New Member - Old Yaris!

[Cookie-monster]

This is my first post on here - I have come into ownership of my Mother's old Yaris following my Rover 45 going bang. Its one of the very earliest models being registered on 12th April 1999, on a T plate - I'm wondering how many members still own T platers?

Mine is the CDX 5 door in Lucerne Silver and its only covered 54K miles at 12 years old!

I've taken great delight in reading through loads of pages of the Yaris forums and am surprised at just how many problems Yaris has had over the last 7 years as my Mother has no problme at all with her Yaris (now mine).

Its only been in the last year that I have had to replace the original exhaust! and Drop links. - both done myself.

I have never known a car be so reliable, as my mother had the car from 21K in 2004, and its been completely trouble free.

Having read through posts about Mr T, I would have been forgiven for thinking I was reading pages from a Renault Forum lol. Seems Toyota are not what I thiought they were. We all have Toyotas now, My mother has just bought an 06 Reg Yaris 1.3 T3 with 10K on the clock, My Father has a 2001 (Y) Corolla 1.4 GLS (old shape) and my Aunt has a 06 Avensis T spirit 2.0 D-4d, and none of these cars have been unreliable at all!

I have always joined the owners clubs for cars I have owned in the past, and once I get to grips with my Yaris, I will try to help out other members with problmes as I have done on previous clubs - the only problem is I have to start my post count from 0 again.

Since reading about the problems with the latest D4d engines in the Yaris mk2 with faulty EGR valves, and head gasket nightmares, I have advised my father to abort the purchase of an 07 reg Yaris D4d, as they seem very unreliable in the later years. This site is very informative, and has opened my eyes to how poor Toyotas have now become in terms of overcharging dealers and the reliability issues.

Wishing my Yaris a Happy 12th Birthday on Tuesday! and hoping it has a longer life under my ownership - I treated it to its first gearbox oil change today and it really needed it too! Still wondering how many "Original" April 99 Yaris's are still on the road?

[t-spiritpete]

Hello and welcome to the forum,

I wouldn't worry to much about your car in the reliability dept it's almost as good as the ultra reliable Carina E. Toyota are still streets ahead of Renault so no real comparison there then, since Toyota have been involved with France they went down hill just like Nissan have.

Regards Pete.

[Mistermena]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

[Vitz_man]

Hey, I think you're safe enough to be honest, at that age I think i'm right in saying all the Yaris' were made in Japan so not many reliability issues. I had a T plate up to last year with 120k on the clocks. Was still getting 60 odd mpg being careful with the right foot so you've got a fantastic wee car there. Welcome to the forum! :)

[Cookie-monster]

Thanks for the replies - been doing a few jobs the last few days - replaced the dented lower bumper on the back, and sprayed it myself, seems a common dent area, - dont know why they made the rear bumper in two parts, would have been better as 1 plastic bumper complete.

Changed the gearbox oil, and did some undersealing on the oil sump, seems to corrode the sump on the older cars. Last year I had to replace the fuel filler pipe and breather, as this had rotted away into a hole at the top under the back wing - I'd advise owners of early models to check your breather pipe where it joins to the filler pipe at the top, as the pipe rots badly as a result of all the spray from the wheel.

Seems to be very common for these to have a low idle speed, mine seems to be idling at 500rpm - I cleaned the MAF and its made little difference to the idle.

CDX alloy wheels very corroded in places, so am gonna have to rub them down and spray them up in due course. Other than these few things, I'm pretty pleased with the car, and oh - its her 12th Birthday today lol!

Pics:

.

[Madasafish]

Looks well cared for : could be three years old.

[Korny_Yaris]

looks in good condish

strange placement for the road tax disc mind

[Cyker]

They are reliable! :D

You have to remember that people only usually post when they have a problem which is why most posts are about problems.

If you look after the Yaris it'll last forever

Even the Mk2; Most of the problems were the usual "This is a new model!" problems, most of which are fixed now. And even then, they were pretty much all minor problems. (Had a few people with some bigger problems, but you always get bad eggs in the basket, no matter what car!)

