99 E11 Sr

[PaulinhoT]

Well I thought I would take some time today to post up a little about my lovely little E11 Corolla 1.6 SR.

I saw the car advertised around Christmas time 2010 and watched the advert with interest. I thought to myself that it wouldn't take long for the car to sell, but given the time of year and the current economic climate the advert stayed in the local car marts. So after nearly a month I phoned the guy and arranged to go and take a look at the car.

I was met by a nice guy called Grzegorz Karniey and just from walking around the car I knew it was well looked after. We spoke for a while and he said the only reason he was selling the car was due to buying a Honda MPV (wife and kids). I got down on my knees and had a look under the car, opened the bottom, checked all the body work and chassis, engine etc and quickly established that the E11 was one very straight car.

Grzegorz spoke up and said what the lowest price he would except for the car was, and I offered him £100 less than that with a promise of my handshake I would be back within 24 hours with the cash, we shook hands and 24 hours later the car was mine. Grzegorz had owned the car for 3 years and had looked after it very well.

The drive home was all on B-roads and took about 1-hour, but the drive was very enjoyable and put a big smile on my face. The car was a little hard on the suspension which caused the car to bounce a little mid corner, but these were all things I could fix over time. The 4A-FE actually surprised me with how much mid range torque it had, and would freely rev up to the redline.

The SR isn't by any means the quickest car I have owned, and at 40 years old I've owned some semi-nice cars 328i's, Sapphire Cosworth and an endless list of tuned and modified cars (also a fair few Super Bikes). But there's something about the Toyota chassis that I put above and beyond a whole hoast of modified Civis I have owned, so I feel my future long term investment will reward a very nice and capable car.

So here are the very first photos I took of the SR, I took these on the way home from buying the car. The location was an industrial estate in Dorset.

As you can see the car has been lowered and rides on some MiM 16" alloys, the car has also had some kind of exhaust modification done to it, the pipe route under the car seems very striaght for a factory fit, and the tiwn boxed silencer isn't oem. The car also has a 100% genuine T.T.E front bumper and rear spoiler fitted which really add to the look of the car. The plastic is a little faded on both of these parts, but I'm talking to a local body shop about a respray.

The wheel was dirty in less than 30 miles of winter driving, I do love white wheels though.

So after checking all the levels and driving the car to work and back for a week I took my first bit of time off to clean the engine bay. It wasn't overly dirty and still isn't as clean as I want it, but the weather is so sad at the moment I just don't have chances to get out and get on with it as much as I would like to.

This is the before photo of the engine bay:

This is the after photo:

Basically I spent about 15 mins with some Maguires cleaning products, and although not finished it looks 70% better than it did.

I then set about trying to sort the dash mounted alarm led, it was staying on constantly, which was annoying me a little. Every know and then it would catch my eye, and I didn't want the distaction.

So with a few tools I set about replacing the led with a flashing one, I hoped this wouldn't mess with the alarm. When I removed the panel the led was fitted in I found it was a simple 2 feed led.

So with my tools I cut the led out and set about putting in the flashing one.

Once all fitted I clicked the panel back in place, and it worked a treat, and the alarm is still fine. Although now it flashes it annoys me even more lol..

[PaulinhoT]

The next little job I had planned for the car was to upgrade the headlight bulbs, I normally do this with every car I own. The reason for this is down to were I live (Dorset), as most of the roads are B-roads and are unlit.

I always use Osram night breakers as the bulbs are 100% legal yet offer upto 90% better visibility, there also a pretty cheap modification.

I get these from Regal Auto Bulbsbut most car accessories shops will do them, just remember not to touch the tips when fitting them.

Fitting my bulbs

When I went to fit them I thought I would take some photos of the work involved, I know it's a simple straight forward job, but you would be surprised by the amount of people that used to come into the business I used to run and ask how it was done.

So when you open the bonnet you will find some plastic secure lugs:

These are pretty simple to remove with a screwdriver, just turn and lift them out.

On the N/S (near side ( neariest to the kerb)) you will find the air induction pipe gets in the way of the back of the headlight, it's a simple clip to remove it, and this will allow your hands (and my sausage fingers) to get to the back of the headlight unit.

Once you have cleared some space its a simple pull of the plug on the back of the light (making sure the ignition is off) to remove it.

Now on the back of the headlight you will find a rubber cover, simply take this off to allow yourself to get to the bulb.

Once the rubber cover is off you will be able to see the bulb secure clip:

Many people have different ways of taking these off, but if you look you will see a little "L" looped shaped part of the clip, depending on your car you will either push this in, down or up. The clip is hinged and will swing out the way

These are the two bulbs placed next to each other:

As you can see (poor photo sorry) the one on the right has a slightly different tip, its a silver tip with a slightly different coloured glass right at the end. This is what most uprated bulbs looks like.

Right the bulbs will only fit in the light unit one way, but please if your going to handle them do so with a tissue or wear gloves, as the moisture from your fingers will shorten the bulbs life

Now with the bulb in simple put everything back in reverse order and test them out..

I normally put some bulb grease on the pins of my bulbs to keep out moisture, but this is just my personal choice although I would highly recomend doing it

[PaulinhoT]

One of things I mentioned that annoyed me on the car was the faded plastic rear wing, so with some advice I used some of my Autoglym Super Resin Polish which worked wonders on the wing.

