Okay, well first, I didn't do it on a Camry but my mom Corolla but since I learn it from the DIY section from here, I'll post here. The 02 Corolla have the exact same set up with Gen 4 Camry. I have to say it was a bit of a pain, those damn bolts are just way too tight. At first I thought I round out the filled bolt but luckily I didn't otherwise it would have been incredibly difficult to get it out with a vise grip. I did go to Toyota to get a new bolt just in case
I put two wrenches together for extra leverage, the system was 15 in in lenght and I thought it would be cake. WRONG!!!! Took like 20 tries until I heard a loud skriek and thought that I just totally stripped the bolt but it came out. The drain plug was equally worst. I had my allen key hook up a small 20 in tube that fit almost perfectly on to it which give it very good leverage and always give no trouble when I have to the drain bolt for the transmission fluid. Well, this stupid bolt was almost totally stuck and took like what seem to be half an hour of grunting before that thing came loose!!!!! So I guess the story of the day when you replace differential or anything that doesn't get open all that often, make sure you get all kind tubes and what not to create the best leverage you can get.
The car has 44 K on the original fluid so now that I have change that and fill and drain the transmission fluid 3 times, the everything seem a little smoother or maybe that's just my head. But the fluid that came out was very dark though, didn't smell yet however. So a big thank you to Toyotanation and the writers of all DIY for showing me how to all these stuff!!!! The satisfaction of doing it yourself is pretty neat!!!
acquired 05/25/2007 at 129K miles
I4 5-Speed Manual 115,500 miles acquired 01/21/2011 at 109,XXX miles
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