1987 - 4 sale Camry should I buy???

[Montanahelp]

My name is John, and I am a Camry-addict!!! OK I have that off my chest. In the paper today was a 1987 Camry with 165K with a description of "lower end problem" clean, auto, blah, blah, blah, $200.00. I called the guy (when my wife was out of the room) and he said he was the second owner and was driving it and it started losing power for about 9 miles and then started screeching really bad. He parked it and said he came back and there was a puddle of oil under the car (don't know if it was tranny, motor, or power stearing oil). What are your thoughts? He made it sound like it was an engine, but it could be the tranny??? Thanks to this forum I has a donor 1988 up on the hill above my house.

THIS FORUM ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nice89]

I saw a puddle under one of my vehicles after it lost power.

I had a 1994 Ford Ranger 2wd with an extremely anemic 4 cylinder and a power wasting garbage ford automatic transmission. The truck was super-slow but it ran pretty well for a few years. Then on a trip from San Fran to San Diego, the front pump seal failed and the tranny started slipping badly. We pulled into a service station and I tried to add some tranny fluid. I started it and heard a gushing sound. That's when I noticed the huge puddle of fluid under the truck. They say once a tranny has slipped you have two options: rebuild or replace. Slipping is the kiss of death for automatics.

However

The truck never made any squealing sound (besides the anemic 4 cylinder straining to climb the grapevine).

I'd say go look at the car. If a puddle of oil was observed under the car, it should not be too hard to see where the leak originates.

Here's the rub. The car has a book value of around $1k. If you buy it for $200, that leaves about $800 to fix it before you are probably better off looking for a car in better condition.

I suspect that to make this a good deal, you will probably have to do the work yourself. If you cannot be sure what is the problem before you buy it, then this car becomes a risky gamble.

You could donate it to charity and take the book value as a tax deduction . . . If you are in a tax bracket above 20%, this car could end up being a strange but worthwhile investment.

[HomeGrown]

Better go take a look at it! If it's a clean car and you already have a donor, sounds like it's project time!
Show him 6 crisp $20's and see if he'll bite.

[88 LE]

$200 is a steal even if the engine and/or tranny is toast. If it has a 3S-FE, I'd buy it and swap in a 3S-GTE.

Go look at the car and take some pics of it if you can.

[TBayToyotaBoy]

If the body is clean, I'd buy it. Even if you can't get your hands on a 3s-gte it would still be worth doing a 5-speed conversion on the 3s-fe. As long as the car isn't pink, or anything

[Montanahelp]

I looked at it yesterday and bought it. It's really clean for a 20 year old Montana car. The noise is coming from the front timing belt area. I loosened the serpentine belt to rule out the a/c, alternator, and powersteering pump. I've never has a waterpump go out on a Camry, but on other vehicles it sounds like it could be the waterpump. The sound is like a rattling loose bearing. There wasn't any vissible water in the radiator.

[timebuilder]

Maybe I'm just not understanding this, but where did you find a 1987 Camry with a serpentine belt?

I have a 1989, and I don't have anything but conventional V-belts.

[Montanahelp]

I guess it isn't a serp belt, its the main drive belt that runs the a/c, alternater.

[timebuilder]

When I had the 95 corolla, my water pump made a lot of noise without losing a drop of coolant. Still sounds like a deal!

I'd first try to figure out where that puddle of oil came from.

OR, you could just go ahead and do a rebuild on the one engine, and then swap it out with new mounts.

[HomeGrown]

PICS! We require pics so you can prove to us that you didn't REALLY buy a pink Camry!

Sounds good... like maybe just a water pump will fix it? That would be most exellent. If it's had reasonable maintenance then the engine itself is probably still strong.

BTW: what did your wife have to say about all this? You mentioned in your first post that you called on it when she was out of the room.

[fredk]

check the timing belt idler pulleys

[timebuilder]

Originally Posted by fredk

check the timing belt idler pulleys

Absolutely. Check everything you can in that area that may be suspect of producing noises.

[Montanahelp]

I dragged it home last friday. Was planning on driving it on the tow dolly, but it wouldn't start at - 3 degrees below zero. I brought along a garage sale come along winch and after messing with it for about an hour I got the car on the dolly.

This past week I got the car in the garage and finally got the upper timing cover off. The water pump drive gear had broken free / sheared from the pump shaft. A chunk was missing from the pump pulley. When I pulled the lower cover the pump bearings all fell out. I pulled the water pump and found all the pump fins were no longer attached to the shaft. I could push the drive belt in over an inch and it still ran - you would be buying a new engine if Toyota'a had interferece engines!

I'm going to replace the water pump, timing belt, front main seal, oil pump seal and gasket. I look at it as a Camry learning experience if nothing else.

I removed the water pump and housing from the block. The new Felpro o-ring that goes between the housing and the block is slightly larger than the grove in the housing. It barely fits in the housing groove. Is this normal?

[fredk]

oh yeah its normal, there is also a ring like that one under the oil pump, its the back rearward gear driven by the belt, get it from toyota they are famous for leaks

[ghost_ryder35]

no, you should buy the camry in my signature