This is the before shot:

After a quick rub it looked like this

Although these results aren't permanent, so I will still have to have it resprayed at some point :censor:

The front bumper I did the same but sadly it just didn't show the same results, so that's definitely got to be resprayed, oh well :!Removed!:

[sizzla538]

your car is lovely mate and white 6 spoke wheels would look fantastic on it. got anything planned next? induction? tints? strut brace?

congrats anyway, enjoy!

[sizzla538]

your car is lovely mate and white 6 spoke wheels would look fantastic on it. got anything planned next? induction? tints? strut brace?

congrats anyway, enjoy!

[PaulinhoT]

I have a list of plans for the car i.e.

New adjustable suspension,

Adjustable top mounts,

Polly bushes,

Lots of chassis braces,

Buckets etc

I'm looking at some Speedline Corse Type 2108 wheels, as I want the rally look , I was looking at WRC body kits but I don't think I will do that now as I would preffer spending the money on engine work or a possible engine swap. I've been talking to both Fensport about a rev 2 3SGTE conversion and Woodsport about a 3s-gte 2.0ltr turbo running a safe 250bhp or a 2zz-ge 1.8ltr with vvti running 190bhp as Paul there said its lighter and comes with a 6 speed gearbox. Although I'm not looking at doing this until later in the year. The prices I've been quoted vary from £1500 to £5k, but I'm in no hurry to spend my money and want to do this right. Power is an odd thing and have been down this route before and I've made some poor choices along the way lol.. I think 200-300bhp from the E11 Chassis is plenty for the UK roads now, although the 109bhp it has at the moment is pretty quick.

Most of my past cars have been stripped out to save on weight, but I'm not the smallest of chaps anymore so I'm not sure I will be doing that

I think I will concentrate on handling (tyres,wheels,shocks,springs,bushes,mounts,braces) first, then look at power and braking

Thanks for the positive comments (now to hide the computer history so the misses doesn't see my plans )

[EXS]

nice job so far :D, a couple of easy "upgrades" you could do is to de-badge the rear hatch and lay the rear wiper flat.... easy and no cost

about the suspension i can recommend yellow ajustable koni`s or bilstein heavy duty shocks:) afordable and they will take alot of punishment

[Ben_G6]

I want your tte wing so bad!!! Wish I could find one :(

Car looks excellent mate! Can't wait to properly detail my G6 :)

[4afte]

the 3S-GTE in front wheel drive guise is surprisingly stable in this chassis, lots of pome and still corners very well given the extra weight.

[john905]

very nice mate

[PaulinhoT]

Thanks for all the good comments, I do enjoy driving it

[KPARRIS-JONES]

Nice stuff mate an that is a lovely example!

Keep going with the Thread too as you obviously have some knowledge and experience behind you to back up your decisions. I hope you can build it up to be what you were hoping for!

KP

[PaulinhoT]

Well today was sunny (and I was off work) so I took some time to look underneath the car at the exhaust. It seems the car has a T.T.E back box fitted to it, not sure if these are rare or not ?

It doesn't sound much different to an OEM exhaust ? so not sure what benefits it offers ? Once I've decided if I'm doing the engine swap then I will decide what I'm doing about the exhaust. I would preffer a more Japanese look which may require a custom fabricated exhaust, but we will see.

As for the weather....

[sonur]

I WANT THAT SPOILER

Damn your G6 looks nice!

[dangermooser]

Proper looking car that mate, it makes a difference when the weather is nice its so much easier to work on the motor

[So I bought a G6R]

Very nice looking car mate!

I do like that rear spoiler, looks like a previous owner spent some cash on some TTE accessories - always very handy...

I've just bought a '99 G6R - what's the difference between that and your SR? Engine is still a 1.6 @ 109bhp - is yours a 5 or 6 speed?

Enjoy!

[PaulinhoT]

Mine is the 5 speed SR, same engine same BHP etc, I think your G6 has rear brake discs, mine has rear drums... not sure of any other details, dash and trim I think ?

[So I bought a G6R]

Cheers Paul - I don't think you're missing anything not having 6 speeds mate. Rear discs can be added quite simply if you wanted to I'm sure? Your interior looks the same as mine from what I've seen.

I do like your wheels, think they'd look quite good in grey - not sure if I'm going to refurb my g6r alloys or not.

With your engine bay cleanup - which Maguire product did you use?

Keep up the hard work!

[PaulinhoT]

Thanks,

As for the engine bay, well I used :

Engine Dressing

and

Engine Clean

I used some hot water with a bit of normal car shampoo on the inner wings

[So I bought a G6R]

Cheers mate, looking forward to seeing what you get up to next with it!

[PaulinhoT]

Well despite trying I have had NO luck with any WRC body parts.. So I think I'm going to order some over fenders (Japanese style). I'm also looking at getting some 17" Speedline alloys and some BC Coilovers.. not sure yet. Seems a lot to outlay on parts lol

Here's my bodged photoshop idea...

Do you think they suit the Corolla ?

[EXS]

looking very good mate , got a set of 240z fenders with boltholes myself, but the don`t line up with the arches at all unfortunately.

So if you buy a set make shure to double check the measurements ;)

[PaulinhoT]

Thats useful information, thanks :-)

[So I bought a G6R]

Ooh, don't know about the bolt holes mate, but some smoothed ones could look tasty? Have you any pics of other Rollas with them on?

[PaulinhoT]

I haven't found any yet... I would like some wrc arches, but I've emailed a few companys and heard nothing back