2000 Camry Front End Rattle

[Ed Warren]

I have a 2000 Camry with 85,000 miles. The care as a noticable rattle at low
speeds on the right front wheel area. I took it to a tire dealer and they
said I needed Struts and Strut mounts totallying about $700. I called the
dealer and he said that it was possible but that they did very little strut
work on Toyotas unless the struts got damaged. He said that the mounts do
need replacement from time to time. That would be about $500. The car drives
fine, it doesn't pull to one side or anything. You don't hear any noise at
hyway speeds.

I jacked the care up to day and removed the wheels to see I could see
anything obvious. The struts did have a slight amount of oil seepage but not
much at all. I did notice that the brake rotors were not tight, meaning that
there was play where they fit around the lug studs (or what ever they are
called). Should the rotors be tight around the lugs. They were loose enough
that if the caliper hadn't been there they would or could have fallen off.

Any advice would be helpful. If I do get the strut mounts replaced should i
go ahead and get the struts replaced? The dealer said that the labor is the
same either way.

Thanks in Advance
Ed

[m Ransley]

Who did your brakes last, I cant think that a loose rotor is good and it
may have caused other problems. Oil leaking on struts means they are
bad, but 700$ sound high and mounts bad sounds suspicous, get other
opinions.

[m Ransley]

I bet your loose rotor is it and it may have ruined the rotor mount
holes and bolts, whoever did the brakes last is responsible to fix it
free

[tj]

Car rotors are held in place by your Wheel. Unbolt and take off the wheel
and the rotors are lose. Right now the are trapped by your calipers. Unbolt
and take off your calipers and your rotors will fall off. The only thing
that hold the rotors tight are the wheel lug nuts.
You probably have bad strut mounts. This is a common problem. Toyota should
have done a recall on them.
When you replace the strut mounts you should replace struts also. But shop
around, the dealer price is way high.

"Ed Warren" <zwa...@triad.rr.com> wrote in message
news:4G1pf.88$Ml4...@southeast.rr.com...

[qslim]

<<I bet your loose rotor is it and it may have ruined the rotor mount
holes and bolts, whoever did the brakes last is responsible to fix it
free>>

Thats a pretty good Yoda impression. It also makes no sense.

[qslim]

Yeah man, it's your strut mounts. Every single damn last generation Camry
had them go bad before 100k. It's really basic work, any independent shop
can take care of them for you. You may want to get the updated part from
the Toyota dealer, though. I've never seen one of the new mounts go
bad.....yet. You should make sure it's aligned too after the stru work is
done; your camber setting will be all screwy if you don't.
And don't worry about the rotor- those are held tight with the wheel
on.

[skewe]

definately a strut mount problem and/or a defective item. I agree with
qslim.

Look at this. there are about 20 threads going on in that website
regarding this problem.
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/t112394.html

There is also a thread going on asking people to call toyota to bring
awareness to this problem and ask them to fix it.
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/t112562.html