She looks good. Does she use any oil?

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Great write up. I sure hope I can do the same. Looking forward to see it at 300k

 

have you dropped the pan and changed the trans filter? Changed your water pump or alternator?

 

Looks great. Age tends to kill cars more than mileage.

I thought the SE came with alloys?

 

very nice...i have 208k on my 05 camry le...still going strong as well..

 

Just wanted to answer a few questions.

-She doesn't use any oil for the most part. I keep an eye out and she's only shorted me once by less than 1/4 a quart.... lots of long trips hauling a seadoo that summer.


-Haven't dropped the pan, but my tranny fluid has never looked or smelled burnt either. I just change it out of caution. Might drop it around 250k.

-Water pump failed at 147K, forgot about that. This one hasn't given me any trouble, no squeaky belts like before the original failed.

-The 4cyl SE had Alloys as an option. I'm the second owner of the vehicle, bought it off my neighbor when I was 18... wish he had chosen the option. The steels are a pain in the sense that you have to be anal retentive about pulling the caps and cleaning the wheels if you don't want them to rust.

-By the time I get her to 300K I should have the cash saved for my next Toyota which will take me to another subforum here.

 

Just wanted to answer a few questions.
...
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Wow. What else have you changed? How about struts/springs? any other suspension parts?

 

Impressive! Looks to be in great shape too :woot:

I just bought my first Camry about a month ago. When I was searching, I was really on the fence between buying a higher mile Camry for cheaper, or pulling out the wallet and paying premium price for a lower mile Camry. I ended up lucking out and finding a reasonably low mile (72k miles) 07 Camry SE for the same kind of money that LE's with higher miles were going for, so I'm happy. From all my reading, seems that I'm in store for many, many years of trouble-free miles . I only put about 8k-10k miles per year on my DD's, so I don't think I could ever get the odometer up to 224k :yikes:

 

the water pumped failed in what sense? engine started to run hot or was it a noise?

Out of my 208k Ive only experienced a bad thermostat at 150k, would stick open over cooling the engine...
Also a bad throttle body actuator at 180k ish...lol cant remember exactly...

as well as a few broken wheel studs Ive replaced along the way..

so far so good..just normal fluid flushes and filter changes etc...

 

The impeller had some abnormal wear and nearly caused it to seize up. My belts started screaming and I drove straight to our family friend mechanic. Temp spiked a little but not enough for worry. I was glad I wan't too far from the shop.

BTW I'm in Birmingham and have been dealing with the botched weather forecast for the last two days. The car did quite well on the ice after dropping the psi and driving gingerly.

 

Did you have the front end repainted?

 

Nope, PLENTY of road rash!

Like I said, I was sure I'd miss 225K, but I managed to get 230k on my two week 3k mile Florida run. I managed to get through with that state before the spring love bug season this year! Its the first time I've gone through FL on a single tank of washer fluid in at least 4 years.

I'll be at a quarter million sometime later this year or early next spring!

P.S. anyone have a tutorial on cleaning up the dash plexiglass ?

 

Great mileage.

My 02" LE with the 185K miles eats the oil. I have recently went on a longer trip and I had to add around 1/2 quart after 1K miles. I've been using the synthetic oil since 70K miles.

She is being well taken care of regularly and no major issues.

 

Goodonya!

My '04 has 185k and is (knock on wood) still purring along. Your post inspires me to keep her going. :thumbsup:

 

Original owner of a 05 XLE 4cycl. currently have 171k on the O.D. The car was rear ended 5 years ago, left rear quarter panel, trunk and bumper replaced. Car runs and looks great, garaged when not being driven. I do all the oil changes, started the oil smoke on start up around 130k using Walmart Super Tech High Mileage 5-30, don't notice the problem now. Used conventional oil all its life and usually Purolator or Fram filters.
Replaced serpentine belt, plugs,thermostat, pcv valve, and several batteries. Radiator, water pump and alternator all original. This is our second Camary, first was a 99.

 

I have 144K on my '07 I4 XLE, had it rebuilt at 95K because it was drinking oil a quart every 1200 miles. I plan to drive it for a really long time unless the company forces me into a company car again. With this car I break even every month so far. Its holding up pretty well, sure is more comfortable than the '14 Corolla that I'm driving as a loaner while my '13 Tacoma is in the shop.

