1993 V6 issues, mileage power steering. - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Barcs · 03-05-2007, 11:42 AM

Hi everyone! I'm new to the forum, but I've been reading the threads here for a little bit. I'm loving this forum so far. I just had a couple questions about my camry. Overall I'm very happy with the car, as it runs great, but there's just a couple things bugging me.

I recently purchased a 1993 V6 LE. It's got about 164,000 miles on it. The dealership claimed that the previous owner took very good care of it, but I have my doubts due to the condition that the spark plugs and other things were in. The PCV valve was incorrectly installed as well. So anyways to make a long story short I gave it a full tune up (sparks, wires, distributer rotor & cap, fuel filter, pcv valve, air filter & oil change). Here are my questions.

1. Is there any other recommended maintence I should do or check out at point? I'm planning to clean the intake manifold and do the grinding mod that I read about on here this weekend.

2. Ever since I got the car it has been making a whining sound. I was worried it might be the timing belt since it came from that area, so I took it to a friend of mine, who's a toyota mechanic. He told me it was the power steering pump. I took his word for it and replaced the pump, but it still makes that same whining noise. It's a tiny bit quiter, but it's still quite noticeable. Should I be worried about this? Is there anyway to fix this problem? It's not a screech or anything like that, it's a whine, and it's a lot more noticeable when I turn the wheel and when I first start the car.

3.It only gets 19-20 MPG. Is this normal for a car this old? It seems kind of low. I was expecting like 22 or 23. Are there any tweaks I can do to increase the mileage? Also I read in the owner's manual that you should use gasoline with an octane rating of 91 or higher. Now plus is 89 octane, and super is 93, so does mean I have to use super all the time? I've been using plus, but occasionally have been going super.

I apologize for the barrage of questions, being that I'm new and all, so any help/recommendations you guys can give me is greatly appreciated. Like I said, the car is running great but I'm just nervous about the whining plus I have an oil leak to fix (probably the valve cover gasket). Thanks a lot!

Axel Kain · 03-05-2007, 11:49 AM

id do some fluid flushes, also a timing belt/water pump is a good idea. id wait a week or so, to see how the milage does, all the tune up stuff needs to adjust, and computer needs to compensate.

alotawatts · 03-05-2007, 11:54 AM

Auto or manual transmission ?

Barcs · 03-05-2007, 12:40 PM

It's an automatic. Yeah I did the tune about a month ago, so the computer should have adjusted by now. Before I did that the mileage was about 17 MPG.

Axel Kain · 03-05-2007, 05:30 PM

well then, make sure youre running in o/d, and lift that lead off the gas pedal. also, how are those o2 sensors?

BlueFusion6851 · 03-05-2007, 09:03 PM

First of all welcome!

It's nice to see another member with a 3vz.

-First off, replace all spark plugs, wires, and distributor (if not already done so, i didn't read through your whole post)
-Run a can of seafoam through your brake booster line and through your gas tank.
-Watch the foot (I'm the biggest hypocrite here when i say that)
-As far as the whine goes, when you replaced your P/S pump, did you bleed the system out and prime the new pump? (I've heard that it might help.)

Barcs · 03-06-2007, 10:26 AM

Thanks for the responses!

Axel Kain, yes I am running with Overdrive on. I usally don't punch it when I'm driving, and if I do it's only for a brief time period. I'm not sure where the O2 sensors are. I'm assuming they are part of the air intake system near the mass airflow sensor, right? Is it difficult to check them out? Should I just make sure they are nice and clean? I'm taking the intake manifold off this weekend to give it a good cleaning so I could check that out as well. Thanks!

BlueFusion, cool! We almost got the same car and same mileage!

Yes I already gave it a tune up, plus have put in about 3 bottles of STP fuel injection cleaner since I've got it. Do you still think it's necessary to put seafoam in the gas tank? Also to run it through the brake booster line, do I just add it to the brake fluid, or is it more involved? I also had a mechanic friend of mine do the PS pump for me and I'm assuming he primed the pump. He told me that the fluid might have got airated or something like that so I will have him check that out next time I see him. Thank you very much for the advice!

