2000 Toyota Camry LE

Rewinding to 2002, I was having plenty of issues with my 1998 Ford Contour SE. By March of that year I had my car in the shop 7 times over the 8 months I owned the car. Reliability was not a strong suit for the Ford sedan and since it was making me miss class (I was a commuter student at the time) I needed to put a stop to this. After test driving several cars it came down to a couple options. One was a 1998 Honda Accord LX V6 coupe or a 2000 Camry LE 4cyl. The Honda was 400 dollars more and only had 19k on it. The Toyota had 33k on the clock. I was already pushing my budget with these two and opted for the Camry.

There were a lot of things I liked about the Camry. First it felt like you were driving a Lincoln. The ride quality was amazingly comfortable! The suspension was so soft and isolating that you barely felt the road at all. The cabin insulation was very substantial and you really didn't hear the outside. If you like a posh ride, then consider this car because it does it very well. I had friends that commented on the ride when I was the driver for the evening too, fairly popular.

Another thing I liked was the acoustics of the sound system. My Camry had the 6 speaker JBL system in it and it did sound pretty good for a factory stereo. I liked it.

Storage space was adequate. The rear seats would fold forward but there was a narrow pass through that few things would benefit from. I did use this car in my Starbucks years and loaded countless boxes of Frappuccino, Espresso, Vanilla Syrup and even the traditional Sunday Milk run to the grocery store. That was a lot of weight for the rear suspension I admit and I think that came back to bite me later.

Now for some things I wasn't too fond of. According to Edmunds.com the Camry LE came standard with a 2.2L 4cyl rated at 136hp and 150ft/lb tq. Mated to a 4 speed automatic the powertrain was very smooth, but very sluggish. Edmunds testing pegs it as an 11.1 second car. 0-60 that is...At a 3100lb curb weight, that is a lot of car to move for that engine. Power to weight was not favorable on this vehicle. Now the torque on the 2.2L wasn't bad for a 4 banger and it did help the tank get off the line but there was no high end power to help it out. The 5SFE (Toyota's code for the engine) was a DOHC engine which helped the powerband in the mid range. But in the upper end of the engine, there was nothing there.

This got me to asking people questions like the difference between the Camry 2.2L and say the Honda Prelude 2.2L. Both were the same size but the Prelude put out 200hp. Why was that? That's when I learned about engine timing. As the old saying goes, timing is everything and that's how Honda was able to squeeze out such high output from the displacement that they did. The engine design in the Camry was essentially from the late 80's when a lot of engines were still using either pushrod or SOHC set ups. The DOHC allowed for an increase in power and efficiency. Here is a link to an article on camshafts by Howstuffworks.com as well as one for Honda's VTEC system. This should explain the mechanics of it all.

Camshafts
VTEC

After learning these concepts I was floored to find out that was how the Toyota Celica GT-S could have a 1.8L 4cyl (small for a 4cyl) and yet eek out 180hp. And the 2000 Honda Civic Si came with yet a smaller 1.6L but could crank out 160hp. This is where I learned more about engine efficiency. A more intelligent design would allow for more efficient engine operation yielding more power and fuel economy.

Speaking of fuel economy that was another sore spot for me. The Camry engine I had was rated at 20mpg city and 26 highway. I was averaging between 20.5 and 22.5 and was very disappointed. I figured that the 4cyl would be the more economical option but in the end it was just as efficient as the V6 option with less power. I felt taken actually. So I tried things like a K&N high flow filter which didn't do much for power but was nice because I never had to replace the thing so I saved money there. I tried to install a Jet Chip computer module which was supposed to alter some of the engine timing but really did nothing more than make the engine run rich. I was so out of ideas that I even took my dremmel tool and drilled tiny holes in the bottom of the air box to try and improve the air flow into the air box. But I think all that did was let hot air seep in which probably further killed my engine power. I also tried different spark plugs/plug wires, as well as PCV valve, and fuel filter thinking that was possibly the issue but nope, that did nothing for power or fuel economy.

I gave up trying to fix the fuel economy problem and accepted it. I could have tried Intake, Header and Exhaust upgrades but I didn't have the money or mechanical knowledge at that point to implement that. I also came across a turbo kit for the 5SFE engine but didn't want to pour over $3000 into a modification of that magnitude.

The car was fairly reliable until 100k. The suspension started going out, probably due to my over using the Camry as a cargo vehicle for the BUX. The transmission had started slipping for some reason and the brake fluid was doing a slow disappearing act. Most concerning though is that the engine seemed to not be filtering oil. I change my oil between every 2500 and 3500 miles and I noticed that the filter was bone dry. I thought it was a fluke until the next change when it again was bone dry. I changed the oil in the next cycle at 2000 miles and just like the prior two times it was pitch black. I called 5 different mechanics (3 Toyota dealers and 2 independent shops) and they all agreed that it was a problem but unfortunately would only be able to diagnose it by digging into the engine to find the obstruction.

My posh, reliable ride started falling apart at 100k...That was not the Toyota feeling I signed up for! For the last 25000 miles my wife was the primary driver of this car. She had a '97 Mercury Tracer that we traded in for a '01 Celica GT which became my primary car. By this time my wife was working in a community that was a good 44 miles away and I started having concerns with her depending on a car with these issues. So we did some test drives and narrowed down a possible trade in opportunity. It came down to a '05 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS wagon or a '05 Mazda 3s wagon. I was able to orchestrate (this is almost another post in itself) a trade for the Subaru wagon for the Camry LE. The AWD made my wife more at ease in the winter time while driving in rural Wisconsin. The Camry had about 110k at the time of trade and since I kept the thing in amazing shape it was only on the lot for 7 days before it sold :) The Impreza wagon had the 2.5 4cyl rated at 165 hp and 160lb/ft tq and got at least 23mpg with AWD. That was a bonus in my book.

In hindsight I would have either sprung for a Prelude or Celica at that time, or had I not been able to find one of those I would have just gone with the Accord. Any of those would have potential for upgrades (something I learned later) and a fun, engaging ride. More on those in future posts but the lessons I learned from the Camry are that I value efficiency in a car and actually appreciate engaging handling over posh compliance. Posh is nice, it's just not my cup of joe.