The D4D EGR thing is annoyingly common, but it's down to the car not being looked after - You HAVE to drive diesel engined cars hard now and then; If it's only driven around town, idling and low speed, they get full of soot and other crap and that will have bad effects (Clog the injectors, jam the EGR, build up masses of soot in the exhaust and then one day you floor it and FOOM OMG KNIGHT RIDER SMOKESCREEN *choke* *choke*. This is especially amusing when they do the rev-test at the MOT station )

And if you (Not *you* you, but the hypothetical owner :D) don't want to do that then running the car on V-Power diesel would almost totally eliminate the soot formation and crud buildup :)

I am probably slightly biased 'tho as I actually believe the Yaris D4D to be the greatest car ever made :D

Yours looks fantastic tho'! I feel slightly ashamed (Mine soo badly needs a cleaaan)

[Hartside]

Very nice. Stick a private plate on and you would be very hard pushed to guess the age.

[Cookie-monster]

Looks well cared for : could be three years old.

looks in good condish

strange placement for the road tax disc mind

My mother used to keep it in the garage every night, hence the good condition, so its unlucky now as it has to live outside as I dont have a garage - but I wash and wax my cars every week, so it should stay looking nice.

The tax disc I wondered why my mother stuck it so high up the screen - it'll be getting moved when I get round to getting a new magnetax holder, as I dont like it there either lol

My father has read some of the posts on this forum about the diesel engines and clogged EGR valves with rough idling and bad running, also some of the problems with the newer models with water pump leaks, so has decided to keep his old Y reg Corolla for a bit longer, until Toyota decide to improve their quality again to pre recession levels, after all, he's only done 30K in the Corolla, so although its 10 years old, it still looks brand new - not my choice of car though, too old fashioned.

Am gonna try that fix with the washers to try to make the gearchange on my Yaris less notchy, its quite noisy and clunky making the changes from first to second and second to third.

[Cookie-monster]

Very nice. Stick a private plate on and you would be very hard pushed to guess the age.

Nah, - I've done all that with cars in the past, and ended up selling them with the plates cos of all the cost and hassle involved with the DVLA, besides, I want people to think "thats in good nick for an old car!"

Maybe if it was something flash, I would have another private plate, but for the little old Yaris, It can keep the T plate lol

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

Jesus! That is one spiffy looking Yaris and is older than mine! Mine is an X Reg Mrk. 1 which is about eleven years old now. Mine is utterly bomb proof! Not had any issues with it so far. Had a couple of dings in it but its finally being repaired as we speak so hopefully when I get it back it'll be as good looking as yours!

[Red diesel]

They are reliable! :D

You have to remember that people only usually post when they have a problem which is why most posts are about problems.

If you look after the Yaris it'll last forever

Even the Mk2; Most of the problems were the usual "This is a new model!" problems, most of which are fixed now. And even then, they were pretty much all minor problems. (Had a few people with some bigger problems, but you always get bad eggs in the basket, no matter what car!)

The D4D EGR thing is annoyingly common, but it's down to the car not being looked after - You HAVE to drive diesel engined cars hard now and then; If it's only driven around town, idling and low speed, they get full of soot and other crap and that will have bad effects (Clog the injectors, jam the EGR, build up masses of soot in the exhaust and then one day you floor it and FOOM OMG KNIGHT RIDER SMOKESCREEN *choke* *choke*. This is especially amusing when they do the rev-test at the MOT station )

And if you (Not *you* you, but the hypothetical owner :D) don't want to do that then running the car on V-Power diesel would almost totally eliminate the soot formation and crud buildup :)

I am probably slightly biased 'tho as I actually believe the Yaris D4D to be the greatest car ever made :D

Yours looks fantastic tho'! I feel slightly ashamed (Mine soo badly needs a cleaaan)

Thats great and everything - but why the :censor: would you go diesel and have to go miles out of your way to a motorway when you can go petrol and have none of this hassle. I had to laugh - Diesel Car magazines editor (bless his little socks) criticised Nissan for not having the K13 Micra in Diesel lol. Seeing as though the K13 i believe clocks in at less

than 100 g Co 2 emissions per km without DPFs or other such crap in the turbo version (or is it supercharged can't think right now) id say its Nissan that would have the last laugh.

