2002 Camry: broke drive belt then died. Help?
 

Hello,

I am posting this in hopes of finding out what caused my 4 cyl 2.4 Camry to die last evening.

It has 103,000 trouble free miles, and near the end of a 200 mile trip at 11pm on a barren stretch of road, I noticed the battery light come on, followed by the check engine light, then the steering became stiff. The temp was normal, the lights remained bright, and there was no unusual noise. I proceeded eight miles to a populated/well lit area, and as I slowed I could smell hot oil (residue on hot engine), there was a clicking noise associated with the rotation of the wheels, and when I braked to pull into a parking lot, the engine died and oil smoke came from under the hood. (the engine temp guage inside still showed normal and there was no white smoke from the exhaust).

Raising the hood, I saw the drive belt was broken and water was bubbling in the radiator overflow, and oil residue on the engine below the level of the head (which is what was causing the smoke), but none was on the ground under the engine. I called a tow service and had it towed home.

This morning I replaced the drive belt, had to put two qts of oil in it and filled the radiator. When I attempted to start it, the starter turned as normal but instead of starting, the overflow resevour was bubbling (no engine compression)

I realize, not being a mechanic nor understanding exactly what occured, I'm a prime candidate for unscrupulous repair shops, so I'd like to have some working knowledge of the problem before taking it to be repaired; can anyone offer advice on what has happened to my car?

Thanks in advance for your help!
Frank

Sounds like you have a blown head gasket. I fairly common issue on the 2.4L (2AZFE) engine. The head bolts threads in the block are prone to stripping or pulling out causing the head gasket not to seal. Just google "2azfe head bolts stripped" and you'll find a bunch of stuff on this issue. There are a few ways to fix it.

1 - New engine block - very expensive
2 - Install a timesert thread repair kit - many have had long term success
3 - Salvage engine - hit or miss as you do not know the condition of this engine.

Below is a link to a thread regarding this issue.


http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forum...-head-bolts-2/

The water pump is driven by the serpentine belt. From your description- the serpentine belt broke causing the battery light and check engine light to come on (these lights came on when charging system voltage dropped down to that equal to battery voltage once the alternator stopped rotation). Without the serpentine belt, your H20 pump is no longer circulating coolant. Depending on how long it took you to drive the 8 miles without coolant ciruclation- you likely overheated your engine and blew the head gasket. The fact that your coolant reservoir is bubbling while cranking shows that your compression is being lost through the cooling system. This will be a very costly repair.

JJ

Thanks!
 

Thanks for the replies!

I ended up selling it and used the cash for a downpayment on an '09 Camry; my fourth! <;-)

Take care,
Frank