1999 Toyota Camry - blown head gasket - what to do with it ?

JimFowler · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2016 3:41 pm

My sister has a 1999 Toyota Camry 4 cyl automatic. Recently the radiator blew out on it and despite her denials I think she drove it with blown radiator for a while.

Rex over at Happy Japs replaced the radiator, made sure the thermostat is still working ok and refilled with fluids.

After that, the car still pegs the temp gauge overheated almost immediately when driven. Rex's diagnosis is head damage from the overheating even though it doesn't have some of the typical symptoms. No visible coolant in oil. Not smoking a lot at startup. He's estimating $1500 - $1800 for repair and the car is not worth that much.

Suggestions on what to do with it ?

Prior to this issue the car was in decent shape. Paint is old and hood has a ding on the nose, but most everything worked including heat, A/C, power windows.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2016 4:40 pm

Sell it for parts, or scrap it. Unless you find somebody who is willing to tackle it.

I bought a 96 Cherokee recently with what was diagnosed as a blown head gasket but turned out to be a cracked head. I fixed it myself for about $700 bucks, it wasn't a huge amount of work. Now I have a good running dog hauler/junk hauler for about 1200 bucks.

Looks like you can get a rebuilt head for 300 bucks if it's cracked.

It really just depends, if you don't want to fix it, and don't want to pay to have it fixed then it's a parts or scrap car. Or maybe somebody will offer a bit more than scrap to fix up. Honestly if it's in good shape otherwise it's probably still worth fixing even though it would cost more than the car is worth.

I think of it this way, you know the maintenance record on that car, can you go buy an equal car for 1500-1800 bucks that will be as reliable? Maybe, maybe not.

RobLupella · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2016 7:23 pm

Chad Culbertson wrote:

Sell it for parts, or scrap it. Unless you find somebody who is willing to tackle it.

I bought a 96 Cherokee recently with what was diagnosed as a blown head gasket but turned out to be a cracked head. I fixed it myself for about $700 bucks, it wasn't a huge amount of work. Now I have a good running dog hauler/junk hauler for about 1200 bucks.

Looks like you can get a rebuilt head for 300 bucks if it's cracked.

It really just depends, if you don't want to fix it, and don't want to pay to have it fixed then it's a parts or scrap car. Or maybe somebody will offer a bit more than scrap to fix up. Honestly if it's in good shape otherwise it's probably still worth fixing even though it would cost more than the car is worth.

I think of it this way, you know the maintenance record on that car, can you go buy an equal car for 1500-1800 bucks that will be as reliable? Maybe, maybe not.

+1 on this. Assuming the rest of the car is in good mechanical shape and it just looks crappy, fixing is better than buying someone else's junk of unknown quality. If she can afford it and it is a good excuse for something newer, then replace

George Bright · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:22 pm

The head damage might be repairable by simply surfacing the head.Rex probably is not quoting you on a cheap and dirty job like that because he has to protect himself. The custimer is usually hapy when the bill is less than the estimate but not when it is more.

JimFowler · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:36 pm

RobLupella wrote:

Chad Culbertson wrote:

Sell it for parts, or scrap it. Unless you find somebody who is willing to tackle it.

I bought a 96 Cherokee recently with what was diagnosed as a blown head gasket but turned out to be a cracked head. I fixed it myself for about $700 bucks, it wasn't a huge amount of work. Now I have a good running dog hauler/junk hauler for about 1200 bucks.

Looks like you can get a rebuilt head for 300 bucks if it's cracked.

It really just depends, if you don't want to fix it, and don't want to pay to have it fixed then it's a parts or scrap car. Or maybe somebody will offer a bit more than scrap to fix up. Honestly if it's in good shape otherwise it's probably still worth fixing even though it would cost more than the car is worth.

I think of it this way, you know the maintenance record on that car, can you go buy an equal car for 1500-1800 bucks that will be as reliable? Maybe, maybe not.

+1 on this. Assuming the rest of the car is in good mechanical shape and it just looks crappy, fixing is better than buying someone else's junk of unknown quality. If she can afford it and it is a good excuse for something newer, then replace

We bought this Camry off of Craigslist a little less than a year ago. Don't really know its history though it looked like it was in fairly good shape prior to this. My sister is in the process of trying to get back on her feet financially and can't afford to fix this or buy a replacement, so big brother will have to help her out. I have a good friend with a high mileage 2000 Nissan Maxima in good condition that he's had for almost 10 years. It was his car, then his daughter's and now she has traded up. He didn't actively have it for sale, but offered it to me for for what Carmax offered him for it when he bought his daughter's car.

So, now I think I just need to find the best place to sell the car without too much complication. Any suggestions on salvage yards ?

BretLuter · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2016 9:54 pm

JimFowler wrote:

RobLupella wrote:

Chad Culbertson wrote:

Sell it for parts, or scrap it. Unless you find somebody who is willing to tackle it.

