1998 Toyota Camry LE from North America - Comments

Front Struts rattle all the time.

Automatic Window switches have started acting up at 90,000 miles.

Seats are very uncomfortable on long trips.

Arm rests on front seats are coming unglued around window switches.

Changed out water pump and timing belt at 85,000 miles.

At 115,000 now starting to burn oil and during start up will send huge puff of white smoke out of tail pipe. It has always had Castrol Oil change every 3000-4000 miles.

Front Head light covers are easily scratched from road pickup causing lights to look dim.

This car was sold to us with the label of the nations top selling sedan. I guess we were not the only ones duped then...

Toyota has a good reputation from what I hear, but this is the first one I have bought and I am not impressed.

I think the ride in my full size Chevy Pick-up is more comfortable on the highway.

That is such an accurate description of my car as well. 98 Camry Le, white smoke at startup. Lots of steering wheel vibration... which is a recall. Anyhow... not a great car.

Smoking at start up is one of the signs of engine sludge. You need to get it checked immediatlely. The only way to check is to remove the valve cover. Toyota will fix 1997 - 2002 Camry's for free for engine sludge, but only if you can prove reasonable maintenance.

Left unchecked, sludge can lead to catostrophic engine failure, so don't ignore this problem!

Correction to above post. Toyota DOES NOT cover the 2002 4 - cylinder engine under the sludge policy. The design was changed to correct the problem. The V-6 is covered, but only for the early dates of manufacture in 2002, before they fixed the problem in these engines.

Was your Grand Am more reliable?

I will be very surprised if it was.

Why are there so many problematic Toyota Camrys in America? Can't you guys knock them together properly or something? Geez if the Australians can do the job OK you'd think anyone can..

I fixed my front-end rattle by tightening the suspension mounts. All it took was a 19mm ratchet.

I think more than 50% of the Camry reviews on this site are bogus by looking closer at many of these. A famous exploitation is the so called sludge problems that VERY FEW Camry vehicles experienced. And Toyota fixed this a long time ago. Suddenly all Camries has these problems, apparently. This is not very credible.

This sludge problems is something that I've only heard about, a problem that could happen in some special cases (some motor oil types, hot climate, if you did a lot of heavy towing). I even asked my independent tech doing all the maintenance on my Camry if this was something he ever had encountered. He had not had a single Camry with this problem and he works on about a thousand cars a year, mainly Toyotas and Hondas (although he is NOT a Toyota dealer).

Try not having the engine properly heating up enough on your sludging comments. I would look at consumeraffairs.com. It's more realistic to hear issues and complaints from those that are upset. It seems overblown praise/generalizations on an entire auto brand are sometimes more politically oriented, with the poor economy and stress on reviews. Not always the case however.... I find it far more beneficial hearing the exact model, model year issues when contemplating my next new vehicle purchase on here. I found out more sitting in new car dealerships repair waiting rooms discussing my repairs with actual owners, and what issues their newest imports have. Hearing from real owners with their cars on the lift is quite telling.

6:21 I'd say 50% is pretty conservative. I've been on this site for a long time, and it's the same handful of people pretending that they know about or have seen a bunch of Toyota's with problems.

I pay no attention and mainly chalk it up to Big 3 car owners either upset or jealous that Toyota has been wiping the floor with Ford, GM, and Dodge for years. It's pretty common actually. People upset that the Japanese make way better cars than Americans do. I wish it WAS the other way around; unfortunately it isn't.

Read enough of these comments though, and they're good for a laugh. Some guy tried to tell me that the a Pontiac Grand Am is a better car than a Honda Civic and a Toyota Camry. What can you say to something like that?

I have a 1998 Camry with 168k mileage. It has been smoking on start up for quite a while now, all the seals leak oil and now there is a knocking sound (like a diesel engine) coming from the engine.

The front struts rattle, the door power door locks lock and unlock on their own, the arm rests are coming away from the plastic housing for the buttons that control the windows and door locks, and the driver side door handle broke off in my hand one cold morning.

Toyota tells me I need a new engine (5K for a short block) due to the sound it currently makes. I have changed the oil on a regular basis and kept up with all of the scheduled maintenance checks. The bad mouthers on this site about Camry have a legitimate complaint. I've been told that 1998-2000 Camry's are notorious for the engine gumming up etc. by several shops, thus the shortage of salvaged engines.