Toyota Repair: Tapping noise in engine, toyota camry solara, 1999 toyota camry solara

Question
Thanks for the info; I had it checked out at the Toyota dealership and it's going to be $750 to fix it (I'm having it done now) unfortunately; it was the springs that pushes the front/rear cams into place, the front one was $150 and the rear was $450, plus etc charges, gaskets, and tax.

I feel like I'm getting ripped off because I know nothing about this and have never been to the dealership before - is that a decent price? Does the problem sound a plausible cause of the noise I was hearing?

Now, the important question, I'm quite scared the car's not going to be reliable now. Is this an indication I'm going to have more problems with the engine in the future? What could have caused this problem? (dealership couldn't shed any light on it)

They said it was free of any significant sludge buildup and the cams looked ok, so it looked like the last owner took care of it. I'm just worried I should sell it while I'm ahead - coming from owning a Saab and Cadillac before this whose engines both died on me - so I'm scared of a repeat engine failure. But everyone's telling me this just happens sometimes and isn't a big deal (besides the cost) since everything else looks ok.

To me it seems like a car that would need any engine work to this extent is on a downward spiral of problems. What do you think? I love the car but need something reliable; I'm starting college this year and can't afford any more big fixes like this several times a year like with my Saab... that's why I bought a Toyota in the first place :).

Thanks for your advice. Hopefully this will be the last major problem on this car so I won't have to think about selling it so soon after buying it. Have a great week.

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Followup To
Question -
Hi again! I've got a 1999 Toyota Camry Solara V6 3.0L, stock engine, 72k miles, had it for ~8 weeks.

I've got a tapping noise coming from on top of the valve cover, only audible with the hood open, car runs fine, been there about 5 weeks. My mechanic listened to it quickly and mentioned a spring or something might be loose, or the valve lash clearance might need adjusted. Also heard it could be the timing belt tensioner (I'll hold off on the belt a year or two if I can, I average 7-8k a year on my cars).

My question: what do you think the causes of the noise could be, and how many hours of labor should I pay for the diagnosis/fix?

Oh, and also, I've only had the car for 8 weeks or so now - is this an indication of abuse or lack of maintenance from the previous owner? Should I get rid of it while I'm ahead? Engine problems on a Toyota scare me (aren't these Invincible?). Or is this type of thing just rotuine maintenance, and I just hear from the guys who supposedly go 300k miles on the stock parts and only pay for oil changes on their Toyota's :P?

Thanks so much for all your help! Have a great weekend.
Answer -
Toyotas are not invincible,just like any other car they need maintenance on a regular basis to make them last a long time, if the previous owner neglected the car there is a good indication that this noise could be a cause for concern, engine noises have a tendency to be expensive to repair, I'd recommend having the valve covers removed for inspection, if the noise is coming from the valve train it should be obvious what the problem may be.  

Answer
If the repair they did fixes the problem just let it go at that, even though I have never heard of this spring on the cam condition causing a problem unless someone has had the cams out and forgot to set the camshaft gear preload, I know this may sound too technical for you, it depends on if any previous repairs were made that required the removal of the camshafts, under normal circumstances there is no reason for the camshaft gears to lose the preload of the gears, this function is built into the camshaft to reduce cam gear noise, if the camshafts are removed and the pretension loading is lost because the service bolt is not installed the camshafts will make a lot of noise, something just doesn't sound right here, without a complete history of past repairs I'm just guessing as to what the problem may be, I have a feeling the dealer knows what the problem is but won't tell you what caused it, let me know if I can be of more help.