1000 km inspection

[Allen]

I have bought a new Corolla Ascent Sport which will have its 1000 km inspection next week.

I'd be interested to know what if any faults typically crop up at this time and what things to look for that can be overlooked by dealers.

There are only two things that have impinged on me. One is that I see no sign of lubrication on the door hinges unless they use something that is pretty invisible.

The other has been remarked on in the Dogs and Lemons review of this car which is that between gear changes the engine often revs about 250 revs rather than falling away in the usual way on a manual box change. Dogs and Lemons felt that Toyota should have been able to deal with this issue.

Is there anything that can be done by a dealer without risking fouling things up altogether e.g in reprogramming what happens?

I'd appreciate any comments.

[rolla91]

I have bought a new Corolla Ascent Sport which will have its 1000 km inspection next week.

I'd be interested to know what if any faults typically crop up at this time and what things to look for that can be overlooked by dealers.

There are only two things that have impinged on me. One is that I see no sign of lubrication on the door hinges unless they use something that is pretty invisible.

The other has been remarked on in the Dogs and Lemons review of this car which is that between gear changes the engine often revs about 250 revs rather than falling away in the usual way on a manual box change. Dogs and Lemons felt that Toyota should have been able to deal with this issue.

Is there anything that can be done by a dealer without risking fouling things up altogether e.g in reprogramming what happens?

I'd appreciate any comments.

the 1000 km check up is very basic. mine only took about 30 min to an hour and they dont even put it up on the hoist. my door hinges dont have any grease either but i dont think they are meant to i havent seen any new car with this. i dont like what the engine does when you change gear either, i have the manual also and i can almost never get a smooth gear change and the engine either holds the revs for way too long or it drops right down to idle the instant you put the clutch in. but they are pretty basic so nothing to worry about.

[Allen]

Thanks rolla91. I imagine the chip could be reprogrammed to normalise engine speed during gear changes but I don't know whether I would trust a dealer to do it and I'd rather live with it than risk something being hashed. Maybe a specialist tuner could sort it out but it should be able to be corrected under warranty.

[rolla91]

Thanks rolla91. I imagine the chip could be reprogrammed to normalise engine speed during gear changes but I don't know whether I would trust a dealer to do it and I'd rather live with it than risk something being hashed. Maybe a specialist tuner could sort it out but it should be able to be corrected under warranty.

no worries, yea it should be fixable but im not too sure how they could do it. im pretty sure its to do with the electronic throttle maybe? not sure but its bloody annoying, iv read a few reviews and they all say the same thing, even the brand new shape manual version does it.

[Allen]

From talking to my mechanic I gather you are right about the electronic throttle and he also says that Toyota won't want to know about it even though everyone else does because it is not economic for them to get it right for the few manual cars that they make.

[rolla91]

From talking to my mechanic I gather you are right about the electronic throttle and he also says that Toyota won't want to know about it even though everyone else does because it is not economic for them to get it right for the few manual cars that they make.

yea thats true because 90% of the corolla's sold would be autos. Id say it is rough because of the elctronic throttle becuase I also find if im trying to maintain a slow speed that requires minimal throttle input like going through a school zone its really jerky and rough because its constantly on and off the small amount of throttle applied. its very annoying but im slowly getting used to it.

sorry to change the subject but im just curious. I am wondering do you notice a small wining sort of sound when your maintaining a certain speed? its not very loud but I have heard this and it does it all the time, i dont hear it when i accelerate just maintaining a constant speed. I was going to ask toyota but they would probabaly ignore it so im curious if yours or anyone elses does this?

[Allen]

I haven't noticed anything that concerns me. The diff ratio is quite low - well into the 4s - I thought around 4.6 but I can't find the exact figure, but I could understand a slight whine although additional sound proofing could help which I may explore as I like to be able to enjoy the sound system at highway speed. I'll have a listen as I drive Melbourne to Sydney tomorrow when I'll also be looking at the performance of my Orbital liquid gas injection.

[rolla91]

cool thanks for that. its not really loud but I can notice it slightly, probabaly just the gearbox doing its thing.

let us know how the 1000 km inspection goes.

