3rd & 4th Generation (1992–1996 & 1997–2001)Toyota Camry Discussion for years: 1992-1996 & 1997-2001
Topics of discussion range from fuel economy, safety, modifications, performance all involving America's favorite family car, the Toyota Camry.
I'm going to replace a bunch of stuff on my Camry's front suspension, struts, ball joints, lower control arm bushings. I find the strut variations confusing as all get-out. So if you folks would check my list from Rockauto I'd appreciate it. Am I missing anything?... particularly the strut mounts? I plan on reusing the strut bearings.
1992 TOYOTA CAMRY LE 3.0L 2959cc V6 MFI (V) [3VZFE] DOHC
Suspension : Coil Spring Insulator
MONROE Part # 906937 Strut-Mate Spring Isolator
Front Lower $12.60
Suspension : Strut Mount
MONROE Part # 902926 Strut-Mate Suspension Strut Mounting Kit
Front $53.58
Suspension : Control Arm Bushing
MOOG Part # K90041 Control Arm Bushing Kit
Frt Susp; Lower $71.58
Suspension : Strut Assembly
MONROE Part # 801955 Monro-Matic Plus
Front Right (Passenger) $55.79
MONROE Part # 801956 Monro-Matic Plus
Front Left (Driver) $55.79
Suspension : Ball Joint
BECK/ARNLEY Part # 1014286
Front Lower $59.78
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1992 Camry LE, V6 (3VZ-FE), ABS brakes, 330k miles, dark emerald pearl, owned since new.
1996 Avalon XLS, ABS brakes, moonroof, white, acquired w/ 139k miles, now at 261k.
2001 Yamaha FZ1, Ivan's jet kit, resprung all around, Ohlins in the rear, Race Tech cartridge emulators in the forks, 45k miles.
'07 Honda Ruckus Big Bore TOTALED: '03 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer 4x4 5.4L, '96 Camry LE 5S May '10: '11 Sienna V6 XLE FWD 8-pass. July '10: '06 Matrix XR Auto FWD Oct. '09: '05 RAV-4 L 4WD
The Following User Says Thank You to LynchburgCSI For This Useful Post:
SilverSoarer - I checked; OEM Toyota mounts online are $75 to $80 each + shipping. I'm getting two Monroes for $53.48 + shipping. So OEM mounts are almost triple the price. Your point is taken, tho. Aftermarket part quality is often lacking.
FWIW, I don't suspect something is wrong with the mounts, but w/ 305k on the original suspension, I'd just as soon replace 'em. The reason I'm tearing into it is that the lower control arm rear bushings are cracked badly. I'm getting a "clunk" noise coming from the right suspension area when I shift from forward to reverse; often accompanied by a "boing" sorta noise, like the spring is getting twanged (is that a word?). So I figure if I'm going to do that much work, I'm going to replace the whole enchilada.
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1992 Camry LE, V6 (3VZ-FE), ABS brakes, 330k miles, dark emerald pearl, owned since new.
1996 Avalon XLS, ABS brakes, moonroof, white, acquired w/ 139k miles, now at 261k.
2001 Yamaha FZ1, Ivan's jet kit, resprung all around, Ohlins in the rear, Race Tech cartridge emulators in the forks, 45k miles.
I was so thankful for the links (I'm about to rant but seriously, thanks BMR), shopped around got what I thought were the best prices. I ended up buying some parts from each of www.toyotapartszone.com and www.toyotapartsexpress.com. All four of these outfits use the same web interface, though prices and parts availability differ slightly among them.
Here's the deal though: this web interface shows shipping as 10% of the total parts cost, no matter what you buy. The web site says it is an estimate, and only actual shipping costs will be charged. Incredibly both sites ended up adding a full (and exact, to the penny) 10% for shipping. The way it works, you are not informed of shipping costs until the order ships, at which time it is too late to cancel.
The marketing is simply a lie and a rip-off, I can guarantee you it did not cost them $50 to ship the $500 of parts I ordered. I buy a lot of things online, should have been MAX like $25 total, these were overall small and lightweight parts. Some heavier parts I bought aftermarket (rockauto.com), shipping charges were like $8 per order. If these companies want to charge an extra 5% on every part then put it in the price, this is not eBay it is retail.
I won't be buying from www.toyotapartszone.com or www.toyotapartsexpress.com again. I strongly suggest you try user TOYOPARTSMAN on this forum, he quoted me prices better than on any of those 4 sites, and I trust him on shipping. Unfortunately my money was already spent when I got his quote.
Thats why I just run the most expensive part numbers through froogle.com, and then buy from whatever site has the cheapest shipped price.
edit: rockauto.com is a good site too.
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'07 Honda Ruckus Big Bore TOTALED: '03 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer 4x4 5.4L, '96 Camry LE 5S May '10: '11 Sienna V6 XLE FWD 8-pass. July '10: '06 Matrix XR Auto FWD Oct. '09: '05 RAV-4 L 4WD
That is a useful strategy, believe me I tried. The retailers only give a part number they use internally - I was unable to find the parts anywhere else. And as I said, they do not tell you the shipping price until the order ships. I should have asked them to contact me before they complete the order, I was a fool to trust they are fair business people.
