Nafis Malik

New to this topic here.

I too have a Toyota Echo, mine is a 2004 manual sedan variant. Learnt to drive in my Echo, and have had it for a bit more than a year now.

I can indeed agree with you on the car being light and the 1NZ-FE being a pretty nippy engine. I find more enjoyment in nailing the heel-and-toe downshifts in the Echo than actually revving the car out. May just be me though.

I recently replaced my tyres with Bridgestone Ecopia EP150 ($119 for a tyre) which was on a buy 3 get 1 free deal. They make great difference compared to the tyres the previous owner had on the car.

The Bridgestone tyres are an everyday tyre and are good in the rain. Road noise is significantly reduced and I have had a noticable improvement in my fuel economy (from around 5.7L per 100km to around 5.5L per 100km for combined highway and city driving).

As for engine oil, I have been using 20W-50 as my engine does tend to burn oil and has done roughly 265,000km.

I am in the process of getting parts from the wreckers for my Echo to keep it in good running order. Along with getting driving lights, as the headlights do not really provide enough visibility at night.

Keep us posted on your quest for more driving enjoyment from the Echo!

The Echo is a great car to learn in, It has taught me quite a lot. It is old enough to be simple, yet new enough to still be reliable.

Oh dear! That's really got to be a pain.

Electrical issues are always the most annoying.

I hope it all works out for you Glen!

On 6/12/2020 at 8:53 AM, Valkie2 said:

OK, as with all things electric you have diagnosed your problem yourself.

If all doors except the passenger open from the drivers door.

And all doors open when opened from the passenger door.

The problem is the passenger actuator.

You will probably find either a rusty or clagged actuator in the passenger side.

It wont move when opened from another door, but when it is forced from the passenger side it actuates the other doors.

I had that same problem with another car a few years ago, it was water getting into the little electric motor which rusted it up and stopped it from working.

But when forced, it set the other doors off.

you can either replace or clean out the damaged one and all should be good.

Thank you for the advice Glen, I will have a look at the passenger side door actuator. I am planning on going to the wreckers in a few weeks time as some of the other plastic and rubber parts on my Echo are quite worn or broken. I will try and get the actuators at the wreckers if I can as well. I will ptobably end up opening the driver side door too, as it sometimes doesn't work either.

On 6/12/2020 at 9:51 AM, Valkie2 said:

I have made up a simple diagram of wiring for driving lights.

 

This is for toyota echos 2000 models.

Most toyotas are the same, negative switching makes it a little different from normal cars.

Cheers

 

Wiring diagram for driving lights in a Toyota ECHO 2000.pdf 95.86 kB · 1 download

Thank you once again Glen for the wiring diagram! I am planning on wiring in a light bar or a pair of spotlights on my Echo soon, hopefully after I have had a visit from the wreckers for some of the plastic and rubber parts. Your wiring diagram will be a great help! 

6 hours ago, Valkie2 said:

I had them on my old X Trail.

With the standard incandescent halogen lights the Narva were more than adequate, give a good distance.

I have also put a set on my daughters Yaris, perfect for her and she is amazed at the penetration the lights give

But  when I got my MUX, they were yellow in comparison to the standard LED lights on the car, so I had to go brighter.

.

You can do it cheaper using LED light bars or LED spots, it all depends on what you want the lights for.

In my case, I often drive home very late at night down unlit country roads where Kangas like to wander.

The spots I have on my MUX could burn their eyes out at 2 klm, but I didn't need that for most driving.

So on the Echo I went down a bit and bought the cheap lightbar off fleabay for $28.00.

The wiring is minimal and a few metres of wire, a switch, a relay and a fuse is all you need.

all up, using quality parts, it cost me $65.00 to wire up the light bar.

The light bar is nowhere near the powerful as the MUX spots, but the spray beam catches anything on the side of the road and the spots give me about 1 klm up the road ahead.

unless you plan to do some extensive off road or long distance driving, Id suggest the cheap LEDs

The Light bar completely wipes out the high beam of the echo, cant even see high beam when they are on, but with that much light, who cares?

This Echo is my run around car, so I like to do everything on the cheap, but good brakes and lighting is a must in my books.

 

Ill be back home on Thursday, Ill do up a wiring diagram then and give you some tips to assemble.

Its really quite easy and the improvement in lighting is amazing.

 

As for towing, Id prefer to use the MUX, it has a 3 ton towing capacity.

But for a lark , and the fact that I have a tow bar on the Echo, I thought Id give it a go.

My Echo is an auto, so I turned off the O/D, but overall it didnt seem too worried.

Wouldnt like to tow anything serious though.

 

Cheers

Yeah I have been able to find cheaper light bars and spot lights than the Narvas, though I wasn't quite sure if I needed the power of a light bar or if I could make a quality wiring setup either. I am more than happy to do the work myself, just don't have any experience. It would be really good if I could get it done in under $75, as the Narvas are quite expensive for me.

