Daily, for the daily, for the daily.

 

It's a cycle that isn't stopping, I think I need an intervention at this point lol

 

Free up those rings with Yamaha YamaLube ring free.
It’s probably the best additive I’ve used and it power washed the piston top end and cat. Also used it to soak the piston. Seems to work wonders.

See that you’ve gone straight to the XRS. Not a surprise to me lol


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Free up those rings with Yamaha YamaLube ring free.
It’s probably the best additive I’ve used and it power washed the piston top end and cat. Also used it to soak the piston. Seems to work wonders.

See that you’ve gone straight to the XRS. Not a surprise to me lol


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I've read about some 2AZ owners doing a piston soak and getting really good results. The one I've read most about is the Berryman's B12 but I'll definitely looking into the YamaLube as well!

Did you do the piston soak on a 2AZ or the early 1ZZ in the 8th gen Corolla? Correct me if I'm wrong but I think the oil consumption issues with the 8th gens was due to a similar issue with the rings getting seized as well

 

I don’t think it’s the same cause as the 1zz in the 8th gen with the oil holes in the ringlands. Believe the issue is the piston rings getting stuck. You’d have to look into the Camry and rav4 forums to see what they’ve done.

Car care nut just says to replace the pistons and rings to correct the issue. The TSB has new parts. There is a difference. A and B types.

 

You're right, I remember reading up on a DIY fix for the 8th gen 1ZZ where the oil holes on the piston head get enlarged to help with oil flow. Although, the TSB repair for the 2AZ also includes updated piston heads as well but I think that's to accommodate the updated rings. I talked to a previous tC owner a while back who attempted to just change the piston rings alone with the updated version and he claimed the oil consumption got even worse due to not changing the piston heads at the same time lol

Funny you mentioned Berry. I used both Berryman’s and YamaLube. Mainly used Berry as to dilute the YamaLube to carry the solution past the piston. I soaked the piston about three times while cycling the motor. I did a little extra and leveled the engine so pistons are upright, as most motors lean at an angle in the car.

What I recommend before the soak is to use a bottle of YamaLube for one full tank of gas to clean the surface of the cylinder. That way the carbon that may be on there will not soak up the solution. I think it will be most effective in slipping the two solution past the rings.

I have 05 corolla with 1zz. It does burn a little oil which is why I wanted to try to reduce any excess wear the carbon build up can cause. I recently did this process so I can’t say how much less oil the motor burns but I sure saw the cleanliness YamaLube did! Replaced with new Laser Iridium NGK and the motor sings.

The issue swept down to the 9th gen 03-04 1zz motors also. My corolla was made in 04 which I think might have been barely the transition to fixing the ring seizing. The truth is I don’t know exactly when it was fixed by 05-08 1zz motors.

Edit: Before swapping the oil, I did use a engine flush solution to suspend the particulates for a fresh oil change after this procedure. Liqui Moly Engine Flush.


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I see, I think I'll pick up that YamaLube solution and run it with a tank of gas as you said to start. I'm sure there's a bunch of heavy carbon buildup that it'll clean up in the meantime so that by the time I do the piston soak, there shouldn't be as much deposits on there. I've also been meaning to change the plugs so while those are out, I'll take a look in the cylinders and see the condition

And yeah, it's very hard to determine exactly when Toyota decided to fix both the 1ZZ and 2AZ. With the 1ZZ, the general consensus is 2005MY but like you said, there's a lot of 04 build 2005MY's that may not have had the fix done to it. Likewise with the 2AZ, it's supposedly around late 2010/2011MY when the fix was implemented from the factory or at least that's what I've determined. MY 2010 XRS is actually an early 09 build so there's no chance mine had it done lol

As a former XRS owner I say get help 😂

I was waiting for you to chime in But yeah, I should have taken your XRS when you offered it a while back lol

 

As a former XRS owner I say get help 😂

 

So within the past week I did a few things to the XRS already. Started off with a simple engine oil and transmission fluid change! The transmission was already shifting really well and the PO told me the fluid was already changed but I had no idea what they put in it. I'd rather be safe than sorry so I put Redline MT-LV in it and it shifts like butter now! Also, I find it strange how the 2.4L engine takes 3.8L of oil while the 1.8L 2ZR takes 4.2L...

Next, I wanted to rip off some of the stuff the PO put on. I normally don't buy cars with stuff installed on them by the older owners but eh, it was satisfying taking all this stuff off. Started with the hood visor

Honestly it didn't look horrible and it was a genuine Toyota part but I feel it looks way better without it. Also as you can see on the hood, it didn't do a good job of protecting the hood anyways from rock chips lol I had to touch those spots up with a paint pen

While I was at it, I ripped those eBay window visors off. Unfortunately for me, the glue/adhesive used won't come off easily. I tried using an eraser wheel but then realized that it would go through the black vinyl/tape that's on these cars from the factory (I realized this a bit too late and burned through a bit of the tape...) So that'll be dealt with later on

With the XRS, the interior comes in a black/silver type theme which I like but I really wanted to go for an all black interior theme. And since I had the parts of the S all black interior in my old Corolla, I decided to swap those out while I still had it

I went as far as to swap the black OEM xB/base Matrix door handles as well lol I feel it completes the look, I just need to figure something out for the steering wheel trim and the center console side pieces. While I was there I also swapped out the worn out shift knob to a better condition one I had from my Vibe

Next was to take off those tacky chrome door handle covers. Thankfully they came off pretty easily as the tape wasn't strong at all, I'm surprised they didn't fly off tbh

And while I was throwing stuff out, I threw out the nasty worn out floor mats. I have been saving a set of brand new OEM Corolla floormats and since I finally have a car worthy enough to put them in (after doing a cleanup of the salt on the cars carpet)

Then to finish it off for now, I swapped the 86 wheels out that the car came on. I hated the look of them at first but they started to grow on me. However, I have way too many wheels right now so I had to get rid of at least one set of wheels. So the 86 wheels with the bald tires on them had to go

And the wheels from the old car went back on! I honestly want to put the stock XRS 17's on as I think they look really good but the set that came with the car currently have winter tires on them. So this'll do for now

I think they look pretty good! Although I know what you're thinking, it definitely needs a bit of low lol

 

View attachment 429059

I think they look pretty good! Although I know what you're thinking, it definitely needs a bit of low lol

 

The one upgrade you need. Scion tC gen 1 TRD short throw shifter.

