Struggling with 2003 Camry update

[artbuc]

Originally Posted By: HerrStig
"Tips" for someone who owns two screwdrivers, a hammer, and a pair of HF "vicegrips". Don't.


Don't forget he has a huge stash of SAE cotter pins.

 

[Tegger]

Originally Posted By: artbuc
Don't forget he has a huge stash of SAE cotter pins.

And oil. And filters.

And no money; which -- he says -- is why he's DIYing.

Yeah, right.

 

[yeti]

Originally Posted By: kschachn
You guys are getting suckered hook, line and sinker. This dude could hardly have picked a more appropriate/alarming topic than a strut disassembly to stir up sympathy for his made-up posts.

Good job. What's next, questions about replacing portions of his brake lines with latex tubing from the hardware store?

Maybe he will have questions about welding his fuel tank while on the car and full of fuel.


latex tubing for the brake lines would be good -- as long as it's METRIC latex.while he's under the car, he could use this latex tubing to replace the gas lines, grease the metric zerks on the muffler,and grease the exhaust tubing with ford moly grease.

then,call it a day.

o.p. -- seriously --IF you ever do any of these goofy jobs, make sure that you have a stocked up first aid kit.
a lot of compression bandages.
several packages of celox. it works very well.
antibiotic cream.
a belt, or Velcro material to use as a tourniquet.
peroxide.
a bottle of good Canadian whisky.
these items are staples in a first aid kit.
a face shield would be a good idea to have, as well, for a probable small explosion.learn how to apply a field dressing, and how to use a tourniquet.a cell phone in a breast pocket is a must, for the inevitable 911 call.
with people like you, an accident is inevitable,IF you proceed with jobs,about which you know NOTHING.
'prone could verify my comment. (where the heck is 'prone, anyway ?)

use your head, for once, before attempting any potentially dangerous jobs.i don't know why I wrote the above, about the first aid kit.natural selection will take care of you, at some point.
good luck, and good luck finding METRIC latex tubing in the u.s. it's common in Canada.

 

[engineer20]

i actually will scan or provide a photo of the work order(s) about the wheel bearing, struts, and stuff, since those are evidence the shop(s) told me said work is needed. I guess I'll blur out my personal information (tips about that?) just snipping it out, and posting it, as proof. thanks.

if spring compression is "dangerous" why not just get the quickstrut? how are KYBs? I ALREADY REPLACED MY STRUTS like 40-50k ago (both sets) at a shop, they aren't honoring the warranty, it's monroe, but if i tell monroe the part number and send my old parts to monroe, they can honor my warranty which is why i want to diy it, but the shop used the seperate parts, not the quick strut , either i learn how to do the compressing, etc, or I rebuy/pay and buy the quickstrut, but in any case, how are autozone gabriel struts? it seems monroe is readily available and so is kyb but kyb costs more, is the kyb worth it, or should i try to diy it with the monroes? Thanks.

 

[engineer20]

haha, metric grease, very funny, I NEVER mentioned metric grease, I mentioned metric cotter pins. They exist, they sell them at ace, just not at harbor freight, i'll take a picture of the cotter pins in the "metric" section at the hardware section next time I'm there and post it, and here's a google search of metric cotter pins, what's so funny about that? but metric grease clearly is a joke someone else mentioned, and I never mentioend metric grease, I did mention moly vs lithium vs red grease.

Also, I loooked around at the grease guns, the mini is a ripoff, the regular tube is 14 oz, for like 3-5 dollars, the mini comes in sets of 3 tubes for more than 5 dollars, like at least 6 dollars, but each tube is 3oz so 9oz total for less grease, but the mini grease gun is cheaper and like half the price of the real grease gun, so up front, it costs less, but in the long run, it costs way more due to the extra cost of the small grease tubes, i also saw you can "hand pack" the grease guns so you don't hneed that tube, you can just hand transfer grease from a jar/tub into there, is that right, or did I misunderstand "hand packing?"

http://www.fastenermart.com/metric-cotter-pins.html

 

[Nick1994]

Belle Tire mechanics are not real mechanics, they're probably just regular dudes hired that can change oil.

They make money by up selling, so them saying your struts are bad, is likely them trying to sell some to you, not that they're bad.

Same with the dealership, they're trying to make money.

 

[artbuc]

Originally Posted By: engineer20
haha, metric grease, very funny, I NEVER mentioned metric grease, I mentioned metric cotter pins. They exist, they sell them at ace, just not at harbor freight, i'll take a picture of the cotter pins in the "metric" section at the hardware section next time I'm there and post it, and here's a google search of metric cotter pins, what's so funny about that? but metric grease clearly is a joke someone else mentioned, and I never mentioend metric grease, I did mention moly vs lithium vs red grease.

