Keep troubled 96 Camry??

I have a 96 Camry LE in need of $2600+ worth of repairs including needing a new head gasket and rear struts. It has 110K miles on in and never had it serviced at 60k or 90K. I had to replace the radiator twice and was told there may be an "internal" problem that is causing the radiators to go. The car exterior has minor dings and is spotted by pine pitch. I've been repairing it on an "as needed" basis; no preventative work except regular oil changes. Also has minor problems like back door won't open from inside, one power window doesn't work.

Now my question is, should I put the needed work into it and hopefully get another 100K miles out of it, or buy a 1999 Ford Taurus with 68K on it that has been immaculately cared for?

I hate to give up my Camry for a lowly Taurus, but it's in much better shape. Which will last longer with fewer problems down the road? Hmmm...:rolleyes:

Check out the Taurus forum and see what problems you might encounter down the road with that car. With the Camry, you are definitely rolling dice.

The new head gaskets are multi-layer-steel and will not blow out. Your current head gasket problems is a result of yourself. The '96 had the best Toyota head gasket of the old construction (i.e. not multi-layer-steel).


The other problems are minor. Suspensions normally only last 100,000-10 years for any vehicle before they need to be replaced; most people simply never realize that. Suspension parts themselves are fairly cheap. Switches are all over ebay & the locks should be easy to fix.

Do/have done for you a compression, or cylinder leak down test & record the results. That will tell you if you need to replace the head gaskets. If the gaskets need to be replaced, you need to have the heads decked flat at a machine shop if they are warped. Normally $50-100 for both heads.

The radiators are most likely blowing from poor, or incorrect coolant. The water pump needs to go. Which is not a big deal being around $75, and you can also put a new timing belt on it.

I digress, find a good, honest mechanic. The head gasket+ rebuilding the engine/maintenece along the way shouldn't exceed $1500, if they're really honest, you can get it done for $1300, but good luck finding the really honest ones that charge correctly for labor.



Download the '94 Camry repair manual Brian has stickied on this forum.









AFA selling it, it's not really much more than a downpayment now. Do whatever floats your boat the most. If you wanna continue to drive it, fix it, and start doing your maintenece ASAP & you won't have those problems.

If you don't want it anymore either sell it, or fix it & sell it.


No matter what you choose to do, you really need to start doing actual maintanece on whatever you own. Just changing the oil is going to always lead to cooling system failures, overheating, dead engines, and destroyed automatic transmissions.

Thank you for the input/information. From the Taurus forum I see that it has its OWN problems-my mother has a 1998 Taurus wagon and has experienced many of the same problems I read about on that forum.

I know I've neglected my poor Camry. I think I'll keep it, get the work done, start treating it right and hopefully it will last another 100K.