I Need Your help on a 2003 Corolla LE- unbelievable story

[Smittay]

I Need Your help on a 2003 Corolla LE- unbelievable story

hey everybody, im new here, i could use your help immensely....

i brought my car to IRA Toyota in Danvers, MA to have a paint job done and they TOTALLED my beautiful, leased 2002 Corolla CE, which was in immaculate condition... always serviced, broken in perfectly and ready to buy at the end of the lease...an IRA employee was driving it back from the paint shop when he hit a lady who was backing out of a parking space. once IRA found out it was not their employee's fault who was doing 25mph in the parking lot... they said, well have fun paying toyota financial $6900 for your car and 5 more months of $210 a month...

we fought for months and months and finally they agreed to upgrade us to a 2003 Corolla CE with power locks and windows for our same buy out price, which was inconvenient because we didnt have the $6900 saved yet.

anyways, they tried to screw us left and right... they told us they did a great paint job on the 02 and after 3 times visiting them we had an indepedent paint inspector tell them it was their fault, they made my wife and i feel like crap. the collision center manager insulted us. and then when they found out it wasn't their employee's fault, they left us to fend with the other lady's insurance and try to fight for the value of our car... unbelievable!!

since then they have tried to screw us 10 ways to Sunday. We met with the president of IRA and he assured us they would get us a 2003 upgrade. His middlemen dragged me out of work to see 2003 cars and never showed up multiple times, we caught them in lies, and the time they did show up, they tried to convince me a 2001 Corolla was a 2003, am i stupid?

The president's 2nd in command was supposed to call us everytime an 03 entered their lot for us to look at... he would always call everyday and tell us there were no 03's. then we found their website www.iracars.com and found a MULTITUDE of 03's on their lot!! we went down one night to secure an 03 with a clean CARFAX report and 22,200 miles on it and they told us it was sold, which was another lie. they just didn't want to give us a $14,900 car for $6900. we threatened a lawsuit unless they gave us that car, because we didnt know what they would try to stick us with next. we were at their mercy kind of... it has been the most horrible purchase history of anything in my life, IRA Toyota of Danvers, MA.

then we went through the USED, oh sorry, PRE-OWNED center and they gave us even MORE runarounds.... they wouldn't get the dings and dents and key marks out, they would tell us they did and then never do it....a whole mess of things with the windows, everything over and over and over.... so many wasted visits down to the pre-owned center and my time,

so we finally got our car last week. i took it to a very reputable mechanic before we bought it, and gave it a clean bill of health, then i test drove it and it seemed pretty good, i had been in an 06 Corolla rental for 4 months and i thought with the test drive and the mechanic's clean bill of health id be all set.

so we get our car. i saw the guy's name who leased the car for 3 years name on the title, i called him and he said he took it in every 4000-5000 miles for oil and regular maintenence and everything and that he treated it like a baby. i called the place where he had it serviced Toyota in Lynn, MA. they verified he did all the keep up. so i felt good.

well now that ive had the car for a week i've noticed some problems... even after all this and with the clean bill of health and everything.

whenever it shifts gears, (its an automatic) it is VERY LOUD from 0-10-35mph... is it a gear problem? what could this be? i dont know much about cars and trusted my mechanic....the guy who leased the car before me for 3 years was a city (stop and go driver) who lived in Lynn and worked in Lynn. my 2002 corolla was never as loud as this 03and neither was the 06 Corolla rental that i drove for 4 months.... im so upset!

i did get a 1 year gold plus bumper to bumper guarantee from IRA Toyota with no deductable for all of our troubles that we went through... i don't know much about cars, thats why i came here for your help.

but im afraid the loudness problem is just the way the guy broke the car in, as a city driver, and there's nothing that can be done about it... that it is a permanent engine problem......or could it possibly be something that Toyota could fix with my 1 year bumper to bumper warranty? i feel like im stuck with a bad car now.....

what should i do? should i take it to another mechanic? does it sound like something that could be fixed or just a bad engine that im stuck with? again, i dodnt know much about cars. its just very loud and warbally when i accelerate, sounds dry, almost like the guy never had the oil changed, but i verified all that with the dealer he went to and from him... is this just what an 03 sounds like? i dont think so, because my 02 was never this loud.

im in post traumatic trauma from dealing with IRA Toyota since october 05-july06 and don't feel like dealing with them ever again, but can any of you think of what this might be?? a transmission problem??....is there something to quiet it down? i feel like when i do 20mph here in gloucester it sounds like a really bad used car or a dump truck...

people say, well thats what you get when you buy a used car!!! but i feel cheated because i never did anything but treat my 02 corolla immaculate and it was in perfect condition and IRA Toyota totaled it.

i need a mechanic's or Corolla knowledgable person's help. im so distraught over this... between this and how hard my job has been recently, i feel so stressed out. any help would be graciously appreciated...

again it just sounds loud and dry when i accelerate, especially between 0-35 mph. i just want it to be quieted down and not so loud. is the engine permanently damaged from this guy being a city driver or is there something that can be done??

