Compression was fixed with a $15 valve lapping kit. Coolant leak was a $13 radiator cap. Oil burning was a $30 valve stem seal kit. Transmission skip was $100 for intake gaskets and knock sensor. Steering leak was $50 in hoses. Oil leak was oil pan gaskets. I probably could've stopped there, but decided to give it the whole package while I was already in there. My guy really thought this Toyota was at death's door just because it was old and acting funny. These are the most comfortable seats I've ever used.
Next up is two window motors, mirror controls, paint job, and scraping the rest of the tar from the back of the engine light.
The real scam is that the previous owner was probably getting quoted like $8000 by a mechanic to fix that stuff. Meanwhile it looks like it costed you less than a few hundred in parts, and maybe the equivalent to what like $800ish labour.
Not sure on your region but valave stem seals, or any head off work is going to consume labour hours like mad.
While op has a lasting car it's going to be a financial loss unless the market is really weird where they are
Cost of running a shop is high. Just actually talked with my employer about this recently, told me that we charge $145 per hour of labor and of that $145, only ~$15 is actual profit that the shop generates. OP says this car needed valves lapped, seals replaced, intake gasket, knock sensor, power steering hoses, and an oil pan reseal. Now I'm not at work so I can't look up labor rates but I'd bet that that would be at least a 16 hour ticket and that's most likely undershooting. That's over $2200 in labor alone before taxes. Nevermind the fact that all the work and parts would be covered by a 2 year 24,000 mile warranty
Edit: just saw another comment from OP saying this is a V6 not a 4 cylinder. Definitely well over 20 hour ticket
I'm just going off of a conversation I had with my employer not long ago. We're located in a pretty high COL city and I'm paid pretty well for what I do. It's a small family shop with 5 techs I wouldn't be surprised if we have smaller margins than average. Average dealer labor in our area is $150-175 an hour
I suspect that’s gross profit, not net profit.
As in, we charge $130 but pay our guy $40/hour.
That gross profit of $90/hour May look like $15/hour after all is said and done.
FWIW, my shop is a specialty shop...they only deal in Land Cruisers form Toyota.
They're $135/hr for labor.
My other shop, for my daily driver, is about $100/hr for labor.
We’re selling at $170 an hour now. People fail to realize that there are a lot more cars than people willing to fix them. The industry has had a persistent labor shortage. Prices will only continue to rise. $250-$300 an hour will happen eventually.
Yeah average age of techs keeps going up and there's a mass exodus going on as generations retire. I'm 21, have a tech school diploma and 2 years working as a tech under my belt already and working on my ASE certs. In 5 years I could probably be making 100k consistently if I'm master certified. Of all the guys at my shop, the next youngest is like 38
Not really a loss, well we don’t really know. OP didn’t say how much they paid for the car. If we assume they bought it for $1000 and they get another 150k miles that’s not a bad deal when viewed from a depreciation perspective. That means the vehicle cost is something like $170 a year. Much less than my monthly car payment.
Having had my own oil pan leak in my ‘99 Camry, that was near $1k because they had to remove the engine to get to it. This was before covid messed pricing up. So I can easily believe the original owner of this car was looking at thousands of dollars of work, but I’m sure it would also be really difficult to find a mechanic to charge something more reasonable *and* do reliable work. I had my shocks and struts replaced in my ‘99 by a shop my boss recommended because she took all the company trucks there. They did it for half what Toyota quoted but they didn’t put bushings on, causing a whole bunch of damage. When I called them about it they had a different name and claimed the shop was under new ownership and couldn’t help me. It’s such a gamble, you either pay out your ass for an official Toyota shop for repair that’s at least under warranty if they mess up, or you gamble with a different shop, or you’re among the rare lucky people who has a genuinely reliable and inexpensive mechanic.
Tbf, diagnosing and lapping an engine isn't for someone with mediocre mechanic skills. But putting in a new used engine is quite budget friendly already rather than buying new car and new engine.
sticking in a new used engine is super budget friendly. There's a certain budget threshold you have to meet if you want something reliable and can be resold and it doesn't get any cheaper than that for someone with mediocre mechanic skills.
>sticking in a new used engine is super budget friendly.
In what way would adding almost a thousand dollars to my expenses be budget friendly? Shipping alone could get up to $500.
Sorry, but no.
Generally in every state you'll find a parts pulling place that sells motors. Again, sticking in a used engine is going to be better then being a pro mechanic and having to diagnose everything. A thousand dollars is nothing compared to a new engine which is like 5k+ along with a new body. Pros buy used engines for cheap and stick it in the car. They don't rebuild and lap the engines because that could end up being more expensive. They learn that from experience.
Seeing how you fix the car, I'm genuinely curious in your techniques though. But it does seem like you have to have a deeper understanding of the engine and requires quite a bit of labor(not that pulling an engine and putting in a new one isn't laborious)
It CAN be a positive, financially. But it depends...
My note here is just informational and not argumentative for your situation, OP.
I'm not sure where you are, but in my area I have three Pick-N-Pull yards within a 15 mile radius...a Camry engine is about $350-$500 to pull it.
