LordVader

Thanks guys! Gonna give it a shot this weekend and I get dinner for doing it! And damn she's a good cook to boot... :P

Hey guys/gals... I work with a lady that has a 2000 Camry that needs the grill replaced. How difficult is that to do? I have a pretty high mechanical aptitude but wanted some expert :D advice before I agree to help her out. TIA!

Oh and I agree Leigh. Not trying to be greedy here, just want to have a sit down with her and see what she has to say is all... :)

Nope. Hard to beleive but no. The reason I advised her to go with a short block is because that is what Toyota would have done had it been under warranty. The service manager spoke with the regional service rep and she offered a $1000 "good faith" reduction on the parts. While that is kind of her, I asked for a meeting with her to discuss it further. We all know there is no way this should have happened and I want to plead my case to her to see if I can get some more help from them. Thanks for everyones interest and input :)

Yeah...I found that out today. Hopefully Toyota will give her some help with it. I'm going to go with a new short block for *GULP* $4200. Damn that hurts. Heck I could go to my local Chevrolet dealer and get a new 502ci big block crate engine for less than that! Oh well. I don't thing I could squeeze it the Corolla's engine bay

Leighcm... I wasn't aware that there was a powertrain warranty that extended past the 3-36K warranty. I'll check into that...and yes, it has been regularly serviced so that's not an issue. But here's an update... Had it towed to the Toyota dealership and it turns out it has a broken rod. Yep. You read that correctly. A broken connecting rod. Sooooooo that opens up a whole other can of worms. Connecting rods dont just break driving down the road unless A)It's being abused very badly or B)The rod was defective which, if that was the case, it, more than likely, would not have made it as far as it has. Anyway, that's where we're at. I'm looking into a couple of different options to get it back on the road. Thanks for your input Leighcm!

Well, from what I can gather, it threw a CEL right before, then a "pop" as she describes it, then it began to run badly but enough for her to get it off the interstate and to a park and ride. This makes no sense as we both know when a timing chain/belt breaks, that's it. It's not going to run anymore. The whole thing makes no sense at all but it's difficult to understand how a supposedly reputable shop could so completely mis-diagnose a very simple to diagnose condition. I'm truly at a loss here...

Hello all... Need your expert input on a friend's 2003 Corolla CE and I'll keep this short (or try :P ) Apparently, she has a broken timing chain according to a local shop. I wont go into details but after doing some extensive research on the subject, I was surprised by several things. First of all, the car only has 62+K on the clock and has had regular maintainence the entire time. Is a broken timing chain on these cars a common occurence? I know timing belts will break if not chainged around 90K but a timing chain breaking on 3 yr old car with 62K??? <_< Being a huge car guy, albeit domestics and specifically Chevrolet high performance cars, I found this extremely troubling. I have owned many, many cars over the years and have logged many many miles on those cars and have NEVER had a timing chain "break" Stretch a bit but never break. Secondly, after reveiwing Toyota's recommended intervals and description of what gets checked/replaced, nothing is ever mentioned about the timing chain or anything remotely related. I started at 30K and went all the way to 120K and no mention at all. I have checked alldata.com for TSB's on them and nothing. I guess my question is this: Have any of you had any experience with this on your cars? TIA and any opionions or information is greatly appreciated by us!