Hello all. In the next day or so I am going to take delivery of a 97 Camry LE 4-cyl. The car has 170k miles on it, everything works (thank you Toyota, my 2002 Alero with 120k is falling apart!) but it is due an oil change.

I believe this car spec's 5W-30. I run Mobil 1 10W-30 in all my other cars and would think it easier if I didn't have to have multiple types of oil on my shelf. I would think that with the mileage, it wouldn't hurt anything to convert it over to 10W-30 but I wanted to get you guy's input.

What about the oil filter? I have read online that certain death comes to these engines if you don't use a Toyota brand filter. I'm guessing that the problem isn't so much in non Toyota filters in general as it is with cheap filters who shall remain nameless that have problems with the anti-drainback valve. I prefer Mobil 1 filters as well, anybody ever heard of any problems with them?

Spark plugs and wires? I figured I would pull the plugs and take a look. I really like NGK. I see they have laser platinums which are supposed to be OEM and then they have iridiums for a few bucks cheaper. I know plenty of people who swear by the iridium plugs, but not necessarily in this application. Thoughts? Plug wires I was thinking NGK as well.

Transmission? The fluid is slightly brown. It's not the dark, foul smelling, burned fluid that I have seen many times over. It's just slightly brown, like relatively new motor oil instead of the bright red that transmission fluid is supposed to be. I imagine it has never been touched. With this mileage I figure it wouldn't hurt to change the fluid in the trans and replace the filter if it has one. Again I really like Mobil 1, any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

 

For starters would change ALL of the trans fluid. Clean fluid in good condition is a major factor in trans life for this car. You just want a complete change of the fluid and not a flush where chemicals might be added to "help" clean things out.

The torque converter holds most of the fluid thus just doing a fluid change in the pan will only get about 1/3.

If doing it yourself drain and refill the trans pan. Disconnect the oil cooler return line going to the trans pan. Start engine and allow the fluid to be pumped into a container. Stop engine when about 2 quarts has flowed out. Refill the trans pan and repeat the process a few more times until clean fluid some out. The process will use most of a case of fluid.

Either motor oil weight you wrote about be fine. Might check you owners manual. Recall Toyota was recommending 5W-30 for temps below say 0 degrees, something like that.

Would suggest you stay away from the lower cost Fram filters. Wix makes good filters. If you have a NAPA store, NAPA Gold fiters (made by Wix) are very good.

The Toyota filter is very good.

Have not heard of any issues with Mobil 1 filters. Should be fine.

NGK makes great plugs, if platinum was standard use that. These plugs will last at least 100K.

Suggest Toyota OEM wires. If going this route try the 1stToyotaparts website for discount Toyota parts.

Also check the power steering fluid for color. If dark you can find something to remove (suck out) the fluid in the reservoir then replace the fluid. Repeat this process between drives and the fluid will become clean again.

 

Thanks for the feedback Joey. I am going to pick up the car on Friday so I don't have the owner's manual yet, although I do believe it was still in the glove box. I just thought I remembered seeing 5W-30 on the filler cap. Being said, I know what you're talking about in the owner's manuals, usually has a little chart and shows 10W-30 as being fine based on temps. It very rarely gets below 0 here, although if it does there will probably be snow on the ground and thus this front wheel drive will likely be what I'm driving.

I have heard many a good thing about WIX. Fram was the one I was referring too that should remain nameless Mobil 1 may be overkill, but I figure it's worth spending the few extra bucks every so many months and I can get them at my favorite parts store so I'll probably stick with them. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't a known issue with them on this application.

FWIW, the MicroGuard Air Filters at O'Reilly are made by Fram currently. I don't know about their oil filters. It's a contract thing that changes every so many years.

 

The link below provides some info various manufacturers filter designs.

http://minimopar.knizefamily.net/oilfilters/toyota.html

http://people.msoe.edu/~yoderw/oilfi...lterstudy.html

The author may have gotten some "pressure" from certain filter manufacturers and thus is now including boil plate verbiage in his reviews, not including these manufacturers and or stating which filters are better then others.

In the second link the author notes reports of Mobil 1 filters splitting under high pressure but this was years ago when the filter used paper. Mobil 1 has switched to synthetic material thus it must have been redesigned. The filter does get good reviews.

If wanting more opinions might read oil filter recommendation posts at the Toyotanation website. Has a much larger membership of very enthusiastic members.