1992 camry suspension
 

Something is definitley wrong with my 1992 camry. The car has almost 250,000 miles on it and thus far worked great. Though recently, the ride has been getting progressivley worse. I have never had any suspension problems so do not exactly know how to diagnos the problem. Currently, the car is riding low and the ride is extreamly rough. I am just waiting for something important to snap whenever i drive over a pot hole or a speed bump. I assume the struts need to be replaced, though if thats the case how do i know if it is necessary to replace the mounts and or any other parts. What would you all recommend? Also, how difficult is the install of new factory struts? I have a 323i which I have taken apart and moded many times, everything from brembo gt bbks to dinan cai. I have yet to work on a suspension and just am not sure what i am getting myself into. Let me know what you think.

Thanks for the help,
Gil

RE: 1992 camry suspension
 

wow that's funny because I just the other day decided to replace my struts on the same car. My 2002 LE Sedan camry has 107k miles on it however ;) Anyhow I am going to just buy a set of KYB GR2 struts, and some springs, cheapest OEM replacement I can find. Replacement is pretty easy.

1. pull off the rear seat bottom. literally..yank up on it till its 3 hooks pop out(learned this one from nodrogkam here). I read that my chassis is the V10 chassis, so that must be yours as well..shouldnt be different I think...

2. unscrew the side arm rests to release them so you can reach the strut tophats for removal and to put new ones back on

3. remove and replace rear and front struts. If you havent done it before, you also have to mount the springs onto the new struts.

The suspension PDF here is very very useful for strut replacement if you don't know where everything(very few connnections) go.
http://www.turboninjas.com/camry/

if you've done struts before, then once the seats are off, everything else is almost old hat ;)

RE: 1992 camry suspension
 

thats an awefull lot of miles. glad to hear the cam is still running.

Blown struts is your likely culprit. If its been sagging and what not for a LONG time, the springs could be worn as well. But new struts will fix most of the issues.
Ok so the mounts, boots etc...if you dont hear clunking and wierd sounds RIGHT NOW, then they could be OK. but with age and miles, i would go ahead and replace everything if you can afford or care to keep the car for much longer.

If you have spring compressors, and some tools like a torque wrench/breaker bar, then you're all set to go. its not a hard job but its time consuming. Just get an alignment after you're done.
KYB GR-2 is one of the most popular oem replacement struts.

you may want to consider picking up a haynes manual from your local shop.

also www.toyotanation.com offers a ton of help.

Here is a link to service manuals for your car if you don't want to get your own manual.
http://www.turboninjas.com/camry/

RE: 1992 camry suspension
 

i would also like to mention that if your vehicle is equipped with ABS, to remove the ABS sensors prior to strut removal/replacement. Although i dont believe this was a major issue with the gen3 camry, the gen4's had a service board notice about doing that as the sensors are easily damaged. This happend to my car when midas was re-doing my suspension, and they had to pick up the couple hundred dollar tab.