How To Change the Struts and Strut Mounts on your 1998 Toyota Camry

PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS IF DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Your car's suspension is a critical safety component. If you mess up, your car will become dangerous and deadly to you and everyone around you. The following information is for informational purposes only.

This blog post describes how to replace the struts and strut mounts on a 1998 Toyota Camry yourself, but it should apply for Camrys from 1991 to 2001, and probably other models as well. This is not a difficult project, but it does take some time. It took me about half a day to do everything.

To complete this project, you will need an assortment of sockets, wrenches, a breaker bar, a torque wrench, spring compressors, and an allen key.

Struts generally go bad gradually, and at higher mileage. This car has 120k miles, and the struts were leaking oil. The strut mounts in this generation Camry are a known weak point. The symptoms of bad strut mounts are rattling over minor bumps, particular when the car is cold.

I picked up the parts from autopartsarehouse.com. They have pretty good prices for the struts and the strut mounts; I got the KYB brand. The bellows didn't fit though, so I reused the old bellows.

Section 1: Changing the front struts

Step 1: This is the front strut assembly in the car.

Step 2: Remove brake line, unclip ABS sensor wire clip, spray PBlaster on sway-bar endlink nut.

Step 3: Undo the two strut-to-knuckle bolts.

Step 4: Undo the sway-bar endlink nut with an allen key and wrench.

Step 5: Undo the sway-bar endlink nut, done.

Step 6: Undo the three nuts holding the strutmount to the strut tower.

Step 7: Support the brake rotor/knuckle and remove the strut assembly from the car.

Step 8: Close-up of the strut mount and spring seat.

Step 9: Compress the spring with spring compressors.

Step 10: Compress the spring with spring compressors, done.

Step 11: Remove the top strut nut; be careful!

Step 12: Remove the top strut nut; be careful!

Step 13: Remove the strut mount.

Step 14: Separate the strut parts: strut, bump stop, spring seat, spring, bellows, sprint seat.

Step 15: Reassemble the strut assembly with the new strut and strut mount. Reinstall the top strut nut.

Step 16: Make sure to use the correct strut since all 4 are different. Also make sure to orient the strut mount such that the arrow is pointing to the outside of the car.

Step 17: Complete strut assembly with the new strut and strut mount.

Step 18: Insert the strut back into the strut tower, and loosely thread on one of the three nuts to support the strut.

Step 19: Complete strut assembly with the new strut and strut mount.

Step 20: Line up the two strut-to-knuckle holes with a prybar or extension bar and insert the bolts.

Step 21: Thread the nuts onto the strut-to-knuckle bolts, but do not tighten them yet.

Step 22: Tighten the three strut mount nuts to the proper torque specification.

Step 23: Reinstall the sway bar end link to the strut and tighten the nut.

Step 24: Tighten the two strut-to-knuckle bolts to the proper torque specification.

Step 25: Tighten the strut top nut to the proper torque specification.

Section 2: Changing the rear struts

Step 26: Rear strut overview, support the brake drum.

Step 27: I don't remember the details here, but I believe you need to: 1) Fold the seats down, 2) Remove the interior panels on the c-pillars, 3) Tug forward on the rear package shelf to remove it.

Step 28: Remove the seat belt tensioner.

Step 29: Remove the bracket for the brake line.

Step 30: Spray PBlaster on the sway bar end link, and remove the nut.

Step 31: Spray PBlaster on the sway bar end link, and remove the nut, done.

Step 32: Undo the two strut-to-knuckle nuts.

Step 33: Undo the three nuts holding the strut mount to the body.

Step 34: Remove the strut from the car.

Step 35: Compress the string, and undo the top strut nut.

Step 36: Disassemble the strut.

Step 37: Reassemble the strut with the new strut and strut mount. Install the strut top nut.

Step 38: Reassemble the strut with the new strut and strut mount. Install the strut top nut, done.

Step 39: Like the front, hang the strut by one of the three mount nuts.

Step 40: Reinstall the two strut-to-knuckle bolts, sway-bar end link, and brake line. Use the correct torque specifications.

Step 41: Get an alignment!

The alignment is critical to the car's handling and tire wear. After reinstalling the struts, you will lose the previous alignment because there is play in the two strut-to-knuckle bolts. Get an alignment right away or your car may handle funny and wear out its tires quickly.

Using an Andoid Phone Without Cellular Service

I have an Android phone, but I don't have cellular service for it; instead, I use it like an ipod touch and use it only with Wifi. The problem is that most of the battery power was being used by the celluar radio, and the battery would last only a few days between charges.

After speaking with someone from the Android team, I learned that the phone still looks for and connects to cellular service, even without a sim card, because the phone supports emergency 911 dialing. It turns out that you can disable the cell radio (and lose 911 service) if you switch the phone into Airplane mode. The trick is that while in Airplane mode, you can turn on Wifi. This seems to be saving me a lot of battery power; the battery is full even after 15 hours off the charger.

Playing Videos on Android

Here's a quick and dirty way to get video playing on your Android phone from Linux.

These instructions are for Jeff Hamilton's free "Video Player" available on the Android Market.
I copied the mencoder command from here.

First encode the video in a format that the player can understand.

mencoder input.avi -o output.mp4 -vf dsize=480:352:2,scale=-8:-8,harddup -oac faac -faacopts mpeg=4:object=2:raw:br=128 -of lavf -lavfopts format=mp4 -ovc x264 -sws 9 -x264encopts nocabac:level_idc=30:bframes=0:bitrate=512:threads=auto:turbo=1:global_header:threads=auto:subq=5:frameref=6:partitions=all:trellis=1:chroma_me:me=umh

Plug your phone into the computer using the USB cable.