 

I still have my MWR short shifter which will work in the XRS as well. I haven't installed it yet just because I want to feel out the stock shifter again but also, the 5 speed in the XRS (E351) feels way slicker than the old C59. I compared the two when I put the stock shifter back in my old car and the XRS just switches gears way better but that could just be the difference in condition between the two transmissions (or I'm looking at it with rose tinted glasses lol). One thing I am looking for is the TRD Quick shifter which goes on the transmission linkage side

It's long been discontinued so I'll have to search hard for this one. Maybe once I find one, I'll get the tC1 TRD shifter to compliment it

You would have to deal with soiled cloth seats and undo the LED blinker fluid reservoir; and you did miss out on factory Bluetooth too that Canada didn't even get the first year...oh well, I look forward to living vicariously through you.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm really liking the leather seat life lol Plus it seems the sliding center armrest only comes with the leather package in Canada so that's a bonus! And what I find weird is the XRS doesn't normally come with Bluetooth in Canada like you said until 2011. However the factory Bluetooth mic is preinstalled since that's what the aftermarket headunit in my car is currently using. So the car originally came with the basic radio that didn't have Bluetooth or XM but everything is preinstalled on it anyways.

 

I’m interested to know how the transmission will perform with mt90. Is this the same transmission as the S?

I know with the c60 trans that was in my old car performed less better with the solid bushings on the cable ends with the shifter cage bushings. It’s very possible that the synchros in my old car were wearing out. But I installed the bushings right around 80k. Between 80 - 140k, went through a series of fluids. Starting with the synchromesh and mt90. The synchromesh likely accelerated the wear on the synchros.

I’m hoping yours performs way better.

 

It's a completely different transmission. The 1.8L Corolla uses the C59 transmission while the XRS uses the E351 transmission so they're from different transmission families. It's similar to the 5 speed manual in the 2AZ Camry's, the Scion xB2, and is similar to the Scion tC1's E350 trans. But in general, the E transmissions are way stronger than the C transmissions and out of the box the E351 ratios are much better than the C59. I also notice that the E351 uses an axle bearing on the passenger side so technically, the actual axle length on each side are almost equal. I've heard this helps prevent torque steer in FWD cars which makes sense with the high torque of the 2AZ.

With my old car, the solid bushings paired with the short shifter really helped with the overall feel while shifting and it didn't introduce any sort of stiffness going into gear that some complain about. I was also running Redline MT-LV fluid which greatly helped with shift quality. I'm running the same fluid in the XRS as the manual calls for straight 75W trans fluid just like the later C59 does and the shifts are great now. Running 75W-90 could cause synchro grind or so I've heard due to the difference in synchro material used in the later transmissions (08+ Toyota's in general).

The synchromesh likely accelerated the wear on the synchros.

I believe synchromesh doesn't last as long as regular trans fluid does so it needs to be changed more frequently. I ran RP synchromesh in my old Vibe and it started grinding the 3rd and 4th synchros due to the fluid failing early.

 

Aloha from Hawai'i! Just saw this thread this morning and got excited, cuz I just picked up an XRS as well! And as is my MO, I immediately started ripping it apart and cleaning every square inch of the vehicle. It's had something like 6 PO's and it looks like no one had any plans for the final result other than shitty, thick, fake carbon fiber stickers that was added to every silver colored dash panel in the car, to include the ac vents. Of course, since I live in Hawai'i, it came complete with sand in the floor mats and carpet which took me a good minute to get out. It's still not completely out... The paint is pretty faded on the sides and trunk and the dealership in their infinite wisdom, decided to try and paint the worst parts, the roof and hood, without even trying to sand it properly and it's left what looks like scratches under the clear coat, so ive got some work to do in the paint dept. The rear drops when I shift due to dead shocks, which will need replacing on all 4. Installed was an Alpine DVD player with a screen that can slide in and out, which wasn't working. And it's got around 95k miles (153km) on the motor, which when I pulled off the coil pack and plug boot came out swimming in oil, so valve cover gasket was replaced. There's been something rattling around in the dash so I pulled it out and checked around, partly to clean it out and just do my inspection, but since I was in there, I went and changed out the smds on the instrument panel to blue to match the color of the car.

I'm still learning about the XRS, and when I pulled out the seats to clean underneath and inspect them, I found a JBL system under the passenger side.

But really, I'm here to learn from you peeps. I used to be a parts guy at my local Toyota dealership for a couple years, years ago, so I'm familiar with Toyota but I wasn't super focused on the XRS, I'm more of an overlander Tacoma type of guy. But recently I was looking for something small and cheaper on gas to run around with and the XRS just so happened to be in my price range and availability. At first glance I found the sway bars and upgraded brakes. But as mentioned in previous comments, finding upgrades and parts seems a bit difficult so I'm hoping to join the community and bring to the table what I can so we can all have awesome working machines.
Future plans: Intake, headers, exhaust.
So far I've found an Injen Cold air intake I'm looking at. Not many header choices that I've found so open to any suggestions there and the exhaust dept.
Found a few chip upgrades and ECM swaps, but low support in Hawai'i.
Not really sure of what this 2.4 is capable of, and Google is getting increasingly shittier at finding what I'm looking for, so hoping this thread has cool people who have played around with these before. 🤙🏽 More pics to come

 

