300,000-Mile Toyota Camry Engine Teardown Shows What Legendary Reliability Looks Like

Toyota’s legendary reliability was built upon decades of tight quality assurance and happy customers. This doesn’t mean that Toyota vehicles are not prone to malfunctions, and there are countless recalls in the U.S. alone to prove that. In some cases, engines failed and warranties were denied, showing that even a quality freak like Toyota can disappoint its customers sometimes. Nevertheless, in most cases, Toyota’s reputation wasn’t built out of thin air, and this includes the car in this story.

The owner of a 2009 Toyota Camry fitted with the 2.4-liter 2AZ-FE four-cylinder engine has decided to see if it is still worth repairing, despite the 300,000-mile (483,000-km) mileage. If you’re wondering why someone would attempt that, well, the Camry still runs beautifully, and the owner is still in love with it, not least because it has a manual transmission. Since a manual Camry is not on Toyota’s menu anymore, we think this is a good enough reason to try and keep it.

The engine was burning oil, which is usually a sure sign it’s suffering from wear. In the case of this particular engine type, the oil-burning habits were caused by a piston ring issue, which Toyota later fixed in a recall. Nevertheless, the Camry engine here was not repaired because, at the time of the recall, it wasn’t burning oil bad enough to qualify. You’d expect that 300,000 miles to put a mark on this engine, but the truth is, it looks way better than expected at this mileage.

The teardown reveals no major leaks, although the owner confesses the engine burns a quart of oil every 150 miles (roughly one liter every 250 km). The engine has worn cylinder bores, most probably caused by the poor-quality piston rings fitted from the factory. Besides that, it shows almost no sign of wear despite the high mileage. This engine would’ve probably gotten to a million miles without major issues if it weren’t for the cylinder wear problem.

This finding is reassuring and makes the repair well worth the trouble. The engine is in for a short block replacement, which usually means that only the engine block, pistons, rods, and crankshaft are replaced. All other components are good enough to keep, a feat that proves Toyota’s reliability reputation is well earned, despite the piston ring fiasco. But then again, no car is perfect, thanks to the current standardization in the auto industry. With proper care and regular maintenance, you can get serious miles even in the most adverse conditions, as shown in the video below.