[FCO_Rivers]

I too am experimenting with being low
View attachment 377757

Well, I raised mine a bit again but it's storming right now so I can't dial it a bit more, seems that without me in it the passenger side is like 5 mill lower than the driver side. I'm not a heavy person and I have 3/4 of a tank of gas left and have no one to check height with me in the car bc I have no friends and my wife has 0 interest in cars so it always look good to her so I'm not sure if it balances with me in it.

The reason I raised is bc I couldn't even go to do grocery shopping with the family without the rear fenders cutting into my tires, and that's without the groceries in the car yet, lol. The problem being the 18x8.5 +35 offset squared. Should have gone with some other specs or I was thinking on adding shims in the back for a bit of camber and then maybe lower it again.

Still lower than most Corollas tho. Lol

I also changed the oil and filter at 4750 miles and rotated my tires to wear them as evenly as possible.

It's so easy to work on these cars, oil change was done in 30 minutes and I spent 10 getting the car on jackstands cause is so low I need to use the emergency jack to raise the car enough to fit the floor jack under the car and the emergency jack wouldn't simply go under the car, had to align it with the rail from the back and slide it forward.

So as much as I like the car that low it's just a pain to get in the air for any repairs or maintenance.

Sent from my SM-N976U using Tapatalk

 

[Hiro Protagonist]

Wagon was due for its first rego under my name, took it for pink slip on Saturday morning only for it to fail on a torn CV/tripod boot (something that I had forgotten). Fortunately I had a spare set of shafts lying around that I was going to use for dummy fitment on the ZZE102, unfortunately the seat the diff oil seal would run on was rather pitted and corroded so would have torn the seal to shreds in minutes...bugger.

Solution was to split the existing shaft in the car, keeping the current inner shaft and tripod tulip still in the gearbox (which also meant not having to worry about draining the gear oil), and then use the spare outer and spider with the spare boot (so no stretching/cutting) packed with new grease. Even more fortunately, the OEM boot clamps on the tripod are re-usable and can easily be removed/installed with just a set of needle-nose pliers (no worm drive, no folding etc).

Will probably want to replace the shafts entirely in the future but at least these should hold up for long enough to get me by.

Sent from my SM-S901E using Tapatalk

 

[Mikem80]

Had a used engine installed a week ago with 90k miles on it. So half the mileage of the car. I plan on tearing down the original engine to find what caused my intake valve leak and low compression. New OEM motor mounts and proper iridium spark plugs, and it runs like a brand new car. I had installed some Beck/Arnley aftermarket mounts when I did the clutch last year, and they caused a lot of vibration. Should have listened to advice and paid the crazy price at the dealer sooner, the OEM ones are SOO much nicer! I did not enjoy replacing that rear engine mount twice... it's expensive but worth it as far as comfort is concerned.

 

[Esso]

Had a used engine installed a week ago with 90k miles on it. So half the mileage of the car. I plan on tearing down the original engine to find what caused my intake valve leak and low compression. New OEM motor mounts and proper iridium spark plugs, and it runs like a brand new car. I had installed some Beck/Arnley aftermarket mounts when I did the clutch last year, and they caused a lot of vibration. Should have listened to advice and paid the crazy price at the dealer sooner, the OEM ones are SOO much nicer! I did not enjoy replacing that rear engine mount twice... it's expensive but worth it as far as comfort is concerned.

This is cool! Let us know how the tear down goes. I want to line up a second engine as well. Would be interesting to see the adventure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ed_Strong]

Had a used engine installed a week ago with 90k miles on it. So half the mileage of the car. I plan on tearing down the original engine to find what caused my intake valve leak and low compression. New OEM motor mounts and proper iridium spark plugs, and it runs like a brand new car. I had installed some Beck/Arnley aftermarket mounts when I did the clutch last year, and they caused a lot of vibration. Should have listened to advice and paid the crazy price at the dealer sooner, the OEM ones are SOO much nicer! I did not enjoy replacing that rear engine mount twice... it's expensive but worth it as far as comfort is concerned.

Where did you source the used engine from? How much did it cost to get it (engine + shipping + install etc.) I'm looking down this path myself since my engine took a nasty overheat in traffic after blowing a radiator hose unexpectedly. I'm not sure who to trust when buying a so called "low miles engine" when it's nearly impossible to proof mileage on this cars!!!

 

[gamer765]

Some reputable sources list the donor vehicle information and VIN, if you're picking it from a self service yard, again you can check the VIN or rig a power source and power up the vehicle odometer to confirm miles.

 

[Mikem80]

Where did you source the used engine from? How much did it cost to get it (engine + shipping + install etc.) I'm looking down this path myself since my engine took a nasty overheat in traffic after blowing a radiator hose unexpectedly. I'm not sure who to trust when buying a so called "low miles engine" when it's nearly impossible to proof mileage on this cars!!!