Aloha from Hawai'i! Just saw this thread this morning and got excited, cuz I just picked up an XRS as well! And as is my MO, I immediately started ripping it apart and cleaning every square inch of the vehicle. It's had something like 6 PO's and it looks like no one had any plans for the final result other than shitty, thick, fake carbon fiber stickers that was added to every silver colored dash panel in the car, to include the ac vents. Of course, since I live in Hawai'i, it came complete with sand in the floor mats and carpet which took me a good minute to get out. It's still not completely out... The paint is pretty faded on the sides and trunk and the dealership in their infinite wisdom, decided to try and paint the worst parts, the roof and hood, without even trying to sand it properly and it's left what looks like scratches under the clear coat, so ive got some work to do in the paint dept. The rear drops when I shift due to dead shocks, which will need replacing on all 4. Installed was an Alpine DVD player with a screen that can slide in and out, which wasn't working. And it's got around 95k miles (153km) on the motor, which when I pulled off the coil pack and plug boot came out swimming in oil, so valve cover gasket was replaced. There's been something rattling around in the dash so I pulled it out and checked around, partly to clean it out and just do my inspection, but since I was in there, I went and changed out the smds on the instrument panel to blue to match the color of the car. View attachment 429128
View attachment 429129
I'm still learning about the XRS, and when I pulled out the seats to clean underneath and inspect them, I found a JBL system under the passenger side.
View attachment 429127
But really, I'm here to learn from you peeps. I used to be a parts guy at my local Toyota dealership for a couple years, years ago, so I'm familiar with Toyota but I wasn't super focused on the XRS, I'm more of an overlander Tacoma type of guy. But recently I was looking for something small and cheaper on gas to run around with and the XRS just so happened to be in my price range and availability. At first glance I found the sway bars and upgraded brakes. But as mentioned in previous comments, finding upgrades and parts seems a bit difficult so I'm hoping to join the community and bring to the table what I can so we can all have awesome working machines.
Future plans: Intake, headers, exhaust.
So far I've found an Injen Cold air intake I'm looking at. Not many header choices that I've found so open to any suggestions there and the exhaust dept.
Found a few chip upgrades and ECM swaps, but low support in Hawai'i.
Not really sure of what this 2.4 is capable of, and Google is getting increasingly shittier at finding what I'm looking for, so hoping this thread has cool people who have played around with these before. 🤙🏽 More pics to come

Welcome to the forum and nice, another blue streak XRS! It's good to see that you're saving it from it's prior neglect. There were a bunch of XRS's that I looked at which were really neglected ranging from rod knocking engines, damaged body panels, destroyed transmission synchros, etc. I really wanted to save some of these but for the prices people were asking for them , I'd be taking major losses doing so lol. I really like the blue gauge cluster bulbs you installed, how hard was it soldering them in?

There's a bunch of stuff for the 2.4L in general but a lot of the aftermarket support has been discontinued over the years. I'm searching for parts myself either used or finding what's out there new. Keep us updated!

 

Even though I've barely owned the XRS for more than a few weeks, I already took it on it's first roadtrip up north to a cottage! A 700km round trip and it did really well without giving me any issues (at least during the trip)

So when I said no issues during the trip, something did come up beforehand. While driving the car one day, I smelled a heavy scent of brakes overheating. I was at an intersection and thought it might have been a car beside me but just in case I pulled over and checked each wheel. Low and behold, the right rear wheel was burning hot! I also tried pushing the car with it in neutral and it was not moving. So I went back home and took the caliper off to see why it was seized

It's hard to tell from the picture but that mechanism is for the handbrake and the one on the right side was not returning to its original position after releasing the handbrake. I'm pretty sure there's some sort of contamination or corrosion inside the caliper piston that's causing it to stick so I played around with the mechanism for a bit by moving it back and forth with a wrench. Eventually it freed up and no longer sticks. After a test drive the wheel was no longer the temperature of the sun so that was a win however I will be replacing that caliper before winter. I've had bad experiences with my old Vibe where the same thing happened and I basically didn't have a handbrake for the entire winter season lol.

Also, after getting back from the roadtrip I checked the oil since I had done 1000kms by then and...

It's exactly where it was when I changed the oil 1000kms ago! So basically no major consumption issues which was always on my mind since this is a 2AZ afterall with it's notorious oil consumption issues. I'm sure by the time I reach the 5k km interval for my oil change, it'll burn a few hundred mL of oil especially with some hard driving added to the mix but considering it's a 2AZ, I'm more than happy with how it's performing so far!

 

The car got quite dirty after the roadtrip and I hadn't really cleaned it properly since I got it (the previous owner did keep it clean though) so a full detail was in order. First I attempted to get the rest of the adhesive off from the window visors. After a lot of goo gone and buffing, the adhesive from the front doors came off

However on the rear doors, I wasn't as fortunate. It seems the visors had fallen off at some point so the previous owner decided to use super glue to hold it on... So despite my greatest efforts I was left with this

The thing is that the black on the door is actually vinyl/black out tape from the factory so using an eraser wheel would damage it. So I'm probably going to replace both rear door black out tapes in the future but I'll live with it for now.

Then I did a full interior detail. I cleaned everything out of the carpets and seats, cleaned every panel, then applied some Chemical Guys VRP to the interior panels and used some leather cleaner/conditioner on the seats and leather trim. I think it came out really good!

At the same time I also got rid of the old ripped up floor mats and put in a fresh set of OEM Corolla mats I had sitting storage.

Then came the exterior. I started with a full decontamination wash followed by a full clay of the exterior

The fallout remover was really working its magic especially on the wheels lol

And then a full Cut/Polish/Wax. This took a lot of time and while I didn't get every single swirl out of the paint, the results are stunning!

The paint looks and feels like new again and now that deep metallic in the Blue Streak metallic paint really shines! I also buffed the headlights a bit but I'll be replacing them eventually as the drivers side does seem like it has a leak as a small amount of water is getting in. I got most of the general road rash and paint chips out of the front bumper as well and it looks 100x better now. Also...

