Re: 95 Camry engine problems

On Jan 3, 8:53 pm, nonam...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Jeff,

The connector that was damaged was the connector that plug into the
wiring harness. After driving the car a few miles, the check engine
light came on. I immediately took the car back to the mechanic. He
check the codes and reset the computer. At this time, I noticed the
connector was damaged. The latch mechanism was destroyed and part of
the connector housing was damaged, Upon close inspection, it appeared
that the contacts were not damaged. He secure the connector with a
cable tie. The light did not come on again after this. The car appear
to run fine.

Yes, I could have taken it back to him but who knows what further
damage he would cause. I have thought about small claims court. From
what I hear it is easy to get a judgement if you have a valid claim.
What is difficult is collecting the judgement.

It's a lot hard to collect the judgment if you don't have one. Also,
if you paid with a credit card, stop payment immediately. Write the
credit card company and tell them that they didn't repair the car
correctly and damaged the car. You need to *write* to the credit card
company to preserve your rights.

Jeff

On Jan 3, 7:20 pm, Jeff <jeff....@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jan 2, 12:58 pm, nonam...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

I have a 95 Camry wagon with a four cylinder engine with 130K.

Yesterday the car refused to go above 5 mph and was constantly on the
brink of stalling. I popped the hood and the exhaust pipe by the
oxygen sensor was glowing cherry red. I took to a mechanic and he said
the catalytic converter was clogged and that both converters and both
oxygen sensors had to be replace. The upper converter actually had a
hole burned through it. I have some question/concerns.

1) What cause this? Needless to say this was an expensive repair that
I NEVER want to pay for again. The check engine light did not come on..
Prior to this (about 2 weeks, 100 miles) I had a lot of work done
(valve cover gasket, oil pump, cam seal, front crank shaft seal,
timing belt, water temperature sending unit, radiator, hoses (heater,
water, transmission oil cooler), thermostat, distributor o-ring, egr
vale, headlights, brakes, fluids (brake, trans, diff, oil,
antifreeze)). Could anything the previous mechanic did cause this? He
did destroy the oxygen sensor connector but he did reconnect the
remains and secured it with a cable tie.

DIng DIng Ding. We have a winner. He destroyed an important piece of
the car, but not fix it properly. The oxygen sensor is on the exhaust
pipe, which gets hot. Either the heat melted the connector or
destroyed the reconnections, or he damaged more than just the
connector.

The failure of the mechanic to properly fix the part resulting in a
meltdown.

The mechanic should pay to fix the cats and all. If he refuses, I
would go to small claims court. And do your homework, learn exactly
how this can be caused by a bad O2 sensor, and make sure to wear a
suit.

He screwed up so many things
during the job that I was wondering if anything he did cause this. It
just seems to be too much of a coincidence.

Don't forget to mention this to the judge, too.

2) After changing the converters and sensors, the new mechanic said
one of the plugs was misfiring and recommended changing the wires
which were fairly new. He changed them and that problem disappeared.
However when he took the car out for a test drive it started bucking
(his words) around 35 mph. He hasn't figured out the new problem yet.
Any ideas?

I love this car but I have put more money than the car is worth into
repairs in the last six months. I was hoping to keep this car a little
bit longer but who knows. At some point, I might have to call it
quits.

Again, this sounds like a problem for the old guy to fix. I can't use
the word "mechanic," for that would be an insult to everyone who has a
clue what he or she is doing.

Jeff- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: 95 Camry engine problems
    ... The connector that was damaged was the connector that plug into the ... I immediately took the car back to the mechanic. ... damage he would cause. ... did destroy the oxygen sensor connector but he did reconnect the ...
    (alt.autos.toyota)
  • Re: 110mph in a 30mph zone!!
    ... Can't you just for once acknowledge that driving a car is a huge ... recognition of the damage your car can do and handle it accordingly. ... Don't try to kid yourself that this is true. ... who's going to pay for those repairs? ...
    (uk.rec.driving)
  • Re: Cycle vs. car RTA - provision of contact details.
    ... If there was no injury, just damage, then its a civil matter. ... fixed roadside property or certain animals then the driver ... Car hits cyclist, cyclist is injured - car driver must give his ...
    (uk.rec.cycling)
  • Re: Can I stop my car insurance company accepting liability on my behalf?
    ... Recently someone made a claim against my car insurance for an incident ... Did the owner of the other vehicle contact the police, ... Is the damage to the other vehicle such that there would have to be ... evidence etc second hand via my insurers. ...
    (uk.legal)
  • Re: uninsured vehicle parking
    ... roundabout (my fault - crappy brakes on bike). ... I had someone drive a car into the back of my car once. ... there was no damage (apart from ... number, no driver's name and address, no insurance details etc. ...
    (uk.legal)
Loading