I bought the engine from LKQ auto recycling. I chose them was because you could see the listings of the whole vehicle from the scrap yard, (almost like a Copart auction listing) so I could pick one from many different year Corollas and mileages. I could also pick one without serious front end damage to the donor car. Full engine long block with most extras like intake manifold, throttle body, fuel injectors and rails was about $1300 shipped. It shipped to a freight terminal near me, and I brought it to a local shop to install it. Unfortunately the install cost was much higher than anticipated because the scrap yard was not very careful with the engine removal.. the yard stripped threads and just cut wiring harnesses... so the install was about $1300 all in as well. Not sure if I would purchase from them again or not, but the engine itself is solid. Runs like a top. I will be putting together a separate post for the engine tear down when the weather get nicer.

 

[Ed_Strong]

I bought the engine from LKQ auto recycling. I chose them was because you could see the listings of the whole vehicle from the scrap yard, (almost like a Copart auction listing) so I could pick one from many different year Corollas and mileages. I could also pick one without serious front end damage to the donor car. Full engine long block with most extras like intake manifold, throttle body, fuel injectors and rails was about $1300 shipped. It shipped to a freight terminal near me, and I brought it to a local shop to install it. Unfortunately the install cost was much higher than anticipated because the scrap yard was not very careful with the engine removal.. the yard stripped threads and just cut wiring harnesses... so the install was about $1300 all in as well. Not sure if I would purchase from them again or not, but the engine itself is solid. Runs like a top. I will be putting together a separate post for the engine tear down when the weather get nicer.

Thank you for you input. I had been looking at LKQ for a while but was not sure what to expect from them. I did see a video of a customer getting an engine advertised as in great condition and arriving full of sludge and gunk inside, so that kept me from trusting their selection. I do agree that their web site is one of the best for shopping and browsing. I tried Car-parts,com but their selection is lacking details and even prices on most offerings making hard to price shop. On my neck of the woods is very hard to find local offerings.

 

[Bob54401]

Changed out shift bushings. Replaced with MonkeyWrench ones. Tough getting one of the old ones out, had to use a dremel to cut it out. But they are in now, and shifting has improved.

 

[1ZZ-FE1999]

Installed a short antenna on mine! (07 Corolla 156k miles). Also clayed and waxed recently and wiped down the interior

 

[XtRaSlo]

Finally booked my paint appointment. 4/27 she's going in to get painted...a ford color.
Magnetic grey

 

[XtRaSlo]

Also came up on a vibrant 2.5in. Resonator. After paint, will also replace stock resonator with vibrant. Sticking with stock muffler. Looking for a little more exhaust noise but not much

 

[Esso]

Finally booked my paint appointment. 4/27 she's going in to get painted...a ford color.
Magnetic grey

She’s being worked on as we speak. Haha

Glad your finally getting that paint job!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[XtRaSlo]

She’s being worked on as we speak. Haha

Glad your finally getting that paint job!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lmao nice!! I wish I had the patience and skill to paint lmao after my train wreck experience, noted the artistic side is not my Forte haha also tired of it looking like a beater

 

[Esso]

Lmao nice!! I wish I had the patience and skill to paint lmao after my train wreck experience, noted the artistic side is not my Forte haha also tired of it looking like a beater

I personally enjoy it. It does take too much time but that’s why we got more than one car right? Lol. I got brand new bumpers too so that’s ganna be hella fun to complete. New coat of paint is ganna change the way you look at it in a good way. Im only re-clearing and blending the faded paint. It’s sad to see the fade so I’m going to fix it. Doors will come later after I pull some dents out or bodywork if it needs it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mikem80]

Started the engine tear down today. I dont have the head bolt bit yet, so that will come later. But here are some photos of most of the main and rod bearings, as well as the camshafts and bearings. I thought it looked quite good for 180,000 miles. A few scratches from me taking things apart on the bearings, but otherwise here they are.

 

[Borderguy]

I finished some work on my daughter's daily driver 2006 Matrix. I haven't done much DIY maintenance on my vehicles. I really appreciate all of the great posts and detailed instructions by experts on this forum!! It was a tremendous help.

It took me a couple of days in the driveway but i was able to replace the front and rear strut assemblies (KYB in front and Monroe in the rear...unfortunately, I couldn't find any KYB complete rear struts for the matrix), new sway bar links, swapped out the spark plugs with new denso iridiums, replaced a broken cruise control lever, flushed the power steering fluid and did a drain and fill on the gear oil.

A year ago, i told my daughter that if she learned how to drive a manual transmission that i'd give her the car. It was my daily driver since 2010. Now she loves it and i don't think she'll ever go back to an auto.

Thank you again everybody!!!

 

[XtRaSlo]

Took it home from paint! More pics in build thread

 

[XtRaSlo]

Got the retrofit buttoned up. Beam is even, but I need to lower a little.
Also, does anyone know off hand what size/thread pitch license plate bolts are?

 

[gowthee.v]

I painted the trunk black