Plans for maintenance and some minor upgrades
#1
05-09-2022, 03:08 PM
Join Date: Mar 2022
Location: Southeastern, PA USA
Posts: 11
Plans for maintenance and some minor upgrades
Now that we've owned/driven our `09 Camry base model for a few months, I've been able to prioritize some maintenance items and add some 'safety related' upgrades. Once again, this is my eldest daughter's daily-driver and she uses the car for work & school and, ultimately, for multiple trips to the beach this coming Summer. So yea, she's going to put some serious miles on this ride.
Priority #1 is the exhaust flex joint...@ just over 70k miles ours has seen better days. While it really isn't leaking yet, it looks like its one sharp impact away from coming apart. We also had an intermittent code for the rear O2 sensor. We'll be replacing the entire flex pipe/cat with a new Magnaflow unit(49 state catalyst) along with a new Denso O2 sensor. Parts are already in hand so this work will be done sometime this week.
Our 2nd maintenance item is brakes...pads & rotors. We purchased this car with pads @ 50% and cleanly worn rotors. She could probably get 6 months out of the pads but I'm more inclined to replacing them @ 2mm. I chose Power Stop Evolution pads(ceramic) & discs from Rockauto.com. We might be upgrading the brake hoses to stainless steel braided units as well. I've used them on all my daily-drivers including her previous car, so she's become accustomed to driving with the hard pedal. I anticipate getting this done in mid-July.
Finally, some minor suspension mods. The stock struts and bushings are still in decent shape but it does have its fair share of boaty body roll when cornering. After a bit of research, I discovered that these cars respond well to some modest chassis stiffening. I ordered a Megan Racing front upper strut brace to help alleviate some of that. I'm also planning of installing polyurethane bushings on the front & rear sway bars and possibly switching out the stock links to HD units. The brace is in transit and will take minutes to install...the bushings & links will wait for another day.
So far, so good. She likes the car, that's what really matters.
Priority #1 is the exhaust flex joint...@ just over 70k miles ours has seen better days. While it really isn't leaking yet, it looks like its one sharp impact away from coming apart. We also had an intermittent code for the rear O2 sensor. We'll be replacing the entire flex pipe/cat with a new Magnaflow unit(49 state catalyst) along with a new Denso O2 sensor. Parts are already in hand so this work will be done sometime this week.
Our 2nd maintenance item is brakes...pads & rotors. We purchased this car with pads @ 50% and cleanly worn rotors. She could probably get 6 months out of the pads but I'm more inclined to replacing them @ 2mm. I chose Power Stop Evolution pads(ceramic) & discs from Rockauto.com. We might be upgrading the brake hoses to stainless steel braided units as well. I've used them on all my daily-drivers including her previous car, so she's become accustomed to driving with the hard pedal. I anticipate getting this done in mid-July.
Finally, some minor suspension mods. The stock struts and bushings are still in decent shape but it does have its fair share of boaty body roll when cornering. After a bit of research, I discovered that these cars respond well to some modest chassis stiffening. I ordered a Megan Racing front upper strut brace to help alleviate some of that. I'm also planning of installing polyurethane bushings on the front & rear sway bars and possibly switching out the stock links to HD units. The brace is in transit and will take minutes to install...the bushings & links will wait for another day.
So far, so good. She likes the car, that's what really matters.
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diablomt
Suspension, Brakes, Tires & Wheels
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03-27-2017 08:35 PM