Marvin the ZZE122 Wagon

Looks a lot like mine, 2006 was the last Wagon in Oz, so good pick up.

Just about all of the wagons rear struts are well & truely dead by 160,000kms, ie when you push them down they don't come back up.....So when you rock the steering wheel side to side at 40km/hr the car will pitch & yaw all over the place.

If you are mechanically capable, suggest doing all 4 struts with KYB Excel G's it does not cost much & it will handle so much better.
Front Lower Control Arm Rear Bushes (the large circular ones) will start to crack/tear from 250,000kms replace by nominal 320,000kms.

Agree the boot space is fantastic in the Wagon &
Mid 2005 onwards has Flyby Wire Throttle Body, if you clean your throttle body & have OBDII, the resting position should be 14.1
The red silicon inlet manifold gasket mentioned on this forum fits & would be worth doing by 250,000kms, your idle will become smoother

If you pick up a genuine rear boot carpet it quietens the Wagon down road noise wise as does having the retractable cargo blind over the boot in place.

IMO the Ascent seats are more comfortable than the Conquest seats.

If Toyota imported the new 1.8lt non hybrid wagon into Oz I'd buy one.

Rob.

My rear rotors are still good at 288,000kms & I'm still on the "Original Pads" noted that mine does not have ABS (so just the standard proportioning valve set up once you have ABS eg my 2009 ZRE152 at best you will get 120,000kms from rears)....so seems odd to be doing rear rotors at 218,000kms.
=>> Does yours have the "Safety Pack" ie Ascent with dual Air Bags & ABS?

Some store the cargo blind under the rear floor in the slots for that purpose? Check.....if lucky yours might be there?

WRT "You mean a boot liner?"
No. The "High Quality Toyota Genuine Boot Carpet" they were $75 on ebay on run-out from Sydney City Toyota (see if you can get one from a fresh kill at the wreckers along with the cargo blind.) else maybe ask your local Toyota Dealer?
Toyota Manufacturer Part Number: PZQ2012040

eg
eBay item number: 291079188974
New Toyota Genuine Accessory
Corolla cargo mat. Grey carpet
Suits ZZE# Wagon
PZQ20 12040
Toyota Corolla RHD
Grafiet
Made in Netherleands

The deck boards are already carpeted.
Not really they have a fur coating, but in mine I would not call that carpet.

WRT "as the rear seats will down most of the time...bike transport"
=>> exactly what I use mine for. It is perfect for that purpose, so much more space than the ZRE152 Hatch.

Rob

First mod done (well not quite, still got to wire it up but wanted to do a test-fit first), need to work out where I'm going to run the USB for AA/ACP too



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Next step was trying to sort out the brake shudder - previous owner indicated that they had been told by the mechanic at last service/rego that the rears were almost done, so I figured that would be the first place to start. Ordered new rotors and pads (didn't bother with the parking brake shoes), arrived quick-smart so got to work swapping them in....

Man I forgot how much I hated drum brakes. Even though the rear brakes are disc, the parking brake works via shoes against the inside of the rotor hat, which means you have to back them off when replacing the rotors otherwise they can catch on a lip. Well, it turns out that I mustn't have backed them off enough (or they stuck to the inside of the rotor), because when I pulled off the right rear (had to use the jacking screws because it wasn't coming by hand) the shoes had grabbed on to something and managed to bend the entire backing plate (despite the only connection between the shoes and the plate being two nail-thin pins). This meant that the new rotor (or the old one, for that matter) could not fit back over the shoes regardless of how much they were backed off, so I was up Schitt's Creek without a rowing instrument.



Cue a fit of inspiration to literally rip the entire parking brake hardware off the backing plate, smash the thing back as close to flat as possible with a sledgehammer, tie up the cable to the back of the hub and then make a break-of-dawn run down to Sydney the next day (with no working handbrake) to pick up a new wheel hub....which just turned out to be an entire rear torsion beam assembly, because it required less disassembly (and also gave a few spares). Good thing I bought a wagon, and in a moment of poetic irony the first part the parts hauler hauled was literally it's own rear end (like a Babuskha doll)



All goes back together without a hitch, then the new rotors and pads finally fit and my brake shudder problems were solved.


