Hi all, I'm new to this forum but have owned my 2003 Camry for over a year. Sadly, I only drove it for the first 3 months I had it because I rearended another vehicle going like 10mph on a ramp because someone cut them off. Then the guy who was assigned to work on my car at the shop we took it to did all he could to force more repairs so he'd make more money. Long story short, my engine that had JUST been put in right before I bought the car is messed up. There is water in my oil (radiator was replaced and my husband believes he drove it with the busted radiator in it) and I don't think it will even crank or turn over. This guy had my car for 3 months, would text me and tell me that he was getting close to done, just had to paint the new hood we delivered to the shop, etc., and even the hood is messed up - creased, bugs in the paint, etc.

All that to ask this - how can we tell that it is more likely either a cracked head or blown head gasket? We only paid $3200 for the car so replacing the engine could cost more than it did to buy it (the guy who replaced the engine before I bought it paid $5k to replace it). But I'd rather have my car running again and not have a payment than try to buy a new one and have a monthly payment. My husband and one of his friends could possibly do most of the work, but until the friend can come help pull the engine (he's busy all the time), we don't even know what we'd be looking at financially to get it running again. Any insight?

(Also, I'm not great understanding the mechanics behind engines and such, so take it easy on me! )

TIA.

 

What type of engine, 4-cylinder or V6? This make a difference in how to proceed.

Can you speculate as to why the engine will not turn over?

Did the engine coolant temp every get into the red marked zone on the dash gauge?

 

It is a 4 cylinder. As far as the temp hauge, no clue. We haven't been able to get it to crank. And my husband doesn't have any idea why it won't turn over. He feels like it's a cracked head, but we've also had other car guys tell us cracked gaskets and the other usual suspects.

 

The 2003 had issues of head bolts pulling out of the block causing a coolant leak. There is a long thread on this at this site. Or search the internet under 2AZFE head bolt failure or 2AZFE stripped block threads.

If the engine will not turn over, try manually turning the engine over CW by using a socket wrench on the crank shaft harmonic balancer bolt.

 

Ouch. I feel for you, and understand that thinking of get it working to avoid a car payment. I would suggest you drop $24 and get this:
That is Techstream, what Toyota uses to diagnose issues. I bet it will give you all kinds of codes and values on systems you can begin digging into. I use this on my Camry and love it. You need a laptop to load it on, but it is fantastic. When you couple the info below with this, you can start diagnosing and fixing your own issues. The Toyota shop hooks your car up to Techstream to find issues, so you would be doing the same thing.

Then you can pay $15 for a 2 day sub to this site: https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfo...pmanager/t3/ti

This is Toyota's technical site that has everything you need to diagnose and fix Toyota vehicles, including wire diagrams. You can't grab the entire FSM, but what you can do is walk through each system and tell your browser to PRINT - PRINT TO PDF. I would highly recommend you start on a Saturday morning or whatever works for you, and spend hour after hour printing to PDF every system in your Camry. In that manner you have what you need when you run into troubles, and for only $15.