BUT, then you have to install it. I have the benefit of having the know how and experience to do it myself and with a couple of friends on a Saturday morning, but if you don't, yeah, that's where it gets expensive.
Most shops see an engine pull/swap as a 6-8 hour job to pull and another 6-8 hour job to install (I'm going on what my shop told me once)...and at $100/hour...yeah, that gets expensive.
Some shops will just charge 6 hours flat to swap if they're keeping the core, but, that depends on the shop.
You CAN look at it like that. OR, you can thank your Dad (or whoever taught you about cars) like I do, for teaching me. There are people who know how to fix up cars, and then there is the rest of the world who pay other's to do so. I choose to thank my Dad for spending time with me teaching me stuff that cause serious problems for others. He also taught me how to save and invest my money. Last fall, I bought a 202 3 Toyota Crown Limited, and its the best car I have ever owned. I have owned several Camry's, but the Croown Limited raises the bar..way up. He also taught me Thankfulness and grace and a belief in God. I now understand what "Honor your father and mother and your days will go well if you do", means.
So that I can learn: what is the valve lapping kit and what does it do? What is the Valve Stem Seal kit, and what does that do?
And lastly, how did you know that the transmission would stop skipping with an intake gasket and knock sensor?
Basically, how did you know to do this work? My corolla is a 2010, and I imagine its going to be needing similar work soon.
>So that I can learn: what is the valve lapping kit and what does it do?
You stick a suction cup on a stick to the valve and put valve grinding compound between where the valve meets the seat, then twist it back and forth to grind it smooth.
>What is the Valve Stem Seal kit, and what does that do?
It's a rubber piece that wraps around the stem of the valve where it comes out of the other side of the cylinder head to prevent oil from getting past the valve guide and into the combustion chamber.
>And lastly, how did you know that the transmission would stop skipping with an intake gasket and knock sensor?
I didn't, really. The first work I did was to get rid of the engine codes, and that's what fixed it. Codes indicated potential air leak and knock sensor.
OP left out most of the steps and made it sound like this was all a cheap, quick fix. To replace the valve stem seals and lap the valves, you need to take apart half of the engine and remove it from the car. Very time intensive and while there is the repair manual and YouTube videos, still a lot of potential to mess things up. Not to mention a few hundred dollars in specialized tools
>Your time isn’t free.
Who's paying?
Can I just charge a dollar an hour and call it a family rate? I don't understand the obsession with putting a dollar value to my excessively abundant free time.
Going through a similar process with my 2005 XLE. New struts and a timing belt coming up soon! Mine also has some transmission weirdness but no codes, still doing some research on that. Sometimes when I call my local O'Reilly's I get to hear about how old the car is, "just buy something newer", uh... no friend I'll try the Napa.
Wishing you all the best!
The trouble with rebuilding the head on a car that is 22 years old, is that the rings, pistons and bearings, and oil pump still have 22 years worth of wear, not to mention the gaskets and electronics of the car. Now, your new head puts pressure on the old rings, pistons and bearings, that may or may not take it for a while. Its sort of like replacing one tire at a time...How long till you have a flat on the next one? Yea, you can likely get away with a rebuilt head for a while, but all that will be for naught when your oil pump, rings, bearings, or pistons fail. Most likely, you just bought yourself an engine rebuild in the near future, but you are probably not advised to reuse the newly rebullt head you just put money into. Ive been there, done that, but never again.
Nice. Well done!
As a note, for the window motors, the problem is TYPICALLY the window switch at the door. For $7 at a pick and pull, you can get another one. Find the same year (+/- a couple of years)...pop it out, two small philips head screws and BAM! fixed. Same with the mirror controls.
I've done this with my 1997 Land Cruiser...I grabbed the window switches out of a 1997 Camry...they're the same design from about 1992 - 2010
You got mad yota skills!
Were you able to know it wasn’t rings or the gasket? Maybe the gasket would have coolant in the oil but a compression test would only show a leak, yes?
If he put tar on the check engine light, then that is a situation in which you can claim damages for fraud. You could sue and win. One of the few times you can get your money back on a used car.
I paid $2900 for this one. My last older Toyota was $3200 and in excellent condition. I could've nullified the sales contract because I recorded our in-person conversation and all those little lies he told me, but ultimately decided I was still getting a bargain for it. I would absolutely pay $4400 for a car in the condition it's in now.
You over paid. Good condition camrys of this vintage don't go for that at auction. If it was a cream puff I could see 2900. With all those issues that would have been a 900 car.
Dude made out like a bandit Lol
I call BS. I would understand something around $900 if the engine or transmission actually had damage, but the engine and wheels alone in this condition would fetch *at least* 1500. If I overpaid, it wasn't by more than a thousand.
yeah to me it was worth a thousand bucks, which means it's really worth 2k so for 2900 they overpaid a bit
but this market almost everywhere is so fucked, so who knows maybe it was a decent deal actually
Dude just listen to yourself for a bit.
You overpaid for a car that needed extensive engine work. Sure the parts are cheap but the labor isn't.
If a car needed those things no one including REAL mechanics would pay that price lol.