Also, I loooked around at the grease guns, the mini is a ripoff, the regular tube is 14 oz, for like 3-5 dollars, the mini comes in sets of 3 tubes for more than 5 dollars, like at least 6 dollars, but each tube is 3oz so 9oz total for less grease, but the mini grease gun is cheaper and like half the price of the real grease gun, so up front, it costs less, but in the long run, it costs way more due to the extra cost of the small grease tubes, i also saw you can "hand pack" the grease guns so you don't hneed that tube, you can just hand transfer grease from a jar/tub into there, is that right, or did I misunderstand "hand packing?"

http://www.fastenermart.com/metric-cotter-pins.html


Now your on to a big time money saver - hand packing a grease gun. Buy yourself a 5 gal pail of grease, preferably red HF grease with a 20% coupon. Unscrew the business end, stick it in the pail and slowly pull plunger to load the gun. With a little practice you will not make a mess or lose very much grease. When I was a kid working on the farm, I loaded many guns this way.

 

[oemjunk]

You can do it e20. Don't let that P.O.S. beat you. All the time talking about it, you could have had it all fixed by now....

 

[JustinH]

Originally Posted By: engineer20
i actually will scan or provide a photo of the work order(s) about the wheel bearing, struts, and stuff, since those are evidence the shop(s) told me said work is needed. I guess I'll blur out my personal information (tips about that?) just snipping it out, and posting it, as proof. thanks.

if spring compression is "dangerous" why not just get the quickstrut? how are KYBs? I ALREADY REPLACED MY STRUTS like 40-50k ago (both sets) at a shop, they aren't honoring the warranty, it's monroe, but if i tell monroe the part number and send my old parts to monroe, they can honor my warranty which is why i want to diy it, but the shop used the seperate parts, not the quick strut , either i learn how to do the compressing, etc, or I rebuy/pay and buy the quickstrut, but in any case, how are autozone gabriel struts? it seems monroe is readily available and so is kyb but kyb costs more, is the kyb worth it, or should i try to diy it with the monroes? Thanks.


You mentioned that you were a computer engineer.

Now you are asking us how to blur out your name on a scan of a document? You have never heard of photoshop or paint.net? Or microsoft snipping tool.

This thread is so annoying I wish I could block it.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: JustinH
You mentioned that you were a computer engineer.

Now you are asking us how to blur out your name on a scan of a document? You have never heard of photoshop or paint.net? Or microsoft snipping tool.

Maybe he is a computer hardware engineer only.

 

[bladecutter]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: JustinH
You mentioned that you were a computer engineer.

Now you are asking us how to blur out your name on a scan of a document? You have never heard of photoshop or paint.net? Or microsoft snipping tool.

Maybe he is a computer hardware engineer only.

He is a janitor.
That's why all his posts smell like $^%#^%$*%.

BC.

 

[Tegger]

Originally Posted By: JustinH
You mentioned that you were a computer engineer.

E20 is definitely and certainly NOT an engineer, and he definitely and certainly knows nothing about computers, hardware or software.

Originally Posted By: JustinH
Now you are asking us how to blur out your name on a scan of a document? You have never heard of photoshop or paint.net? Or microsoft snipping tool.

E20 doesn't even need that. All versions of Windows (above 2.0, I think) come with Microsoft Paint, which has the rudimentary image-editing function that he needs.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: engineer20
i actually will scan or provide a photo of the work order(s) about the wheel bearing, struts, and stuff, since those are evidence the shop(s) told me said work is needed. I guess I'll blur out my personal information (tips about that?) just snipping it out, and posting it, as proof. thanks.


There is bad, and there is BAD. If your car pass inspection and didn't spin out and fishtail on the highway, your struts are not BAD. You can live with it till you have money for a newer car or your car rust out and goes to the crusher.

Quote:
if spring compression is "dangerous" why not just get the quickstrut? how are KYBs? I ALREADY REPLACED MY STRUTS like 40-50k ago (both sets) at a shop, they aren't honoring the warranty, it's monroe, but if i tell monroe the part number and send my old parts to monroe, they can honor my warranty which is why i want to diy it, but the shop used the seperate parts, not the quick strut , either i learn how to do the compressing, etc, or I rebuy/pay and buy the quickstrut, but in any case, how are autozone gabriel struts? it seems monroe is readily available and so is kyb but kyb costs more, is the kyb worth it, or should i try to diy it with the monroes? Thanks.


Spring compressor is not dangerous, careless usage of a compressor by a careless person is dangerous.

