Hello and a question.

[ehull82]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the board and I had some questions regarding 98-02 Corollas that i was hoping some one might be able to answer. I own out right a 2000 VE (bought it cheap when I was in desperate need of a car). It is my daily driver but the thing is an eye sore. I'm interested in improving it all around. I have been looking at buying some wheel's, suspension and brake upgrades from Tirerack.com but I had a few questions first.

Right now my car is 4-lug with drums in the back, I'm interested in possibly converting to 5-lug with 4 wheel disk and was wondering if any such conversions have been doine. I also was hoping to get 16" wheels and was curious if they would fit or if that might be an issue.

Also i know with the way that i drive (consistently between 70 mph and 85 mph on the freeway) my little 3 speed is not the transmission i want to be using and was curious how difficult it is to swap in a 4 speed if not one of the 5 speed manual transmissions.

And last but not least, what sort of online parts stores are good for finding parts to customize my year Corolla. Thanks for any help!

Eric

[ehull82]

Has none of what I asked about been done?

[REN69]

probably.. but hoping for a response in less than one hour is not realistic.

If its been done, it'll probably be expensive and time consuming.. I don't own a 2000 Corolla, but I'll tell you this.

You will need to find a donor car in order to switch all the things you want to do. for example you wanna do a 5-bolt conversion, well lets see.. 2003+ Corollas, Most Celicas and the Matrix would be a good donor example. They all came with 5x100 bolt patterns and they will fit on your car. Price.. you won't find out until you check it out for yourself.. time to do this.. well.. again, depends on how mechanically inclined you are, or how much money you you can afford to pay a shop to do this kind of work for you. If you can do it yourself, all you're looking at is parts and your own time.

Transmission: again the same thing applies, find a donor car first, most likely another Corolla with a 1zzfe engine and 5-spd transmission, and see how much it will cost you for the parts. You will need the transmission, shifter linkages, cables, the clutch pedal, clutch master cylinder, and anything to do with the manual transmission. Remember, your car is automatic.. it didn't come with a clutch pedal, so you will have to put one in with all the cables and assemblies. I believe you may or may not have to change your ECU since some ECU's are programmed for manual or for automatic transmissions.

Realistically, it can be done.. like I said, it all depends on how much time, money and effort you're willing to put towards it, and of course how long it takes you to source the parts. Don't expect it to be unscrew this and replace it with this.. its not gonna work that way. In the end it'll probably be cheaper for you to sell your car and trade up to a 5spd Corolla, Matrix or Celica.

[ehull82]

I'm fairly mechanically inclined and if I fail my roommate is also a career mechanic who I trust completely, so parts is really what I am interested in. I also know that there are 4 or so pick-n-pull, u-pull-it or what have you about 30 mins from where I live so they should be able to point me in the right direction. I just wanted to be sure that it could be done and need to know which cars to look for as donor cars.

Thanks for the help!

Eric

[cobrajet25]

Sounds like you just bought the wrong car...don't throw good money after bad. Trade the car in for the kind of car you want. It is only 5 years old, and still has some decent resale value. By the time you spend a bunch of money on parts (and you will spend a BUNCH) you will essentially have $15,000+ into what is an $8-9,000 car. And when you go to sell it, the only one who will appreciate all of your time, effort, and expense is you...the modified car will probably be worth less than if you had left it stock. You could easily use that kind of money to trade your car in on something more suited to you.

Corollas with the options you want are not hard to find, so there is no point in trying to make your car into something that it is not. Alot of folks seem to be trading their 2-3 year old Corolla S models for new XRS models, and you might be able to pick up one of those. Trade it in...no muss, no fuss, no oily clean-up! Start with the car you want and then spend money on mods...don't spend a fortune trying to turn an apple into an orange! Regards, Aaron

[REN69]

More like an orange into a banana.

[ehull82]

Well I own it out right. It was an Enterprise Rent-a-car before I bought it in 2001 so honestly it isn't worth more than $5000 now and I am not interested in having another car payment at the moment. What I would end up paying in small upgrades like wheels, and better suspension pales in comparison to what it would cost if I bought a new car. What it is worth to me though is a good daily driver which I simply want to improve a bit.

[RakeRon]

Enterprise? Dear god get rid of it now! Trust me when I say this, rental cars are the most abused cars on the road. I do enough maintance on them to know!

[ehull82]

Oh I know!

But believe it or not this thing has been the most reliable car of anyone I know.