The no front plate looks really good on this car! I wish it wasn't forced in my province but oh well

 

I have a 2010 Matrix XRS. Third gear syncro is pretty badly shot. Seems to be pretty common among these cars. When the clutch wears out I will rebuild the E351 trans. At around 110,000 miles, the car burned so much oil that the oil light would come on at stop signs. The previous owner took it to the dealer for the TSB and got 4 new pistons and the car does not even burn a drop of oil in between my 10,000 mile synthetic oil changes.

The shifting can feel very inconsistent. It may have to do with the rev hang or the clutch accumulator. I'm very likely going to delete the accumulator from the clutch hydraulic system for that reason and so that I don't have to worry about it leaking on me.

Does your shifting feel inconsistent as well?

 

The third gear synchro thing is something I've heard a lot not just with Corolla transmissions but with other cars as well. It comes down to prior poor driving style as a lot of people tend to miss 3rd gear the most in a manual which will grind the synchro. Do that enough and it'll eventually grind all the time as time goes on. In my 5 Corolla's (4 C59 transmissions and 1 E351), I've only had one of them grind 3rd which was due to prior neglect.

As for inconsistent shifting, I can see what you mean. What I've noticed so far is if you force the clutch out right after you shift to the next gear, the car will "jump" in a sense. This is due to both the factory rev hang and the clutch delay valve (clutch accumulator). To get around this, I try and time my clutch release to my throttle application perfectly. If done right, you'll get smooth shifts even when shifting fast. I would however like to delete my accumulator as well and see how the clutch behaves after that.

 

Looks like I've got to do a bit of a catching up to do on what I've been up to with the XRS. So since I believed the spark plugs were still original on the car and with it hitting 200k kms, I changed them out along with the PCV valve. I got some new Denso plugs and swapped them out

The PCV valve didn't really need replacing but it was so cheap on RockAuto that I thought why not. The old plugs were definitely ready to be changed out but fortunately, there weren't too many signs of burnt oil on the old plugs which is a great sign for a 2AZ!

Next was to fix an exhaust leak I had heard coming from the front of the car. I narrowed down the leak to the flange that connects the exhaust manifold to the s-pipe so I bought the gasket and doused the exhaust bolts in Liquid Wrench in hopes it would loosen the rust on them. Surprisingly, the 2 exhaust bolts came out with ease

This car is proving to be really easy to work on as compared to my old Corolla, these 2 exhaust bolts took hours to get off on that car only for them to break in the end. Anyways, as you can see when comparing the old exhaust gasket to the new one, this was definitely the location where the leak was coming from

With the new gasket in and everything bolted back together, the leak is completely gone so that's a win! I was pretty relieved because the new gasket didn't fit as great as I'd hoped since the inner portion was pretty tight so I'm glad it didn't cause any new leaks.

Next I wanted to throw my yellow foglights onto the XRS. I originally just wanted to install the bulbs just for now and swap out the housings later but apparently, the previous owner used some sort of adapter on the stock foglight housings which converted the socket to a H8 from the original H11 size. This meant that I had to swap my yellow foglight housings in order to use my yellow bulbs so I did just that

I love the look of these and while it was a pain to swap them without taking the bumper out, it was definitely worth it!

Also when I got the car, the front license plate bracket was pretty damaged so I ordered a new one. It took quite a while but it finally arrived and so on it went

 

So if you have followed my previous cars thread, you may remember that I purchased a brand new set of Hankook Ventus RS4's and mounted them to my old (ugly) wheels. Well I never did get around to using them with the old car and they've been sitting in my garage since so I decided why not and threw them on the XRS

While I'm still not that much of a fan of the wheels alone, the black and blue doesn't look too bad in my opinion! This is also the first time I've run a brand new set of tires with the stickers on them on a car before. I had plans on just selling these wheels and tires since I didn't plan to go to the track after I sold my last Corolla but I knew I'd regret at least not trying the 200tw tires out

And man, I am very grateful that I did! These tires stick like glue! Testing them out on some local backroads I could go through corners basically without having to use the brakes and I'd get no tire squeal or any sort of slip at all! It's amazing what the difference is between my old Indy 500's and these RS4's and while I did want to just try the tires out on the street for a bit before selling them, I kind of got carried away. And I signed up for an autocross event

But before that, I was doing a check over the car before the event and I found out that the previous owner had installed a K&N drop in filter already. I didn't notice it but since I have the filter cleaning kit, I decided to clean it out and reoil it which it really needed. The filter basically went from pitch black to red again

Back to the autocross. It was basically the end of the season and there was only one event left so I signed up for it and headed out. I was pretty rusty considering it had been almost a year since I hit an autocross or track event. There's also the fact I'm doing it in a brand new to me car that is for once, very different from my other cars I've run. However it's all for the fun of it

I was placed in the B-Stock class which is essentially the stock FWD class. While I was basically all stock aside from 200tw tires, the cars in my class were definitely not stock and were running even grippier tires, upgraded dampers, brakes, etc. so I really was just aiming to keep up pace with them.

I ended up taking 1st place in the class! So that's a great start to the XRS lol

And just like that, my motivation was back to start racing again! So in that very same week, I went out and hit the local track to do some open lapping with the XRS

What was surprising to me was how empty the track was. It was the middle of the week in September so I was expecting there to not be a lot of people but a lot of my sessions were just me alone on the track which was really cool to experience! I wasn't really focused on lap times for this day but more so how the car reacts on track vs my old cars. I find that the XRS has way better 2-4 gearing than the 5 speed with the 1.8L as one of the main issues with my old C59 trans was that 4th was basically an overdrive gear. With my old cars I'd lose all momentum when I hit 4th but in this, 4th gear is more closely spaced which results in staying in the powerband for longer and hitting higher top speeds. At the end of the longest straight, I was hitting 150kph in the XRS vs 139kph in my old cars which is a significant difference. Combine that with the tighter steering and shorter steering ratio and the instant torque on corner exits and this thing is super fun to rip around on the track even when it's completely stock! Being that it was stock though, the stock brake pads were taking a beating. I'd get brake pad fade pretty much after a lap or two so that was the limiting factor along with the fluid. But still, I had a lot of good sessions and in regards to laptimes, I'm hitting the 1:30's which is basically where I was at with my old car except that was fully modified lol.