KYB is ok, I have them on my Corolla right now and they are still fine after about 90k miles. I've not tried Gabriel Ultra or Monroe, maybe will last as long may be will not depends on the road condition, but I heard quick struts spring and bearing caps, are not as good as the OEM, but then again if you only need to replace a BAD struts with little money just go pull a set of not so bad ones from the junk yard. How long do you plan to keep that car in Michigan before it rust away? How bad is your ride right now? Don't believe everything a Jiffy Lube tech will tell you. If you can tolerate the ride just leave it alone.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: engineer20
haha, metric grease, very funny, I NEVER mentioned metric grease, I mentioned metric cotter pins. They exist, they sell them at ace, just not at harbor freight, i'll take a picture of the cotter pins in the "metric" section at the hardware section next time I'm there and post it, and here's a google search of metric cotter pins, what's so funny about that? but metric grease clearly is a joke someone else mentioned, and I never mentioend metric grease, I did mention moly vs lithium vs red grease.


Like I said before, you should use cotter pins from automotive grade rather than garage door grade, and forget about metric vs SAE.

Quote:
Also, I loooked around at the grease guns, the mini is a ripoff, the regular tube is 14 oz, for like 3-5 dollars, the mini comes in sets of 3 tubes for more than 5 dollars, like at least 6 dollars, but each tube is 3oz so 9oz total for less grease, but the mini grease gun is cheaper and like half the price of the real grease gun, so up front, it costs less, but in the long run, it costs way more due to the extra cost of the small grease tubes, i also saw you can "hand pack" the grease guns so you don't hneed that tube, you can just hand transfer grease from a jar/tub into there, is that right, or did I misunderstand "hand packing?"

http://www.fastenermart.com/metric-cotter-pins.html


How much grease do you need? I owed 4 cars and have put on about 500k miles on them over the last 20 years, and I haven't ever used grease. I've done struts, radiators, replacing door, bumper covers, condenser, head lights, bulbs, axles, oil pan gaskets, plugs, wires, and all sorts of other fluids but never ever did grease.

Why do you need that much grease?

 

[engineer20]

sounds good, I guess hand packing will work.

It's not just Belle Tire, and nick, how do you know about Belle Tire if you're out in Arizona where there aren't any? So since those HF ones are garage door grade and I need auto grade, the hardware store, like ace where you can buy one for a few cents, aren't good, and I should only go to oreilly/advance to get them in those small packs of less than 10 for 2.49?

I plan to do spark plugs. It's still snowing and stuff, I'll do all this work in April. I did the ball joint during christmas/new years, that needed to be fixed right away, but the left strut I heard was leaking. I remvoed the rear right wheel and saw the right wasn't leaking, but I am concerned about the left, so I'll remove the left rear wheel to see if it's leaking. It's not just belle tire. A few speedy auto services also said I have a leaking rear strut, but it's only the left rear, so it's not like they are lying. If 5+ mechanics tell you that SAME strut on the same side is leaking, it's likely is is and if one needs to be replaced, you shoudl replace both.

At this u pull it junkyard, struts are cheaper, but those "on the shelf" junkyard, the full strt assembly is like 50

Should I just not spend any money and warranty out my current, already aftermarket monroe struts? All I have to do is find the part number, and they'll send me (monroe will send me) the strut, and I'll install them, and it's not a quickstrut and I read up on hwo quickstruts, though easy, aren't the best, so i'll get a monroe strut/mount, shoudl I replace the spring or reuse my spring?

and I'll do my rear stabilizer links and bushings with this strut job, which I'll hopefully DIY, and then I'll algin the wheels after this, as I should've algned it after the ball joint, but i had other work like the struts and stab links, etc so I figure just algin it once after all the suspension work is done, and i should be set for a little bit longer, until another suspension component goes out, hopefully a year later, and then realignn, and get new front tires again

but how are junyard strust in your experience? they claim junkyard parts are "oem" and most are, but sometimes they aren't, because the owner of the car coul'dve replaced some parts with aftermarket parts, right? so then they're selling you used aftermarket parts which may be no good.

what brand is the oem one for this camry?

and I see the timken wheel bearnig whicfh autozone will be selling out of soon is a good deal, since it includes the hub. I'll just reuse my old hub if it's still good, and save the new hub just in case for future repairs, the hub alone isn't sold at parts stores, and it's 100 dollars at the dealership, so I'll buy one timken hub kit, for maybe the front left, but if that does not solve it, i'll buy another and do the front right, or do I perhaps not have a wheel bearing problem? if sI do, I'll do it with the struts then align it, but i'd hate to find out i do have an issue after i algin it after i do my struts (but didn't do my wheel bearing) and thus it'll need to be aligned again after the wheel bearing job

but even if my wheel bearing isn't bad, it does not hurt to replace it right? timken at autozone is the cheapest, yet highest quality one, is it better than oem or no? oem is really expensive 100 for the bearing, 100 for the hub, and the snap ring is sold sepearte, 6.99 and so is the axle nut, though you can reuse the axle nut.

