95 Camry maintanence/upgrades

[jgraham5481]

Hello all, Ive got a 95 Camry V6 Auto and I plan to replace the power steering pump, rack, hoses and control arm bushings. When I make repairs like this, if its reasonably possible to upgrade any of them, I'd like to. So what I'm thinking is since those control arm bushings tend to fail at the slightest contamination, I'd like to repalce them with urethane since they are about the same cost and hopefully more durable. I was looking at these http://toyheadauto.com/PerformancePa...ngs.html#CAMRY does anyone have any experience with these or any urethane bushings in particular? Also was thinking of possibly doing the lateral and trailing arm bushings too. Anyone ever tried anything like this? are they more durable or are they even noticeable???

[projektvertx]

I can speak for the polyurethane bushings and yes it does make a different. With one catch though: you will have to do the entire car to see a BIG different. I did it in stages, and individually it does make a different, but together it feels even better. I finished the rear end (trailing arms, lateral control arms, sway bars, and then I upgraded the sway bar as well).

What I noticed was understeer, the rear end was stiff, but I would always understeer. I then did the control arms and FSB for polyurethane and I got my steering back. I liked it, but if you're going to go polyurethane, go all the way.

Just an FYI, I'm riding on TRD springs and KYB struts, if that makes a difference for you in anything I just said. Best of luck

[jgraham5481]

Yeah, that's how I plan on doing it, in stages you could say. Im going to do all I mentioned above, My rack and pump had been hemmoraging for a while, 6 bottles of lucas later its slowed, but its essentially destroyed the control arm bushings, sway bar bushings, so ive waited till i could afford to do all that and get new tires and an alignment. If the urethane bushings seem to be made well enough im sure ill do the rear shortly after that. As for struts, it currently has some Chinese Ebay struts, STAGG is the brand and stock springs. I had originally bought the car for some friends of mine but they ended up getting something else, so my brother had it for a while, and I got cheap because the only reason he was driving this was because he totaled my Infiniti. From my experience with replacement struts with camrys, its seems the monroes and gabriels are always way to soft, and the kyb's seem to leak after a year or so. I don't have any experience with Tokico's as replacements one these, anyone had any luck with em? If I found a set of decent looking, newer OEM wheels, I'd consider changing those too, The STAGGs are ok, somewhere between a monroe and a kyb, but I don't trust em. I know its an older car, but as you can tell by my signature, I keep em till the wheels fall off, which actually happened on an Isuzu impulse i had, but I put em back on and drove till over 600k miles. Any input is appreciated.

[bravozulu]

I can't speak much about engine maintenance or suspension. I've got a '94 V-6 coupe. With age, fluids tend to absorb moisture from the air and then corrode steel parts.

Sooooo --- drain and replace brake flued, power steering fluid. My car only has 120k miles on it, but I'm suspicious of the spark plug wiring and ignition coils. I plan to post some queries here about those items.

Glad you mentioned the brands of struts and their characteristics. What is verdict on Koni's and Bilstein's from Europe? In a Camry? That may be down the line for me.

[jgraham5481]

I bought it for 500 bux because the water pump was hanging out of it, So I towed it to a friends barn, and did timing belt, water pump, pulleys, cam/crank seals, valve cover gaskets, all intake gaskets, plugs, mine had 6 coil packs, so no wires, pcv. essentially everything on the top end that needed replacing. Ive run only synthetic oil in it, ive drained and refilled the transmission a few times with synthetic too, when i did the brakes, i bled the hell out of them too and when I do the power steering components, I will replace the fluid with synthetic there too, I will probably drain n refill the final drive case with synthetic too. So as far as the other maintenance, I think I've got it doubly covered.