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I have an '89 and '90 Corolla and both have been reliable as far as the major mechanical systems.
A friend has a '90 that apparently had a minor collision on the right front when he got it. It looked like very minor damage. We found that the center of the strut mount had broken off within the mount so when the car was jacked up, the wheel dropped way way down. A wheel bearing also went bad. In the initial stages it makes a low pitched and not very lound noise that goes with the wheel rotation.
We fixed both of these things ourselves.
As to the minor problems:
The door handles (inner and outer) and window cranks are plastic and may be broken.
The rear engine mount may need replacing. The symptom of this is that the shift lever will seem to vibrate slightly when the car is idling. If the strut boots have ever cracked the whole bottom of the engine and supension will be covered with dirt and grease. The windshield often cracks, the cracks often start right near the edge of the window. If there is a small crack, expect it get bigger in a short period of time. See if the trunk leaks. If a tailight has ever been replaced and the gasket material around it has not been replaced properly , rain will leak around the tail light into the truck. Under the spare tire, there are some plastic inserts in the body that people with leaks may pop-out so the trunk will drain. Often the fit of the hood and trunk isn't very good when these cars even when they are new. So the fact they they don't fit great doesn't necessarily imply they are accident victims. See if the drivers side door closes reliably. On my '89 and '90 it doesn't but it is a minor inconvenience to have to close it firmly. On both cars the lowest speed of the ac/heater blower fan quit working. The plastic clip that holds the down the end of the rod that props the hood up is usually missing. The hold-down across the battery may be missing or badly corroded because the normal battery is larger than the battery that came with the car so the hold-down gets bent or replaced. The OEM oil dipstick has a yellow handle. I suppose there is no harm in using an aftermarket dipstick but it would have to be calibrated correctly if the oil level was to be right. The oil dipstick is somewhat hard to find. Stand on the passenger side of the engine compartment and loodk in the area in the rear of the engine block. You have to reach down a little ways to get it. The horn on the car is anemic and you have to know exactly where to press on the steering wheel to get it to work.
If it is an automatic, in addition to the transmission, there is a seperarate diferential case (where the inner cv joints enter) that should have transmission fluid in it. On my '90, I found that was filled with gear oil instead, but this apparently had done no harm. I don't know how you could check this easily anyway since there is no dipstick for the differential case. If it is an automatic then the plastic parts that show what gear you are in may be broken. Don't conclude that it refuses shift out of 2nd gear uncless you are sure you got the shifter in 'D' instead of '2'.
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