 

[PandaBear]

First of all, JUST PRETEND you have all these suspension components problems and you need to replace them. If you replace struts, springs, ball joints, control arms, bushings, etc you pretty much have to align the car or else your tire will wear out very soon, so it is not going to save you money not aligning it.

Next, JUST PRETEND you have a wheel bearing problem, you do not need an alignment if you put it back the way it was (all those alignment screw back in the same place, using the exact same parts as last time), or if you didn't take out any adjustable parts. You can do an alignment just to be save, and personally I'd do it because I do not trust myself lining up everything like a mechanic who does it every day.

Now, do you have a 20-50 ton hydraulic press and a set of adapters? If you do not, you are not going to be able to replace bushings and wheel bearing DIY. You can hammer it till the cow comes home and they will still not budge, and destroy the bushing and control arm, wheel bearing and knuckle, and still couldn't get them out or in.

If you find a nice mechanic that really like you, they may charge you 1/2 hour labor to press thing in and out, so that'll probably be like $50-70 to press thing in. You will probably save more money buying a whole knuckle or a whole arm from junkyard, and take a chance on wasting alignment money.

Oh, by the way, aftermarket low quality bushing / control arm, wheel bearings tend to not last as long as OEM (high end may be just as good, but no body knows), so swapping them as preventive maintenance may make them last not as long as not touching them. Except if you get a knuckle or control arm from junk yard car that has been in an accident, then the bearing or bushing may be bad already.

 

[Nick1994]

Just leave this poor car alone and drive it until something breaks.

My Camry is older than yours with a lot more miles. I haven't needed to do a single thing to it since I bought it 6 months & almost 12,000 miles ago. Almost everything on the car looks OE Toyota from the factory. Only problem it has had is the passenger door window was getting a little stuck, so I rolled it up and unplugged the switch.

Leave it alone.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: engineer20
but even if my wheel bearing isn't bad, it does not hurt to replace it right?

I think the nut behind the wheel is bad. It should probably be replaced first.

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: engineer20
but even if my wheel bearing isn't bad, it does not hurt to replace it right?

I think the nut behind the wheel is bad. It should probably be replaced first.

This guy is really good at dreaming up stuff that rides right at the edge of being between obviously a joke and something that slips in just under that threshold. I'm sure it is a lot of work to make sure his posts are right on that apex and he doesn't reveal his hand.

One of his techniques is to use senselessly random questions/scenarios as obfuscation. So far it has worked well, apparently.

 

[engineer20]

i'm not lying, I can show you the work orders/quotes

Anyways, about the suspension, I know I have to align it after, but I'm saying, if I'm doing the struts, and the wheel bearing and the links and the ball joint, I shoudl algin it after all that is done, instaed of align after the ball joint, do the struts a month later, then algin again, then do the wheel bearing a month later, then allign later, save the money, do the work sspread out in a few months towards the spring, and by may of 2016, hopefully all the work's done, then align afterwards

but for the wheel bearing, good idea, buy a steering knuckle from the junkyard (that has the wheel bearing, right?) and then install.

Also, oem is wayoverpriced, Timken, I heard was one of the best aftermarkets and is only 70 dollars, cheaper than duarlast hub assembly/bearing, and cheaper than moog, which is like 90 dollars for the hub with the bearing. I was told Timken is better than moog, that's a steal 70 dollars for the hub and bearning and snap ring. I'm sure oem is good but at 100+ for the bearing alone, then 100+ for the hub, and then a few dollars for the snap ring, why not get a quality aftermarket which is worse or maybe even better for only 70 dollars? If my hub isn't bad, i'll leave it aloen and save the timken hub for later, as they rarely sell aftermarket hubs alone

also, nick, you're in sunny arizona. In mi, the roads are atrocious, I feel like i'm damaging my suspneion daily, and the reason why I need to fix these suspension parts (i figured i would leave it alone, but i realized it was causing tire wear). My tires were wearing out really fast, and I realzied that to prevent this, I'd need an alignment, but before I do my alignment, i shoudl fix all these suspension components or else the alignment is useless and it'll go out again, or if i align it after one suspension component, then replace another, then realgin, that's way too much money, i'd just align it once after all this suspension work is done hoepfully this spring

i've wnated to do the ball joint since november and finished in early january, and did that before the spring out of desperation only because that would not hold up anymore and you guys were like the wheel'd fall off, but the struts, stab links, and hweel bearing aren't as bad of an issue and the car is still driveable, which is why i'll put them off for just 2 months when the weather is better and they no longer spray salt on the roads, as salt will damage my new parts, and i'd like the new parts to be installed in a salt free environment for 1/2 a year, before they salt the roads again, that 1/2 a year initially without salt will help them hold up more in the long run.