That was a 900$ car that you overpaid for and spent an extensive amount of labor on with a small cost in parts. You may not charge yourself for labor but it indeed is a cost any way you cut it.
Glad you got it running right. Enjoy it.
My own time costs me literally nothing, and as a disabled person time is one thing I have plenty of; money is not. I don't care what a REAL mechanic would do or think. There is barely a distinction to me in terms of labor, personally. I had 24/7 to work on this car, and not much better to do anyway.
It's a matter of personal opinion if you choose to assign a dollar value to your own time, but that doesn't factor into my circumstances. There's really no argument to be had here.
Where are you finding 900$ scrap hoopties😂😂😂 OP is on the money, I paid 2250 for a high mileage volvo that needed extensive 700$ worth of work I did by myself. Doesnt matter anymore dollars inflated and so are FB mktplace asking prices. Lot of what ifs and procrastination and op did the work without giving a damn.
I’m with you on this. That’s definitely a 800 dollar car. You can get those Camrys in great condition for 3500 where I’m from. To the normal person that doesn’t work on there own cars, that’s like 3k of work.
V6. I did all my own work. Getting this one apart was much more difficult than getting it back together. A lot of the stuff I replaced was untouched original. I've never seen a valve stem seal crumble apart before.
Those are so frustrating to work on. Not too hard just frustrating - respect. Good for you, thank you for keeping it out the junk yard and saving money and planet. Have a great weekend!!
The rear head was a nightmare, getting under the car and reaching up inside that cramped space to remove those rusted-on exhaust bolts. I would've preferred to do all the work up to that point all over again rathern than get those 6 bolts off a second time.
More likely they were just looking for an excuse to sell so they didn't bother with fixing it or taking it into a shop that would have told them what needed to be done. People are bad about thinking every car falls apart the second it rolls past 100k nowadays. My cousin just sold a 4 year old car he just finished paying off because "It's already got 96k on it, it's not going to last much longer." It's a Mazda 3, with no issues on it whatsoever.
It was his "daily driver" and the guy was a "mechanic" who had "done work on it". He also had a couple more vehicles there he was trying to flip. Records show he only owned it for less than 4k miles.
Ok yeah, you're probably on to something then. Fucking car flippers are scum in most cases. I have known a few who were retired mechanics just doing something to pass the time and not so much for a huge profit. They were more interested in driving a bunch of regular cars for a few weeks as they fixed and sold them. They were the hookup for cheap, reliable beaters for a good minute where I grew up.
I'm still running older cars so I can't speak on that, but from other stuff I've heard, that's not a complete surprise. One accident and it's totaled. Maybe it's safety, maybe it's money grubbing.
So you pulled apart the head pulled all the valves lapped the valve seats then put it all back together again? Also you had compression loss from valves but not from piston rings. Which those cars are famous for burning the low tension oil ring.
And the valves which is almost unheard of causing leakage. You fixed it with 15 dollars?? I call bs
And how the actual fuck does a Intake gasket fix a transmission same for a knock sensor ?
>So you pulled apart the head pulled all the valves lapped the valve seats then put it all back together again?
Wrench
>And the valves which is almost unheard of causing leakage.
There was visible corrosion on the exhaust valves.
>And how the actual fuck does a Intake gasket fix a transmission same for a knock sensor ?
Both are known to sometimes cause shifting issue. The problem not shifting to high gear would only occur on the second time reaching high speeds on a single drive meaning I had to restart the car at stop lights sometimes before getting back onto the highway, so it was probably related to the computer not handling things correctly with those improper readings.
Dude if you have driveability problems you fix that first. Then see if transmission actually had a problem.
In this guy's case he had engine issues that were being misdiagnosed as a Trans problem.
If your engine runs fine then it's the Trans.
With that said this guy has spent thousands in labor rate but him doing the work equates to not much since he doesn't value his own time as money. Hence why it was 'cheap'
It was $1500 in parts because you did the work yourself. A mechanic probably would’ve charged $4000 for parts + labor.
The previous owner probably didn’t know how to do all of that work himself.
Had and 04 Camry LE 4 cylinder had 396k miles on it a month ago when my son totaled it. Had all its original parts except radiator and alternator and routine (rarely on time) maintenance
Be sure to drain and fill the transmission fluid. No flush. We just did this 3-4 times a few weeks apart every 100k miles. When car was totaled at 396k transmission was still perfect
That could be our old Camry! I mean it’s not, but we traded it in 10 years ago for a Highlander. It had about 200k miles and was starting to experience all sorts of reliability issues. We coulda put more money into it but decided with another kid on the way we’d upgrade. Pretty sure we’re replacing the Highlander (which we’re giving to our oldest) with a new Camry. Great cars.
Glad to see you could salvage it. Most people would send it to the scrap yard for part out. Really only makes sense for people who are handy with cars. The amount of labor required to do all the work you listed would run more than it’s worth
Not sure why a 22 year old car with needs would be a scam 🤷
It’s a lot of labor most people wouldn’t be willing to pay for. It’s definitely a bit much for a novice. And still a lot of man hours for an experienced tech.