I bought a 96 Cherokee recently with what was diagnosed as a blown head gasket but turned out to be a cracked head. I fixed it myself for about $700 bucks, it wasn't a huge amount of work. Now I have a good running dog hauler/junk hauler for about 1200 bucks.

Looks like you can get a rebuilt head for 300 bucks if it's cracked.

It really just depends, if you don't want to fix it, and don't want to pay to have it fixed then it's a parts or scrap car. Or maybe somebody will offer a bit more than scrap to fix up. Honestly if it's in good shape otherwise it's probably still worth fixing even though it would cost more than the car is worth.

I think of it this way, you know the maintenance record on that car, can you go buy an equal car for 1500-1800 bucks that will be as reliable? Maybe, maybe not.

We bought this Camry off of Craigslist a little less than a year ago. Don't really know its history though it looked like it was in fairly good shape prior to this. My sister is in the process of trying to get back on her feet financially and can't afford to fix this or buy a replacement, so big brother will have to help her out. I have a good friend with a high mileage 2000 Nissan Maxima in good condition that he's had for almost 10 years. It was his car, then his daughter's and now she has traded up. He didn't actively have it for sale, but offered it to me for for what Carmax offered him for it when he bought his daughter's car.

So, now I think I just need to find the best place to sell the car without too much complication. Any suggestions on salvage yards ?

+1 on this. Assuming the rest of the car is in good mechanical shape and it just looks crappy, fixing is better than buying someone else's junk of unknown quality. If she can afford it and it is a good excuse for something newer, then replace

Salvage yard *might* give you $2-300 for it. I'd say best bet would be list it on Craigslist if you want to get the most $$ out of it, just be prepared to answer alot of stupid emails and weed out a boxcar load of idiots before you find a legit buyer. But the pain may be worth it.

Chad Culbertson · **Posted:** Tue Jan 05, 2016 10:17 pm

Also, the shop should be able to provide a 100% diagnosis that at least the head gasket is bad or the head is cracked. They can sample the coolant or exhaust gas to determine if they're mixing. In the case of the head job I did recently, the exhaust wasn't noticeable very white since it was cracked between the valves, but the spark plug told the tale. They have kits that can test for coolant in the exhaust or exhaust gases in the coolant to know for sure.

How many miles are on the car?

JimFowler · **Posted:** Wed Jan 06, 2016 10:07 am

Chad Culbertson wrote:

Also, the shop should be able to provide a 100% diagnosis that at least the head gasket is bad or the head is cracked. They can sample the coolant or exhaust gas to determine if they're mixing. In the case of the head job I did recently, the exhaust wasn't noticeable very white since it was cracked between the valves, but the spark plug told the tale. They have kits that can test for coolant in the exhaust or exhaust gases in the coolant to know for sure.

How many miles are on the car?

There's no coolant in the oil. Don't know about the exhaust gas. Rex's diagnosis is that the head gasket is not blown, but that it won't hold pressure once it gets warm, if that makes sense.

The car has about 180K miles.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Wed Jan 06, 2016 11:28 am

if it's not mixing oil/water and it's not loosing water, I assume the water pump and t-stat has been checked to address the heat issue? Has the system been pressurized to check for leaks?

JimFowler · **Posted:** Wed Jan 06, 2016 12:36 pm

RodneyWright wrote:

if it's not mixing oil/water and it's not loosing water, I assume the water pump and t-stat has been checked to address the heat issue? Has the system been pressurized to check for leaks?

The t-stat is ok and the system has been pressurized to check for leaks. It holds pressure. Car overheats to max just sitting at idle a few minutes or even quicker, like less than a half mile, if driven. Water pump has not been checked as Rex said he was 99.5% sure of head gasket diagnosis and I did not want to spend money on further diagnosis.

Chris Halweg · **Posted:** Wed Jan 06, 2016 1:13 pm

JimFowler wrote:

RodneyWright wrote:

if it's not mixing oil/water and it's not loosing water, I assume the water pump and t-stat has been checked to address the heat issue? Has the system been pressurized to check for leaks?

The t-stat is ok and the system has been pressurized to check for leaks. It holds pressure. Car overheats to max just sitting at idle a few minutes or even quicker, like less than a half mile, if driven. Water pump has not been checked as Rex said he was 99.5% sure of head gasket diagnosis and I did not want to spend money on further diagnosis.

Air in the system? I'm not sure how hard it is to get it out of these cars.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Wed Jan 06, 2016 3:47 pm

JimFowler wrote:

Rex said he was 99.5% sure of head gasket diagnosis and I did not want to spend money on further diagnosis.

I was about to say that it sounds like Rex has a high level of confidence without a lot of diagnosis, but... after really re-reading all of your posts, you do say that it holds pressure until it warms up. So that sounds like maybe a warped head to me. The comment about burping it is a good one, but I would assume that when he replaced the radiator that he would have burped it correctly (given his experience). Water pump also is good suggestion, but I think that it will not hold pressure when warm is the big issue.

Richard

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1999 Toyota Camry - blown head gasket - what to do with it ?

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