2000 Toyota Corolla (AE112R) Ascent Seca..... First Service

[Clevo]

In May, 2013 was in the market to replace my damaged car.

I bought the 2000 Corolla hatchback. It was in excellent condition an up-to-date service log book going back to it's original owner.

A couple of tiny dents ( which I'm learning to fix myself).

Has a couple of mechanical issues. Nothing major.

1) Squeeky front end possibly suspension related (sounds rubbery)

2) Gear shift that sometimes gets a bit sticky when shifting gears. I self diagnosed this as needing a gear shift linkage adjustment or repostitioning the clutch pedal clutch release....or worse, a worn pressure plate in the clutch system.

3) ....and a few other things I spotted but wanted to see if the Mechanic spotted it too.

Well anyway, it's up for rego in June so took it for it's 160,000 service, pink slip and safety check at the Goodyear Autocare in Lewisham. I had a VIP card I hadn't cashed in yet and wanted to give a local technician a go. After having my expectations managed I left the car with them for the day.

Their diagnoses:

1) Front end worn bushes in the throw arms

2) Stupid gear shift wasn;t playing up with the mechanic....must be my clutch pedal technique then :)

3) They identified the other concerns I had..... weak battery, fine mist of engine oil somehow spraying in a line under the hood right above the near the timing belt and a slight leak at the front passanger strut.

I was happy with the service they gave and the way they honoured the VIP card. Will deffo go back to them.

However...he did mention a few things I was surprsied with and wasn't sure if it was true.

1) Gear box oil is not replaceable

2) Gear shift lever is not the adjustable kind (there cvould be some confusion with terminology here on my part for the following) but neither was the clutch pedal engament point.

Other than that the car is in excellent condition...

I also asked what the pros and cons were of replacing the 14" wheels with 15" wheels....what's the consensus on this if there is one?

Thanks

[Clevo]

"throw" Arm should be Control arm bushings....

[jaay]

Gearbox oil is not replaceable? Lol what do they mean?

Changing from 14" to 15" isnt much of a difference, just the price of tyres go up a bit. Nothing to over the top.

What do you mean by the sticky gear shifting? Like is it hard to put it in gear or something?

[Clevo]

Yeah...sometimes it's hard to put into gear.....it can happen when cold or after driving for a while. I notice I have th push the clutch pedal hard to the floor to make sure I can change the gears smoothly. So I get caught out when I need to change gears quickly. Since the clutch isn't slipping nor does the pedal seem "soft" it seems to me all it needs is some adjustment to when pushing the clutch pedal releases the clutch.

Some gearboxes are locked in.. so the oil never needs replacing. I didn;t think this car was oen of them but I could be wrong.

Maybe I chould go up to 16" then :)

[Hiro]

Yeah...sometimes it's hard to put into gear.....it can happen when cold or after driving for a while. I notice I have th push the clutch pedal hard to the floor to make sure I can change the gears smoothly. So I get caught out when I need to change gears quickly. Since the clutch isn't slipping nor does the pedal seem "soft" it seems to me all it needs is some adjustment to when pushing the clutch pedal releases the clutch.

Some gearboxes are locked in.. so the oil never needs replacing. I didn;t think this car was oen of them but I could be wrong.

Maybe I chould go up to 16" then :)

Auto gearboxes are sometimes sealed for life, manuals usually aren't (especially ones that use gear oil rather than ATF). Your car should have a C52 (or another similar C-series box) which are definitely serviceable and have both drain and fill plugs.

With the clutch pedal, is there a lot of freeplay (ie is the pedal really easy to move for ~1-2" of travel before it firms up)? I'm having a similar trouble at the moment with my 102 where it is hard to change gears when the gearbox is cold (especially when stationary at intersections etc), when it is warm it is ok, but there is a heap of freeplay at the start of the pedal travel (height is ok though) - going to rip the bottom of the dash out this weekend and try and tighten things up, see if I can stay off doing a gearbox oil change or clutch change for a few more months (waaaaaay overdue, don't think the gearbox oil has been changed in ~150,000km)

[Clevo]

Hi Hiro,

I'm going to check myself if there are gearbox drain plugs. I drive a manual.

Followed some youtube clips to try and diagnose the gear stick problem. I do have a little bit of play if I try and move it lighltly say using my pinky finger. Not much but I think this sort of play is normal.

What makes me think it's the gear stick that the problem is that sometimes it gets stuck/sticky shifting when the engin is off. Something does feel a little loose somewhere and like you I feel comprelled to have a look inside by removing the centre console and see if there is anything I can do.

Other than this annoying problem the car is fun to drive.

Just been reading the Australian release version of the car was limited to 85kw of engine power while the Indonesian and Russian version of this car got up to 120kw of engine power. Trying to now figure out if it's CPU controlled restrictions based on Australia's stronger pollution standards and can it be changed :).

[Hiro]

What makes me think it's the gear stick that the problem is that sometimes it gets stuck/sticky shifting when the engin is off. Something does feel a little loose somewhere and like you I feel comprelled to have a look inside by removing the centre console and see if there is anything I can do.

Manual gearboxes (especially cable-shift) will always be hard to shift when the engine is off as there is no rotation to remove misalignment in the baulk ring and dog teeth. Common when trying to go into reverse (which doesn't have synchro, so you could be shifting square onto a dog tooth), you shift into another gear then back in to reverse, the slight bit of motion caused by the aligning of the teeth when shifting into the new gear is often enough to get you within the alignment range to shift into reverse

Just been reading the Australian release version of the car was limited to 85kw of engine power while the Indonesian and Russian version of this car got up to 120kw of engine power. Trying to now figure out if it's CPU controlled restrictions based on Australia's stronger pollution standards and can it be changed :).

You misread, it's 120 HP not kW :P 120HP is about 89-90kW, which is much more realistic (and not much greater than 85). Besides, there is a distinct possibility that Toyota didn't change the power rating of the AE112 7AFE despite it being a slightly different engine to the AE102: AE112s have factory extractors, plus the torque is different (slightly lower maximum torque but at much higher revs). All in all, the cars are ~10-15 years old now, so none of them would be putting out factory power, and you could see more than 4kW variation between models simply from wear-and-tear.

[Clevo]

Thanks for all that info... will do some more investigating as soon as I have some access to equipment that allows me to raise the car safely.

I'm remembering back in the ol days I used to drive an old Ford Transit van and the links between the gear shift and gear box used to come loose and fall off....needing me to jump out of the car in traffic, get underneath and slip the links back on...occassionally burning my arm when it rubbed against the exhaust pipe....