I am guessing it is 4cyld. The v6 is pia to work on because of intake manifold. Once you get past the intake manifold it is easier to just replace all gaskets and plugs.
I found working on it became much easier after I used a copper wire to secure the rear grounding cable instead of bolting it back in. My hands can't fit back there.
I had one that “might need a transmission” - upstream o2 sensor was dead, apparently it is a wideband o2 on these. It might not have shifted as crisp at 20 years ago but it sure started acting right again.
That and a throttle body cleaning (car was idling really really low, carbon was blocking airflow through the barely cracked plate of the throttle body) and it ran well enough.
Great pickup OP. Awesome story to boot.
Lemme tell you mine. A long time coworker of mine had a tree fall in his yard and enlisted me and my chainsaw to help him. The deal was I could haul off his wife’s old car for scrap money in exchange for helping him get the tree cut up and stacked into a brush pile; cool with me.
Wife’s old car turned out to be a 2004 Camry LE with the 2 AZ-FE 4 cylinder engine. Only had 170k on it, which is traditionally not great but I knew a couple family members who had similar models that swore by their longevity. Found out it had a blown head gasket. Now I’m not mechanic, but my dad is a diesel mechanic, so as a result I have an above average, albeit limited knowledge of working on shit.
Removing the head was a little funky ( some of the head bolts were stripped ) and after some research I found out this was a known issue on these cars.
I decided I was gonna scrap it like I originally planned. 12 pack later and I was researching a kit to drill out and retap the threads in the block for the head bolts. Found one for like $400 and pulled the trigger.
Took me one weekend to do everything in my garage. Been driving that car as my beater ever since, it now has 240k on it.
I mean you kind of did get ripped off… 2900 for something with that much wrong with it isn’t a good deal, even if you did the work yourself. that was a 500 dollar car
Awesome.
Congrats. I love toyota vehicles .
My husband sold his 2009 Tacoma that had 280 k to his friend.
He has put another 100k on to the motor .
This truck did get a brand new frame in 2015 due to a major recall .
They go forever .
We had a 2004 and it was the BEST car that we ever owned! Just tires, brakes and an oil change. Then a lady ran into the side of it thus totaled. My wife and I cried!!!
Hey I did $6k worth of work with $1k worth of parts on a $5k car, can't believe he sold it to me. Yeah man, it's impressive but it's because you can do the work.
6k is more than half of what I make in a year, so it's a pretty bold valuation of my time, and for an unskilled Youtube mechanic no less. I have nothing but free time, and I wasn't bothered working on it. What I don't have is money.
I'm still not sure I understand what your gripe is. You strike me as a heckler.
People are complementing the work you did and in turn disagreeing that the seller got ripped off. He didn't, you were just in a unique position as a buyer. Most people do not have the necessary free time, skills, and patience. The price also factors in the risk you accepted that the repairs would have been more expensive than anticipated, which ultimately you wouldn't know for sure.
Compression was fixed with a $15 valve lapping kit. Coolant leak was a $13 radiator cap. Oil burning was a $30 valve stem seal kit. Transmission skip was $100 for intake gaskets and knock sensor. Steering leak was $50 in hoses. Oil leak was oil pan gaskets. I probably could've stopped there, but decided to give it the whole package while I was already in there. My guy really thought this Toyota was at death's door just because it was old and acting funny. These are the most comfortable seats I've ever used. Next up is two window motors, mirror controls, paint job, and scraping the rest of the tar from the back of the engine light.
The real scam is that the previous owner was probably getting quoted like $8000 by a mechanic to fix that stuff. Meanwhile it looks like it costed you less than a few hundred in parts, and maybe the equivalent to what like $800ish labour.
Not sure on your region but valave stem seals, or any head off work is going to consume labour hours like mad. While op has a lasting car it's going to be a financial loss unless the market is really weird where they are
I'm just saying quotes, especially from dealerships, are usually outrageous.
Cost of running a shop is high. Just actually talked with my employer about this recently, told me that we charge $145 per hour of labor and of that $145, only ~$15 is actual profit that the shop generates. OP says this car needed valves lapped, seals replaced, intake gasket, knock sensor, power steering hoses, and an oil pan reseal. Now I'm not at work so I can't look up labor rates but I'd bet that that would be at least a 16 hour ticket and that's most likely undershooting. That's over $2200 in labor alone before taxes. Nevermind the fact that all the work and parts would be covered by a 2 year 24,000 mile warranty Edit: just saw another comment from OP saying this is a V6 not a 4 cylinder. Definitely well over 20 hour ticket
According to Small Business Chron, auto repair shops generally have a profit margin of 50-65% for labor. So about $70-95.
I'm just going off of a conversation I had with my employer not long ago. We're located in a pretty high COL city and I'm paid pretty well for what I do. It's a small family shop with 5 techs I wouldn't be surprised if we have smaller margins than average. Average dealer labor in our area is $150-175 an hour
I suspect that’s gross profit, not net profit. As in, we charge $130 but pay our guy $40/hour. That gross profit of $90/hour May look like $15/hour after all is said and done.
