With all economy cars being like gold these days, some reasons everyone, why should we keep them? Thanks to Toyota Nation we all know toyota's dirty little secret ! THE 98-02 COROLLA ! Due to the piston design flaw ! What about this, thousands of these little smokestacks start showing up at toyota dealers nation wide! Or does the unsuspecting public (ALL OF US WHO HAVE BOUGHT THESE CARS!) JUST KEEP GETING SCREWED! yes i am pissed how could you tell?
It's good to know what you're in for when you get one of these. It'd sure be nice if they didn't have this issue. But let me tell you.....
Cost to fix oil consumption problem: about $250 and a weekend.
Cost to fix transmission problem in my wifes 2003 Pilot: $2,600 with me doing the removal & install of the transmission. (it's currently on it's 3rd @173K miles)
If it's at all possible to even compair these 2 cars I'll take the Prizm.
Sorry to hear about your troubles Silverone. If you can make it through the oil consumption they are like gold with high gas prices. It's puts a smile on my face everytime I get 360+ miles on less than 12 gallons (on a bad day).
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'98 Prizm 4spd 272K bought @ 221K for $300 Oil consumption fixed @ 265K for $247
It's good to know what you're in for when you get one of these. It'd sure be nice if they didn't have this issue. But let me tell you.....
Cost to fix oil consumption problem: about $250 and a weekend.
Cost to fix transmission problem in my wifes 2003 Pilot: $2,600 with me doing the removal & install of the transmission. (it's currently on it's 3rd @173K miles)
If it's at all possible to even compair these 2 cars I'll take the Prizm.
Sorry to hear about your troubles Silverone. If you can make it through the oil consumption they are like gold with high gas prices. It's puts a smile on my face everytime I get 360+ miles on less than 12 gallons (on a bad day).
Bennie , thanks for the link, but Ive already read it twice. $250 bucks that's being a little optimistic don't you think ? even if I had all tools , which I don't. And have the ability to do this myself or have to pay some one to do it. Ive calmed down a little today I just have to decide weather to sell it or not. I really cant afford to take the hit rite now.
Bennie , thanks for the link, but Ive already read it twice. $250 bucks that's being a little optimistic don't you think ? even if I had all tools , which I don't. And have the ability to do this myself or have to pay some one to do it. Ive calmed down a little today I just have to decide weather to sell it or not. I really cant afford to take the hit rite now.
To be honest I think the optimistic part is that the "average" DIYer would feel comfortable doing this repair. I did the write up to hopefully take some of the guess work out and help make people feel comfortable with the repair but it's still a pretty big job. I've done it 4 times and learned a few tricks and figured out which tools work best.
As far as cost, I've got my cost stated in the write up. $245.78 (with a few ballpark numbers). That really was it. And that was for the good FelPro gaskets and new head bolts. If you wanted to cut corners I bet you could knock $100+ off the cost. Not worth it in my opinion but to each their own.
That of course does not inclued tools, and most likely you will have to purchase a couple tools.
I've been there, it's very frustrating having an otherwise great car that burns a qt. every 100 miles (the lowpoint for my '99, and I was commuting 130 miles a day), but fixed right once, you soon forget the frustration and love your Corolla again.
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'98 Prizm 4spd 272K bought @ 221K for $300 Oil consumption fixed @ 265K for $247
Bennies way is the "right way". I also gave the hit or miss "other way"...sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Run Mobil 1 high mileage 5w30 for a total of 5k OCI. 4k gets the hardened carbon loose. Last 1k do a 1/2 qt Kreen piston soak overnight, 1/2 qt Kreen in the oil for 1,000 miles. Change, repeat process again. Then change to your favorite synthetic oil or stay with M1 HM which is also full synthetic.. Use synthetic oil on these engines, seems to deter the problem. Again, Bennies way is guaranteed to work, my way is 50/50 but its cheap, no tear down.
All that being said, what exact problem related to this are you experiencing?
[QUOTE=leaky seals;3764715]Bernies way is the "right way". I also gave the hit or miss "other way"...sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Run Mobil 1 high mileage 5w30 for a total of 5k OCI. 4k gets the hardened carbon loose. Last 1k do a 1/2 qt Kreen piston soak overnight, 1/2 qt Kreen in the oil for 1,000 miles. Change, repeat process again. Then change to your favorite synthetic oil or stay with M1 HM which is also full synthetic.. Use synthetic oil on these engines, seems to deter the problem. Again, Bennys way is guaranteed to work, my way is 50/50 but its cheap, no tear down.
