I have been having issues with my camry in the past couple of years. I had the 2 front struts repair since it was bent on the right side causing steering issues. The 1st major issue I notice was engine check light with VSC OFF on. The evap was replaced and a new battery all cleared it out. Now, few days ago, the car stopped at a red line and engine died. The EPR valve sensor was bad caused the car to die. It has been replaced and fuel cleaning done.

The car has 60k miles and I want to know what things should be replace, even though car has been been used much.

Note: The car has small oil leak. It only leaks droplets from time to time when car is parked. I see it on the garage floor small droplets. It was found the head gasket needs to be replaced. Which mechanic quoted around $800 to do. Since labor has to take the whole engine apart. So he recommend replace water pump and timing belt. The replace is actually just the camshaft seal. Cheap part but labor to locate it expensive.

What to change out first? Worth to fix the small oil leak? I've tested oil levels, no noticeable change.

 

From your post the issue is a camshaft seal appears to be leaking. This has nothing to do with replacing the head gasket and the cylinder head need not be removed to change this seal. The engine has two heads and each one has a seal.

To replace the seal, a good deal of the same parts needed to replace the timing belt also need to be removed. When these parts are removed, the only extra step is to remove the camshaft pulley, change out the seal and re-install pulley which may take 15 minutes.

The leak in itself is a minor problem.

However the timing belt replacement is recommended every 90K miles and something like 8-10 years. Belts deteriorate with usage bringing stress and elevated temps. Age cause deterioration but a belt sitting in it original box for 10 years at room temp is not going to deteriorate that much. Unfortunately there is not data other then the basic change recommendation or being advised to inspect the belt to use as change criteria.

Given the lack of usage on the car. If you are thinking about changing the belt then might change the other oil seal and the crankshaft seal. With all the parts off to change the timing belt the extra effort to change the seals is small.

If changing the belt might the change the belt pulleys. They guide the belt and provide tension and have bearings. The water pump is an option. The issue is the pump can fail and if so the labor to replace is almost the same as replacing the seal.

This of course gets into replacing a lot of parts but as you stated the labor to get to the parts is driving factory.

I might suggest getting a quote from another shop for replacing all these parts as $800 seems high just to replace the seal (nothing extra). Some shops are quoting deals of $300 (or less) to replace the belt and as stated it takes about 15 minutes extra to change the seal.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to save money and not do anything until something goes wrong. Because even if I do this maint, something else could happen which I would have to spend more. However, I got the car back, and the timing belt(visible part I can see) is making sqeaking noise. I assume this is just really old and should not affect the car? It's just an annoying squeaking.

 

Did you have any work done to the car?

The timing belt is completely covered and should not be squeaking.

 

pcvrx660
post back if that oil leak gets worse or the squeak

keep an eye and ear on both

you cant see much under the bonnet of a 2007 V6
and not much room to work on the engine

I think the belt you can see as the motor running is a wide black one
called the serp belt

the attachment shows what that serp belt does ......its an important part on the car

not much works on the car without this belt

the squeak can be the belt worn out
or a noisy bearing needing replacement (spinning any one of the things arrowed with the serp belt )