My toyota 94 Camry XLE V6 with 92,000 miles was running fine until now. Recently I had some coolant leaking, kind of pouring and as a result I got its Timing Belt and Water pump replaced (unfortunately, 2nd time in last 2 yrs) since mechanic mentioned that some anti-freeze seal went bad and caused corrosion and rust in the timing belt housing area and the water pump... voila, I got these replaced again and fixed the leeking prob. BUT... now when I start the engine, it makes some strange kind of .. grrrr.. noise and that gets intensive whenever I accelerate... the horse power is losing as well.. appears as if I am dragging the car. The mechanic points out that its the front pipes in the exhaust system that possibly has some hole and causing this and it has nothing to do with the timing belt or the water pump...
Can someone please HELP guessing what' went bad??? Can the car be driven safely without causing any further damage to engine or other... and just turning deaf to the noise... Please suggest.

Was the power bad before or only after. Maybe he set the valve timing wrong when doing the belt. The noise may be break-in noise. If it lasts more than a couple of trips then maybe it is related a change it valve timing. Different sound with different advance or retard on timing. One way to check may be to check the ignition timing. If he did set it wrong and did not adjust the distributer maybe it will show up there. Although since it is a 6 cylinder one bank could be wrong and would not show up in timing mark.
I think you would have noticed whatever this noise was before. Without hearing it I can't say what it is, but I don't think you would see a significant loss of power from an exaust leak.
If you do not have the tools to check the timing with a light or to pull off the timing cover to check those timing marks you may need to have a mechanic evaluate the power loss, letting them know the work that was just performed.
New noises, if you don't know what they are, especially if loud, should not be ignored.

Yes, have someone check the cam and ignition timing, and timing belt preload.

Hey Thanks for all your responses. I'll have my mechanic look into this asap. I'll shoot back and update.

..... and forgot to mention, before I checked in the car with the mechanic for the coolant leak problem, I wasn't aware of any other problem other than this... I mean, no power probs and absolutely no surround sounds!!!

I really wish that this person had come back and report on what had fixed the problem. Perhaps I will send her a message.

My car is doing essentially the same thing. As soon as you start it up, it sounds pretty loud. When idling, the noise is the same. When accelerating, it's AWFUL. The sound goes away for the most part when I lightly press to accelerate or take my foot lightly off of the gas and just barely have it on. It also get better as I decelerate under 30 MPH.

I took it to a garage a month or two ago on an unrelated brake issue and got it checked at a couple places. One mentioned that the timing belt may need to be replaced within the next year and another garage said I have some exhaust leaks (or perhaps AN exhaust leak) that would cost about $200 to fix. It's interesting that the poster mentioned both an exhaust problem and a timing belt problem here.

BTW, I'm driving a 91 Camry at 161000 miles that had a tuneup a few months ago.

I would bet you have an exhaust leak. Put a glove on and with the engine running put your hand over the tailpipe. This will force more exhaust out the potential hole in the exhaust, making it easier to track down. Might want to get a buddy to help.

I would bet you have an exhaust leak. Put a glove on and with the engine running put your hand over the tailpipe. This will force more exhaust out the potential hole in the exhaust, making it easier to track down. Might want to get a buddy to help. Thanks for the tip. I'm terrible with cars so I can't picture what you mean by forcing exhaust out the potential hole. I can picture feeling around for a hole and then needing to repair it. I have never repaired my exhaust so I googled 'repair exhaust' and read something about using flexpipe and a clamp. I guess it depends where the hole is or if that's even the problem.

The mechanic that said I had a leaky exhaust estimated it to be a $200 job so it may be worse than a hole. I didn't get anymore info from him at the time because I thought that he was pulling my leg.

What RIP is saying is that if you cover the tailpipe, the usual place for the exhaust to normally exit the system, the exhaust has to go somewhere else. It will go out the hole and you should be able to hear/feel it leave the vehicle, thus locating the hole in the system. Use a rag to cover the tailpipe. If the hole is in front of the muffler, you will certainly be able to hear where it is. If there is no other hole the car will stumble and then die. Don't worry; it will start right back up.

Mike

What RIP is saying is that if you cover the tailpipe, the usual place for the exhaust to normally exit the system, the exhaust has to go somewhere else. It will go out the hole and you should be able to hear/feel it leave the vehicle, thus locating the hole in the system. Use a rag to cover the tailpipe. If the hole is in front of the muffler, you will certainly be able to hear where it is. If there is no other hole the car will stumble and then die. Don't worry; it will start right back up.

Mike

Excellent. Thanks for the help and I will check this out today.

I bet your flex pipe has a hole in it. When standing next to the car, is the sound coming from the front of the car, middle, or rear? Is it a raspy sound?

I bet your flex pipe has a hole in it. When standing next to the car, is the sound coming from the front of the car, middle, or rear? Is it a raspy sound?
Hah, not sure what you mean by raspy but I suppose yes and it's loud and deep. The whole car is loud but seems to be loudest toward the right middle where there is a pipe going toward the front of the car. It's a 91 and the bottom of the car is full of rust so I worry it may be expensive to fix. My ma is really worried about it now so I think she'll fork over the money. She's worried I'll get killed trying to fix it.

Edit: wow, took me forever to find it but I dug up the Meineke slip from my brake repair. at the bottom reads:

"Needs flex pipe and middle section: $200"

:boink: