D4D Reliability And Known Faults?

[Confused_Cheese]

Hiya,

After experiencing some nasty problems with my current car, I'm looking to upgrade. My parents have a corolla at the moment and its been really reliable so i'm thinking of giving toyota a go. I'll be looking to keep the car for over 5 years more than likely, and I need something that's going to be really reliable as i do around 14k a year.

I'm pretty new to Yaris's, so I was wondering if anyone can help and give me any advice on whether the 1.4 D4D in general (will be looking at either a 58 or 08/57 model with about 20k on the clock) is reliable, and if there's anything to watch out for on yaris's in general?

I'll be buying from a main dealer for the warranty and other benefits.

Any help/advice is really appreciated!

[carlowlad]

All i know is the head gasket on older models was prone to failing. But i believe it was on the first ones, pre 2004. Other than that, nothing i know of. Mine runs great. Easy to service.

[Madasafish]

You can tell the level of relaibility by the number of questions on this forum = virtually nil.. (of course there are relatively few diesels as well).

Apart from needing new disks (salt) and ARB bushes, my 2003 diesel has been faultless. And the Yaris is not one of the most reliable cars in the UK for nothing.

[Cyker]

The Corolla and Yaris are near-bullet proof cars.

For the v1 Yaris, as long as you get a 53 or better plate, you have nothing to worry about. Only ongoing issue I have is a power loss if I drive it around town without going on the motorway for long periods, but that seems a common problem with Toyota D4D diesel engines. Just giving it a good motorway burn usually fixes that ;)

For the v2 Yaris (06+), the earlier ones had some niggles (Mostly fixed during recalls or servicing) but they're pretty much bullet proof too.

If I was going to get one, I'd aim for 07-08 ; The newer ones are basically limited to TR and T2 specs, which sucks :(

The hardest decision IMHO is whether to get the 1.33 or the diesel

The Corolla is a very nice car too tho'; It might be worth seeing if you can get your parents to sell you theirs and let them worry about getting a new car

[muddy90]

Mine had problems with smoke comming out the back in huge quantities which eventually turned out to be intermittent open circuits on 1 & 4 injectors (obvious huge power problems and cutting out) but it was easily fixed with a trip to the scrap yard and two connectors off a Renault which uses the same injectors, so dont necessarily take it to the main dealer for everything . Other than that it goes like the proverbial off a shovel and sips fuel like a parsiminal church mouse.Also a getting the turbo spinning on the motorway every now and then does work wonders. Happy motoring.

[Leanne-1992-Yaris]

Nothing wrong with getting a Yaris but if you can afford it I'd get a Corrolla 1.8 T-sport..the only thing that tends to be wrong with them is the ECU will need resetting because they tend to act up and the engine light keeps coming on..can get them replaced though so no problem. Good idea to move to toyota though they are really reliable

[Confused_Cheese]

Thanks for the replies guys :) Do you mean problems with the ECU's on the yaris or corolla leanne?

[Leedseagle]

Morning all 

Im just in the process of buying an 2002 1.4 d4d, 122k miles on clock as my Smart Fortwo cdi got written off and i do 80 miles a day to and from work. 

i bought a honda stream with same sort of mileage, faulty tdc sensor after few weeks (maybe why former keeper sold it) i replaced it and been brilliant since, 

anything i should be aware of on the Yaris? 

Cheers 
Greg

[bathtub tom]

Other than its MOT expires in a couple of days and a year ago it had advisories on its rear coil spring mounts!

 

[Leedseagle]

Yeah saw this, comes with full 12 months mot, i can do spring mounts just worried bout head gasket on this year model 

[Catlover]

Both my wife and myself have had 1.4 diesel mk2 Yaris, actual size was 1356 if I remember correctly. Wife’s was 58 plate and mine a 59 plate. I do believe both were pre dpf, so no faffing about with that. Wife’s was 5 speed g/box bit IMO needed a sixth gear. When I got mine, a T-Spirit it had 6 speed box which was a lot better IMO.  Both ran perfectly, mine was doing about 62 mpg and the wife’s 58ish (I put that down to the 5 speed box).       
What I liked about the TSpirit was the back seat could be slid forward to give more boot space, handy for when two going on hols. Rather uniquely the TSpirit back seats could recline slightly giving rear passengers a comfier journey.    
The dashboard in Yaris is very good, digital speedo, shame when they went back to round displays on later models.      
There was a recall on my 59 plate car, but not the wife’s, to do with the turbo charger. Many cars were checked, a few had a new turbo charger fitted, mine was one of them.       
Only other problem we had was a new water pump required on my TSpirit.

[Madasafish]

We have a 2003 D4D...  owned since 2005

Odd faults due to age:  glowplugs,rear spring broke,heater reistor failed, winding mechanism in drivers door window..

Watch out for waterpump failure and watch temperature warning light.Check coolant regularly..Check radiator is not corroded or covered in antifreeze stains - if so it may fail suddenly .. Any of these could give HG failure.

 

Check antifreeze and use Toyota OAT stuff..  (If you do decide to change coolant, you need to bleed the system of air.. easy but takes time)  No antifreeze and HG corrodes..

 

Watch for corrosion in raer wheelarches - front /rear of sills and rear..The galvanising fails and rots.. Fuel filler pipe corrodes due to mud (£100+)