Earlier Today I went to a North NJ Toyota dealer for my regular 5k miles oil change and tire rotation. My 4cyl Camry from May 2006 now has 45k miles. I waited inside enjoying my coffee when the service adviser approached me about my car. He said the following items need to be replaced and performed: Throttle body service-$109.95; Replace rear brake pads and reface the rotors-$285; replace engine air filter and cabin filters-$119; replace PCV assy -$25. I asked him why my rear pads worn out first since in my experience front pads always wear out first, he responded by saying my car has ABS and traction control or VSC which automatically applies the brakes as required by the road condition. "My car has no VSC?" I replied but he insisted that I did. Anyway, I turned down all the other services and requested him to perform only the oil change, because of monetary issues (but I didn't tell him that).
After my oil change, I went to auto zone and bought a $19.99 tool set. I never DIY my camry since I got it almost 3 years ago, nor performed throttle body service and brake work on any of my cars. I would consider myself average in minor auto repair.
My question for the group are as follows:
Does this throttle body look bad? I'm not aware of a sticking pedal on our Camry. Maybe I'm just used to driving the car, maybe if somebody drove my car they would notice it? normal view of throttle body ..
Is the VSC standard on the Camry?, I think its an add on feature and I didn't get them when I bought the car. Why did my rear pads go bad before the front pads?
Is my engine air filter really that bad? Those guys didn't even bother opening my air filter housing, when I took out my filter, small debris fell off easily! Dealer replaced my air filter less than a year ago at about 20k miles+/- 5k I cant remember anymore.