Yeah the pads were cooked lol

 

I really wish I had done a few autocross or track events earlier in the summer with the XRS but at least I got to do some even if it was really late in the season. With that, I took my track wheels off and put them in storage for next year (because I'm definitely not selling them now). I also gave the car a quick wash from all the dirt and bugs on the way to and from the track

Now if you know 10th gens, you'll know that the sunroofs love to rust really bad. I don't know if it's just a Canadian/salty winter thing or if it is due to a defect in the sunroofs (I've heard rumblings of a seal issue) but almost all of the 10th gen Corolla's and Matrix/Vibes in Ontario will have a rotted sunroof that can be seen by the swollen sunroof seals. My XRS is no stranger as the sunroof is pretty crusty on it. The good thing is that I had just fixed the rusty sunroof on my mom's Corolla S and since I replaced her sunroof with a clean one, I had a spare that I could fix up for my car. The original one on hers was in really poor condition. It was very corroded on the front and sides and there was even some metal missing but I did my best with a wire wheel and rust convertor

I wasn't looking for perfection as I just wanted a sunroof panel that wasn't rotted that I could use temporarily till I can source another clean one. I think it turned out pretty well though
Before

After

So that's a big job done! Next was to delete the TPMS light like I always do

And while I was in there, I swapped out the HVAC LED's from the factory amber to white. I actually did this on my old car but it didn't quite fit because the gauge cluster and my old tC2 headunit were amber. With the XRS, the optitron gauges have white LEDS along with the headunit so I think it looks way better in this car

now I need to change out the heated seat LED to white as well

Next I decided to change out the valve cover gasket. I went with Fel-Pro since they're a pretty good brand

There wasn't any major leaks but I wanted to see the condition underneath the cover to see if the engine really was maintained. There was also a tiny "scratch" noise that I'm hearing so I thought I'd take a look to make sure nothing major was going on

Just look at that! 200k kms and it looks absolutely clean in there! The previous owner told me that he always did the oil changes on time and only used synthetic oil and you can tell just by the condition! This definitely shows why there is barely any oil burn for a 2AZ as well. Also I didn't notice any wear or damage causing the scratching noise so I'm guessing it's the VVTI cam gear making the noise but since it's not causing issues right now, I'll get around to it later

 

Really cool thread, I've been looking for a sunroof replacement for my XRS and can't find a clean one, you're right about them loving to rust.

 

And now some more mods. Well more like throwing on some of the mods I saved from my old car because the first one is the Celica/tC1 rear tow hook. First I had to clean out the exposed threads with a tap

And then the tow/transport hook went on. Definitely feels nice having it on again. I probably should have installed it before going to the track but at least I'm prepared for next year lol

And now something I've wanted to do for a while. Installing the MWR short shifter!

The reason I didn't install this right away when I got the XRS was because I wanted to feel out the stock shifter again. Plus since this is a different transmission, I wanted to see the difference in shift feel as well without any mods. While it was refreshing to feel the stock shifter out again, the throws were too long for me and I really missed the direct action feel of the short shifter so I went ahead and got it swapped in. I was also trying out an aftermarket shift knob for a bit but I ultimately went back to the weighted TRD knob (that's been in every single one of my cars at this point)

Looks great and feels great! I thought about swapping my suede wrapped shift boot in too but considering that my car has leather seating, it just feels right to keep everything leather in it lol

Here's a shot of the exterior with the repaired sunroof installed. Notice how the roof is flat now with no swollen seals! Same goes for my mom's S behind my XRS with the new sunroof panel installed on her car

 

I haven't done much in the past few weeks with the XRS other than an oil change and a bunch of driving. However I did recently acquire a new set of wheels! While I do like the look of my current wheels, I came across a deal for a specific set of wheels I've had my eye on for a while now and I just had to jump on it

A set of Matte Gray Konig Hypergrams! They're in a 17x8 +40mm spec so they're very close to the spec I'm running now. I have always been looking for a set of Konig's flow formed wheels for a few years now, hoping for a set to pop up for sale and they finally did. I chose this spec specifically since they look to be almost brand new and with the +40mm offset, I should be able to clear the rear quarters on the XRS without having any rub when I'm lowered. Obviously it's already fall and almost winter so I won't be using these until next year but I will be swapping my tires from my current wheels onto these soon.

I also went ahead and purchased a set of new winter tires for my XRS wheels. They came with new Michelins but two of them had sidewall damage so those were replaced.

I can't wait to see how the XRS looks with the OE alloys on!

And since the current wheels will probably be sold over the winter, here's some pics of the car with them on for possibly the last time

 

So since the last update, I've basically gone full winter prep mode on the XRS. On the top of the list was getting my winter tires on since my summers seemingly got a puncture right as I got my Konigs. So while I was swapping them over, I went ahead and did my best attempt at saving the brake backing plates on this car. I'm honestly surprised all 4 are still on the car since they always seem to rot and fall off so I got a can of rust convertor and coated all of them.

As you can tell, the backing plates while still there aren't doing so great with the corrosion that's already started spreading on them. However the rust convertor that I sprayed on there should hopefully extend their lives just a little bit longer. Once that was done I finally swapped the winters on and

Now it's looking like a complete XRS again! I have always liked the look of the OEM XRS wheels so I'm glad I can finally run a set

In this picture, the wheels don't even look as corroded lol I'll definitely have to refinish them at some point to get rid of the corrosion on them

Now it was time for some rustproofing. I brought my previous Corolla to Krown which is an oil spray/wax type rust proofing. I liked the results so I brought the XRS to get protected as well

They do drill into the sills and doors to get complete coverage which I was iffy about doing at first but at the end of the day, it's the only way to get the most protection especially with what the car will have to go endure in our salty Canadian winters.

