some questions about my 2006 camry please

[mcgowaw]

i just bought an 06 camry le today and have some questions. i hope someone can help.

1. 2 of the 4 door handles appear not to have a finish coat of gloss paint on them. has anyone experienced this where the insides of the door handles are rough, not painted in the gloss color of the car? (mine is super white). i know it's made in ky versus japan, but this seems to be a pretty big oversight.
2. where is the oil filter? i'm assuming under the car?
3. why is the exhaust manifold exposed? i've seen some that have a shroud over them but mine doesn't and it gets very hot under the hood? can i add one?
4. how can i install the toyota fog lights on it? my bumper is all one molded piece - not a piece that's removeable where the fog lights to like some models i've seen. does this mean mine isn't wired for the lights either? i want the camry fog lights, but dont' even know if the wiring or mounting brackets are in place for it on this model. how much trouble am i in for doing this project?

thanks for any assistance on any of these items.
tony

[MrSo0h0o]

1. all my door handles are perfectly fine..
2. oil filter is underneath the car up and to the right of the oil pan
3. on CA spec Camry's, the manifold is exposed for the zero emissions classification. dont ask me what the purpose of it off is, thats just the way it is..
4. since your bumper is all one piece, the only way to install fog lights is to a. cut your own holes and jb weld your own brackets(way too much work) or buy a new bumper that has the foglight holes cut out(XLE and SE bumper)

[woodman411]

I noticed the door handle problem when I had my Camry serviced, and they gave me another Camry as a rental. The rental car had the door handle rub against the fixed guide, and the movement was not smooth, like yours. Looking closer, the paint from the door handle was gone and smeared due to the rubbing. I tried the other door handles, and while not as bad, the movement was far from smooth.

This difference intrigued me, so I started to scrutinize the rest of the vehicle and see how it compared to my Camry. Everything from the center cup-holder lid movement, alignment of interior parts, and even the tailpipe, was not as smooth, refined, or straight, respectively. I wondered if this was because the rental was made in Kentucky and mine was made in Aichi.

After returning to the dealer, I decided to look at other Camrys on the lot to see if manufacturing location was really the issue. I checked 3 Kentucky-made Camrys, one of them had the door handle rubbing, most of them (not all) had unsmooth door handle movement, all of them had an unsmooth center cup-holder lid movement, and 2 of them had the bend in the tailpipe that seemed larger than normal.

I could only find 2 Aichi-made Camrys, but both of them had smooth door handle movements, no rubbing on any of them, both smooth center center cup-holder lid movement, and both without the large bend in the tailpipe, like mine.

Sorry for the long story... I guess answering your question, my feeling is the same as yours - it seems location of assembly is a factor, and hopefully the dealer can fix it for you.

* WW

[LE05]

Originally Posted by mcgowaw

4. how can i install the toyota fog lights on it? my bumper is all one molded piece - not a piece that's removeable where the fog lights to like some models i've seen. does this mean mine isn't wired for the lights either? i want the camry fog lights, but dont' even know if the wiring or mounting brackets are in place for it on this model. how much trouble am i in for doing this project?

just like MrSo0h0o said, you'll either have to try to cut the holes out yourself and glue/jb weld the fog lights in yourself or buy an SE/XLE bumper. the brackets are incorporated into the bumper itself, the LE bumper does not have any brackets.

however, the wiring is all there... if you take off the engine splash guard, you should see two plugs hanging down near where the fog lights should be. to make this stock wiring work, you need to 1. get either or both the missing fuse and relay for the fog lights, and 2. get the OEM headlight stalk with the fog switch.

to go the stock route (SE bumper, OEM fogs, OEM headlight stalk, relay) can get very expensive, especially with painting the bumper. i think i've spent nearly ~$1000 on everything together.

[MrSo0h0o]

Originally Posted by LE05

just like MrSo0h0o said, you'll either have to try to cut the holes out yourself and glue/jb weld the fog lights in yourself or buy an SE/XLE bumper. the brackets are incorporated into the bumper itself, the LE bumper does not have any brackets.

however, the wiring is all there... if you take off the engine splash guard, you should see two plugs hanging down near where the fog lights should be. to make this stock wiring work, you need to 1. get either or both the missing fuse and relay for the fog lights, and 2. get the OEM headlight stalk with the fog switch.

to go the stock route (SE bumper, OEM fogs, OEM headlight stalk, relay) can get very expensive, especially with painting the bumper. i think i've spent nearly ~$1000 on everything together.

i thought only on jap manufactured cam's the wiring is pre-existing?

[mcgowaw]

thanks for all the replies. sounds like i'm outta luck for now on the fog lights as i thought i could just pop out a plug and put them in. i didn't realize the LE wasn't equipped for that.

about the door handles, this isn't a case of them sticking or being hard to operate or anything like that. two of my handles aren't painted on the inside and the other two are. i think the assemblers at ky just forgot to spray them. they are rough to the touch on the inside not smooth like the rest of the car. i don't know if that's something to ping the dealer on or not, but i'm pretty picky about details, so i probably will.

thanks again for all the info. i'm sure i'll have more questions later.
tony

[TRD VVTi]

Originally Posted by MrSo0h0o

i thought only on jap manufactured cam's the wiring is pre-existing?

Wrong. Mine has them.