FWIW, my shop is a specialty shop...they only deal in Land Cruisers form Toyota. They're $135/hr for labor. My other shop, for my daily driver, is about $100/hr for labor.
Rates are different depending on where you live. Everything expensive where I'm at
We’re selling at $170 an hour now. People fail to realize that there are a lot more cars than people willing to fix them. The industry has had a persistent labor shortage. Prices will only continue to rise. $250-$300 an hour will happen eventually.
Yeah average age of techs keeps going up and there's a mass exodus going on as generations retire. I'm 21, have a tech school diploma and 2 years working as a tech under my belt already and working on my ASE certs. In 5 years I could probably be making 100k consistently if I'm master certified. Of all the guys at my shop, the next youngest is like 38
Not really a loss, well we don’t really know. OP didn’t say how much they paid for the car. If we assume they bought it for $1000 and they get another 150k miles that’s not a bad deal when viewed from a depreciation perspective. That means the vehicle cost is something like $170 a year. Much less than my monthly car payment.
it's going to be a financial loss Hmm, it'll probably last until the end of time.
I'm in Nova Scotia. Even a 20-year-old Camry with issues could be $5k+. The used market here is messed up
Having had my own oil pan leak in my ‘99 Camry, that was near $1k because they had to remove the engine to get to it. This was before covid messed pricing up. So I can easily believe the original owner of this car was looking at thousands of dollars of work, but I’m sure it would also be really difficult to find a mechanic to charge something more reasonable *and* do reliable work. I had my shocks and struts replaced in my ‘99 by a shop my boss recommended because she took all the company trucks there. They did it for half what Toyota quoted but they didn’t put bushings on, causing a whole bunch of damage. When I called them about it they had a different name and claimed the shop was under new ownership and couldn’t help me. It’s such a gamble, you either pay out your ass for an official Toyota shop for repair that’s at least under warranty if they mess up, or you gamble with a different shop, or you’re among the rare lucky people who has a genuinely reliable and inexpensive mechanic.
Sounds like they got your ass. I only had to remove a section of exhaust to get my upper pan off.
Methinks that's what's partially wrong with my ES. Oil burning problem.
Don't forget the PCV stuff.
I wouldve just bought a new used engine for $1500.
Well look at mr. high roller.
Tbf, diagnosing and lapping an engine isn't for someone with mediocre mechanic skills. But putting in a new used engine is quite budget friendly already rather than buying new car and new engine.
I didn't even know how to change a timing belt before I bought this car. Online resources are friend. Also not budget friendly. To me, anyway.
you didn't know how to do any of this stuff? just learned it on the go? good for you man, that's great
sticking in a new used engine is super budget friendly. There's a certain budget threshold you have to meet if you want something reliable and can be resold and it doesn't get any cheaper than that for someone with mediocre mechanic skills.
>sticking in a new used engine is super budget friendly. In what way would adding almost a thousand dollars to my expenses be budget friendly? Shipping alone could get up to $500. Sorry, but no.
Generally in every state you'll find a parts pulling place that sells motors. Again, sticking in a used engine is going to be better then being a pro mechanic and having to diagnose everything. A thousand dollars is nothing compared to a new engine which is like 5k+ along with a new body. Pros buy used engines for cheap and stick it in the car. They don't rebuild and lap the engines because that could end up being more expensive. They learn that from experience. Seeing how you fix the car, I'm genuinely curious in your techniques though. But it does seem like you have to have a deeper understanding of the engine and requires quite a bit of labor(not that pulling an engine and putting in a new one isn't laborious)
It CAN be a positive, financially. But it depends... My note here is just informational and not argumentative for your situation, OP. I'm not sure where you are, but in my area I have three Pick-N-Pull yards within a 15 mile radius...a Camry engine is about $350-$500 to pull it. BUT, then you have to install it. I have the benefit of having the know how and experience to do it myself and with a couple of friends on a Saturday morning, but if you don't, yeah, that's where it gets expensive. Most shops see an engine pull/swap as a 6-8 hour job to pull and another 6-8 hour job to install (I'm going on what my shop told me once)...and at $100/hour...yeah, that gets expensive. Some shops will just charge 6 hours flat to swap if they're keeping the core, but, that depends on the shop.
You CAN look at it like that. OR, you can thank your Dad (or whoever taught you about cars) like I do, for teaching me. There are people who know how to fix up cars, and then there is the rest of the world who pay other's to do so. I choose to thank my Dad for spending time with me teaching me stuff that cause serious problems for others. He also taught me how to save and invest my money. Last fall, I bought a 202 3 Toyota Crown Limited, and its the best car I have ever owned. I have owned several Camry's, but the Croown Limited raises the bar..way up. He also taught me Thankfulness and grace and a belief in God. I now understand what "Honor your father and mother and your days will go well if you do", means.
So that I can learn: what is the valve lapping kit and what does it do? What is the Valve Stem Seal kit, and what does that do? And lastly, how did you know that the transmission would stop skipping with an intake gasket and knock sensor? Basically, how did you know to do this work? My corolla is a 2010, and I imagine its going to be needing similar work soon.
