cleaned up some gunk on the oil rings! Oil spotting is less too.
Right now I’m thinking about changing the fuel filter. I’m a bit nervous about doing it, I wonder if I buy it at a Autozone or Pep Boys if I can get one of the staff to give me help in the parking lot on that.
Also I am concerned after hearing about sludging on Toyota piston rings, so I might continue with the BG 109 treatments after the next few oil changes and see if engine cleaning helps. Or I might try a piston soak with mmo or seafoam through the spark plug holes, and change the spark plugs.
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