Originally Posted By: bepperb
Quest,
I have a bit of a pop when I'm steering in reverse at low speeds. I only notice it about once a month, and it's very slight.
The new TSB for this has them grease the ends of the shaft, they don't replace them anymore. It's about a 200 dollar part at rock auto.
As to the ATF, I don't know. I'm a drain/refill guy. Sorry.
While shopping for a used Camry (ended up bought a 1 owner 04 camry with 2AZFE, low mileage (only got 56,000kms when bought last year), we came across over 70% camrys of that generation with pops, and even my wifey's low mileage camry is of no exception, meaning that it would "clunk" lightly when coming to a braking stop, and the steering is rather "vague" at best.
I know most Toy tricks in town is to lube the splines on this intermediate shaft but that only serves to delay the symptoms until it becomes very significant, esp. when the cars got past 100,000kms to clock or more. My colleagues who own Hilander/camry/solara all have this problem and their mechs told them to either spend (a) 600bux CAD to get it fixed at the dealer, or (b) live with it.
In my case, I bought my replacement one from Mossy Toyota online and had it done (by yours-truely) for 200bux USD (parts only). NOw the vehicle is runing nicely and no more pops. Most important of all: no more wandering on the highway due to taut steering.
My investigation indicated that insufficient induction-hardening applied to the splines on the intermediate shaft where it "telescopes" as the shaft in-action. The replacement unit is a revised unit (version II) meaning that the original revised one for the TSB also suffered from the same failure as mileage creeps up on them.
So much for US-sourced OE components for those US built Toy camrys and highlanders....
Q.