The UPS tracking is live now, get this:
from toyotapartszone.com
package weight: 8 pounds
shipping charge, CA to IA: $30.19
This isn't a large package. 2 strut mounts, 6 spark plugs, a dozen oil drain plug gaskets, 2 rubber strut insulators, 2 timing belt gaskets, 1 air filter.
That is a useful strategy, believe me I tried. The retailers only give a part number they use internally - I was unable to find the parts anywhere else. And as I said, they do not tell you the shipping price until the order ships. I should have asked them to contact me before they complete the order, I was a fool to trust they are fair business people.
The UPS tracking is live now, get this:
from toyotapartszone.com
package weight: 8 pounds
shipping charge, CA to IA: $30.19
This isn't a large package. 2 strut mounts, 6 spark plugs, a dozen oil drain plug gaskets, 2 rubber strut insulators, 2 timing belt gaskets, 1 air filter.
These guys are thieves, don't shop there.
I hate to say it, but I think this is one of those situations where you should call, complain, and be a dick about it. Sadly, that's kinda the only way to fix this. That is, if you want to invest the time to get the shipping price down.
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'07 Honda Ruckus Big Bore TOTALED: '03 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer 4x4 5.4L, '96 Camry LE 5S May '10: '11 Sienna V6 XLE FWD 8-pass. July '10: '06 Matrix XR Auto FWD Oct. '09: '05 RAV-4 L 4WD
I finally got this all done today. Just need to get it aligned now. Just a few observations and pointers...
The struts I bought came with the bearings. For some reason I thought the bearings went up top, near the mounts. Duh!!!
Replacing the rear bushings in the lower control arms was pretty straightforward with my buddy's 20 ton Harbor Freight press.
Doing the front bushings was a royal PITA!!! There was no way to set up the press to push 'em out. And they can only go one way, cuz one side of the bushing has a steel flange that will *not* pass thru the hole in the LCA. We ended up tieing the LCA to his Samurai's hitch, the bushing end to my F150's hitch (using heavy chain, bolts, and clevis pins), and tugging them out by letting the F150 roll a coupla feet down his driveway. It took a few hits, but we got 'er done! Before it was over, his Samurai had been slid about 4 feet!!! I'm not sure I'd do this again; might be worth the extra $200 to just replace the whole freakin' LCA assembly. The one automotive shop that pressed out/in my front wheel bearings refused to do these. I think I now know why!!!
Getting the new front bushings in was impossible, until we put some heavy grease on the rubber to help them slip in. Even then, they require some HEAVY force to slide them in. I thought for sure the rubber was going to tear in the process.
The castle nuts holding the ball joints on were immovable. I ended up slitting two sides of the nut with a cutting disk in a dremel tool, and then splitting the nuts with a chisel. Getting the tapered shaft loose took just a few hefty whacks with a 2 lb hammer.
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1992 Camry LE, V6 (3VZ-FE), ABS brakes, 330k miles, dark emerald pearl, owned since new.
1996 Avalon XLS, ABS brakes, moonroof, white, acquired w/ 139k miles, now at 261k.
2001 Yamaha FZ1, Ivan's jet kit, resprung all around, Ohlins in the rear, Race Tech cartridge emulators in the forks, 45k miles.
I've only done a short 10 mile run or so, just enough to check things out. No probs found. No noises or anything like that. It handles noticeably better; to be expected I guess, with 300k on the original struts. Funny thing is, the old struts looked fine. No leaks. They even still had their gas charge!
No, I don't regret not getting the quickstruts. But I don't find disassembling struts to be difficult. Makes me a little nervous when the spring is all compressed, tho.
Couple more things I forgot to mention:
I didn't see anything wrong with the old strut mounts. Perhaps the rubber was harder than the Monroes from age? The Monroe mounts looked OK to me, build quality-wise. I put KYBs in the rear a while back, they looked a bit cruder. But I haven't had any issues with 'em.
Getting the lower rubber insulators was good. The old ones were shot; worn thru; the spring was making metal-on-metal contact.
__________________
1992 Camry LE, V6 (3VZ-FE), ABS brakes, 330k miles, dark emerald pearl, owned since new.
1996 Avalon XLS, ABS brakes, moonroof, white, acquired w/ 139k miles, now at 261k.
2001 Yamaha FZ1, Ivan's jet kit, resprung all around, Ohlins in the rear, Race Tech cartridge emulators in the forks, 45k miles.
I heard the "clunk" (but no "boing") backing up a couple times today. ARGH!! Oh well, the LCA bushings were torn and the struts were pretty tired, so all this was still needed. It rides really nice now! It used to be kinda "nervous" handling on ripply pavement. Now it's really smmoooooth.
I'm thinkin' it might be a brake pad shifting in its mounts? The only time I ever hear it is backing up while braking.
__________________
1992 Camry LE, V6 (3VZ-FE), ABS brakes, 330k miles, dark emerald pearl, owned since new.
1996 Avalon XLS, ABS brakes, moonroof, white, acquired w/ 139k miles, now at 261k.
2001 Yamaha FZ1, Ivan's jet kit, resprung all around, Ohlins in the rear, Race Tech cartridge emulators in the forks, 45k miles.
__________________
92 Camry LE 270,000+ Miles (It will never stop!) http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3825743
"Everywhere I go, I'm known as the Camry expert."
The Following User Says Thank You to Leviathan66610 For This Useful Post:
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