Hey Scotty: I recently purchased a used 2017 Toyota Camry through a private party sale from Facebook Marketplace. The car had 147,000 miles. The oil had been maintained regularly and I have since changed the transmission fluid, which was pretty dark. Don’t think it had ever been changed. Other than that, the previous owner seemed to have taken very good care of it. Interior is near perfect. He did say he had hit a deer, but other than that no accidents. The Camry runs great and I see no problems at all but for some reason seems really loud after a cold crank for about 3-5 seconds. It doesn’t appear to do it after it’s been running for a while, and I mostly notice it in the mornings. All fluids are good, and I can’t seem to find a reason for this. Have you seen this with other Camrys, and is it something I should be concerned with?
Well many times the variable valve timing or the timing chain tensioner gets worn and makes that only upon cold startup. Sometimes it's because they're jammed up with crud so you might have the engine oil flushed with a good cleaner, then change the oil and filter and pray the noise goes away. Because if you want to fix it and that doesn't fix it. The engine has to be taken apart and that's a pretty expensive repair
@scottykilmer thanks for the speedy response. I’ll do the engine flush and change the oil/filter and go from there. The noise doesn’t bother me, I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t an issue. Thanks again, Scotty!