94 Camry 4 cyl - need advice

[ksg5000]

Inherited 94 Camry with approx 97,000 miles - new to Toyota's and would appreciate some advice.

Car appears to run fine and exterior/interior in excellent shape. Limited maintenance records. Timing belt was changed in 04 at 84,000 miles - lots of AAA visits for dead battery from car not being used (charging system works fine).

With limited maintenance records I had oil and transmission fluid changed - nothing unusual noted. Car passed DEQ with no issues.

I changed the spark plugs and noted that one of the plug was covered with oil -- was concerned that this was a big deal but it would appear that this is simply one of the gaskets under the valve cover. Query - is this something I need to fix right away or can it wait. Also - I am not a mechanic but usually can fix things that don't require special tools and are reachable. Is this something that is fairly easy to fix?

Car steering wheel vibrates when car is in gear and stopped at traffic light - I initially thought the engine mounts needed replacing but I had someone gun the engine in neutral and the engine didn't rock back and forth as one would expect if the mounts were bad - but I am unsure whether that's a valid test for this type of problem. Some posts indicate this is a common problem and live with it ... some say replace or more mounts ... not sure what to do.

Car has a minor oil leak -- one of those one or two drops a night things -- can't seem to locate the source -- nothing obvious and not sure it has anything to do with the spark plug gasket problem. Thoughts?

Car has air leak on drivers side door. The door gasket is in fine condition and someone has applied some extra gasket material to the door. Not sure but this looks like a sign that car may have been in accident and the door wasn't rehung correctly -- also noted that the headlights don't appear to be OEM which may also be a sign that the car has been in accident. Does anyone know what it cost to adjust the door (assuming that's the problem)?

Lastly -- any thoughts on what maintenance/repairs I should be looking at on a car which is approaching 100,000 miles which has mostly been sitting inside a garage?

Thanks for any advice.
Kevin

[bdy0003]

First of all, what engine do you have? 4 or 6 cylinder? The valve cover gasket for 4 is easy to do as there aren't specialized tools to use (maybe except for a torque wrench and a 30mm hex socket). I think you need to replace your spark plug seals too from the sound of it. Someone should chime in about that.

It does sounds like a motor mount issue, but I might be wrong. Look at the dog bone motormount to see how deteriorated it is. If it's really bad, then you'd have to replace all of them cause its more or less a domino effect. If you were gonna replace the mounts, upgrade the your dogbone to what the Gen 4 has.

Air leak, not sure about that as I have the same problem. I compared the driver and passenger weatherstrip and the driver one was definitely more deflated and deteriorated.

Places I would inspect for leaks: where dist meets the engine, oil filter/cooler location, up and around the oil pan. There are prob more, but these all come to mind. I would see if your struts are good, tires, replace PVC.

There are prob alot more things. Good luck!

[ksg5000]

Thanks for the reply.

It's a 4 cylinder engine - the valve cover removal looks like a pretty simple task not much in the way. I assume the oil leak is associated with a spark plug gasket which seems to come with most of the valve gasket packages. Anything special about replacing that gasket? Also - is this kind of leak a big deal that needs fixing now or can I address this a few months down the line when I have more time?

[bdy0003]

You need Toyota FIPG for the gasket marker in addition to the gaskets. People have recommended :
http://www.permatex.com/products/Aut...sket_Maker.htm

I haven't used it, so I can't comment on it. I just used a regular high temp gasket marker. It was also Permatex and is red. These are prob less expensive than the FIPG. Make sure you retorque the nuts as they will become loose after a few drive-arounds.

You might also want to get a manual for this job.

If its a minor leak, I wouldn't worry about it too much (depends where its leaking from). If its just that gasket, no worries. Just be sure to check the oil level every so often. The 5s-fe engine hates to run low on oil.

[Mike Gerber]

As far as your oil leak around the spark plug, you may not need to replace the cam cover gasket or the spark plug seals under the cam cover. First try cleaning the oil out form that plug area and then retorquing the 30MM nuts under the plug wires to 17 ft lbs in 3 even passes. Then drive the car for a while and see if the oil leak in to the spark plug well has stopped. This may cure it.

As far as the engine vibration at idle, I have owned a 94 4 cylinder 5SFE engine since new and it always vibrated a bit at idle. Clean the throttle body and then forget about it. The cleaning may help smooth the idle just a bit. Here's a good DIY on cleaning the throttle body and the idle air control valve while still on the car on the 5SFE engine:

How to: Cleaning Throttle Body -4 Cylinder Engines- With Pictures

As far as other things I would do on your car, I would flush the brake fluid if it looks a bit dark, and I would drain and refill the coolant in the radiator.

Mike

[ksg5000]

Thanks for the replies.

I forgot to mention that I had changed the coolant as well as replaced the radiator cap -- and I was told that the brakes, tires etc are fine -- brake fluid looks OK.

I will try and re torque the gasket and see if that eliminates the leak - if not - is there anything special about the spark plug seal (gasket?) that I should know?