Mount the SD card by pulling down the top bar USB notification and pressing the "USB connected/Mount" button.

Mount the drive in Linux.

Copy the output.mp4 to the SD drive mounted in linux.

Unmount the drive in the phone by pulling down the top bar USB notification and pressing the "Turn of USB Storage" button.

Run the Video Player app on the phone.

Select your video, and enjoy.

Comparing Webcams

I've been looking for a webcam for Skyping and it turns out there is a wide range of webcams out there. This post outlines my experiences with a few different webcams. I hope it comes in handy for people choosing webcams so they don't have to buy a bunch of cameras. I tried a Philips SIC4750/27, a Logitech Webcam C500, and a Logitech Webcam Pro 9000.

To cut to the chase, here's a screenshot with the C500 on the left, and the Pro 9000 on the right. It's a bit overexposed, but smart software will adjust the exposure.



Here's a low-light screenshot with the C500 on the left, and the Pro 9000 on the right.



The Pro 9000 really is better, but it's up to you whether it is worth the extra cost (click to zoom).


To test the cameras I ran luvcview in Linux with out any options, so the cameras are outputting 640x480 without any fancy sharpening or anything.

The first camera I tried was an old Philips SIC4750/27 that I received from a friend. The Philips is a very old web cam (today it's 2009). It has very poor image quality, and poor low light capabilities. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to work with luvcview, so I don't have a screenshot to show.

The second camera I tried was a Logitech Webcam C500. It has a glass lens and a 1.3MP sensor and according to the box, it can capture video at 1280x1024. I believe it has a fixed focus lens. This camera costs $40-50. The image quality is decent, but the image is on the blurry side. I tested the cameras in a low light environment. It is night time, and there is a single torch lamp in the corner of the room. The image shows a fair amount of noise in this low light environment. I'm used to nice SLR cameras, so I might be more picky than other people.

The third camera I tried was the Logitech Webcam Pro 9000. This has an autofocusing "Zeis" lens, and a 2MP sensor. This camera costs about $80-100. The Pro 9000 is clearly sharper than the C400, and has less noise in the same low light conditions. However, it is not as good as a $100 digital still camera (that can probably take video).

I'm keeping the Pro 9000; it is a bit more expensive than the C500, but the image sharpness and noise level is much better.

State of the Economy?

A couple days ago, on my way to lab I passed a parked car that looked funny; its right side was high up in the air. When I got closer, I saw that it had no wheels left and its right side was being held up by a yellow floor jack. It looked like someone had stolen the wheels and abandoned the jack. The car was a fairly nice sports sedan; it may have had a set of fancy wheels...

Regardless, I remember seeing stuff like that during the 1980s. I also used to see many cars abandoned at the side of the highways and people parked at the side of the road with car trouble. A few years ago, I mentioned to my parents that I never see abandoned cars any more who responded "yeah, because everyone has money now". I had figured automobiles were getting more reliable, but it's true that there were fewer old cars on the road as well.

A few weeks ago, I made a road trip to NYC and I saw at least 3 cars stopped at the side of the road. I noticed it, but I didn't think much of it. Now, I wonder it is a sign of the times.

Tyvek Tire Boot

I have a set of cyclo-cross tires I use on my bike during the Boston winters, but last year I found a 9mm gash in the tread of one of them (all the way down to the tube). Luckily, it was at the end of the winter and these tires didn't have many nubs left, so I put the tires in the corner thinking I'd replace them the following winter. Well, when winter rolled around I threw them back on the bike but I booted the gash with two layers of Tyvek from a mail envelope.

After a month, I replaced the Tyvek with a fresh two-layer boot. One layer of the original boot had pretty much worn through. They don't sweep the roads during the winter, so there's a ton of sand and gravel on the road which worked it's way into the gash to abrade the Tyvek.

Today, after another month of commuting, I switched back to normal commuting tires without any flats due to the gash. I only ride about 5mi per day, but the tires lasted another two months; nice!

Kleenex, Napkins, and Paper Towels

I used to use a lot of Kleenex to blow my nose and then one day a few weeks ago, I figured I would stop using Kleenex. Instead, I decided to get some handkerchiefs to wipe my nose. I mentioned this to my wife, and she told me we had some in the closet somewhere, so she dug them out and now I use them instead of disposable tissues! I use one for a few days until I use up all the clean surface of the cloth and then I wash them. I like the handkerchiefs; they work well at containing the snot and wash with the rest of the laundry (I have 4 handkerchiefs, so they last between washings). In summary, I think they're great, and I think they'll cut down on my use of paper tissues. The next step is to use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins.

In a related note, I floss my teeth in the bathroom at work after lunch so I stand by the sink for a couple minutes each day. Recently, I've been observing the bathroom users. Thankfully, almost everyone washes their hands before they leave (but maybe it's just because I'm standing there), but I also noticed that most people who use paper towels use 3 paper towels to dry their hands! I am positive that one does not need 3 paper towels to dry his hands; one is sufficient, and I usually just wipe the clean water on my pants. They take 3 paper towels and most of the towel surface is dry when they throw it into the trash (Keynesian economics at its best). I wonder if the same people who take 3 paper towels would do the same if they had to buy the paper towels themselves. I suspect this is just another example of waste caused by hidden costs. If every bathroom user is wasting 2 paper towels each time they use the bathroom, imagine the pile of wasted towels at the end of the day!