All that being said, what exact problem related to this are you experiencing?[/QUOTE
leakyseals right now its hard to tell, see i just recently bought this 2000 le with 105k knowing it needed some work .so I really haven't put enough miles on it to know how the oil consumption is yet. I bought it because of the low miles and its a auto with o/d. I'm kicking myself because didn't really check it out like I should have. Thought I was getting a good deal but it seems now that I over payed . But until joining TN I didn't know what to look for. The engine seems to run fine now, sence fixing the misfire issue. Two things Ive notest are a LOT of blowby and some varnishing. Do you know if blowby is normal on an over head cam motor?
leakyseals right now its hard to tell, see i just recently bought this 2000 le with 105k knowing it needed some work .so I really haven't put enough miles on it to know how the oil consumption is yet. I bought it because of the low miles and its a auto with o/d. I'm kicking myself because didn't really check it out like I should have. Thought I was getting a good deal but it seems now that I over payed . But until joining TN I didn't know what to look for. The engine seems to run fine now, fence fixing the misfire issue. Two things Ive notest are a LOT of blowby and some varnishing. Do you know if blowby is normal on an over head cam motor?
The older a car gets, the more flaws and fixes are found. Totally normal. true with honda's, nissan's ford's anything. Its a tough little car, you made a good choice. Until you know what the oil consumption is, you can't know how much blow-by, dont worry about it. Change your PCV valve at least, that will help. Some varnish through the filler cap is normal, but NOT on the stick - a sign of conventional oil that wasn't changed on time. Goes away doing above method.
The older a car gets, the more flaws and fixes are found. Totally normal. true with honda's, nissan's ford's anything. Its a tough little car, you made a good choice. Until you know what the oil consumption is, you can't know how much blow-by, don't worry about it. Change your PCV valve at least, that will help. Some varnish through the filler cap is normal, but NOT on the stick - a sign of conventional oil that wasn't changed on time. Goes away doing above method.
Nothing on the stick yet, as far as mobile1 and kreen, kreen's pretty aggressive isn't it ? Ive seen people use ceaners over the years on older sludged up motors and end up with a knock or low oil pressure. What about M.M.O. & mobile 1 ?
The potentially dangerous ones your thinking of are engine flushes. Any additive used wrong can cause problems. Kreen is not that aggressive, why you can leave it in for up to 1k miles. Very effective. Kreen targets carbon and its byproducts. Emulsifies, adds suspension. Plays well with oil. MMO is less effective. Primarily Pale Oil with some Naphtha makes it a very mild solvent. Would not add MMO to Mobil 1 High Mileage oil or any synthetic oil. Mainly because M1 HM and synthetic oils are better than MMO for cleaning, so why put it in... MMO can be used in conventional oil, but again, not nearly as effective as Kreen. If your intent is run cheap dino, MMO is better than nothing, but you run a higher risk of the blocked oil return piston holes. Pennzoil Yellow Bottle SN is the best dino IMO, would not use MMO in that either.
The potentially dangerous ones your thinking of are engine flushes. Any additive used wrong can cause problems. Kreen is not that aggressive, why you can leave it in for up to 1k miles. Very effective. Kreen targets carbon and its byproducts. Emulsifies, adds suspension. Plays well with oil. MMO is less effective. Primarily Pale Oil with some Naphtha makes it a very mild solvent. Would not add MMO to Mobil 1 High Mileage oil or any synthetic oil. Mainly because M1 HM and synthetic oils are better than MMO for cleaning, so why put it in... MMO can be used in conventional oil, but again, not nearly as effective as Kreen. If your intent is run cheap dino, MMO is better than nothing, but you run a higher risk of the blocked oil return piston holes. Pennzoil Yellow Bottle SN is the best dino IMO, would not use MMO in that either.
So is this something u do every 20-30000 mi. as a preventive measure ? M1 HM + kreen and then M1 the rest of the time. btw PO just changed the oil does kreen work in dino oil ?
Hold off on additives until you find an issue that requires the use of said additives. Too many times, I see a new owner read up on some horror stories, adds a truck load of additives / quick fixes and then ends up with a huge mess on their hands. Basically making a non-problem into a real problem. No one likes to learn that their newly purchased car has a predisposition to have X problem. But I'd also add that not all 1ZZ-FE consume oil. If anything, to me - its seem that some consume oil, while others have EVAP problems, but generally not both.
In any case, you'll have to baseline your car, see what is or is not going on. Without any insight on maintenance history or if the car has any issues yet, the first thing I'd do is a comprehensive tune up - start with a blank slate.
- fluid and filter changes, make sure levels are spot on
- try to use OEM parts for little stuff like gaskets and certain consumables (oil and air filters - aftermarket is probably fine, something like a PCV valve, get an OEM one, save you headaches down the road).
- used oil analysis to baseline your progress, see what fluids the car likes/doesn't like
As leakyseals alluded to - best to stick with a good quality motor oils, no real need to add anything, atleast initially. In fact, many additives work against the additive package in motor oil. Sort of like those multi-symptom cold remedies - too many active ingredients can hamper the base job of the oil which is to lubricate, cool, and protect.
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