I've been having issues with my door locks, where if I lock or unlock the Echo with the key from the driver's door, all doors except the front passenger door will lock or unlock. Whereas if I lock or unlock the Echo with the key from the front passenger's door, all doors will lock or unlock. I am not sure what the problem is, though I think it may be the driver's door as sometimes it doesn't lock or unlock properly. I have found a few wreckers that have Toyota Echo sedans, and am planning on going as there are a few other bits and pieces the Echo needs replacing.

You are very right on good brakes and lighting, though I would add tires to that list as well.

It would be really great if you could provide some tips, I found a video where ChrisFix did a light bar install a while back (www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8GY69Ci7l4). I will probably end up installing a pair of spot lights rather than a light bar, to give the Echo a more rally look!

As for towing, I don't plan on any with the Echo, though a set of roof racks is probably something I'd look into in the future.

Hope you stay well and safe in these odd times!

That would be really helpful if you could do a wiring diagram.

I found these Narva Compac 100 driving lights at Repco (www.repco.com.au/en/globes-batteries-electrical/globes-lighting/driving-lights-accessories/narva-halogen-driving-light-round-12v-combo-beam-kit/p/A8760739). They come with a wiring harness and diagram, which I thought were quite good, though it would be good to hear your thoughts on them too.

Those blue lights are looking really good in the center console!

Yeah the early 2000’s Toyota paint didn’t fare too well against the Australian climate. The bumpers and door handles on my Echo are all faded, though in certain angles and lighting you can’t tell they are. The rest of the body, however, is in decent condition, apart from some of the panels, which have some deep scratches that are the result of automatic car washes.

This video on YouTube seemed like a good method to touch up some of the panels (www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f9zqVbcZDQ&list=WL&index=47&t=0s), though the bumpers and door handles are definitely going to need a respray.

Never thought that the Echo could cope with towing! Is your Echo an automatic?

6 hours ago, Valkie2 said:

And cheap.

$30.00 ebay, got it in 3 days.

not quite the power that my 4x4 serious headlights have, but I paid considerably more for them than this light bar.

Stupid toyota wiring had me stumped for a while.

I couldn't work out how to trigger the relay.

Turns out it switches to earth not the other way around, so I have to run a positive feed to the relay and then from the relay back to the headlight wiring.

But now it works a treat, nice spray beam and a reasonable spot.

Just have to fix the paintjob and it will be a great little runaround.

Oh, and I added a few LED lights to the center controls, BLUE ones.

But the initial install didn't fully illuminate the whole cluster, so I added a couple and wired them into the circuit board.

Now I have a bright blue centre heater control setup...noice.

 

That light bar is looking good! I have never wired in any auxiliaries on a car before. I try and replace the stock part with an upgraded one, and make do with the stock wiring layout. I am planning on fitting some auxiliary lights on my Echo, though I am not sure how as I haven't done it before.

Post a photo of the interior lights please! Would like to see how you setup looks like, is it the same blue as the instrument panel? I was going to replace the blue lights in the instrument panel with some green ones to make the center console and instrument panel match.

Your Echo is also the same blue as mine! 761 is the paint code I think. My car came with the original Toyota spare paint can that has never been opened, and it sounds like paint has also dried in there! I plan on giving the faded bumpers and plactic trim a proper spray can paint job later on.

Though right now, I am going to have to find some headlights, that aren't yellowed like mine.

On 5/29/2020 at 10:40 AM, Valkie2 said:

Fitted a light bar.

I found the standard candles insufficient to see the road at night, I even got out and checked to see if my headlights had failed and I was driving on the parkers.

But no, they were working, just poorly.

And the high beam, honestly?

Its no brighter and it simply shifts the focus from 3 feet in front of the car to 6 feet.

This light bar makes all the difference, I can now see kilometers up the road.

Very true about the lighting of the Echo, they really are quite dim. It also doesn't help as most of them have yellowed headlight lenses. It definitely a very worthy upgrade fitting a light bar.

Hi There,

Topped up the engine oil in the Echo today as it had been going down little by little. I used 15W - 40 Castrol GTX ,and I could definitely feel the difference! It felt a little more responsive and smoother. So far since the last fill up I have been able to get aroung 550km, and I still have about 2 lights left on the instrument panel. I am definitely convinced 15W - 40 is the oil I am going to service with when it is due. Thanks Glen for the recommendation!

I haven't got any problems with PCV valve or any of the above, as I haven't smelt any unburnt fuel or oil smell or had any of residue. I do think it is the weight of the oil that might make a difference as I have 5w - 40 engine oil in at the moment, standard manufacturer's recomendation. I've still got about 4,000 km before the next service is due to figure out if there's any issues or if a heavier weight oil will do the trick in a high kilometer car. Though it is good to know what to look for. Thanks guys!

Hello There,

I have acquired a 2004 Toyota Echo Sedan with manual transmission from my neighbour with 250 000 + km, and it's actually a lot of fun to drive! Really easy to park as well. I too have the oil burning issue. Do you think it'd be good to service it with 15W - 40 engine oil?

Please keep us updated on your ventures with your Echo!