My wife and I love Toyota's but has a rough go with our last Camry, we had a 1997 that had the oil gel issue and ruined it. We are wanting to purchase another one but the next gen up. I have done some research and it looks like the 2002 models have the same oil gel issues. My question is this, what is the best year of Camry to purchase between 2002-2006? I want to make an educated buy this time and get a Camry this is going to last a lot longer than what we have now. Thanks in advance!

 

the newer the better. go too far back, and you'll have problems that have been corrected in the newer ones.

 

the newer the better. go too far back, and you'll have problems that have been corrected in the newer ones.

 

Only a small percentage of Camry had sludge issues. Toyota eventually offered to pay for repairs for certain year/model/engine types. There appear to be a lot of reasons for the sludge issue, some stemming from Toyota engine design and some from extending the oil change periods too long.

Toyota changed the 4 cylinder engine model type Camry in 2002.

The V6 model was changed on the Camry in 2007.

The previous V6 engine that had gel issues may have been modified to help this issue around 2002.

If wanting a V6 suggest purchasing a 2003 or later.

If wanting a 4 cylinder, again the engine model was changed in 2002. Note: The replacement 4 cylinder is now suffering from pulled head bolt treads, a history search at this site will turn up posts (or the internet). Toyota appears to have modified the engine block in 2008 to solve this problem.