What started as a head gasket leak in April 2014 became a heavy gasket leak in June of same year in my 2006 Toyota Camry. I'd had the car 4 years with one year left on payment. When I decided to fix the $1500 problem my mechanic, whom I've had for years and is near retirement years, gave me the dreaded call that this was a bigger problem than expected.

My mechanic, Bill, said he'd never seen this in all his years but that when he and his son went to unbolt the engine, 2 bolts were loose and could be manually pulled out, and that the others were almost impossible to remove with equipment. He said it appears the bolts were over-torqued at assembly and the only alternatives were to replace engine or have the stripped bolt-casings refitted; he did not recommend the 2nd option.

Of course my warranty was over and I got a lot of 'so sorry- too bads' from the dealership customer relations person and from the regional supervisor who happened to be on-site. I was given a Toyota number to report the problem and file a case. What I got was a useless person on the line who obviously wasn't nuts about her job and said some more 'too bads' but this type of problem wasn't reported enough to warranty any help from Toyota.

Did I mention the $4,000 to replace engine?? Financially it made more sense to replace engine on this otherwise good car which had been reliable than to get another used one with too many miles for the price with it's own new set of unknowns. Did I have a Camry before this one and will I buy another? Yes.....but I feel the company should be accountable for this lemon ENGINE ...

Oh BTW....the dealership dismissed my mechanic as a 'mom and pop' type place and therefore, his expertise and professionalism were sub-standard. I'm so glad I found this site because I've wanted to LET THE WORLD KNOW about my experience. I'm still paying for that replaced engine, though, thankfully, I just paid off the car. I don't have video of the problem, but I DO have the 2 stripped bolts as souvenirs and would gladly give them back to TOYOTA. No help for the little hard-working guy(gal) from the big guy.

I bought this Camry with 24000 miles on it. Driving the car until 37412 miles, I noticed that on an oil change that my water pump was starting to leak. I wasn't surprised about the pump, after sitting for so long. The vehicle never overheated, just used it to take my daughter back and forth to school. The worst thing I did notice was the head gasket was leaking coolant, that I was real surprised about until I researched on the internet that the 2.4l Toyota engines have a problem with the head bolts stripping out due to over torquing on the assembly line.

Called Toyota to see what they wanted to do about it. After listening to this bubble head recite me this official disclaimer and telling me that I needed a Toyota dealer to have them tell me that it was my fault for one reason or another and $500 later or more. I took it to an independent professional ASE Certified Mechanic, and not to mention that I am a ASE Master certified mechanic, I just don't have time to do heavy line work on my own vehicle, family time more important.

So I took the high road and purchased a NS300Lâ„¢ INSERT SYSTEM http://www.huhnsolutions.com/NS300L_History.html and am in the mist of fixing it right now. Will update with pictures later. TOYOTA should be ashamed of themselves for the shake down on one of their mistakes that I ended up paying for. My next car will be a Chevy or a Ford, never had any problems of this magnitude with them.