1998 Camry -4cyl --New car. Here are my issues. What would you do?

[tieggonzalez]

So I have a '98 4cyl Camry now. If you were to get one with 190K miles on it and virtually no mechanical history on it where would you start doing preventive maintenence?

Here are my issues...

-Wobbles at 50 mph (not necessarily speed specifc, but most noticeable at 50). This feels like it needs immediate attention. Not rotors for sure.

-Noisy exhaust (you can here me down the road)

-Past owner mentioned something about Tie Rods ( I havent checked them yet)

I know my way around an engine pretty well. No job is typically too big for me. I definitely have the "If a mechanic can do it, I can do it" mentality. (no offense to the skillset of mechanics). I have dual degrees in engineering, although my emphasis is in electrical.

So if you were in my shoes. Just got this car. Was thinking about fixing it up and giving it to someone. Where would you start.

[Stillrunning]

Originally Posted by tieggonzalez

Just got this car. Was thinking about fixing it up and giving it to someone. Where would you start.

Well, especially if that "someone" was a close relative I would give the car to a mechanic and get him/her to thoroughly go over it for safety check and fix those items first.

After that you can change ALL the fluids, and do a timing belt change.

[Mister_Perkins]

What " I " would do if i were in your shoes is bring it to a shop, have them lift it up on the rack to get a good look at everything. check the tires, tie-rods, bushings, etc.. for wear and play. After checking it out, buy everything to repair the problems. I'm pretty sure there are writeups for tie-rods on the DIY thread.

As far as the exhaust. Thats no biggie. Find the hole, cut it out, weld a new piece in.

As far as the Wobble. You might have to bring that to a tire shop and have them check the tires out on their machines. One of them could be unbalanced, have excessive road force, car could be un-aligned due to the possible tie rod issue, bent rim, etc... Too many variables to easily find the problem. Easier to just have a tire shop find the problem.

Good luck on your repairs and welcome to the forum!

[tieggonzalez]

Hey thanks guys

[Handsonmaxima]

if your decent at car work you can grab your wheel while the car is jacked off the ground.
grab at 12 and 6, rock it back and forth, that will be bad ball joints
2 and 7 is wheel bearings
3 and 9 is going to be tie rod ends.
bad ball joints will move no matter what if they are bad, so eliminate them first.
sometime a slow moving figure 8 can revel creaks and squeaks in empty parking lots
Glance at your rims, all should have a weight on it. that will let you know if they curbed the rim and knocked off the weight.
or pay the 20 bucks and have the mech check your car and give you the parts list. how tight your money is is on you.

[tbalon]

Most exhaust work is going to involve cutting and welding so unless you have a set of torches and a welder you are going to have to take it to a shop. If you do I would get a couple of estimates first and call around for the best price. A leaky exhaust is not something you want to take lightly especially with a family member. But yea, the front end and the exhaust will need to be done and I would of course change all the fluids.

[xpeed]

This is my to-do list if I got such car and problems:

Replace engine mounts, both top dog bone and bottom.
Replace the cat converter along with the piping just to get it out of the way. I would probably let a professional welder do it at a muffler shop.
Replace the knuckles if the bolts/holes are worned out
Replace the tie rods
Replace ball bearings and bushings

Those are probably the the first things I would do first. Later on I would gradually replace the waterpump, timing belt, and spark plugs.