Barcs · 03-06-2007, 04:01 PM

Also do you guys recommend using any oil treatment or oil sealant? Right not I'm using Castrol GTX high mileage oil. I do have a leak (approximately 1 at a week)but a lot of people tell me not to use that stuff because it's bad for the engine.

THANKS!

Toysrme · 03-06-2007, 04:49 PM

Castrol sucks, unless it's German castrol. Use mobil1 5w-30, or 5w-20 if you want alittle more mileage/performance. You also didn't read your manual. it's 91RON not 91 octane. 91 ron = 87 octane...
Running more than 87 will do nothing mroe but decrease performance, eocnomy, and increase emessions.

Up the timing & lean the AFM cog abit.
Change the plugs, NGK/denso ONLY. Copper plugs FTW.
Splice in new generic o2 sensors.
Seafoam the oil & swap to mobile 1. Seafoam the intake.
Clean the intake manifolds by hand with a flap-wheel sanding disk.
Clean the EGR, IAC, Throttlebody valves, etc.

PatrixUSA · 03-06-2007, 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toysrme

Castrol sucks, unless it's German castrol. Use mobil1 5w-30, or 5w-20 if you want alittle more mileage/performance. You also didn't read your manual. it's 91RON not 91 octane. 91 ron = 87 octane...
Running more than 87 will do nothing mroe but decrease performance, eocnomy, and increase emessions.

As to Octane rating for the V6, Toyota recommends 91 or higher for improved vehicle performance.

http://toyota.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/t...i=&p_topview=1

Camry V6 - 87*, then read the asterisk. The above link is for 'current model year vehicles' but my 96 manual recommends 96 Research Octane Number, which is 91 Octane, for improved vehicle performance.

PatrixUSA

Barcs · 03-08-2007, 09:37 AM

Yes, that's exactly what it says in my book. Unfortunately they don't have 91 octane so I'm stuck buying 93. I guess it won't really hurt if I put in 89 octane right?

Thanks for the help everyone. I'm going to check out all of those things (O2 sensors, intake manifold) this weekend.

Also as far as using Mobile 1, I thought it wasn't a good idea to start using synthetic oil on an older vehical. I've always used castrol and thought it was a good oil.

Barcs · 03-09-2007, 11:01 AM

I'm going to remove the valve cover tonight and probably replace the gasket to fix the oil leak. I'm just wondering if there's anything else you guys recommend before I do it?

THANKS!

Axel Kain · 03-09-2007, 01:29 PM

o2 sensors are in the exhaust maniflods, open hood, look down, where there is a metal cover, on the drivers side sticking out of that is the o2 sensor. thare also is one on the back manifold, harder to get to tho.

BlueFusion6851 · 03-09-2007, 01:51 PM

Hopefully sludge won't be much of an issue for you.

Barcs · 03-10-2007, 02:07 AM

^haha wow. You have the same color as me too. Only difference is I have the gold emblem package thing and different hub caps!! Rock on! The oil is pretty clean after about 3000 miles, so that's definitely a good sign, although I've been adding oil every week.

Update. I followed the Haynes manual on bleeding the power steering system. It said to turn the car on and basically turn the wheel back and forth. It didn't seem to help. Is there some kind of air release screw on the pump itself? I'd like to check it out, but it requires jacking up the car and yanking off the tire, and wall behind it, so I'd rather know for sure before I do that.

I ordered a Valve cover gasket and the intake manifold gasket set, so once they come in I'm going to get into that stuff. Should I take off the entire manifold to clean it out, or would spraying the intake cleaner right into it be ok? I also added some seafoam to my gas tank and to the engine and notice almost an immediate difference in pick up. Sadly though I drove the car to fill up the gas tank, and I checked the mileage and it was only 18 MPG... less than the last time. That might be because I ran 93 Octane that tank. I filled up with PLUS (89) this time. Thanks for all of your help so far!