Used Car Buying Question

[Mike T.]

I’m looking to buy a co workers 2003 Camry XLE 4cyl 95k miles in excellent condition. Then I came across many posts on the Camry Forum relative to the 3 rear head bolts stripping out causing a coolant leak. It was said that this was due to a design flaw. Does anyone have first hand knowledge about this flaw and would it pertain to a car with VIN first letter J built in Japan? Thanks for your assistance in the matter.

Topic

[Jake F]

I’m not much help past 4th gen Camrys but you have an advantage being it’s your co-worker as long as he/she’s honest.
Has it been in an accident?
How were your driving habits?
Did you do manufacturer recommended oil change intervals?

You can always CARFAX the VIN to see the [recorded] maintenance.
And as always, check Toyota’s website for recalls on the ‘faulty’ head bolts.

In my network, there’s very few to zero 2003 Camrys for sale. This might be a good thing. I’d say pass.

[Dave Tidman]

A Toyota dealer might be able to help with your question on the engine codes with the issue.

If you are curious, Eric O. did a 6 part series on the repair that is needed for this problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anboZqsTIf4&list=PLaJW8Ju80ORZy2ySuiyKYfHJDD0AaDaDK

Looks like a pretty involved repair.

[Jason White]

I’m a Nissan tech, not a Toyota tech so I can’t really chime in on the specific condition you are mentioning but I can say that be careful about what you “hear” about these so called common problems and defects. Even if there have been a few thousands cars with this issue, consider how many Camry’s that year that have been sold. An example would with with Nissan’s mid sized trucks and SUVs. The whole radiator issue where the internal transmission cooler leaks and coolant then gets into the transmission destroying the transmission. It was so bad that there was even a lawsuit. So far last I heard, about 2,500 vehicles had their tranmissions taken out by this problem. Sounds pretty bad, right? Well Nissan sold over 800,000 of those vehicles in that time span that was effected. Do the math…. not even half of 1%.

[zero]

[quote=”Jasonw1178″ post=180393]I’m a Nissan tech, not a Toyota tech so I can’t really chime in on the specific condition you are mentioning but I can say that be careful about what you “hear” about these so called common problems and defects. Even if there have been a few thousands cars with this issue, consider how many Camry’s that year that have been sold. An example would with with Nissan’s mid sized trucks and SUVs. The whole radiator issue where the internal transmission cooler leaks and coolant then gets into the transmission destroying the transmission. It was so bad that there was even a lawsuit. So far last I heard, about 2,500 vehicles had their tranmissions taken out by this problem. Sounds pretty bad, right? Well Nissan sold over 800,000 of those vehicles in that time span that was effected. Do the math…. not even half of 1%.[/quote]

Pretty much this. There’s literally millions of Toyotas rolling around with that engine, or a very closely related variant.

[Author]

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