Creakiness

Hey all,

I've got a 91 Camry that runs fine but is creaky as hell. I mean, when you drive over some speed bumps, it's like the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz rolling over on some old rusty bed springs. Is there someplace I can lubricate to fix that?

This is usually caused by sway bar bushings, and the coil spring seats deteriorating. You can either replace them, or I've been told that you can put vegetable oil on them to prevent further deterioration. Just don't make the mistake of coating them with WD-40 or anything petrol based.

interesting suggestion about veg oil. can it be accessed from directly, or the car has to be raised high up?

The bushings can be access by rasing the front of the car enough to remove the tire, and you can access both the sway bar bushings and the control arm bushings from there.

Yotatechie, thanks! I'll try that.

Hey, I notice you've got the 5S-FE in your Camry. I have a buddy with that same engine in his Celica, but he's leaking oil out the passenger side like the Valdez. Well, it's not that bad, but he puts a quart of fresh oil in every time he gets gas. Any ideas on that?

Yotatechie, thanks! I'll try that.

Hey, I notice you've got the 5S-FE in your Camry. I have a buddy with that same engine in his Celica, but he's leaking oil out the passenger side like the Valdez. Well, it's not that bad, but he puts a quart of fresh oil in every time he gets gas. Any ideas on that?

GASKET LEAK...COULD BE OIL PAN OR VALVE COVER..OR BOTH..

Valve cover, camshaft seals, crankshaft seals, or oil pan. Oil leaks can be rather difficult to pinpoint.

For the 5S-FE, I hear that most of those leak spots are easy to fix, but that one is a real doozy. I told my buddy that since the drips are on the passenger side, it's probably whatever seal is behind the timing belt cover. That sound right to you? Then he told me he found white stuff in his oil cap, so I said it might be his hg leaking. He wasn't too happy to hear that. Any other symptoms he can watch for that?

The white stuff in the oil cap is condensation from a lot of short trip driving. I get it from time to time when I do mostly short trip driving. When you start a cold engine, moisture is the byproduct as the engine starts to heat up. If you drive the car long enough, the engine gets hot enough for this condensation to evaporate. If you don't, it remains in the oil. You can actually just wipe it out of the cap. He should still keep up with regular 3000 mile/3 month oil changes even though he is leaking a lot of oil. You still have to get rid of the contaminents that form in the oil.

As a side note, this moisture is also hard on the exhaust system as it also forms there. There's not much you can do about the moisture in the exhaust system formed by short trip driving. They will shorten the life of the exhaust system components. It's just one of the things you have to live with when doing a lot of short trip driving.

Mike