Your ride looks pretty nice, well taken care of... in spite for the Fram filters. Junk those things, use anything but those, filter your coffee thru them, not your oil.

 

Your ride looks pretty nice, well taken care of... in spite for the Fram filters. Junk those things, use anything but those, filter your coffee thru them, not your oil.

That I tried it, it DOES make my coffee taste better…. :rofl2:

 

its nice to know that camry will last over 200k and btw my 07 le camry has been making weird noise for awhile now im assuming its the timing belt but im not a mechanic. also why some of you guys have walmart oil ? i always been a mobile 1 or castro guy.

also few days ago @ 144,500 i changed my oil noticed the car was hot turned it off check coolent tank and it was almost empty . it had a pink anti freeze. i got a toyota /lexus pink for $22 filled it up and car was running normal.

 

its nice to know that camry will last over 200k and btw my 07 le camry has been making weird noise for awhile now im assuming its the timing belt but im not a mechanic. also why some of you guys have walmart oil ? i always been a mobile 1 or castro guy.

I've always had the mentality of "Use the cheapest that meets spec". I guess it comes from my sales knowledge. 99% of your brand name X makes the same product under a store's private label ,brand Y. OR private label brand Y is made buy a " First Cost " type MFG to industry specs.

So, why pay the brand name price? If there isn't a significant advantage in customer service or warranty details, go for the private label product.

When it comes to oil, wally world/orielly/ autozone branded oils all meet spec and typically are 30-60% less expensive than their name brand counterparts.

If my car doesn't make it to 250K and the cause of death is inferior oil, I'll let y'all know!

 

Sounds like a high milage thread - my 07 v6 SE is at 233,450ish and just came home from the dealer after a new idler pulley, serpentine belt (it was making some ODD whining!) - while there they did the power window recall, new spark plugs and PCV valve.

Pulling strong again

I'm pretty terrible about maintenance, I'll admit - regularly go 10k between oil changes, but until recently almost all of my milage was highway cruising.

 

I think its great that you have gotten two hundred thirty thousand miles. It just goes to prove that good maintenance will take you far. Miles do not hurt these cars, sitting around hurts these cars; its called Lot Rot from sitting around on the lot.

People who don't do their maintenance all have the same last name, "Walker" for having to walk when the car stops.

 

Nice! My 2011 XLE V6 has 118k miles on it at the moment (put a lot of highway miles on it with my sales job). Just switched to DIY oil changes and switched from a blend to Mobil 1 Extended performance with Wix filter.

I figured, the full synthetic is still half the price I'd pay for taking it to the quicklube so what the heck. I'm hoping I can also go 200k+ easily

Cheers:clap:

 

My '04 with 185 passed the bounce test also. I replaced all four struts with Monroe Quick Struts and the ride is amazingly different! I also replaced the control arms, ball joints, and tie rod ends.

To borrow from Toyota's old jingle, "oh, what a feeling!"

 

Thought I'd check back in.

Hit the QUARTER MILLION mark a few weeks ago!

Still running fine and adding more road rash to her face weekly. Got stuck behind an 18 wheeler dump trailer that was going 85 on 75 north in South GA. The hood ate a nice sized rock... I had dropped back about 400 feet and it still tagged me

Purely out of caution I have moved from changing the oil every 5k to every 4k. Still using Walmart Supertech high mileage and the cheapie filters.

She starting burning a bit of oil in between changes, maybe 1/4 quart at most, since my last post. She would smoke a bit on start up if she sat for a few days. A crankcase seafoam flush seemed to save me the trouble of checking/replacing the valve seals.

Still averaging 27 - 30 mpg on the highway.

 

I have a 2005 SE 4cyl that my wife drives daily. I bought it used in 2008 with around 60,000 miles and she now has 295,000 on it and still going strong averaging around 500 plus miles per tank. I change the oil every 5000 miles with Castrol 5w-30 dyno oil and a puralator filter. It gives a puff of blue smoke if it sits for a couple of days and uses little to no oil between changes. I have done the regular maintenance and replaced the battery once, the water pump twice and replaced the plugs at 100 and 200 thousand miles with NGK Iridiums. Of course the brakes, tires and rotors get changed as needed.

 

Here is a 2003 Camry for sale in Hillsboro OR (for $2k) with 490,000 miles (790,000 km)

https://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/pts/5583542515.html