New 2000 Echo Owner

[nperera86]

Hey guys (and gals)

I'm a new owner of a very old 2000 Toyota Echo. Bought it with 307,000 km on the odometer and will be using it as my winter car. She seems to be in good running condition although the CV axle on the driver side needs replacing.

I've already started the work on that however the tulip joint on that sucker is stuck inside the transmission. I can't seem to get enough leverage to pull it out with the tight confines of the subframe to the tranny. If anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated!

Once I get a tranny fluid change I can't wait to drive her around. I am really very excited since I love the concept of the echo...light weight, great on gas, and small! As I said this is my winter car (I drive an S2000 during the summer) and while it may seem like day and night, I truly hope the echo lasts since I already feel myself getting attached to this little car.

Hope to be an active part of this community and learn/contribute in the future.

Regards,

New owner

[dorman68]

Good luck with your new ride, you'll love it. I have had nothing but great service out of mine, I am sure you will have the same luck as these cars a very durable and reliable.

[nperera86]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Thought this forum was dead...certainly not nearly as much activity as the Honda forums I am use to.

At any rate I will be posting some DIY's on this job in the near future once I get pictures gathered. I know I had a hell of a time finding one for this car and resorted to just the service manual and past experience. The driver side axle is very difficult to pull from the tranny and a slide hammer is needed to do the job! Wish I had that knowledge before hand as it would have saved me 50 dollars worth of pry bars and leveraging tools and a lot of wasted time lol.

[ECHOKnight2000]

Congrats on your 11 year old car lol. Yeah the ECHO forum on Toyotanation is kinda limping. But it is a discontinued car so that's probably one of the reasons. Of course you can post Yaris stuff on here too. There was the echofans.org but that has been dead for awhile. I think it still exists but its ramped of autobots (no not the transformers lol.). Infected with spam posts everywhere and I don't think anyone posts on that anymore, it used to be active. Yarisworld is more active.

Best of luck and these cars are tanks. One reason they are very spartan, so you don't have much to go wrong. Mine is an 03. They were restyled and other changes. I'm amazed at how my car starts right up. Its boring but reliable.

S2000, very nice car!! I'll take one to go

[nperera86]

Originally Posted by ECHOKnight2000

Congrats on your 11 year old car lol. Yeah the ECHO forum on Toyotanation is kinda limping. But it is a discontinued car so that's probably one of the reasons. Of course you can post Yaris stuff on here too. There was the echofans.org but that has been dead for awhile. I think it still exists but its ramped of autobots (no not the transformers lol.). Infected with spam posts everywhere and I don't think anyone posts on that anymore, it used to be active. Yarisworld is more active.

Best of luck and these cars are tanks. One reason they are very spartan, so you don't have much to go wrong. Mine is an 03. They were restyled and other changes. I'm amazed at how my car starts right up. Its boring but reliable.

S2000, very nice car!! I'll take one to go

The reliability of the echo was one of the reasons I bought it although I wasn't expecting the axle to go. The fix was easy enough but it seems like there is just a ton of stuff I need to fix before the car gets back on the road.

1) headlights are heavily pitted so I've started to wet sand them down
2) Driver axle was bad so that has been replaced
3) Horn doesn't work so I need to re-wire that
4) Something is clogged in the fuel lines because at the pumps the safety on the pump switches the pump off so I have to trouble shoot that.
5) Alternator went bad on me so I had that replaced along with belts

Hopefully the extent of my woes are at an end and I can get onto driving her for the winter season! As long as the motor and tranny hold strong I'll be a happy camper!

[ECHOKnight2000]

Originally Posted by nperera86

The reliability of the echo was one of the reasons I bought it although I wasn't expecting the axle to go. The fix was easy enough but it seems like there is just a ton of stuff I need to fix before the car gets back on the road.

1) headlights are heavily pitted so I've started to wet sand them down
2) Driver axle was bad so that has been replaced
3) Horn doesn't work so I need to re-wire that
4) Something is clogged in the fuel lines because at the pumps the safety on the pump switches the pump off so I have to trouble shoot that.
5) Alternator went bad on me so I had that replaced along with belts

Hopefully the extent of my woes are at an end and I can get onto driving her for the winter season! As long as the motor and tranny hold strong I'll be a happy camper!

Seems like you have your work cut out for you. I supposed you are a DIY person so maybe that's why you bought it in that condition. If I may ask how much did you pay for it??

Well best of luck and as long as the previous owner didn't abuse the engine (lack of attention) it should last for awhile if you're good to it (routine maintenance).

[nperera86]

Originally Posted by ECHOKnight2000

Seems like you have your work cut out for you. I supposed you are a DIY person so maybe that's why you bought it in that condition. If I may ask how much did you pay for it??

Well best of luck and as long as the previous owner didn't abuse the engine (lack of attention) it should last for awhile if you're good to it (routine maintenance).

Yes absolutely. It was my (soon to be) sister-in-law's car. She drove the piss out of it but I know the engine is good because she did oil changes regularly. I love working on cars so the little stuff wasn't an issue. I figure as long as the engine keeps going, I am more than happy to take it off her hands.

I paid 1000.00 for it safety and certified here in Canada.