So I found what may or may not be a good deal on an inline 4 cyl Camry LE, auto transmission. The guy is asking $2000.
The chassis is in great shape! The undercarriage has very little surface rust. The body panels are completely intact. Just a couple little parking lot dings, and no rust whatsoever. In the midwest/great plains region a car like this looks like a 60-70k mi car about six to eight years old. It's a 194k car, but the engine had blown head gaskets and was swapped with a west coast engine with 100k, so now the current eingine has about 120k on it. However;
- The engine runs fine, but there are clearly some leaks. It looks like on the back end of the valve cover gasket, but there could be more.
- Low on the passenger side I think there is also the beginning of a power steering fluid leak. I know there is a seal down there that looks fairly straightforward to deal with.
- The front driver side wheel has a really nasty scraping noise sound. It could just be worn brakes and metal on rotor like sound. Or perhaps dirt shield tapping the back side of the rotor? It increases in pitch the faster the car goes. When I floored it a bit and then slammed on the brakes I couldn't detect any pulling to either side, but it was definitely squishy. I'm assuming at the very least it's shot rotors and pads. But, differential or CV axle issues? Is that a possibility? I was able to poke my flashlight down on both axles, but the boots look intact and not wet.
- It sounds like the timing belt has never been replaced.
- A/C blows nice and cold.
I guess my main concern is this noise on the front driver side wheel. Any alarm bells going off for anyone familiar with this generation Camry where it might be something more serious than a brake issue?
Also, does the price sound reasonable? Just doing a quick tally if I bought it I'm guessing I'll need to replace the brakes, maybe valve cover gasket, who knows what else. I'm thinking of offering him $1500-1600...
My end goal is a cheap, secondary "run about town" vehicle, that can haul 4-5 people that is still decent on gas. Right now our main car is a 2014 Sienna AWD Limited, and I have five kids. We get about 17-18mpg around town, but I would like to minimize wear and tear for the 1-2 people going to make grocery runs, or swim practice, etc.
Initially I was looking for about a 2004 Camry I-4, w/ manual transmission, or a 2007'ish V6 Camry. Both are either hard to find, and/or more expensive than I want to pay right now. So this has me considering the previous gen Camry now.
The chassis is in great shape! The undercarriage has very little surface rust. The body panels are completely intact. Just a couple little parking lot dings, and no rust whatsoever. In the midwest/great plains region a car like this looks like a 60-70k mi car about six to eight years old. It's a 194k car, but the engine had blown head gaskets and was swapped with a west coast engine with 100k, so now the current eingine has about 120k on it. However;
- The engine runs fine, but there are clearly some leaks. It looks like on the back end of the valve cover gasket, but there could be more.
- Low on the passenger side I think there is also the beginning of a power steering fluid leak. I know there is a seal down there that looks fairly straightforward to deal with.
- The front driver side wheel has a really nasty scraping noise sound. It could just be worn brakes and metal on rotor like sound. Or perhaps dirt shield tapping the back side of the rotor? It increases in pitch the faster the car goes. When I floored it a bit and then slammed on the brakes I couldn't detect any pulling to either side, but it was definitely squishy. I'm assuming at the very least it's shot rotors and pads. But, differential or CV axle issues? Is that a possibility? I was able to poke my flashlight down on both axles, but the boots look intact and not wet.
- It sounds like the timing belt has never been replaced.
- A/C blows nice and cold.
I guess my main concern is this noise on the front driver side wheel. Any alarm bells going off for anyone familiar with this generation Camry where it might be something more serious than a brake issue?
Also, does the price sound reasonable? Just doing a quick tally if I bought it I'm guessing I'll need to replace the brakes, maybe valve cover gasket, who knows what else. I'm thinking of offering him $1500-1600...
My end goal is a cheap, secondary "run about town" vehicle, that can haul 4-5 people that is still decent on gas. Right now our main car is a 2014 Sienna AWD Limited, and I have five kids. We get about 17-18mpg around town, but I would like to minimize wear and tear for the 1-2 people going to make grocery runs, or swim practice, etc.
Initially I was looking for about a 2004 Camry I-4, w/ manual transmission, or a 2007'ish V6 Camry. Both are either hard to find, and/or more expensive than I want to pay right now. So this has me considering the previous gen Camry now.
