I am new to this forum and have joined it out of extreme frustration with Toyota service. I would appreciate any ideas to take care of the problem.
My 2001 Corolla started pinging upon acceleration when it had 20K miles on it. It pings when accelerated even under no heavy load condition i.e. going downhill. I took it to the local Toyota dealer who sent me back every time with the advice to change the fuel grade or change station. I have been using 93 Octane for a long time and have used different stations. They performed a top engine decarb upon my last visit. Now the car has 37K miles and pings like an old car with valve problem. I filed the complaint with Toyota and they forced me to go for arbitration. I told them that I just wanted the problem resolved but they wanted me to go for arbitration. That whole process was a joke and the outcome was obvious i.e. denied. The so called arbitrator was so friendly with Toyota service director that they were talking about vacation. The independent arbitrator even knew that the service director got married recently. First the Toyota tech blamed me and asked for service records. Upon finding no problem with service records, he said that this is not pinging but detonation which according to him was normal for this engine. When I insisted that it was not, he started blaming the previous owner of this car.
Anyway the situation now is that the car pings. Toyota used arbitration as an excuse and I can’t think of anything to do now. I have used all the fuel tank additives including Redline but none works.
Please let me know if I can try anything from repair to setting the car on fire. The car has a DIS so timing cannot be changed.
maybe your car needs to have its valve clearance adjusted.....because the noise may be caused by a loud valve lifter ........or an part that is inside the engine that passes emissions to the tail pipe......I could of sworn i was at a toyota dealership and someone had the same problem.....and that is what they did to correct the problem.......
Well it shouldnt be because of the fuel. You should be able to use the same fuel as everyone else as long as the compression ratio in the cylinder hasnt been raised, which wouldnt happen unless your a racer looking for higher performance. Ghost's answer seems like that might be the problem.
I just googled "Corolla pinging" (after a futile search @Toyota.com- what a pathetic site) and this was my first hit! (All Praise to the Gods of Google)
We, too, have a 2001 Corolla (LE Auto) and, yup, it pings and yup, I've tried Redline and nope, it didn't work. I have used Techroline and it seemed to work...for one tank...but that gets awfully expensive after awhile!
I recently tried a quart of denatured alcohol into a 1/4 tank. The jury is still out. "Denatured alcohol", which I purchased at the hardware store where I work, is ethanol "denatured" with methanol. The reason I am trying it is that ethanol has a high octane rating and I suspect that that is the source of the pinging- low octane.
Now, the pinging is not that bad...yet. It's hard to hear cuz it only occurs between (or immediately after) shift changes, especially 2nd to 3rd. It does not occur under load. Only under mild acceleration.
Unfortunately, I don't drive the car enough to notice the problem. It's the wife's car. What do I drive? An oooooold Toy PU with a 22R carburated motor. I've been a Toyota devotee since 1990 when I kissed GM and Dodge a not so fond farewell...
I question the wisdom of retarding the timing of these modern computerized engines; they're not "supposed" to need tuning! Or are they?
The other question I have for you, abidinam, is this: What about the injectors? Was it ever suggested that they might be fouled?
I'll bet my right nut it's the valve clearance!. There should be a little sticker under the bonnet with the correct measurements. If the car is still under warranty get them to do this adjustment. There is a web site called www.mycarstats.com and it has heaps of reported problems on pinging especially on 2002 Corolla. If the dealer won't cheak the valve clearances, I'd get a good shop to do this for you or if you have feelers gauges you could probably check them yourself!
__________________ Lord give me patience - Right bloody now!
The vvti only opens up to give the car more intake and power. I have the 2002 model and the valve clearances are clearly marked on a sticker under the bonnet. This is the only adjustment that can be made to the 1FE-ZZ engine! Go beat up the Toyota dealer and make them check the valve clearances!
__________________ Lord give me patience - Right bloody now!
Originally posted by dougone The vvti only opens up to give the car more intake and power. I have the 2002 model and the valve clearances are clearly marked on a sticker under the bonnet. This is the only adjustment that can be made to the 1FE-ZZ engine! Go beat up the Toyota dealer and make them check the valve clearances!
Right on, dougie! I just might do that. Thanks for setting me straight. However, I searched that mycarstats site and could find nothing on pinging. Zip. Nada.
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