I'm a girl and don't know if I should keep this car

[kcannon1321]

I purchased a 1997 Camry 2.2L L4, FI, 16V in 2003 with 80,535 miles. It started pouring black smoke about a week later. I learned about the oil gelling/sludge problem and took it to a dealer. They replaced the valve seals and valve cover and sent the head out for cleaning and replaced the pick up screen. Put a new cylinder cover, gasket kit, oil strainer, super flush, fipg oil pan, roloc disc, oil filter, non-chlor brake c, gasket water out, and ring. This is from the receipt. They did this under good will warranty. I paid for the following: gasket in strut tops, air filter, tune up, fuel system clean out, timing belt, power steering belt, and drive belt. Replaced the front seals, did transmission flush, replaced the rear main seals, and coolant flush. They did all this because they said the car had not been maintained. Since then, new battery, 3 new belts (not sure which ones), new rack and pinion assembly, new right axle (boot was disintegrating), 3 sets of brakes and 2 sets of tires. I have had the oil changed every 3000 miles with Castrol. I had the fuel system flushed with the last oil change (a couple of weeks ago).

The car now has 130,000 miles and and is in the shop again. It was making a whining sound and then the low oil pressure warning light started flickering when the car was stopped (the manual said if the car was stopped and this flickered, but went out when the accelerater was pressed (that's what happened), not to worry (the engine wasn't being ruined). My mechanic found that part of the balance shaft is disintegrating and needs to be replaced. There are metal shavings in the oil from this part (a cam I think he said). I did learn from your forum last night that it would be ok to not put it back and plug the oil hole. I am going to take this information to my mechanic today. He has been searching junk yards for one, as Toyota quoted him $800 for a new one. He will also replace the timing belt and water pump since he's got the engine out. I guess what bothers me is he says that the bottom of my engine is filthy - full of gunk. He also agreed the car had not been maintained before I got it.

So, I don't know what is causing the bottom of the engine to be so filthy and I'm wondering if I should keep this car since it wasn't maintained for all those miles before I got it. After putting so much money into it, I hate to give it up, but I don't want to keep pouring money into it.

I would really appreciate your opinions on whether to keep this car. Right now, I think this repair is going to run around $850 because of all the labor and I have to get it done whether I keep it or not. If I don't keep it, I won't get the timing belt and water pump replaced.

Thanks,
Kelly

[Venom_5]

honestly, you have one of the rare toyota lemons - whoever had that car from 1997 to 2003 destroyed it ...

normally, i would tell people to keep their camry, but it sounds like this one is not worth all the trouble - its got 130k and its 10 years old, i would go look for a younger, more healthy Camry!

dont let it eat up all your money with "small" repairs here and there that total thousands

if you spend $2500 you could replace the entire engine, so dont even spend half that on repairing a shitty one

[dc_98_cam]

What did your mechanic say about a compression check? Due to the issues with poor previous owner maintenance, it is possible that there is piston or ring wear in the combustion chambers, which will cause 'blow-by' ... leading to dirty or fouled oil, and also to loss of engine power and efficiency. If there is a large variance between cylinder compresion numbers, or if the overall average compression number is low ..... saw that number somewhere on the forum here recently, then it may be in your best interest to sell the car. Also of concern, the low oil pressure condition needs to be pin-pointed if possible. If low oil pressure was only due to the balance shaft, it might not be a major problem. However, if there is excessive crank or rod bearing clearance, the oil flow through these gaps might be excessive, leading to insufficient oil flow at other vital engine locations.
... In conclusion, .... check the cylinder compression numbers first .... not too difficult to do.
Install a temporary oil pressure gauge and see if that gives any indication of oil problems at various rpms. .... If you decide to keep the car, consider switching to a synthetic or part synthetic oil, which will decrease engine friction and metal contact wear.

[92ES5sp]

Yea i agree, the car was not taken care of at all. Toyota dosent make bad cars, people do bad things to them. I mean you should have no problems hitting 250K with a 97 Camry (espec. a 4 banger) doing nothing besides taking care of it and performing all the scheduled maintenace.

Id either swap the motor or look for something else. Its not worth dumping any more money into that poor thing

[ghettosled]

wow, you put much more effort into that car than i would have. if it was me, at this point i would cut my losses and look for something else. lack of maintenance is a killer of any car. reason why i say this is there are still a number of major things that can go wrong in the near future.

sorry to hear the rough time you are having with this car.

[CrawlingEye]

The balance shaft issue isn't *that* uncommon. It's why most rebuilt 5S-FE's come with the balance shafts removed and journals plugged.

[Isaac-1]

If the car is otherwise in good shape, consider buying a used low mileage JDM engine and dropping it in, this would likely be cheaper than any internal engine repairs you are facing. I did this for my son's '96 Camry when it bent a rod last years (it had about 110,000 on it at the time, with a poor maintenance history, engine was full of sludge, and had been ran low on oil due to an oil leak by the previous owner) . The JDM engine (5S FE not the more common 3S FE found on ebay) was about $800 off ebay, and a local independant shop charged me $500 labor to install it (a number of parts have to be swapped over from the existing U.S. engine as the JDM engines do not have U.S. emssions systems, etc), There was also another $200 or so in assorted bad parts off the old engine they found in the process of the swap (CV joint, motor mount, etc). The JDM engine now has about 15,000 miles on it and still runs better than the old engine ever did.

Ike

[MIC0417]

Also the reason the bottom end is dirty is because when you don't change the oil it begins to breakdown and turns into sludge which will destroy the engine eventually causing a complete loss of the engine because of clogged cooling passages, passage for the oil filter, etc. so really if you keep it you should buy a new engine that hasn't been abused.

[kcannon1321]

Thanks guys for all your help. I spoke to my mechanic today and he said the top of the engine is clean and he doesn't see any reason for the sludge on the bottom, other than the dealer never actually cleaned out the bottom of the engine when they did the warranty work for the gelled oil. He said it's not hurting anything and doesn't seem to be causing any problems. We'll see.

If his helper found a balance shaft at the junkyard today then he'll go ahead and put it on. If he didn't find one, he'll put the engine back together without it and plug the oil hole. If that's the only problem and it runs ok, I'm going to try and run it for a few more months. I know I can't wait too long to sell it because some other disaster will be right around the corner.

I appreciate all your opinions and if there are any more, I welcome them!

Kelly

[v-cam]

You may still want to replace it.... It may only be $800 or so now, but this engine could keep having problems and wont last too long if maintenance was never performed.... Grab a JDM and fix it properly.

Sorry to hear you are having these problems.... shame on the previous owner

[Venom_5]

^ agreed

[kcannon1321]

Thanks V-cam and Venom, I'll speak to my mechanic about a JDM engine. My only reservation about doing this is all the other problems that could develop with this car. V-cam I know you said "only $800 now", but that's alot to me. Especially added to all the money that I've already sunk into this car. I did get 50,000 miles out of it over the last 4 years, but it's been a very expensive 50,000 miles, not to mention all the time I've had to hassle with getting it repaired. I never had a guy I called "my mechanic" before this car!
Kelly

[Venom_5]

well if you replace the engine, you shouldnt have any more problems because nothing is left from the old car except the tranny and electrical stuff

however if you do worry about this, you could always buy a different camry ... but who's to say that you wont buy another one that was poorly taken care of, unless you buy one from someone off this site?

stuck between a rock and a hard place, eh?