The other day, I 'suddenly' hit 200,000 miles. yay! Despite the body looking as if it belongs to a salvage yard...Im carrying on and riding it out LOL.
For some reason though, I've noticed for awhile that the trip meter gets stuck sometimes, and I have to drive around for a few miles before it'll allow me to reset it. Sometimes I'll do it while the car is moving, or while its stop in park...other times it just doesn't matter.
Any ideas?
The trip meter is controlled by little gears, they are probably getting worn out and starting to slip.
You can go to the salvage yard and get a good speedometer with a working odometer and swap them by pulling your cluster apart. But make sure not to mess with the mileage because its very illegal to change that.
And as far as your Camry looking like it should be in a salvage yard, You should see my 93 right now. Its looking pretty sad.. hehe. Both rocker panels are gone, and the drivers rear quarter is gone. Got the Rear Quarter in hand, just trying to find some good rockers on a camry that I can cut off and weld onto my camry to make it pretty again :clap:
haha you updated this while i was typing the above. For the coolant leak, Do a cap pressure check and pressure check your radiator. Quick easy and in-expensive. You can pick up the tools you need at advanced auto or Autozone and get your money back when your done.
Body Rust. You can find replacement Quarter Panels that you weld in online for about $80.00 per side. I have yet to find good rocker panels, but I am still looking for Direct fitment panels.
Welding in the new panels is the best thing you can do in my opinion. If you "patch" the rust, it will just keep rusting. Grab yourself some Zinc paint or some rust converter that contains Zinc. I recommend the paint. There is a really good "quite pricey" paint called Por15 .. its about $20-$30.00 for 1 Pint, but this stuff will work wonders. It converts the rust and prevents more rust from occurring. The biggest problem i found with Por15 is that if you do not wear Latex gloves and it gets on your hands it takes about 1 month of constant washing to remove it. hehehe stains the skin pretty much
For a quick fix to pass inspection or what not, I would recommend fiberglassing it but there again, the rust will still keep eating away.
For a minor oil leak. I recommend finding / fixing the problem As soon as possible. Minor leaks usually turn into major leaks if not taken care of. Clean off where you think the oil is coming from and run the motor for a little bit. See if where you cleaned gets oil in that area. This will help you pin-point where the leak is coming from. There are good de-greasers available. I personally like Purple Power which is available at CarQuest (Maybe other places too). I've used that foaming de-greaser but I didnt like the results I got. You spray the de-greaser on, let it soak for a couple minutes, and then spray it off with a hose. You may need to scrub a little where oil may be built up or you can keep applying the de-greaser until its gone. I used 1 bottle to clean my engine bay on my 95 camry before I put the motor in it. The previous owner had a major oil leak and it covered the entire engine bay and ran all the way down the back of the vehicle.. Yeah.... it was pretty bad. lol!
Common points of oil leaks:
1. Valve Cover Gasket / Spark Plug Tube Seals
2. Power Steering Pump
3. Camshaft Seal
4. Crankshaft Seal
5. Distributor Seal
Check engine light:
If your car is OBD II i would recommend going to autozone to have them pull the codes for you. If it is OBD1 there are procedures available for pulling codes from the ECU. Get the codes and post them up here to further help
To repair bent body panels, Get yourself a Quart of Fiberglass body filler, some lightweight filler and a rubber mallet. Using the rubber mallet, tap the panel as straight as you can get it without over doing it. Once its as straight as possible, you are going to determine what filler you need to use. Small dents and dings can be filled with a light weight puddy and easily sanded. Larger dings and dents may need a heavier puddy (Fiberglass) to fill. I am no body man though, so you may need some other people to clue in on how to fix dings and dents. I do alright with getting the body straight and looking smooth and everything.. I can even paint decent enough but I dont know the techniques that the body guys know.
Hope this helps