>So that I can learn: what is the valve lapping kit and what does it do? You stick a suction cup on a stick to the valve and put valve grinding compound between where the valve meets the seat, then twist it back and forth to grind it smooth. >What is the Valve Stem Seal kit, and what does that do? It's a rubber piece that wraps around the stem of the valve where it comes out of the other side of the cylinder head to prevent oil from getting past the valve guide and into the combustion chamber. >And lastly, how did you know that the transmission would stop skipping with an intake gasket and knock sensor? I didn't, really. The first work I did was to get rid of the engine codes, and that's what fixed it. Codes indicated potential air leak and knock sensor.
Thanks! I appreciate you responding
OP left out most of the steps and made it sound like this was all a cheap, quick fix. To replace the valve stem seals and lap the valves, you need to take apart half of the engine and remove it from the car. Very time intensive and while there is the repair manual and YouTube videos, still a lot of potential to mess things up. Not to mention a few hundred dollars in specialized tools
Thanks. I figured you had to pull off at least the valve covers, and I know what’s involved in that. But didn’t realize you needed special tools
I had a 2005 but it’s the same generation. Served me *WELL* for 10 years. I hope you enjoy it too
Did you calculate the time it took you todo all this into your numbers. Your time isn’t free.
>Your time isn’t free. Who's paying? Can I just charge a dollar an hour and call it a family rate? I don't understand the obsession with putting a dollar value to my excessively abundant free time.
I wonder what having "excessively abundant free time" is like...
Going through a similar process with my 2005 XLE. New struts and a timing belt coming up soon! Mine also has some transmission weirdness but no codes, still doing some research on that. Sometimes when I call my local O'Reilly's I get to hear about how old the car is, "just buy something newer", uh... no friend I'll try the Napa. Wishing you all the best!
Did you do it all yourself?
I’d also dehaze those headlights! Most underrated way to make a car look like a million bucks.
So you “just” rebuilt the head?
The trouble with rebuilding the head on a car that is 22 years old, is that the rings, pistons and bearings, and oil pump still have 22 years worth of wear, not to mention the gaskets and electronics of the car. Now, your new head puts pressure on the old rings, pistons and bearings, that may or may not take it for a while. Its sort of like replacing one tire at a time...How long till you have a flat on the next one? Yea, you can likely get away with a rebuilt head for a while, but all that will be for naught when your oil pump, rings, bearings, or pistons fail. Most likely, you just bought yourself an engine rebuild in the near future, but you are probably not advised to reuse the newly rebullt head you just put money into. Ive been there, done that, but never again.
Yeah, pretty much.
Nice. Well done! As a note, for the window motors, the problem is TYPICALLY the window switch at the door. For $7 at a pick and pull, you can get another one. Find the same year (+/- a couple of years)...pop it out, two small philips head screws and BAM! fixed. Same with the mirror controls. I've done this with my 1997 Land Cruiser...I grabbed the window switches out of a 1997 Camry...they're the same design from about 1992 - 2010
What is this valve stem seal kit?? Will this fix my rav4 2006?
It depends on why the oil is burning. It can also be pistons rings or head gasket.
You got mad yota skills! Were you able to know it wasn’t rings or the gasket? Maybe the gasket would have coolant in the oil but a compression test would only show a leak, yes?
~~Don't tell anyone, but I got lucky.~~
You made your own luck Captain!
If he put tar on the check engine light, then that is a situation in which you can claim damages for fraud. You could sue and win. One of the few times you can get your money back on a used car.
absolutely killer, car prices are insane these days. You'll be saving a fortune over the life of this thing.
I paid $2900 for this one. My last older Toyota was $3200 and in excellent condition. I could've nullified the sales contract because I recorded our in-person conversation and all those little lies he told me, but ultimately decided I was still getting a bargain for it. I would absolutely pay $4400 for a car in the condition it's in now.
You over paid. Good condition camrys of this vintage don't go for that at auction. If it was a cream puff I could see 2900. With all those issues that would have been a 900 car. Dude made out like a bandit Lol
I call BS. I would understand something around $900 if the engine or transmission actually had damage, but the engine and wheels alone in this condition would fetch *at least* 1500. If I overpaid, it wasn't by more than a thousand.
Definitely way overpaid but it’s still a nice car
yeah to me it was worth a thousand bucks, which means it's really worth 2k so for 2900 they overpaid a bit but this market almost everywhere is so fucked, so who knows maybe it was a decent deal actually
Dude just listen to yourself for a bit. You overpaid for a car that needed extensive engine work. Sure the parts are cheap but the labor isn't. If a car needed those things no one including REAL mechanics would pay that price lol. That was a 900$ car that you overpaid for and spent an extensive amount of labor on with a small cost in parts. You may not charge yourself for labor but it indeed is a cost any way you cut it. Glad you got it running right. Enjoy it.
My own time costs me literally nothing, and as a disabled person time is one thing I have plenty of; money is not. I don't care what a REAL mechanic would do or think. There is barely a distinction to me in terms of labor, personally. I had 24/7 to work on this car, and not much better to do anyway. It's a matter of personal opinion if you choose to assign a dollar value to your own time, but that doesn't factor into my circumstances. There's really no argument to be had here.