i have a 1 year bumper to bumper warranty on everything... what should i ask them to fix? who should i take it to? do any of you have any idea as to this is? are there any tests i could do to see if it were something?? again, i don't know anything about cars.

thanks so much for your help, sorry if it was long, its been 8 months in the making with IRA Toyota of Danvers and i think i found the place where i could find the most knowledge in this Corolla Forum.

thanks again,
erik smith

erik.smith@mac.com

[daniel2002p]

first, I am sorry for that experience, I would have hated to be in your shoes, I am glad that things are slightly back to normal.... ok by loud do you mean it sounds like metal to metal grinding or what kind of sound... make sure you have plenty of tranny fluid and that it is clean, depending on how dirty it is....

D

[fphillips]

There has been a lot of talk about noisy serpentine belt tensioner problems. I have only had my 98 Corolla for a few weeks and I am quite sure that I have noise coming from the pulley on the tensioner. Havn't taken the time to look into it yet. Since you have the warantee you might want to see what they say. Warantees are only as good as the people that give them so good luck!

[Bingo]

Have every thing checked but it might just you being a bit paranoid after such a bad experience. Rightfully so. Good luck, George

[Smittay]

Originally Posted by daniel2002p

first, I am sorry for that experience, I would have hated to be in your shoes, I am glad that things are slightly back to normal.... ok by loud do you mean it sounds like metal to metal grinding or what kind of sound... make sure you have plenty of tranny fluid and that it is clean, depending on how dirty it is....

D

thanks guys for all your help, its good to know other people are out theyre that know about these things..


as for the noise.... i know its only a 4 cylinder so its louder than say a Camry... but my 2002 Corolla and the 2006 Corolla rental didn't sound like this... at least they were homogenous during their gear shifting, this 2003 i now own isn't.


this 2003 Corolla i got sounds almost like somebody is gargling with mouthwash... during gear changes ***especially when it changes from the end of 1st gear into 2nd gear and all the way to 3rd gear then it stops gargling. it really sounds crappy end of 1st gear->2nd gear->beginning of 3rd gear.


this is what makes me think its something i cant fix because it happens in 1st and 2nd gear, probably just how the guy drove it, being a city driver accelerating fast in low gears..., can you break an engine in wrong? there's only 22,000 miles on it, is it something i could correct by driving it properly?


its just really bumming me out after this whole experience to get stuck with a car doing this...

any ideas? and thanks for your posts back

[Smittay]

any thoughts as to what the gargaling sound may be??

im going to get it looked at Tuesday.

i just want to know the right thing to say

thanks
smitt

[blb]

A part of the exhaust system such as a heat shield may be vibrating. I'd check the exhaust system first to see if a pipe is vibrating against a part of the suspension or a loose heat shield that is vibrating under acceleration.

[PhantomS]

Originally Posted by blb

A part of the exhaust system such as a heat shield may be vibrating. I'd check the exhaust system first to see if a pipe is vibrating against a part of the suspension or a loose heat shield that is vibrating under acceleration.

Yup, I'd agree that a loose heat shield will sound like that. Good place to start lookin' for a fix (cheap and easy )

[daniel2002p]

Actually now that the heat shield was mentioned, my coworker has a 03 corolla S and his heatshield around the exhaust makes that noise when he is accelerating, as stated before may wanna check that.

D

[Smittay]

Originally Posted by daniel2002p

Actually now that the heat shield was mentioned, my coworker has a 03 corolla S and his heatshield around the exhaust makes that noise when he is accelerating, as stated before may wanna check that.

D

cool

it sounds like its coming from the engine though

it also idles around 1 1/2, is that normal??

[daniel2002p]

Originally Posted by Smittay

cool

it sounds like its coming from the engine though

it also idles around 1 1/2, is that normal??

It idles at 1500RMP? That is waaaaay too much idle for that car, I have a 05 S and when in park it idles at 800RPM and when in gear around 500-600RPM..... I am not mechanic here but I think idle should be no more that 1000RPM tops and for a properly maintaned and working engine that should be all it needs, I would def have a dealer look at that, 'cause if what you are describing is what I think it is it may be a problem with fuel delivery, like bad injectors or dirty filter or something like that is my guess....


D

[mrdennmann]

Mine has 220,000 miles, and it has a damaged heat sheild on the exhaust manafold. It buzzes, gurgles and rattles. But it's not really speed related, it's related to the RPMs. I would have the transmission fluid checked, if it gets low, you could hear "liquid" noises in the transmission.

[Raddman]

Originally Posted by blb

A part of the exhaust system such as a heat shield may be vibrating. I'd check the exhaust system first to see if a pipe is vibrating against a part of the suspension or a loose heat shield that is vibrating under acceleration.

I agree..I have an 03S and it "gargles" but more like a rattle on cold takeoff but not throughout its gears like you say yours does, it never got worse so I just left it alone! But it cold be a heat shield rattle of something loose!...good luck
~Radd