Hi, I am in the market for a 2007-2008 camry with about 50K+ miles on it. The only thing holding me back is the transmission problems i keep readling about on car review sites like edmunds.com and the like. After doing some research it seems that transmission slipping and engine
sludge problems are prevalent in the early 6th gen camrys. Especially on the V6. From what ive been reading it seems that this transmission problem occurs when the car has low miles. So if I get one with over 50000 miles on it, could i assume that the transmission is OK? It also seems to be more of a problem on the 07 than the 08, but there have still been some problems with the 08 and 09 trans as well. Can someone tell me how prevelant this problem is and what to look out for. I need to know if all of the camrys have these problems or only a select few. And how to avoid buying one of these troubled camrys.

I would really like a V6, but if these problems are more common the on V6s i would settle for getting a 4 cyl.

Thanks, and i look forward to contributing a lot to this forum in the future.

 

The sludge issues were around 1996 to 2001ish, only a small percentage of engines had a sludge issue. Other car makers have also had sludge issues.

Check what engine comes in your year of car. Toyota replaced the 4 cylinder 5S-FE with the 2AZ-FE and the V6 1MZ-FE with the 2GR-FE. These previous engines were overall excellent despite the sludge issues.

There newer engines do not have a sludge issue.

If concerned about sludge in any engine have someone remove a valve cover, any signs of sludge will be obvious.

The 2AZ-FE had a few issues. On some engines 3 to 4 rear head bolts are starting to pull out of the block (aluminum) around 60K miles. The Toyota fix had been a new block, they may now being using thread inserts into the block (much cheaper).

Some engines have had excessive oil consumption problems later in there life.

There are long threads on these subjects at this site, strongly suggest you read these!

Toyota appears to be at least now acknowledging there can be problems with the engine. I don't consider a late model, low mileage engine burning 1 quart of oil or more every 1K miles to be "normal." Toyota seems to think so.

I am not up to speed on what years the trans issues were. The V6 and 4 cylinder used a different trans and I though one had more problems then the other.

Toyota would keep track of any service bulletins applied to the car, if you can get them to check. These bulletins were used to help fix these trans problems.

One trans issue was "flare" or rise in RPM when shifting.

The Toyotanation website had many posts on these subjects and more. Go to the site, find the year of car you are looking buy and engine type. Then review past and current posts for this car at the Toyotanation website. You will learn what goes wrong, the extent of the problem and what Toyota is doing about it.

If the original warranty is in place and you can buy a Toyota extended warranty to add on, suggest thinking about this. If going this route any dealer can sell the warranty, some are much cheaper then others. The TN site would have the latest on what dealer is cheapest.

The 2GR-FE had OK and issue with the oil line going to the variable valve train leaking, this could cause a great deal of oil to be lost. Otherwise this V6 seemed to have less problems then the 2AZ-FE.

 

I would seriously consider looking at all the complaints on the model and years your looking for. I would eat toenails for the rest of my life before buying another new Toyota...Ya that good.