My gen 3 is gone - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Trajjik · 07-26-2007, 11:35 AM

Right after i finished the interior, the shop calls me and tells me I have a blown head gasket. So, right now i'm carless, and I don't really have enough money to get another one, my mom says she's gonna help but, that's usually not the case so, R.I.P. gen 3, i'm parting it out, gen 3 LE, if you guys want anything i'll give it to you for free or for cheap.

MIC0417 · 07-26-2007, 11:37 AM

that shouldn't be too hard to replace

geoff5093 · 07-26-2007, 11:46 AM

Wait, so did the head gasket fail when the shop had it? Or did you know something was wrong and bring it down to them?

Venom_5 · 07-26-2007, 11:49 AM

for free? o.0

like the a/c compressor ... cuz mine is dead ... lol, i have a whole list of parts i need!

but yeah, how did the head gasket magically get fukd? thats a little odd, if you ask me

Trajjik · 07-26-2007, 12:02 PM

No no, see I was driving it..let me be clear, lol.

I was driving, then i saw this tremendous amount of smoke. I stopped, and the car was overheated, and I smelled gas, and fluid was literally shooting out, like if you put your thumb over the garden hose type shooting out. so I chilled for a bit, then drove it to the shop, and they took a look at it. It's a lot of money to fix, money i could put toward a car payment, something more reliable, because they treated this camry like crap, i think it was time for it to go, so maybe i'll pick up a gen 3 coupe, hopefully.

Venom_5 · 07-26-2007, 12:04 PM

oh, yeah ... its toast ... ha, i thought u meant the HG suddenly looked bad in the shop, i was like WTF?!

but yeah, it would be worth your time to look for a gen3/gen3.5/gen4 that was taken care of better

no, but seriously ... for free?!

CrawlingEye · 07-26-2007, 12:27 PM

Cars can be an investment. That's how I look at my gen3. I've put a lot of money into it, aside from what I've modified, I've likely put an equal or greater amount into repairs for it (rebuilt transmission, replaced pretty much the entire cooling system, etc).

Now about a year ago, the Camry spun a bearing. For me, the question wasn't "am I putting more than what I paid for the car into it?" it was, am I going to get the same quality of car for the same amount of money...

ie: one that has a rebuilt transmission, new radiator, all new cooling hoses, etc.

that's not even to mention the mods on the car at the moment.

The answer was that I wouldn't, and after the car's done with the shortblock and all, it'll pretty much have most everything replaced aside from a few minor odds and ends.

I think you may want to do a similar run-down. Good luck though with whatever you decide.

geoff5093 · 07-26-2007, 12:29 PM

Ouch, that does suck. If you have to pay a shop to replace the head gasket then it's going to be alot of money. Out of curiosity, how many miles were on the car?

Trajjik · 07-26-2007, 01:02 PM

about 164,000. You see, I put WORK into that car, and it's my first car that i've actually stripped down to the chassy and put back together, i cleaned everything, changed that interior to look like you wouldn't believe...( pics soon ) etc, and the CF hood and body kit are already in NY, i was going to pick them up with my friend on saturday, after work. Plus I was sweating for hours and mosquitos used my body like it was old country buffet. So i think it's the fact that I felt better and better everyday knowing i'm treating the car like it should have been all these years and like it's an extension of myself that's bothering me the most. I'm gonna see what I can do, but if my mother agrees, I'm going to either get a gen 3 coupe, or a beastly 3000GT. lol.

Venom_5 · 07-26-2007, 01:07 PM

you could always swap in a new engine and then you get to keep your new interior and all the goodies ^_^

i mean hey, it costs about the same as buying a new gen3 anyways, and definitely less than a 3000GT ... so if youre gonna spend $4k but you still love the camry, you can strap a 1MZ-FE or a 3S-GTE in there for the same price

and plus with that, you know its taken care of well ... because its fresh

CamBOT · 07-26-2007, 01:11 PM

Would another engine be too expensive? I got quoted about 800 USD for an engine from Japan with about 60k KM, installed. I'm just waiting for my engine to slow down, currently at 235k miles.

xet · 07-26-2007, 02:00 PM

if ur gonna get a gen 3 coupe then save your car for a while to use for parts if needed to repair what might be old or broken in the coupe u get

Venom_5 · 07-26-2007, 02:49 PM

CamBOT, if youre going to replace the engine ... replace it with a better one, not the same thing you have

its relatively the same price, and you get much more out of a stronger engine

Red Camry · 07-26-2007, 03:13 PM

the auction is probably over, but there was a white v6 coupe on ebay, 105k buy it now for $3000. i tired to make my girlfriend buy it, but she couldnt

Trajjik · 07-26-2007, 03:51 PM

Yeah venom, free, lol, only because this community brought me in and helped me out instead of riducling and such, and you helped a lot too, so yeah, for free. I might need to actually sell a couple of things, just so I can have extra cash for the new car.

here's some biggerized pics, lol, of the almost entirely finished interior ( minus racing seats but...doesn't even matter anymore, lol )