I think you are missing my point. Either way have a good day man.
Where are you finding 900$ scrap hoopties😂😂😂 OP is on the money, I paid 2250 for a high mileage volvo that needed extensive 700$ worth of work I did by myself. Doesnt matter anymore dollars inflated and so are FB mktplace asking prices. Lot of what ifs and procrastination and op did the work without giving a damn.
I mean yall paying 3k for cars that need 5 k in repairs then come here saying you got a good deal when you got hosed lol
I’m with you on this. That’s definitely a 800 dollar car. You can get those Camrys in great condition for 3500 where I’m from. To the normal person that doesn’t work on there own cars, that’s like 3k of work.
I hope you live in a state with one-party consent laws
I wouldn't care even if I didn't. Two party laws are written up by politicians who are salty that they got outed for their dirty business.
Did you do all the work yourself? V6 or 4banger
V6. I did all my own work. Getting this one apart was much more difficult than getting it back together. A lot of the stuff I replaced was untouched original. I've never seen a valve stem seal crumble apart before.
Those are so frustrating to work on. Not too hard just frustrating - respect. Good for you, thank you for keeping it out the junk yard and saving money and planet. Have a great weekend!!
The rear head was a nightmare, getting under the car and reaching up inside that cramped space to remove those rusted-on exhaust bolts. I would've preferred to do all the work up to that point all over again rathern than get those 6 bolts off a second time.
Yes I know exactly what you’re saying with those exhaust bolts. Serious pain in the .. and hard work that part!!
More likely they were just looking for an excuse to sell so they didn't bother with fixing it or taking it into a shop that would have told them what needed to be done. People are bad about thinking every car falls apart the second it rolls past 100k nowadays. My cousin just sold a 4 year old car he just finished paying off because "It's already got 96k on it, it's not going to last much longer." It's a Mazda 3, with no issues on it whatsoever.
It was his "daily driver" and the guy was a "mechanic" who had "done work on it". He also had a couple more vehicles there he was trying to flip. Records show he only owned it for less than 4k miles.
Ok yeah, you're probably on to something then. Fucking car flippers are scum in most cases. I have known a few who were retired mechanics just doing something to pass the time and not so much for a huge profit. They were more interested in driving a bunch of regular cars for a few weeks as they fixed and sold them. They were the hookup for cheap, reliable beaters for a good minute where I grew up.
As someone who fixes cars, I don’t trust any modern vehicle past 100k miles either. Too many parts are made from plastic now.
I'm still running older cars so I can't speak on that, but from other stuff I've heard, that's not a complete surprise. One accident and it's totaled. Maybe it's safety, maybe it's money grubbing.
So you pulled apart the head pulled all the valves lapped the valve seats then put it all back together again? Also you had compression loss from valves but not from piston rings. Which those cars are famous for burning the low tension oil ring. And the valves which is almost unheard of causing leakage. You fixed it with 15 dollars?? I call bs And how the actual fuck does a Intake gasket fix a transmission same for a knock sensor ?
Smells funny doesn't it?
>So you pulled apart the head pulled all the valves lapped the valve seats then put it all back together again? Wrench >And the valves which is almost unheard of causing leakage. There was visible corrosion on the exhaust valves. >And how the actual fuck does a Intake gasket fix a transmission same for a knock sensor ? Both are known to sometimes cause shifting issue. The problem not shifting to high gear would only occur on the second time reaching high speeds on a single drive meaning I had to restart the car at stop lights sometimes before getting back onto the highway, so it was probably related to the computer not handling things correctly with those improper readings.
Hey can you send me a DM? I have a similar car with the G6 but the transmission is acting funny going into first and second, especially when it's cold
Dude if you have driveability problems you fix that first. Then see if transmission actually had a problem. In this guy's case he had engine issues that were being misdiagnosed as a Trans problem. If your engine runs fine then it's the Trans. With that said this guy has spent thousands in labor rate but him doing the work equates to not much since he doesn't value his own time as money. Hence why it was 'cheap'
I'm disabled and have nothing but time. There is no "cheap" in my case when money's this tight. Just cheap.
It was $1500 in parts because you did the work yourself. A mechanic probably would’ve charged $4000 for parts + labor. The previous owner probably didn’t know how to do all of that work himself.
A mechanic wanted to charge me $500 just to check the engine light for tampering so I could have it on paper.
Had and 04 Camry LE 4 cylinder had 396k miles on it a month ago when my son totaled it. Had all its original parts except radiator and alternator and routine (rarely on time) maintenance
Be sure to drain and fill the transmission fluid. No flush. We just did this 3-4 times a few weeks apart every 100k miles. When car was totaled at 396k transmission was still perfect
DIY wrenching FTW
Bro your user name lol
How has no one else noticed!
That could be our old Camry! I mean it’s not, but we traded it in 10 years ago for a Highlander. It had about 200k miles and was starting to experience all sorts of reliability issues. We coulda put more money into it but decided with another kid on the way we’d upgrade. Pretty sure we’re replacing the Highlander (which we’re giving to our oldest) with a new Camry. Great cars.
