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My wife's car is a 91 Toyota Camry Model DX / 35-FE and it has developed a squeaking noise that is coming from the tailpipe. It does it when the gas pedal is pushed to power up. This happens when moving or not. I put it in drive and held the brake on and when the engine has to work even a little bit the squeaking starts up. The sound we hear is most definitely emitting from the exhaust pipe.
Anyone have any ideas about what may be causing this.
I'll offer a guess that the exhaust pipe is rubbing somewhere when the engine moves under torque. Check all the exhaust pipe mountings, probably one is loose or broken.
Loose exhaust pipes can make some truly weird noises.
It's misfiring and getting worse. A shop I just took it to looked at it and the two oldest guys there both said at the same time, " you're burning a valve", then one young guy said "sounds like it's only running on 3 cylinders." I guess I have to get a long stem compression gauge and check this out myself.
If I need a top end job I'm parting out the thing. A rebuilt head will be way more than we can afford to sink into this old piece of junk.
It's misfiring and getting worse. A shop I just took it to looked at it and the two oldest guys there both said at the same time, " you're burning a valve", then one young guy said "sounds like it's only running on 3 cylinders." I guess I have to get a long stem compression gauge and check this out myself.
If I need a top end job I'm parting out the thing. A rebuilt head will be way more than we can afford to sink into this old piece of junk.
Suit yourself, I don't know the overall condition of the car of course, but I had a cracked head/bad head gasket situation on the 87 Camry (3S-FE) and replaced the head and head gasket working with a friend of mine who wrenches out of his house (I would have been too slow working alone, kid needed the car back). (We knew going in that the head gasket was bad, the head crack we found once we "beheaded" the engine - it was not leaking there, some nutjob had not torqued the head all the way on one end apparently when they put in the existing head gasket) (Junkyard head went to a machine shop for a valve grind, new stem seals, and valve adjust before we put it on)
The job turned out real well, at 160K the cylinder walls looked new. If you did the head, head gasket, timing belt, and water pump, this would be a fairly big and expensive job, but assuming the rest of the car is good, you would have a "like new" engine in many ways, ready to go 60 to 100K with little attention. Right now the car has 225K and runs like a champ.
These cars do occasionally need a valve clearance check, typical Toy owners don't do it. Particularly not the people who own them when they are old enough to actually need adjustment.
Consider selling it as a mechanic's special. You might get more for it that way than parting it out. Or not, I'm at a big disadvantage since I am not looking at the car in person.
It's tough to diagnose sounds from written descriptions, the "screech" or "chirp" of exhaust rubbing is different from the "whistle" of a burnt valve.
My 87 is a rust free car with a couple of small dents but otherwise in good shape.
It just got new belts and water pump and it needs tires and struts. I think I'll check the compression and then go from there. I'm hoping the car is worth saving. Thank you all for your advise.
Yellow Pages, "Muffler", small print, not a franchise.
They'll tell you what it is in 2 minutes, no charge, and fix it for ten bucks.
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