Julien Roy's 1996 Toyota Corolla AE102

1996

Toyota

Corolla AE102

Dark Blue Pearl

1.8 LE "Corolla Plus" 4 speed Auto, power windows, power locks, power mirrors, cruise control, intermittent wipers

The car was purchased in 1996 from Toyota Richmond dealership in Quebec, Canada. The province of Quebec is a place where the summers are nice and warm but the winters cold, snowy, windy and wet. A season that usually lasts from around November to may. Thats 6 months a year of salt water freezing and melting in every cracks of the pavement. Our roads are rough. Fortunately, the car's owner was a retired man who did around 8600 km/year and apparently took good care of it. The car was usually sleeping in an underground parking from the apartment complex where the owner lived... When the man got too old to drive, he gave it to his son in 2013 or 2014 I believe, who used it for around a year before I bought it in June 2015, at 168000 km on the clock (105k miles). The complete maintenance history wasn't there but the car seemed solid and honest. At this point the little Corolla just needed that little bit of TLC. It had little rust (which is quite rare where I live), a leaking flex pipe and cat, squeaky straps, an old battery, a leaky oil pan and valve cover, a corroded radiator, non functional rear power door locks, jammed trunk key lock and an O2 sensor trouble code. I bid it down from 1300 to 1100 cad. I wish I got it for 1K but it was too good to pass, It was fully equipped, relatively clean, not beaten up and I loved the color. Since then I've been giving her the good old TLC she deserved, I cleaned it inside and out, changed the oil, air filter, coolant, straps, battery, brakes, brake fluid, power steering fluid, fixed the exhaust, cleaned the spark plugs, temporarily fixed the rust, rust proofed it, fixed the power door locks, changed the trunk key lock, then let the customization begin... I wanted a practical, reliable, simple, unique? cheap? fun? sleeper? Yeah... I wanted to put a 3rd gen 168hp 155 ft-lbs 4A-GZE, with a e58 5 speed LSD transmission, a front mount intercooler, a stainless exhaust line, coilovers or shocks & springs, and more and more... I realized this is probably too much for now so I started with other mods and fixes around the car.

-STOCK
-Maintenance & services
-A/C Delete

-1999 RAV4 3 spokes Steering Wheel
-Royal Blue interior swap from a 1994 corolla (Darker nicer blue color and design, better front seats, 40/60 foldable back seats and door cards)
-Rear OEM 6.5" speaker trim (instead of the usual cheap 4")
-LED dome light
-Amber cluster bulbs
-Custom center console USB charging port
-Custom center console fog lights switch
-Custom plywood trunk floor
-Trunk illumination LED light
-Sparco carpets

-Black mesh grill
-Custom old school TOYOTA grill emblem
-Custom square fog lights
-Custom front bumper lip
-Clear front corner bumper blinker lights with amber bulbs
-Rolled rear fenders
-Trunk badge shave ("LE" and "TOYOTA" only, not the central emblem)
-Trunk center panel replaced from red and clear to plain black
-Trunk "lip spoiler"
-Double FIAMM snail horn

-Sony head unit
-Front Pioneer TS-G1045R 4" speakers
-Rear Pioneer TS-G1645 6" 1/2 speakers

-UltraRacing 3 point strut brace (painted metallic blue)
-Toyota Avensis front calipers (painted blue) and BOSCH brake pads
-Drilled and slotted brake rotors
-New drums (painted blue) and rear brakes overhaul
-Brake Fluid flush
-Power steering fluid flush

Summer:
-BBS RA 15x6" +35 4x100
-Toyo Proxxes 205/50R15

Winter:
-14x5.5" steelies
-Toyo Observe GSi-5 175/65R14