CTS03

In your sportivos, you should not use 05W30: http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/inde...?showtopic=2357 However, I do not understand why 10w30 is OK, since both SAE oils have similar viscocities at high temperatures.

I also have rattles in 2003 5d Corolla TS (Europe) when the windows are 4-5cm open. I can hear intense rattles just closing the doors, not needing irregular road surface. Toyota mechanics spray some silicone but after 2-3 weeks the situation is awful again. I think the window rubber frames are badly engineered materials. There is some obvious variation in tightness from door to door. My front doors are worse!

I understand that 75W90NS is the proper REDLINE gearbox oil for our cars: http://www.redlineoil.com/products_gearlub...=60&subcatID=20

Is there a fix for this problem of the selector? Can they just change the ball and plastic enclosure and are they supposed to be consumables? Is this related to the "gear rattles" problem? My experience is that when the gearbox is cold and at low speeds (e.g. 3-4K rpm), it is difficult to move the selector into the "gear sites". Most frequently, it appears difficult even to find the "gear gate" itself (e.g. from 1st to 2nd): my right hand is ... searching around. Everything becomes smooth when the car is warm and/or I accelerate very hard during changes. We could say that this car was built to be driven really fast; constantly above 5k rpm! This means driving within the city becomes a nightmare! My clutch has been replaced because of burning smells in routine driving maneuvers; it was slipping very easily. It is rather very tight now but I think this should be the right situation. I had "gear rattles" appearing above 4.5-5K rpm but my mechanics somehow fixed it up to the lift point. Probaly by inserting some of the usual soft materials. There has been no recall for selector cables change in Europe.

In this very live forum there has been a lot of discusssion about the gear shifting problems in sportivos, which seems to be a common characteristic of gearboxes of sportivos or Corolla T Sports or .... In Australia, the shifting problems have been correlated to clutch adjustment problems. I personally think the gearbox and the gear changing mechanism are problematic. And I would like to bring into discussion another parameter that may affect affect our gear shifting: the gearbox oil. I did some search and it seems that there is a variety of gearbox oils and some of them are explicitly recommended for gearboxes with difficult changes: MOTYLGEAR 75w-90 (tecnosynthese: semi-synthetic) The fully synthetic MOTUL Gear 75w-90 also claims improvement in shifting. The synthetic VALVOLINE Gear Oil 75w-90 is supposed to make easier the shifting at lower temperatures. The same claim is not repeated for the semi-synthetic and mineral Valvoline gearbox oils. This may be related partly to marketing strategies but there should be also some real effect. You may check this site: http://www.valvolineeurope.com/index.asp?p...602c65548fe5c32 So, we must be sure that our dealerships use the proper oil for our problematic gearboxes.

I did some search. It seems that 5w-40 and 10w-40 do not differ too much in viscosity specs, while 5w-30 is really different. It is also rather impossible to find synthetic 10w-30 from any company.

I agree but Greek Toyota dealerhips provide only semi-synthetic 10w40! And we are supposed to change oil only there for guarantee reasons. Last time I decided to use semi-synthetic 10w40 instead of synthetic 5w40. But next time I will go to them with my own oil; synthetic 10w30 or 10w40 ! Could you have fully synthetic 10w30 oil from Toyota?

Hello from Greece You might be able to give me some useful information about the proper engine oil for Corolla T Sport (your sportivo), especially since Australia and Greece may not differ too much in the range of temperatures. According to our corolla's manual, oil SAE 5W-30 is reccomended only up to 10°C (50 Fahrenheit) for the 2ZZ-GE 1.8lt engine, while it can reach above 38°C for the other engines! Could you please write what oil SAE is used by your Toyota dealerships for your sportivos? My problem is that Toyota Hellas provides synthetic oil only with SAE 5W-40. However, since it also belongs to the 5W- family, I am not convinced that it would be OK for temperatures up to 40°C in the summer.