Except they weren't. So I figured that it must be the fronts, instead (not like there was any other option, apart from the uncomfortable possibility of excessive runout). Didn't really have time before Christmas to order new rotors (at least pads I could get off the shelf), but fortunately I had a spare set of DBA T2s lying around that were slated to go on the ZZE102 (since the SuperStrut brakes run essentially the same 275mm front rotors). Bit of overkill for a daily wagon hack, but time was more important and I wasn't driving up to Coffs to go camping over NYE with shuddering brakes. At least these went in without a hitch (apart from having to take a few hours break whilst I tracked down which mate I had lent my caliper piston resetting tool to). And lo and behold, the shudder was cured.



So speaking of camping, this was one of the reasons why we bought a wagon in the first place (other than being a parts hauler). Still tonnes of room (pretty much from window line up to the roof)



Anyway, after we got back in the new year, I set about getting stuck in to the rest of the planned initial mods. First up, towbar. Should be simple, new towbar and straight car (no accident history) should mean everything lines up nice and neat, right?

Right?

Guess again. Looks like Blind Freddy got a job at TAG some time last year, and welded together my towbar as straight as Mardi Gras





So now I've got to go through the hassle of an eBay return of a metre-long chunk of steel, which is always fun. Still, at least the day wasn't a total write-off, as I acquired a set of 16" wheels to progress one step further along the path to Dad-bod Sportivo (the Aus-market 2ZZ hatch model).

Short version, towbar now fits - just have to rip the interior trim out of the boot to see if there's any pre-wired plugs of whether we'll have to wire it in from scratch



Long version - measured the mounting points on the car with stringlines and plumbs, sent dimensions to manufacturer who confirmed that their entire batch was out (must have been an issue with the jig if that's the case), sent out a new towbar adjusted to the exact dimension of what I had (just in case) and arranged for Toll to pick the other one up (so at least I didn't have to schlep to the post office). One of the tow hook bolt holes was on the verge of stripping out however (not uncommon by the sounds of it) so had to chase it out with a thread tap, of course it had to be the one with the tightest clearance and worst access (muffler side, closest to bumper, and with a useless plastic tab on the bumper getting in the way).



Next up is chasing down a facelift ZRE152 steering wheel so I can have SWC for the headunit (although Android Auto is now broken due to my new phone, also seems to be a common problem with S22s). Also picked up a full set of power windows/switches and door trims, at some stage I'll have to pull the interior apart and see how much is also pre-wired for them.

ZRE152 steering wheel now fitted, SWCs aren't hooked up until I can get a new clock spring (going to switch to black fascia too, silver doesn't suit the Ascent interior) but already feels tonnes better than the stock vinyl noodle-ring.


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Nice wheel. Rear disc brake is the way to go!

In the US, we don’t have fender lights. I was curious if you could measure out the placement of the fender light relative to the fender for me? I have Scion XB fender lights but I just can’t find approximation of their location. Appreciated if you could.

Great wagon. A rare or nonexistent sight here in the states. I haven’t seen a retrofit of this front end yet. That be neat to have here.

Here’s the picture of what I have.



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Raised the driveway about 25mm closer to the chassis







Only went Lows as this still has to be a practical load-carrying daily. Kings weren't my first choice but there are ridiculous wait-times for springs from Lovells these days (like 3+ months)

The de-Ascent-ifying of Marvin continues - brand new genuine foglights and surrounds (from the top-spec Levin), everything was pre-wired so just needed the relay (installed ages ago when we had the dash apart) and combination switch. Globes are selective-yellow Osram Fogbreakers.

Also finally got around to getting the black steering wheel controls w/ the hands free buttons installed on the ZRE wheel, I probably still prefer the silver but the blacks are growing on me.




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Amazing what a difference even just body-coloured door handles can make. Also replaced the front-left (passenger side) window belt moulding which was starting to peel quite bad.

Body-coloured rub strips are sitting here waiting to go on as soon as I can get a heat gun/hair-dryer and some goo-gone for the old weatherstripping adhesive.


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So once again the wagon steals the good bits intended for the 102...swapped over the 101/111 Superstrut twin-piston brake conversion, figured I might as well make use of the pads and stop the seals drying out whilst the 102 stays off the road.