I am very familiar with these cars since I have (2) same year and engine.
These 4 cyl engines came with defective valve seals causing the smoke only on cold start ups. Two different approaches to the problem from two different Toyota dealers. The car performs well, but the smoke is annoying, but not $2,300 annoying! I bought the car new in December, 2002, & currently has about 77,000 miles on it, which is considered low miles for this year model. He said "the cost of a quart of oil versus the cost of repairs would be preferable at this time". Service person did not recommend repair unless there is excessive oil loss. I called another Toyota dealer in the area & was told the problem was most likely caused by condensation, but could be the "valve stem seals".
I called one Toyota service department & was told the problem was "leaking valve stems" & the problem will get worse in time-cost to repair would be about $2,300, with most of cost being LABOR. There is no sign of smoke during cranking during the day AFTER the initial start-up. The first signs of the smoke began about 18 months ago with mileage of in range of 75,000 miles.Ĭurrently, at first start-up, the volume of smoke has increased & is annoying. I thought it could be condensation related & not a problem since the car performed very well & I have always had the car serviced at the local Toyota dealer as per the maintenance schedule.
White/bluish smoke started appearing from tailpipe when car was cranked after being in garage overnight. So, the NHTSA received a disproportionate number of complaints about Toyota unintended acceleration issues because of the national news media attention, to the point where their data is unreliable taken in context with any other vehicle that did not receive national news attention.Ĭ typically receives more complaints per day about vehicles than the NHTSA does, but the news media did not repeatedly say "go to to report your Camry acceleration problems" like they did about the NHTSA - so although we have less complaint data than the NHTSA for the 2003 Camry, our data for the Camry is a far more statistically accurate representation of the Camry's reliability than what the NHTSA data shows. The problem with NHTSA data for the 2003 Camry is that for months on end, the news media repeatedly told the public that several Toyota models had an unintended acceleration defect, & to go to (the NHTSA's website) to file a complaint. Notes: Beware of the NHTSA complaint data for the 2003 Camry.
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