03 Camry concerns/questions - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

YotaFanBoy · 07-29-2008, 07:44 AM

I have three camrys and a tundra in the family. That being said, I am more than a little bit miffed at the moment concerning our 03 Camry LE.

It is my wife's car and she does not drive it hard at all. Mostly all miles are local traffic type with very little long distance highway travel over the years. She has only 78k miles on it.

We just had it into the dealer whom flushed the brake lines. The brakes were overhauled just 1 year and 7 months ago and they never did seem right after that. She had been having a problem lately with the brakes shuddering bad and this week they redid all of the brakes again including turning the rotors and flushing the brake line. My question is this on the brakes. Could the problem with the brake lines needing flushed create the early wear and tear on the pads and rotors? I mean come on, 7 months and 25k miles on new brakes and they wear out???? They claim it is "all" of the miles she put on the brakes that made them wear out. I am like huh?

Now get this, after getting the car back with the brakes done and an oil change, the car is blowing smoke at start up. It does not do it all of the time but has done it twice now since getting the car back. Is it just me or is it too coincidental that this new problem starts up right after getting the other work done? The car never blew smoke before .... ever. Any thoughts on this or past similar experiences from anyone?

***BMR*** · 07-29-2008, 08:46 AM

So she got 53K out of the original brakes, and then 25K? That's rather suspicious. Some people ride the brakes a lot, which can cause short brake pad life and brake rotor warping, but since she got 53K out of the originals, that can't be the problem. I think they're needlessly replacing things. The brakes shuddering could be fixed by simply turning the rotors. It's not necessary to replace the pads after turning the rotors unless they're worn out.

As far as the brake lines needing flushing causing the wear and tear on pads and rotors, I'd call BS on that. If the fluid was 10 years old, I'd say maybe your caliper pistons could be corroding and sticking, which could cause premature pad wear out and rotor warping, but at 1 year and 7 months??? Not likely.

As an example, I had my Avalon in the dealer's service shop recently to find the source of an odd burning smell which turned out to be a plastic bag that had stuck to the exhaust pipe. They also recommended I replace the tires, front brakes, serpentine belt, power steering pump belt, flush the coolant, and change the oil (and a couple of other things I can't remember). Of all that, the only thing it really needed were the belts, and I had a set sitting on my workbench waiting for me to get to. The oil had been changed only 1k miles ago, and the coolant had been flushed less than a year ago. I wasn't sure about the brakes, so I took a look. There was better than 3/4 of the pad thickness left. Needless to say, that dealer's rep took a huge hit in my book.

As for the smoke on startup, I'd say it's most likely a coincidence. While dealers can and do try to upsell needless services, I'd be really surprised if one would take the risk of resorting to sabotage to generate service revenue.

YotaFanBoy · 07-29-2008, 09:32 AM

New info since the post...

Just confirmed that the oil change from the dealership is likely the cause of the startup smoke. There is about 1 quart too much oil above the fill line on the stick. She is taking it back to the dealership to have it done right.

I also learned that the reason she was getting the brake line flush was part of the regular 60k maintenance suggestion and not due to a specific problem with the brakes. So, I believe the brake pads were probably not nearly as bad as they led her to believe but the rotors should not have needed any work either in my opinion. She drives extremely conservative and does not two foot the brake at all. If it was me driving the car it would be a different story as I am not kind to either my accelerator or my brake. I think the service performed on her brakes a year and a half ago was questionable as to whether they turned the rotors at that time leading up to the premature wear and tear.

My dealership is normally really good on all aspects of car care and customer service. I am dismayed that we have had problems as of late. This is actually the second time we have had to take the car back this year due to regular maintenance. A couple of months ago she had the coolant flushed and they gave it back to her with a bunch of air in the system gurgling away. Had the great inconvenience of having to take it back and drop it off again to have the air bled out.

So this oil deal is strike two for them and possibly strike three if I conclude the rotors were not turned on the previous brake work.

TRD VVTi · 07-29-2008, 04:06 PM

If they torqued the wheels properly you likely wouldn't have warped rotors to begin with.