Some concerns about my 2002 Camry LE I4

[HarrisH]

Hey Guys!

I was hoping I could get some help from you experts! I have an '02 Camry LE I4 with about 133K miles. The car runs like a champ except for a few issues.

I've had the brake pads and the rotors replaced TWICE now. I went with Brembo blanks & Hawk HPS pads. The brakes squeal like crazy and I feel as if the pedal as to travel a bit far. According to my local repair shop they have bled the system but I'm wondering what's normal for the pedal to travel. My g/f's '07 Camry seems to have FAR superior brakes with little to no brake pedal travel and she has OEM brakes with 32K miles on them.

Secondly I hear a lot of rattles and clunks from the interior. Specifically inside the door panel on the passenger and driver side. What generally gets loose in there?

Thirdly I've had the rear struts & strut mounts replaced but I still feel as if the ride isn't that great. Should I also have the front struts & mounts replaced as well? What about the stabilizer end links and sway bars etc.? What generally requires maintenance at the mileage I have.

And lastly I do not get any air circulation when I have the climate control set on the "feet only" setting. The air is blowing and everything is working fine it's just that a very nominal amount of air actually comes out of the foot well area. Any ideas?

Thanks for all your help!!!

[AlmightyCamry777]

I've had the brake pads and the rotors replaced TWICE now. I went with Brembo blanks & Hawk HPS pads. The brakes squeal like crazy and I feel as if the pedal as to travel a bit far. According to my local repair shop they have bled the system but I'm wondering what's normal for the pedal to travel. My g/f's '07 Camry seems to have FAR superior brakes with little to no brake pedal travel and she has OEM brakes with 32K miles on them.

Were the rotors replaced or were they turned? If they were turned that means the rotor pistons have to travel just a little bit further than on a brand new rotor, (also its possible for rotors to be turned too much leaving not enough metal and some crummy shops will still give them back to you without miking them or checking).

The only real way to tell pedal travel feel is to compare to a similar car of the same year. I wouldnt try to adjust pedal travel, at all, since i've never seen a car where that had to be done except (very rarely when installing a new power brake booster, and usually not even then is it necessary to adjust pedal travel). Assuming you are sure its not just your imagination? You could burn up the brakes by over adjusting so i wouldnt go there period, if by excess pedal travel you mean the brakes feel too soft, then the problem may be among any of the following
1) shop did not bleed the brakes properly and needs to be done again
2) master cylinder bad
3)sticking pistons in one or more brake calipers (needs a new caliper)
4) sticking pads (they would get very hot though probably)
5)wrong pad type or pad material
6) bad rotors or bad rotor turning job (improper finish on rotors or rotors turned too much).

Brake pad squeal is of course NOT normal and usually not hard to fix. Brake squeal is caused, believe it or not, by the pads vibrating in the caliper. The fix is to take everything apart, check that the pads are not sticking and free to move in their guides, clean everything with brake cleaner and use the blue goo "anti-squeal" compound on the back of the pads. The pad material may be too hard or the wrong composition or the rotors may have been turned improperly, or both. (New rotors can be found for cheap as $30)

Also you may be missing some needed shims on the back of the pads too (if Toyota says your pads need the shims). Most replacement pads do NOT come with replacement shims when you buy them, you are supposed to re-use the old ones, if your brake pads call for shims and you don't have them, you might need to buy a hardware kit just to get the shims.