Blown Head Gasket problems of the 2002 Toyota Camry

The contact owns a 2002 Toyota Camry. While operating the vehicle, smoke appeared coming from the exhaust pipe. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the head gasket had blown due to the head gasket bolt stripping from the engine block. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 140,000.

The contact owns a 2002 Toyota Camry. The contact stated the check engine light illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where the contact was informed the engine coolant was low and the temperature gauge needed to be replaced. The mechanic replaced the temperature gauge and added more coolant to the vehicle. Approximately 100 miles after being repaired the head gasket blew out. The vehicle was taken to another independent mechanic where the contact was informed the engine needed to be replaced. While repairing the engine, the mechaniced noticed the bolts which mounted the engine were stripped. As a result, the engine was previously mounted out of position, preventing the engine coolant from properly entering the engine. The contact was informed that due to this failure, the engine ran at a low temperature and the head gasket failed. The failure mileage was 90,000.

I own a 2002 Toyota Camry purchased new from dealership and regularly maintained. The check engine light came on while my daughter was driving the car and so I took it to our mechanic who said it was a faulty sensor which he replaced. The next day the check engine light came on again while she was driving and she was just able to make it back to the mechanic's shop with the car running roughly. The mechanic advised that the engine (136,000 miles) had suffered a "blown" head gasket. He recommended replacing the head gasket but warned me that because of the aluminum casting of the engine that there was a good chance that when he removed the steel bolts they would strip out the aluminum threads and then I would be looking at a new engine. Unfortunately that is what happened - total cost to put in a reasonably "new" used engine (from a 2009 scion) was $5,800. I understand that things can happen and am not unduly upset that the head gasket was blown however, something as basic as knowing that you should not use steel bolts in an aluminum thread should be remedied by Toyota. When a repair such as mine is undertaken there is a high probability of the bolts stripping out the aluminum threads. When that happens the cost of repair goes from approximately 1600 to replace a blown head gasket to 5800 to replace an entire engine. This is really a design flaw that should be obvious to any engineer and should be remedied by Toyota.