Working on fuel pump, oil change, trans filter change etc. Some questions

[BigBadJohn]

I got my 2000 corolla VE about a year ago. I bought it with the difference of what I paid for my 2001 LE and what they assessed it at when it was totaled
Problem is 4k-5k miles after I bought it, it started burning oil badly. About a quart every 100 miles. I have been putting anywhere from 10w40 to 20w50 in it to decrease burning (only helps a little)
The trans fluid is starting to get a bit dark too
When I got it, the car was also giving bank one lean code or something. The local dealership said it needed a new fuel pump. I was getting shorted hours at work because of the economy so I only bought a new filter through them as you cant get one anywhere else. But I never installed it
The car since then has been really sluggish and no get up and go

It has just short of 170K now

Im doing a lot of work today
Turns out the fuel pump is really easy to get to so I pulled the unit out. I stuck my finger in the filter where the regulator goes and blew on the outgoing port and a bunch of dark brown blackish crap and gas came out
I figured it was just the filter that was clogged. Or I hope at least so I put it in and put the stuff back in the tank. If it doesnt get any better acceleration wise Ill consider changing the pump

Im also changing the oil today with a 10w30 weight maybe and Im going to put a whole bottle of Lucal heavy duty oil stabilizer in. Hopefully it decreases oil consumption a lot.

Havent changed the filter and fluid yet but I also got a Slick 50 trans additive to put in

The car has been making a loud exhaust sound near the header lately so I took off that one steel shroud and the joint where the header meets the exhaust pipe, theres a 1/8" gap or so on the opposite side of the engine and no gasket to be found. Like the header is too small for it or something


Also changed the headlights to silverstars. Original lights were 1/2 or 1/3 as bright as these and had a really yellow tint to them. Couldnt really see to well on long stretches of road

Im sure Im forgetting a lot of stuff

[fishexpo101]

For the lean code, assuming it said something like P0171 "System too lean, bank 1 sensor 1" or something similar along those lines.

Try cleaning the MAF sensor and IAT sensor (both on the same module) that are plugged into the top of the airbox. There is plenty of info floating around on the net on ways to clean them. Reset the ECM, drive normally and see if the code comes back - car acts "differently". If the MAF was dirty, the ECM could read it as the engine is drawing in less air than it actually is and consequently will actually run a leaner mix than usual - fuel trims have to be increased to maintain stable air-fuel ratios.

I'd also give the throttle body a good cleaning, if nothing else, tends to improve idle quality. Assumed that you've already looked at the air filter, made sure that the top airbox seats tightly with the bottom half with both the plastic tabs engaged in the rear and two spring clips up front.

Definitely would not run anything heavier than a 10W-30. Higher viscosity tend to resist burning off, but also can starve the valve-train and other tight tolerances inside the engine of enough oil flow/protection. Same goes with oil additives that increase viscosity significantly - can temporarily mask problems but will not fix them.

If you get a chance, run a compression test on the engine. Minimum pressure is 145PSI, to a max of 218PSI. Should be no more than 15PSI difference between cylinders. If the numbers are too low - squirt a little oil into the sparkplug holes and repeat the test. If compression improves, the rings are "stuck", heavily worn, or cylinders are scuffed too much, if compression stays about the same - valve seals could be bad.

A quart every 100 miles is very excessive consumption. Most like cause is stuck rings followed by bad valve seals. Some have reported decent results with Valvoline MAX High Mileage motor oils (synthetic blend). Others swear by Seafoam and AutoRX additives to help in these cases.

[BigBadJohn]

Okay. So after changing the oil and adding lucas stabilizer, changing the trans filter and fluid and adding slick 50, changing the plugs, cleaning the maf and changing the air filter, the car actually runs worse
Car will idle rough after being started for a little bit. Then after starting, car will sputter and creep at about 2 mph for anywhere from 10-30 seconds and then will take off. After car is running, it drives nice and normal, and after its taken off after starting, there will only be a second of hesitation when trying to take off at a standstill and then will accelerate like normal

After the car is going at more than a creep when first starting, it will continue to work normally until it is turned off and restarted. If you restart it even in less than a few seconds of turning it off, it will begin all over again and youll have to wait for it to stop creeping
Sometimes if you get stopped at a red light too long the car will creep again for a little bit


EDIT: I also replaced the steel/paper gasket after the header. There was none of the old one to be found. So now I dont have a huge exhaust leak under the hood if that has anything to do with it

[fishexpo101]

The replacement exhaust gasket should have made things even better - as that is pretty common issue on the 8th gen Corolla. Many times, that gasket will be completely disintegrated.

Did you reset the ECM? Quick way to do that is to is via a scan tool, if one isn't handy, you can disconnect the negative battery terminal for several seconds to a minute - might help to flick on the head lamps or stomp on the brake pedal to make sure that power has completely been drained away. That way, the ECM will have to "relearn" fuel trims and take advantage of the work you've done. Otherwise, the ECM will use the old learned setting, which may be completely unsuitable for the engine now.

Also be a good idea to pull the plugs and read them. See how they look now after a short run - this will give you an indication of a possible fuel or spark issue. Note any differences between the plugs and what cylinder they came out of - are they wet, have heavy deposits, look glazed or too shiny, etc.

[BigBadJohn]

I checked the codes. There were 2. One was for 171 as usual bank 1 running lean, and the other was 304 4 cylinder misfire
I havent checked or cleared it in 8 months because I gave up on it so dont know when these codes came on but Im guessing the 171 code came on 8 months ago.
4 cylinder misfire might be due to the fact the engine was burning so much oil the plugs were covered in carbon and some hard white caked on crap pretty bad when I changed them

I got check engine light again after about 10 minytes of driving. Havent checked it again

[BigBadJohn]

Well. The car is complete junk now. Just got dropped off by the AAA guy. Transmission went completely out on the interstate on the way to work.
Really bad grinding sound. Pull over, put it back in drive and no go
I seen something that looked like cylindrical rods from some sort of bearing pack or something on the crossmember and the transmission is leaking fluid. Probably guts are ripped open
Ill lift her up and inspect the damage but it doesnt look good. Probably just pull the engine and all the sensors, radio, cluster, fuel pump assembly, and some other stuff, fill the car up with whatever scrap steel I have laying around and bring it to the crap yard down the road

[BigBadJohn]

Heres the damage
Hole about the size of a quarter out the back'

[fishexpo101]

Wow - that's some damage there. Sounds like a needle bearing exploded in there, then got ground up and chewed up - until it punched out through the case. Definitely something punched from the inside out - also seems to indicate you were potentially dealing with a multi-tiered problem, as some of the driveability issues could have been transaxle related.