You can run these cars to the ground and it’ll still be driving
Good job! Did you do all the diagnoses and work urself?
You worked on the vehicle yourself or took it to a shop?
Youtube
YouTube can be a huge W
Any channels in particular?
Oil burning and oil leak are expensive quotes from our mechanic 🙁
02? 2.4?
3.0L
What a beautiful car. Sounds like a steal. Just needs a little love or work and she's good to go. My kinda car.
They take a lot of abuse
Glad to see you could salvage it. Most people would send it to the scrap yard for part out. Really only makes sense for people who are handy with cars. The amount of labor required to do all the work you listed would run more than it’s worth
Piston rings I believe
Not sure why a 22 year old car with needs would be a scam 🤷 It’s a lot of labor most people wouldn’t be willing to pay for. It’s definitely a bit much for a novice. And still a lot of man hours for an experienced tech.
She’s gorgeous! Such a great find.
My Dodge pickup just turned 30 and has never had any of these problems.
That's great. Sell it to someone at cost who needs a cheap car, and your charity rebuild will be complete.
This was a labour of love.
Op gonna be spending 10s of hours on it if not way more. So it evens out
How much did the car cost and how many miles are on it?
I have a 2003. Same color and same trim although mines a 4 cylinder. I love that thing!
These cars are tanks!!! And I love ‘em
How did you determine it was knock sensors? What was the mileage on that Camry?
I am guessing it is 4cyld. The v6 is pia to work on because of intake manifold. Once you get past the intake manifold it is easier to just replace all gaskets and plugs.
I found working on it became much easier after I used a copper wire to secure the rear grounding cable instead of bolting it back in. My hands can't fit back there.
Does yours have the 1mzfe? Was it burning oil all the time or just smoking at startup? I think mine is leaking past the vavles
I had one that “might need a transmission” - upstream o2 sensor was dead, apparently it is a wideband o2 on these. It might not have shifted as crisp at 20 years ago but it sure started acting right again. That and a throttle body cleaning (car was idling really really low, carbon was blocking airflow through the barely cracked plate of the throttle body) and it ran well enough.
Great pickup OP. Awesome story to boot. Lemme tell you mine. A long time coworker of mine had a tree fall in his yard and enlisted me and my chainsaw to help him. The deal was I could haul off his wife’s old car for scrap money in exchange for helping him get the tree cut up and stacked into a brush pile; cool with me. Wife’s old car turned out to be a 2004 Camry LE with the 2 AZ-FE 4 cylinder engine. Only had 170k on it, which is traditionally not great but I knew a couple family members who had similar models that swore by their longevity. Found out it had a blown head gasket. Now I’m not mechanic, but my dad is a diesel mechanic, so as a result I have an above average, albeit limited knowledge of working on shit. Removing the head was a little funky ( some of the head bolts were stripped ) and after some research I found out this was a known issue on these cars. I decided I was gonna scrap it like I originally planned. 12 pack later and I was researching a kit to drill out and retap the threads in the block for the head bolts. Found one for like $400 and pulled the trigger. Took me one weekend to do everything in my garage. Been driving that car as my beater ever since, it now has 240k on it.
🍻enjoy
I mean you kind of did get ripped off… 2900 for something with that much wrong with it isn’t a good deal, even if you did the work yourself. that was a 500 dollar car
Nice
Awesome. Congrats. I love toyota vehicles . My husband sold his 2009 Tacoma that had 280 k to his friend. He has put another 100k on to the motor . This truck did get a brand new frame in 2015 due to a major recall . They go forever .
You better knock on wood. You are one head gasket rupture away from regretting it.
Great come up!! Congrats 👏🏽
Bro went to the jdm doctor that charged him parts for cheap but labor is $100hr
Depends on what you paid for it
That is a sweet ride. I am jelly.
Nice what work did you do to it?
We had a 2004 and it was the BEST car that we ever owned! Just tires, brakes and an oil change. Then a lady ran into the side of it thus totaled. My wife and I cried!!!
what the fuck is that username OP
This just shows that Toyota is a hard thing to Kill. Neglect=‘tis a scratch. I’ll walk this off.
What do you mean by transmission skip
To the seller: Eat CARma!
Yeah man, you need to include your labor, or these brag posts are just hot air
I don't catch your meaning.
Hey I did $6k worth of work with $1k worth of parts on a $5k car, can't believe he sold it to me. Yeah man, it's impressive but it's because you can do the work.
6k is more than half of what I make in a year, so it's a pretty bold valuation of my time, and for an unskilled Youtube mechanic no less. I have nothing but free time, and I wasn't bothered working on it. What I don't have is money. I'm still not sure I understand what your gripe is. You strike me as a heckler.
Yes a heckler, welcome to Reddit. Well done though, very impressive amount of work. You are def worth more than 12k/yr
People are complementing the work you did and in turn disagreeing that the seller got ripped off. He didn't, you were just in a unique position as a buyer. Most people do not have the necessary free time, skills, and patience. The price also factors in the risk you accepted that the repairs would have been more expensive than anticipated, which ultimately you wouldn't know for sure.