'89 Camry DX advice / question

[eddo3]

Hi,
I am about to purchase and was wondering what, if anything, I should be aware of with this particular year? It has 71k original miles. Considering the low miles it feels a bit "loose" in the ride compared to my recently purchased '97 Avalon. The steering is also a bit vague, again, by comparison. My Toyota experience doesn't extend beyond October of last year

This is a first car for my 17yo daughter.

Question: does this car have a keyless remote or is it strictly a turn-key deal. The unlocking motion seems a bit heavy (nothing to compare to).

Thanks!
Ed

[atobe]

with 71k that's pretty low milage... check the mantaince history of the car.. i got mine at 75k and it's been great as long as u keep up with mantaince.... see if the timing belt was done recently every 60k... there isn't too many problem with this car it just drives and drives...

about the keyless entry ... might want to look at the LE model and install an alarm or something

[eddo3]

Thanks! I was also wondering if it was "normal" to have the idle stay pretty high on deceleration and then suddenly drop way down to like 500 or so. It seems pretty drastic. No danger of stalling though.

[atobe]

the ECU keeps the engine at 1k-1.2k at long as the car is moving but how high are you talking about ??? when it's in 4th gear it locks the torque converter so you might be pretty high... may be 2-3k rpm going more than 40mph then u step on the brake to a complete stop it should drop accordinging but never from like 2k to 500 in a few seconds if that's what you mean.... and the idle for the car is around 600-800 so 500 range seems ok to me.. may be just a dirty(clogged) idle control valve

[eddo3]

It's probably in the vicinity of 2k requiring a decent effort on the brake pedal, then a sudden drop to low idle. In any case, if I just need to clean the idle control valve it doesn't sound expensive or a reason to walk away from the deal. I will drive it again tomorrow and pay more attention!
Thanks
Ed

[white90dx]

The idle/deccel problem you describe is not normal, but probably fixable without too much effort.

If the car has central locks, you can add a remote easily. No remote was available from the factory though.

The 'loose' suspension is probably a few worn bushings, mainly in the front control arms. It is about $120 in parts off eBay to fix that.

-Charlie

[deddy]

Sounds like some silicon lubricant sprayed in the door's key holes might help.

On mine, the keys were starting to become deformed (twisted) due to the effort required to unlock the door. A little lubricant made a big difference.

Doug