I also got my mom's Corolla sprayed as well and even got her some new winters. Brand new Nexen winter tires on 1st gen Matrix XRS 17's. This will be the first year where we won't have to run steelies on our cars which is a major achievement lol!

Now for some mods. I plan on getting the XRS tuned next year just like I had got my previous Corolla tuned and to do so, one of the requirements to make the reflash worthwhile is to get a cold air intake. With the XRS, the main choice is from Injen. However there was another option that I saw even before I owned the car from a company called Cosmo. 12th gen owners will be familiar with them as they make a short shifter for their platform. They make a cold air intake for the XRS as well so I thought I'd try it out. I bought it and 3 days later

It arrived! After taking a closer look at it, it looks to be very similarly designed to the Injen cold air intake (in fact the instruction booklet is taken directly from Injen). After doing some measuring, it seems the main tubing is 3" while the reduced MAF portion and the connection points to the rubber hoses are 2 3/4". These are the exact same dimensions to the Injen except, the Injen uses a 3 1/2" filter whereas this one uses a 3" filter. It's also an oiled filter which isn't bad perse but I prefer a dry filter like the ones from Injen.

Coincidentally, my 2ZR Injen CAI that I still have uses a 3" filter so I'll probably use that one with this kit. I'll possibly make a DIY and review of this intake when I go to install it but that won't be until spring. Although I'm eager to get it on so who knows, I might just have to install it in the cold

 

If you know me, you'd know I hate touchscreen headunits. I always have and have always preferred a regular headunit. In my old car, I installed an OEM Scion Pioneer headunit out of a tC2. When I got the XRS I had planned on installing that headunit into it so I could keep Bluetooth functionality however, the XRS already came with an older 6" touchscreen headunit in it already. It worked alright and it honestly warmed me up to maybe putting a newer touchscreen headunit in. I looked and I didn't want to go and buy a Pioneer or Sony touchscreen incase if I did end up not liking it. So I searched and found that there's a whole slew of options for Android headunits on eBay and AliExpress. After some searching I found this

It's a generic 9" Android headunit from one of the many AliExpress resellers. There were a few reasons why I decided to go with it despite it possibly being junk. First it's running a fairly recent version of Android on it and it's got an 8 core processor with 8GB of ram so it should be pretty fast. It's also got CarPlay and Android Auto capabilities on it and it's also supposedly a plug and play kit for the Corolla so it comes with the bezel, wiring harness adapters, and everything else for it to work. The best part is all of that was only $120 CAD so I thought why not, I can't really lose

I went ahead and ripped the old headunit out and thankfully, the previous owner installed it properly so none of the factory wiring was cut. Then I just plugged in the new headunits wiring harness and it all just worked! I had a feeling it wouldn't be as easy as a plug and play setup but it really was. I even got steering wheel controls to work again which the old headunit didn't have!

Once I got the headunit all setup, I verified that Android Auto works as well as Bluetooth music and calling. I even got Torque to work so I can display live engine data through the headunit. Not bad for 120 bucks

I'm pretty happy with the headunit. We'll see how long it lasts since these headunits usually don't last for long but since it's basically an Android tablet, I'm sure I can update it in the future myself if anything does go wrong. With all of that done and after the rustproofing had some time to dry and harden, I took the XRS for a wash as there was oil and dirt stains everywhere on the body from the oil dripping.

All clean and ready to tackle the snow!

 

Well it's the middle of winter and it's been very cold recently so not much has been done to the XRS for a while (other than constant car washes to keep the road salt off). However there were some small things done here and there. For one, I ordered a new set of LED bulbs for the interior lights as the ones I had were a mismatch of colour temperatures from my old cars.

Now it's all one colour temp and my OCD can take a rest

Another thing that was bugging me was my shift knob. I've used a weighted TRD leather shift knob that I've had since my first Corolla and while I do like it, it's very old now as I bought it used and the leather is wearing off on it. I was always looking for a replacement but I didn't find any that could compare.

So I went and got another TRD leather shift knob! This time it's the TRD ball style knob. I was thinking of buying a new version of my old shift knob but I thought I'd give this design a try especially since I could get it brand new from the local dealership. It also came with the Japanese literature and shift pattern sticker which is pretty cool

And with the new shift knob, I had to update the shift boots as well since the leather was worn out on them as well. Thankfully my mom was willing to stitch a new set for me just like with my old car lol

It came out really well! She was also able to stitch the top of the shift boot smaller so that I wouldn't have to use that plastic retainer piece anymore. It goes way better with this style shift knob compared to the OEM one which requires that retainer. The handbrake boot also was replaced since it had tears in it.

That's really it as to things I've done to the XRS thus far. However I have been gathering a lot of parts that I'll be installing once spring comes around. One of these parts is for lowering the XRS. Inititally, I had my heart set on getting lowering springs this time around. I had coilovers on my last Corolla and while I loved them, I really wanted to try a stock shock and lowering spring setup again just to try something new. I know I'd eventually switch back to coilovers though but I placed an order for a set of Tein lowering springs. Specifically the ones developed for the 10th gen XRS

However, I stumbled upon a listing for a set of BC BR Series coilovers locally. Of course this pops up a week after I placed my order for the springs but they were so insanely cheap I basically had no choice but to get them lol. Turns out there's more to the story but to make a long story short, a local friend had just installed BC coilovers on his 10th gen Corolla. Unfortunely it was written off not too long after and the coilovers were never taken from the car. Well when I arrived at the yard that the coilovers were located, low and behold

It was my friends wrecked Corolla that was bought from auction and being parted out. The guy selling the parts didn't realize what the coilovers really were so he listed them just to get rid of them

And as you can see, these are basically brand new! I believe these were purchased in March of last year and only had 10k kms put on them before the car was totaled. I also had the original warranty transferred to me as well so I guess this is how I somehow ended up with the coilovers that I was aiming to get a few years from now! I also now have a set of brand new Tein springs as well so I have to figure out if I'll be selling them or keeping them