[Allen]

1000 km inspection tomorrow. The car is very quiet at speed over long periods and the automatic sound level compensation is very effective. I listened for whine but couldn't hear anything that bothered me. The actual surface of the road causes big differences to the actual sound level in the car.

I'm very pleased with the sixth gear which I had thought might be fairly decorative. But no. Up and down long slopes with the cruise set to 110 and no gear changes over long stretches such as Goulburn to Albury which is quite hilly in places. I discovered the setting for litres per 100 km which I didn't realise was available. This showed the impact of wind. I had readings of up to 7 with a head wind and around 5.6 with a tail wind - all with the cruise at 110. I tried it over a distance at 100 and fuel consumption dropped to 4.8. I realised on filling with LPG that I was using more than the figures showing on the dash which I think means that the car assumes you are running on petrol. My impression is that the gas liquid injection was using about 13% more than petrol although when I changed to petrol over about 80 kms the consumption was actually greater than I was getting on gas, but I suspect other factors such as wind and hilly conditions caused this. I got 616 kms on a full tank of gas including some suburban driving while getting out of Melbourne. The gas fitter who has a very good name recommends Mobil which I gather is 7/11. I've also used propane here and there.

Based on actual amounts of gas used when filling and allowing for the price difference of the two fuels, I estimated that I'd need to get 4.17 litres per 100 km on petrol at 110 km per hour to match the cost of the gas and this based on my actual driving rather than figures on a windscreen so I am delighted with it. One of the benefits of the liquid injection I understand is that as a liquid it is cold and makes for cooler running and greater engine durability.

So I am very pleased with the car!

[Allen]

1000 km inspection went well although so impersonal I found it hard to discuss anything. I did however get some assistance on using the Bluetooth voice commands and I was assured that if I had any difficulty with it I could ask them. The revving between gear changes seems to have abated or I have taught myself to minimise it by lifting the foot off the accelerator gradually. As an exercise for marketing their service to a new owner close to where they are, i felt they failed abysmally. I may as well have been talking to a machine for all the rapport I was getting. It took about 10 days to get an appointment which seems a bit pathetic for a free inspection. I saw the invoice for some $54 which I gather is billed to the dealer who sold us the car. Maybe I'll try out another dealer than Ferntree Gully Toyota at 10,000 kms.

[CONROD]

Hi Allen,dont feel you are obligated to take the Corolla back to where you purchased it from,find a dealer who has the TIME and PR skills towards you and not treat you like you owe them something.

Only time you will have to go back to the dealer you purchased off is when Harrier extended warranty kicks in (if you have one )

[rollaurion]

Just don't take it to dealers full stop. Dealers are rip-off merchants who only care about making money. Find a good local mechanic you can trust, and you will be set. It will save you money, and you're car will be maintained properly.

You were no doubt talking to a 'service advisor'. Of course you are not going to get any 'rapport' from them. They are paid by commission for up selling things (mostly things you don't need of course), and since they couldn't sell anything to you it's not worth their time.

Unfortunately, when taking the car to a dealer people have a vision of some highly trained technician working on their vehicle in a place where they care about your best interest. The reality is that you get an apprentice for almost everything, in a place where the only thing they care about is upselling bull**** like powersteering flushes and aircon treatments.

[Allen]

Thanks CONROD and rollaurion. I was already sceptical about dealer service and you have opened my eyes a bit more. I have a good mechanic of many years standing who can do log book service. I take the point about service advisors who are paid to upsell. This one wrote on a hand written digital screen and thrust it into my hand to sign. I said, What am I signing? and received an uninformative answer. Toyota do promote the image of the highly trained person working with specialised equipment and if the reality is that it is the apprentice then I will give them the flick. You would think Toyota would be awake up to this and not be happy about it. I read an article in Choice where dealers were so busy looking for things that they could charge for that they overlooked basic faults that had been planted and should have been found during inspection. Thanks again for your comments. I can't speak too highly about the car. Seats are good too. I have a back which my physio described as basically stuffed. However I drove the length of the Hume Highway without pain and remembered my drives to Brisbane on the bench seat of my first Holden which was quite a different story where pain was concerned.