Hi everyone!
I decided to join this forum to help me in my attempt to fix up my 2001 Toyota Corolla. This car was given to me since I was 16 so I've had it for about 7 years now. I love this car to death and can't find myself to ever get rid of it. So now I'm on a mission to restore it as much as possible to a like new condition. Here's the current assessment: The engine is burning oil when I'm driving on the highway (so I guess it burns oil at speeds over 60). When it drives around the city, there is no oil consumption. I've had a compression test done at the dealership and all they told me was that the technician recommended an engine rebuild or replacement. I will probably put another post more specific to this engine problem soon. My car has new headlights and put lens sealer on it to prevent it from hazing. The car needs a new paint job. I've also noticed a big decrease in my car's MPG. Any ideas on how to tackle this problem?
Like I said I'm wanting to fix this car up. I'm looking into adding new exterior accessories, putting new carpet, getting new rims, redoing the window tint. If I get replies and i feel like I have received good feedback, I will continue to post more topics, and I hope you guys can help me in my mission. Thanks! Hope to hear from you guys soon.
If you really want to get a lot of good advise on here best thing to do is list everything you have done to your car. From when you installed new hoes lines, breaks, suspenion parts, engine parts, etc. Anything you can think of list it in a nice and neat list along with how much KM your car has on it. I'm sure you will get a lot of advice that way on which stuff to tackel first. A lot depends on your KM because once your suspension is getting close that is a decent amount of money.
To get you started that oil burning problem, from what I've seen it is a hit or miss. Some of them burn it like crazy or you burn next to nothing. All you can do is just always be watching the level. I haven't changed my oil in 5600km (Will be doing this weekend) and I haven't even dropped from the line I filled it up to. I could be wrong maybe someone knows how to solve this but that's just what I've seen.
Also I know it's nice to make you car look great from the outside but the mechanics are the most important part on your car. If you waste all of your money on the look it wont matter what it looks like in a year if she isn't working. Just my opinion.
Last edited by Kyle Hamelin; 04-13-2011 at 10:08 AM.
I agree completely. I know I just listed exterior, but I'm also looking into the mechanics of it. I figured also if I'm gonna check that I'd try to put parts to improve the performance as well. Nothing new has really been added to this car other than new headlamps and a new washer fluid reservoir. That's why I'm looking into it now. I just came back from an out-of-state school so I haven't really driven it much the past four years just only on visits. My next project is to do a transmission fluid drain and refill and do a coolant flush and refill. Along with that I was gonna get a new radiator, new radiator cap, and new hoses. The car has about 113,000 miles on it. The oil changes, wheel alignment, and tire rotations have been done on time as well as the spark plugs. If I can figure out how to put pictures up I'll take some of my car and post them.
Clayton: The oil burning actually depends on if I drive it on the highway or not. The thing is it only burns it or i guess consumes it when i drive highway speeds. When I drive it around the city, it's completely fine. there's no oil loss. There is no smoke coming out of the muffler either in case that would be a concern. So now I rarely ever go higher than 50 with the car because that's when it usually starts losing the oil. There are absolutely no leaks. The valve cover gasket was leaking a little but I replaced and had three other mechanics check for leaks and they could not find any. I've always been doing oil changes every 3,000 miles.
As far as the O2 sensors, are they easy to replace. I don't really have any mechanical experience, but I've been trying to read up on some of the stuff. I can do fluid changes, replace valve cover gasket, spark plug replacements...basically easy DIY stuff. I have the repair manual. Do you think someone like me can do the job on my own?
When you drive it around town only does it have time to get all the way up to operating temp for awhile? I say this because maybe you have condensation in your oil and when you take it out on the highway it boils off. Just a thought. Why do you want to replace the radiator and cap? I have a 97 gmc pickup with 246k miles and have never changed the radiator. You can have a flush done at most any shop, if the radiator has problems they can be fixed. At least the aluminum ones can I don't know about the Rolla's are they plastic?
I want to do it mainly for the experience of it. I think it's plastic but I would actually have to double check. It would be nice for my car to have new parts anyway. I live by the beach for now and a lot of parts have lots of rust so in case something gets contaminated i would prefer to replace parts if i can do it and afford it.
As far as the oil goes, yes the engine does get to operating temp and is there for a while.
As far as the O2 sensors, are they easy to replace. I don't really have any mechanical experience, but I've been trying to read up on some of the stuff. I can do fluid changes, replace valve cover gasket, spark plug replacements...basically easy DIY stuff. I have the repair manual. Do you think someone like me can do the job on my own?
If you have MPG issues, only the front sensor may affect that. It's not too hard to replace, but it's a bit tricky to access because it's between the engine and the firewall. I had to jack the car up, remove the plastic covers under the engine, and then use a deep socket to remove the two bolts holding it on. The hardest part was disconnecting the electrical connector.
If you do replace it, make sure to get the OEM Denso model, not an aftermarket one (Bosch, etc).
Replace O2 sensor or clean MAF sensor! Got it! I'll probably end up doing both for safe measure. It is a 10 year old car so doing both would only help I can imagine. I'll end up doing it sometime in the next week when I get my paycheck. Thank guys!
You don't need to replace the O2 sensors if they aren't malfunctioning -- they're not cheap for our cars (at least $100 each for quality replacements). I wouldn't change parts unless you know there's an issue or your ECM is throwing O2 codes or they're out of spec (measured in voltage).
As a note, corolla radiators are aluminum, not plastic. The radiator doesn't need to be replaced unless it's damaged, is severely clogged (unlikely if the coolant has been replaced periodically) or has a large leak. Otherwise small leaks can be easily fixed with coolant additives (or by repair shops). The cap only need to be replaced if it's leaking or it's not keeping pressure in the system.
I'm suggesting that you not replace parts that you don't have too simply because if a part is working, there's no need to waste money getting a new one. Exterior rust on some parts won't affect anything (e.g., the casing of the alternator or starter) except for looks. If that's what you're concerned about, by all means go ahead and replace them but take the time to put a high quality, high temp paint on them to keep them looking good.
Also, the other reason I'm recommending not changing out parts is because electronic parts on our cars are expensive. VERY expensive (unless you're getting used parts but then what's the point?). There's no need to change things out if they are functioning properly and within factory specs (can be found on Alldata or in the Haynes repair manual).
Other than that, the good news is that it's very easy to work on our cars. And, a lot of us have done a lot of work on our own cars -- I know I'm happy to share my experiences...
Well like I said since my car is ten years old and has over 112,000 miles, I'm going to go ahead and change the O2 sensor and clean the MAF. It would only benefit the car. I'll let you guys know in a week or 2 how that goes. Thanks!
I just bought a 2000 Corolla CE in January with 112k on it. Replaced the air filter, plugs and pcv; changed the oil and cleaned the MAF sensor. Not going to change the O2 sensors without some reason to, right now I get 34 or so per tank, almost 40 highway. I think it's a waste of a couple hundred bucks if there's no good reason to replace them.
I just bought a 2000 Corolla CE in January with 112k on it. Replaced the air filter, plugs and pcv; changed the oil and cleaned the MAF sensor. Not going to change the O2 sensors without some reason to, right now I get 34 or so per tank, almost 40 highway. I think it's a waste of a couple hundred bucks if there's no good reason to replace them.
Blue states that his fuel economy isn't so good. Bad mpg = a good reason to replace the sensors.
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Hi! Hope you guys can help.
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