Last couple of months or so, my vehicle would intermittently stop accelerating, especially when climbing hills. A couple of days ago, the vehicle is completely unresponsive when pressing down on the gas. The vehicle revs, but won’t go forward. It will only go in reverse. Everything else is working in the vehicle.
I went ahead and put about a half quart of transmission fluid. Still nothing.
Other information: the vehicle has been leaking engine oil and transmission fluid for the last several months.
I am an amateur with cars. Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.
Short of actually having a mechanic actually look at and touch the car, there is no way for you to know if this is a $100 or a $3000 fix. It may be totally unrelated to the transmission. Another post, maybe even one of yours, had a similar complaint. The suggestion was to check the throttle pedal assembly sensor. Far, far cheaper to replace than a transmission.
Is the check engine light on? Is is flashing? Have you had the trouble codes read at your local auto parts store? (if flashing DON"T drive it!) What are the codes?
Fix or scrap needs a whole lot more info that you provided, too. Is the car in otherwise good shape? Have you checked the used car value of a 195K mile Camry? Have you called a junkyard and asked what they would give you for it? Having all 3 of these numbers will help you decide. A car worth $200 in scrap that would sell for $1200 means you’ll need to pay a mechanic to estimate repair at $1000 or less. Simple math IF you have all the numbers.
Instead of getting $140 offered to me by a junkyard, it looks like I’ll get $375 today. Thinking I left some money on the table as I got 6 responses on Craiglist and the second person to view is buying.
It never hurts to call numerous salvage yards for prices on old cars. They tend to not want to give out too much money for a scrap vehicle, but some will give more than others. Also, it doesn’t hurt to advertise on Craigslist that you are looking for someone with a truck and trailer to haul an old junk car for you to the salvage yard. I luckily have found an individual who has done that for me in the past. He does not ask for much money to haul it compared to the junkyard vehicle who will deduct much more money from the overall dollar amount that the car is worth. And it is a good idea to put up an old vehicle for sale on Craigslist. With a common model such as a Camry, you be surprised how many people search Craigslist daily hoping to find someone selling an old car similar to the one they own. In most cases, they will pay you more for it than a salvage yard will give you for junking it.
