99 camry brake job

When I took my 99 camry for oil change recently (it had 78K miles) the dealer had two reccommendations on the receipt. car needs timing belt, cam and crank seals: $392 + tax needs front pads and rotors and flush: $534 + tax

Not knowing much about car mechanics and pricing, still these prices sounded rather high to me. I have no problems with braking (no squeals, grinding, etc) but they said only 10% left on pads. Can't they just put two new pads and without changing the whole thing (the car never had any break work - I owned it since I bought it).

Also they said something about oil leak at crank case seal and it wasn't a big deal and they could fix it while working on timing belt - again, does the price sound reasonable?

I do have one problem with this car. Ever since I bought it I have experienced vibrations at foot and steering wheel at high speeds and while driving on inclines. On a straight stretch of freeway driving it you let go of the wheel it will slightly pull towards right. I took it once during warranty period and they found nothing wrong.

Reply to
sid
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Yes they can, unless the discs or rotors are so badly scored they need replacing. A flush and replacement of brake-fluid is not a bad thing. So without replacing the rotors, the job should be at least 1/2 the price indicated.

The seals do go hard and start to leak, especially if the recommended oil-change intervals have been exceeded. The price tho, is very high. Check for prices at a reputable mechanical-shop for the same jobs.

Jason

Reply to
Jason James

Their prices seem extremely high. Run!!!

When you find a reasonable & trustworthy shop, the crank case seal (aka front main seal) is a good idea to replace...as long as they don't screw up retightening up your harmonic balancer.

The vibrations may be cause by unbalanced tires. Do they occur only at certain speeds or do they occur when you press on the brakes?

A slight pull to the right on the freeway is normal (believe it or not) because the road are slightly slanted to the right for water drainage. Just keep an eye on your tire pressures and tire wear. Abnormal tire wear will indicate alignment or some other suspension problems.

Reply to
Viperkiller

In the old days, they used to set more castor on the off-side wheel(closest to the centre-line) to compensate for road-crown pulling. Today, what with power-steering they rub sufficient castor on both wheels, that this effect is not a problem,..plus road crowns aren't as pronounced now. Castor is the steering parameter which gives a nice straight tracking car. The only prob in the early 4-bangers was heavy steering on parking

Jason

Reply to
Jason James

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