1997 Camry LE 2.2....2 questions - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

ghunt · 12-04-2011, 04:49 PM

Car is an auto, 131K, runs great, just came into my ownership less than a week ago.

I've been driving it and had questions about 2 things.

#1. When I have the car on cruise, if I start to go up a steep hill and it kicks down to Third, it will stay in Third until I'm over the crest of the hill and starting down the other side and then go back into OD. If I don't have it on cruise it doesn't do this, and it doesn't ever do this when just downshifting to Fourth and back into OD. Any idea why?

#2. When I bought the car it had a shake in the steering that would come and go (I assumed a problem with the tires) and it was pulling to the right pretty bad. The front tires were shot- the outside edges of the tread on both tires was worn bald and the inside of both front tires looked especially bad. I had figured the pressure was too low, they hadn't rotated the tires and the alignment was out. I got four new tires put on it over the weeked...well, the shake is gone, and it doesn't pull to the right anymore. Hm. I checked out the front end last week and there's some wiggle in the driver's side front bearing which I plan to replace. I'll probably still get the car aligned but it seems odd that a set of tires could fix the pulling issue. Ever happened to anyone else?

Yuko · 12-05-2011, 12:57 AM

Q1: My cruise control dose the same thing. The computer "thinks" there's a greater load on the car when it's going up the hill than there really is. It downshifts and rev up pretty high. But when I drive it with the throttle, my Camry can hold fine up the hill in 4th gear.

Q2: Old tires over time can create what's called a "radial pull" in which the belts in the tire might and shifted slightly and cause the tire to "lead". One reason why rotation is important to prevent this. As for the front bearing, I would check all joints then re-torque the center CV nut to make sure it's tight. An alignment can be done later.

tbalon · 12-05-2011, 08:36 AM

I second what Yuko says... The down shift is normal and I have had bad tires also cause a pull to one side or the other.

ghunt · 12-05-2011, 11:10 AM

OK, well if the cruise thing is normal, guess there's not much I can do about it. I thought maybe it was a vacuum issue or something like that.

When you say "center CV nut" what are you talking about? It definitely feels to me like there's play in the bearing- I looked and the wheel & tire are the only thing moving when I get that play.