 

So the parts hoarding continues. After I got the coilovers and the Tein springs (accidentally), I came upon something else that I just couldn't pass up

Ignore the springs for now but I found a really good deal on a brand new Borla S-type axleback and I had to get it. I actually placed an order for the Tsudo SP2 axleback which has long been backordered but luckily I was able to cancel the order for it unlike the Tein springs

Really stoked on this since I've wanted one for a long time for my previous Corolla's as well. As for the TRD springs, they were literally on the way while going to get the Borla. It was a long drive and someone was selling the set for way too cheap so I decided why not. Now I've got a set of 3 suspension choices to choose from for the XRS lol If anything it's a bucket list item as I want to try and attain as much of the TRD catalog for the 10th gens as possible (sourcing the TRD LSD and short shifter will be tough though)

And with that, a few pics of the XRS after a wash before the real fun begins

 

Since the weather is unusually warm, I decided that it'd be a good time to do some work to the XRS. And to start, I'd tackle the pesky shifter cable bushings. These are normally a very simple install but thanks to rust, these bushings almost always get seized on the shifter linkage. What makes it worse on the XRS is the shifter linkage is located on the back of the transmission while on the 2ZR cars, they are located on the top. After taking off the stock intake and moving some wiring harness cables around, I could see what I had to work with

Yeah not a great start. Even after spraying them down with some PB Blaster, the top washers were seized to the pin but with some pliers and some twisting and pulling, they usually come off without too much difficulty. Then I could pull the shifter cable ends off and in a perfect world, the bushings would come off with them

That did not happen so out came the dremel. I've done this job on 3 of my past Corolla's and 2 of them had seized bushings just like this. My method of getting them off is first ripping off whatever's left of the worn rubber bushing which exposes the brass sleeve and then grinding the sleeve down enough to hammer it to get it to free up. This once again worked with the first bushing

That's the remnants of the sleeve. However for the next one, since the other bushing is facing away from me I wasn't able to easily grind the bushing down with the dremel as there was simply no room even when going from underneath the car. So after some thinking, I went and bought a nut splitting tool. I figured since brass is a soft metal, a splitter should be strong enough to cut it half. After trying it out, it worked!

You can see all the dust from the brass down there and yes, I barely nicked the pin a bit with the dremel but that won't cause any issues (I actually did worse when I did the one on my Vibe lol). After cleaning up the pins and caking them in antiseize, I installed the new MWR solid shifter cable bushings.

And with that done, since I had the intake off already I thought why not and started installing the Cosmo cold air intake! After removing the front bumper (probably the first time on this car since it left the factory) I got to work and got rid of all the stock intake plumbing

Then came installing the cold air intake. Since the Cosmo cold air intake is just a replica of the Injen intake, I could follow the Injen instructions online to help with the install. However just like the Injen intake that I installed on my last Corolla, getting the piping to line up was a bit tricky. After a bunch of aligning and twisting of the piping, I got the first pipe and couplers on

And then after getting the second pipe on, I had to install the filter. Cosmo provides a K&N oiled filter in their kit which is perfectly fine but I still had my old Injen intake. After some measuring, I figured out that the Injen cold air intake for the XRS 2.4L is a 3" intake but uses a 3.5" filter. The Injen cold air intake for the 2ZR Corolla is 2.25"-2.5" but uses a 3" filter. Now here comes the part where I lucked out. The Cosmo intake for the XRS uses the same 3" piping but it uses a 3" filter instead of stepping up to a 3.5" filter like Injen does so thanks to this, I was able to retain my old Injen filter.

I much prefer the Injen dry flow filter over the oiled one so I'm happy that it all fit. Also take note of how the piping is routed on the XRS version of the Injen and Cosmo cold air intake. It curves up and forward compared to my old 2ZR one which went straight down so I should be better protected from puddles and rain with this design of piping and filter placement. But it will still get the benefit of colder air regardless. With that done, I bolted everything back up

And it's all done. First off, the induction sound of the intake is way louder on the 2AZ vs the 2ZR! I suspect it's due to the fact that it's a true 3" intake as well as being a slightly longer pipe that it gives off a louder sound (also since the engine itself is literally bigger in displacement) but wow do I love it lol! Also the install on the XRS vs the 2ZR Corolla is about the same in complexity aside from the fact that the head of the 2AZ is flipped compared to the 2ZR so the throttle body and intake manifold are at the back of the engine. From the butt dyno, I definitely do feel a bit of a difference but I'll be doing something soon that will help the intake out in terms of power...

Also the shifter bushings feel great! It was the cherry on top for my shifter setup and now it feels just as good, if not better than my old setup on my old car!

 

I'm enjoying this thread. Well documented! I have a 2013 Corolla LE with the same wheels. I'm looking at adding the lowering springs as the OEM make the car sit like a cat in heat.

 

Thank you and I agree about the stock ride height on these cars, they sit way too high. A good set of lowering springs is all you need to make these cars look 100x better especially with the XRS wheels on them!

 

So to follow up with the last update, there was a reason why I installed the cold air intake first. And that was because I was getting my XRS tuned! I worked with a local tuner who goes by SNP Reflash on my previous Corolla for a ECU reflash for the 2ZR powered 10th gens (facelift models to be specific). The tune for that car seriously woke it up and since he already had a tune on hand for the 10th gen XRS, I knew I had to go back to him to get it and so I did. With my reflash, other than optimizing ignition timing and VVT, he was able to up the redline to 6800 rpm and change the throttle map to make the throttle more responsive (no need for a throttle controller anymore). The results are amazing, the difference feels like night and day compared to how the car drove stock! It feels much more responsive now and I can definitely feel the difference in power. In regards to actual numbers, the dyno that was originally done on the test car for this tune (10th gen XRS with the same mods as mine) put down 150whp on a Dynapack hub dyno so that would put the car around ~173 hp at the crank. Now this may not seem like much but keep a few things in mind. This is an increase of 15 crank hp with just a cold air intake and tune and this was all achieved on 87 octane. That is an insane amount of gains for the little modification done to the car so I've very pleased with the results! In the future we do plan on going to a 91 tune when I get more modifications done (mainly exhaust mods) so I'm excited to see what can be achieved with adjusted fueling!

