We had an experience this weekend some may learn something from.

Friday my daughter was driving her 4 cyl 94 Camry up interstate 15 from San Diego to visit us up north. Toolin along at 75 in the fast lane, she said without warning the car jerked, all the dash lights came on, and she started loosing speed in a hurry. Luckily she managed to get it through traffic and on the side of the road. That's when I got that dreaded "Dad, the car died and I'm stranded", call.

I had her open the hood where she saw steam on the left side of the engine and the coolant bottle was full and boiling. She said the car was not running and would not restart. Had her wait 20 minutes and try to restart it without success. Priority one became getting her out of there. She called a friend and 45 minutes later she was on the way back to San Diego.

Thinking the car overheated for whatever reason and still wondering why it wouldn't start, I arrived at the car 3 hours later (in the dark with cars wizzin by). Attempted to start it and heard that nauseating whine of cylinders rising without creating compression, indicating a busted timing belt. Pulled the distributor cap off, cranked it and sure enough, the ignition rotor didn't turn. Couldn't turn the rotor by hand telling me at least the distributor shaft was ok. So... its 10pm and this car is dead in the water. I called for a tow. While waiting I refilled the radiator with coolant only to hear it poor out the bottom on the left side. Didn't want to get to frisky text to all that traffic so left it at that. Just pondered my options as to where to tow it.

Knowing nothing about the area (Temecula, Ca) and GEICO telling me they will tow it no further than the closest Toyota dealer narrowed the choices. Towing it back to San Diego would cost $400 and towing it home twice that. I quickly came to the realization my wallet will take a big hit today. We dropped it off at Toyota of Temecula, left a note and a key in the late night drop box, and headed to San Diego for the night.

Next morning I called the dealer and told them the whole story. They called back 2 hours later saying the timing belt was broke (oh really!) and the water pump had grenaded, taking out the belt. It would be ready for me by 3 pm. The estimate stood at $500 for the belt, water pump and labor. The wife was in heaven because that meant shopping in San Diego all day. Oh joy! They called back at 1pm and said the crank seal, and pulley were toast. That shot it to $800. They called at 2pm and said they got it back together and it was running but, there was an oil leak coming from the oil pump shaft. To keep this shorter I picked up the car at 5pm and payed them $1034. It doesn't end there.

So we headed north for home in two cars. On the on ramp to the interstate, I noticed it seamed a little sluggish. Not having driven the car much I didn't pay much attention. At the first stop I had my daughter drive it. She noticed the sluggishness right away. Later, she said she couldn't get it past 55mph driving up a fairly steep hill WITH IT FLOORED. When we got home I put a timing light on it and found the timing set at 0 degrees BTDC. Should be 10 deg BTDC. So much for the skills of at least one mechanic at Toyota of Temecula.

The next morning, Monday of Vets day weekend, I walked into our local Toyota dealership, livid of course. To keep it short, the belt was installed 15 degrees off. I have yet another bone to pick though. I took the car in at 8 am and it wasn't ready till 5:00pm. " We were short handed", "there was a snaffu with communications with Temecula to get reimbersed", "you weren't the first in line" were the reasons they gave. Now if I were running a business and had a customer who came to me after getting screwed by some compadres in the same company, I would give that customer 1st priority. Well that's just me and obviously not Toyota's train of thought.

Hope you can glean something out of this to help you if you happen to breakdown. Things could certainly have been worse but, much should have gone better. A few things I learned: when you change the timing belt, change the water pump (I didn't last time 62K miles ago); AAA sure would have come in handy; teach your kids a bit more thoroughly about the ins and outs of auto mechanics so when something happens, they can better describe a problem; and Toyota may make great cars, but their customer service can be, to say the least, 3rd rate.

If you can't trust dealers, who will you trust?

The worst moments in my life are the ones when I look at something that needs to be done on my car that I can't do myself. I really don't like it when I have to leave my car at a garage to have somebody else fiddle with it.

Dude, 15 degrees is not like Oops. It's more like Jesus christ wtf are you doing!

A few things I learned: when you change the timing belt, change the water pump (I didn't last time 62K miles ago);

absolutely. most belts have to be done every 60-90k, i wouldn't trust a water pump pas 100.

AAA sure would have come in handy;

especially for a kid in college that has to travel long miles back and forth

teach your kids a bit more thoroughly about the ins and outs of auto mechanics so when something happens, they can better describe a problem;

i figure this would be a lot harder to accomplish than the last thought...
plus, by the time I have kids, the car will probably send me an e-mail when something goes wrong, and I won't be able to work on it anyway :disappoin :thumbsdow

and Toyota may make great cars, but their customer service can be, to say the least, 3rd rate.

