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Toyota Camry 1996 LE Overheating Problem

Hi

I have a Toyota Camry 1996 LE with 132,000 Miles. For the last 3 months I have been having the overheating problem and there were problems with my AC too. The AC light(green) would start flickering (on and off) after almost 30 seconds of being on and the AC would stop working. My mechanic said that there was some problems with the clutch assembly in the compressor because of which the belt was slipping. So he bought a compressor from a salvage yard and changed the clutch assembly. Now I have my old compressor with the clutch assembly from the compressor bought from salvage yard. The AC works fine....almost always.

For the overheating problem, he first replaced a couple of hoses which had torn/cracked because the car is 10 years old. He also has flushed the coolant a couple of times. But when I drive my car for 50+ miles and stop, the temperature rises and goes all the way up; crosses even the H line. Smoke starts coming out from the hood. So whenever I have to drive long distance (which I now do seldom) I make sure the reserve tank is full. The full tank lasts about 50 miles and then when I reach my destination ( with smoke and all), I check and see the coolant in the reserve tank boiling. The next morning the coolant is all gone. WITH THE AC ON, OVERHEATING OCCURS FASTER (20-30 miles). And then when the temperature crosses H, the old AC problem, with the light flickering appears again.

The overheating always occurs at the traffic signal when I have to stop my car. And as I speed up, the temperature starts to return to normal. However there is no coolant leakage. All the broken hoses have been replaced and my mechanic yesterday even replaced the radiator cap with a new one. But the problem persists. He suggests a gasket change.

Any suggestion would be highly appreciated.

Have a great day

Reply to
amitnanda
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===================================== Consider yourself fortunate that your car still runs at all. You're running right at the ragged edge of warping the aluminum cylinder head from overheating where you'll need to spend several thousand dollars to rebuild or replace the engine. Even if the engine doesn't stop running, especially on the six cylinder, the head gasket can begin to leak such that you still need to remove the cylinder head to repair it. Sounds like you need to find a more qualified mechanic. Did he replace the thermostat with a new Toyota thermostat? Are the cooling fans operating correctly?

Reply to
Daniel

He said the thermostat was working fine. And yes...the cooling fans are working fine.

Thanks

Reply to
amitnanda

Does it help to keep the RPM's up when you're at a stop light?

And how does he know the thermostat is 'working fine'? There's no way to diagnose it inside the engine except by inference (i.e. if the engine runs at normal temp, the thermostat must be OK). I've had plenty of trouble with thermostats that only sort of work. When I test them outside the car, I usually see why.

Reply to
Kurt Krueger

He said thermostat was fine and I took his word for granted. I have not looked at the RPMs at a stop signal, but will look at that. I will again ask the mechanic if thermostat is fine or not.

There'a an oil leakage too and often he says when the oil falls on something hot, there's smoke. He says this needs to be fixed and there's also the head gasket replacement(for overheating?) and both this cost so much money which for me as a student is lot.

Thanks for responding.

Reply to
amitnanda

I'm sure you don't want to here this. At 130 some thousand miles you should be on your second timing belt,and have had at the second belt change out have also replaced the crank,cam and maybe oil pump seals, and the water pump replaced. These are things that will go bad. So your problems could be any or all of these things.

Reply to
lobo

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