That was all a few weeks ago. More recently I had more mods to install. First was an OEM upgrade I've wanted to do for a while which is the Lexus dual horn upgrade. I was able to grab these horns from the local junkyard for under $15 and all that's needed to get them to work is an adapter harness from Amazon (you could make the harness yourself but the adapter harness was plug and play and cheap)

This is how it looks when mounted. As you can see, there's a spot for the second horn to mount to already. It's almost like Toyota knew people would want to upgrade from the stock dinky horn lol

And the adapter harness plugged into the factory connector. I just ziptied it so it wouldn't flop around

It was a very easy upgrade since everything was plug and play. Highly recommend it if you can get the horns for cheap (and they were used on a lot of Toyota and Lexus models so it's not hard to find).

Next was headlights. I had already buffed my stock headlights to get rid of the fade on the lenses. But they faded yet again and then in the winter, water started leaking into both of them.. So I went on eBay and found these black housing headlights with clear corners!

They were very cheap so I wasn't expecting a lot from them. However they fit like garbage out of the box lol

I spent a lot of time trying to get them to fit. All of the mounting tabs were off compared to the stock housings so I had to trim the brackets in an attempt to get them to fit. Eventually I was able to make them mostly fit in place. The corners shown below do sit a tiny bit out but it's not too bad.

The worst part is that the cutouts for the bulb sockets (in this case the side markers) weren't made properly so the bulbs were very loose and would probably fall out while driving. So I had to resort to some hackery and formed some shop towels to fit around the base of the sockets. This made it so the sockets were a tight fit in the cutouts so hopefully they don't fall out. And hopefully the bulbs don't burn out either lol

Overall, the headlights do look good! The clear corners were something that I always wanted and combined with the crystal clear lenses, I'm happy with how it all looks... from afar lol. It's also rained since I installed them and no leaks so far!

 

I forgot to mention but I slapped some stickers on the XRS recently. One was of course the SNP Reflash sticker and the other is a custom TN sticker that I made. I think it came out pretty well

So the cheap android headunit that I put in the car has been working decently well so far. There are a few flaws which are to be expected but they're all pretty minor. However one major flaw is the built-in bluetooth microphone. It flat out sucks and nobody can hear me talk through Bluetooth while I'm driving. The optimal solution is to wire in the OEM bluetooth mic but that's going to take some effort. An easier interim solution is the external mic that was provided with the headunit however I did not want it dangling around in the car. I've looked throughout to find a spot to install it and finally, I found this

This little vent thing near the ignition. From what I've read over the years, its supposed to house the interior temp sensor for the auto A/C equipped cars. Since my car doesn't have that, I popped it off and it was empty as expected but it was somehow the same exact size as the aftermarket mic and even has a tab for the mic to clip onto. Super easy install and you can't even tell it's there. Most importantly, I no longer sound like I'm talking from a toilet bowl while on Bluetooth!

A few days after that, this happened

Don't even get me started on how the previous owner accomplished his muffler delete but to no surprise, the cheap metal pipe used rusted through and broke apart. When I was driving and the car suddenly got louder, I was hoping it was from the muffler delete as I was going to replace it anyways and I'm thankful it is. So I went ahead and tore all of that out

Or what was left of it. And it went from this

To this

The Borla S-Type axleback! I also threw in a new OEM donut gasket to make sure I'd get no leaks at all.

The install was really easy since none of the exhaust bolts were rusted (and since the old exhaust disassembled itself). So far, the Borla sounds amazing! I'm sure it still has to break in but the sound of the Borla is perfect and is way better than the jank muffler delete. If you've followed my old threads, you'd know I've gone through far too many axleback setups and I can confidently say the Borla is simply the best so far. It's got that deep tone that I want without any of the drone. Aside from being overpriced, it's a must have for these cars!

 

I made quite a bit of progress on the XRS recently. First off I finally grew tired of the AliExpress Android headunit I had in the car. To be honest I never really liked big screens in cars but I really wanted to try it out and see if I could live with it which I did for the most part. I did like Android Auto and the Android part of the headunit itself but the poor bluetooth quality and well... it being a 9" tablet just made me want to swap again. So I swapped my old Scion Pioneer headunit back in!

I actually would have done this earlier but I found out that even though the XRS did have an option for bluetooth in the U.S. market, the Canadian version lacks the wiring for the bluetooth mic. And after taking out the upper panel that would house the mic, I found that Toyota just added a blank instead of prewiring the car for the mic lol

So after some very minor trimming, I installed the Bluetooth mic that I kept from my old car. I also had the harness that I made for my old car and ran it through just like before. Thankfully on that harness, it was prewired to accept the steering wheel controls so that worked as well. Despite losing the modernness of a screen, the Scion headunit just feels so much better to use! My phone auto connects to it wirelessly and Bluetooth calls work perfectly where everyone can hear what I'm saying for once!

While I was in there wiring up the mic, I also went ahead and installed the dashcam I had bought. I had previously bought the Viofo A119 V3 dashcam and installed it in my moms Corolla to see how it fares and after 2 years of use, we had no problems with it. So I went ahead and got one for my car too

Since I had already done this before, installation was a breeze!

What I like about this unit is the fact it can be hidden from the drivers POV so it's out of my sight while driving. For those doing dashcam hardwire installs, here's the fuse spots I tapped into for Accessory power and Constant Power

Accessory is fuse spot 23 and Constant is fuse spot 29

Another small project I had tried was changing the heated switch LED from orange to white. It's soldered on so I swapped one on a spare heated seat switch I had laying around. One soldering iron burn later and here we are (was done when I still had the old headunit)

It was a lot brighter than I was expecting but whatever lol