I have actually had decent luck with my local dealer. Grossinger Toyota in skokie, IL (just a little northwest of Chicago) actually has pretty decent service. Granted the only thing I've ever had a dealer do on my car is the charcoal can, they were accommodating and timely.
They did, however, fail to mention the service bulletin on my car that said i didn't have to pay for the work I had done. Brian saved my a** on that.

All in all, sorry about the cost of repairs (and shopping), but I'm glad your daughter is okay. and I trust you'll be investing in AAA now?

Ya, I've changed timing belts many times without changing pumps. This time it caught up with me and I payed for it. Course I've seen pumps go with 10k miles on them too. It's all a big crap shoot...sometimes you win and sometimes you loose. My 87 still has the original pump on it at 270K miles.

As for the timing belt...I was planning on changing it when my daughter came home for Christmas. Considering I've seen belts last 110K plus, I figured I wasn't pushing it letting it go to 70K. The water pump made that a mute point. A little irony. The last time there was a belt issue on this car the belt broke on my oldest daughter up in Sacramento. I was planning on changing that belt soon too. Such is life.

My daughter now knows everything there is to know about timing belts. She even wants to help change the next one. A Marine Biology major who wants to fix cars. Strange combo but, I'm not complaining.

sorry to hear of the circumstances! i just signed up for AAA 6 months ago! my wife was nagging us to do it!
i have had three water pumps seize on camrys and all three left me walking. 2on the 95 2.2 (which i just sold) two toyota pumps seized in under 150,000 miles. and on the 92 2.2 (my brother is still driving) we have had on seize due to not changing it with the timing belt! i think what is happening is you cannot see the weep hole due to it being covered so you can't sight the pump for problems. all you know is you've been filling the radiator a little and then BAM water pump seized! i will say on the gen2 3sfe it seems like water pumps go alot longer? thats odd since it is the same pump!

did they replace the tensioner and idler while they were in there?

also i would go after the first out of town dealer to pay the "fix the screw up bill" that the second local dealer fixed! mike

Great thread.........I have a Corolla coming up for a timing belt change and will have 200K on the original water pump. I think I'll replace it after reading this thread.

BTW I would write some letters to Toyota Regional office, the Better Business Bureau and the States Attorney Generals Office for consumer protection and anybody else you can think of. Who knows you might get a free oil change or something.

Good thread! Sorry you had to go through the break down, but I hope we all learn something from it. I know that I have! My '94 has 147k and had the water pump changed at approx 98k when it became noisey. I had the belt changed at that time too, even though it had been done at 60k. Soon, I will have 60k on the belt and pump, and they WILL both be changed again. I just L O V E this car, and don't ever want it to die!

Jackie (((((((((((((((( 1994 Camry )))))))))))))))))))))))

I am glad it is all over and your daughter is safe now. That is the most important! You of course still have to fight the dealer but that is not that important.

I had the similar horrible situation with my son stranded on the hilly hwy 17 (between Santa Cruz and San Jose) heading home at 10:00 PM. I know how you felt. I fortunately had AAA Plus. So 33 miles away did not seem that bad. And of course that was a broken timing belt.

But my post is not about that. RIP, I live in Oceanside: 40 miles north off San Diego. (By the way my son lives in Temecula). I could have given your daughter some help. At least take her away from the highway.
God forbid that happens again, but just in case, you can PM me and I will shoot you my phone number. Just in case…



Sam

Thanks for all your concern. Something like this is just one of many nightmares a parent can be confronted with. This one turned out ok, all things considered. As stated, dealing with the car and Toyota is a comparative walk in the park. I'm looking forward to answering the surveys they send out and am at the very least planning on sending Toyota Corp some choice words. I will let you know what comes of it, if anything.

I've heard about a website called Angieslist (SP?) where you can give info on how well or bad businesses conduct business. I've heard it can have an impact similar to the BBB. I'll give that a shot too.

If any of you have read through my previous threads, you'll know I don't think highly of dealership maintenance, to put it politely. IMHO they're good for recalls and warranty work and that's about it. I'm not going to say this incident proves my point but, it sure doesn't make me think otherwise. My point? If you use a dealership that treats you well, more power to you. If not, I recommend to all, if you have a choice, avoid dealerships like the plague they are.