. As someone who actually likes driving diesels - i hate to say it - but with Fiats

new twin air, VAGs 1.2 turbocharged petrol engines and of course our own prius lol - Diesels days are numbered as the primary fuel source for motorcars.

I am genuinely pleased your car has being great but many other modern diesel owners across

all makes haven't being so luck

Red diesel

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

I’ve got a Vauxhall Astra diesel as a courtesy car and hate it. I abhor Vauxhall as it is but a diesel as well?! Whenever I start it up it sounds like there is a dwarf hitting the engine with a hammer and even when stationary it is so loud! Also, there is a drop in power at about 3,500 revs too. I want my little red Yaris back! Can’t wait to pick it up :D

[alfiejts]

That does look very nice! Takes me back to our silver 5-door CDX that we had for eight years...

One thing to watch out for is the plastic wiring loom where it comes out of the top of the roof to connect to the rear hatch. The clips that held it onto the car body got brittle and failed on mine, so that rain water that ran off the roof, leaked through where the wiring joins the bodywork and drained down into the underfloor of the boot.

Worth checking that yours still seals tightly especially as its now kept outside....

As it was out of sight, I just used some duct tape to seal around the wiring clip and the bodywork around it. Lasted for a couple of years, then the duct tape got a bit old & needed replacing, so replaced the duct tape again and that lasted until we sold it....

[Cyker]

Thats great and everything - but why the :censor: would you go diesel and have to go miles out of your way to a motorway when you can go petrol and have none of this hassle. I had to laugh - Diesel Car magazines editor (bless his little socks) criticised Nissan for not having the K13 Micra in Diesel lol. Seeing as though the K13 i believe clocks in at less

than 100 g Co 2 emissions per km without DPFs or other such crap in the turbo version (or is it supercharged can't think right now) id say its Nissan that would have the last laugh.

. As someone who actually likes driving diesels - i hate to say it - but with Fiats

new twin air, VAGs 1.2 turbocharged petrol engines and of course our own prius lol - Diesels days are numbered as the primary fuel source for motorcars.

I am genuinely pleased your car has being great but many other modern diesel owners across

all makes haven't being so luck

Red diesel

That's like saying why do people buy 4x4s or anything more powerful than a 1.4 Auris and only drive them in the city in traffic jams :P

But yeah, I'd agree if the car was ONLY EVER going to be driven in town, my ickle Yaris would not be a good choice, and I'd only recommend the 1.0L in that case.

I do mostly city driving, but as I actually go out on the motorway on weekends I'm not 'going out of my way' to keep the car in good condition, plus I *like* being able to go on pointless drives in the country just for the joy of it and without having to worry about the amount of fuel that I'm burning up.

I must admit the D4D has made me a bit of a diesel convert; Don't think I could face going back to driving a small torqueless petrol engine again (I'd be stalling it all the time! ). Most of the petrol cars that are as cheap to run as my Yaris are so gutless I doubt they'd be anywhere near as fun on a joyride on the twisty hilly country roads I like to go on.

It's not just the cheap tax, low emissions and disproportional strong torque curve; The D4D is just such a great engine to drive. It actually revs higher than my crappy old 1.3 Fiesta and if you don't mind the noise due to the total absence of any damping, it can be driven like a much more powerful petrol engine (Albeit without anywhere near the top speed ;)) and still get decent mpg out of it!

The annoying thing is diesel seems to being killed off right as biofuels are starting to grow; biodiesel is much better than bioethanol (It's actually better for the engine and environment, rather than worse ), and if higher percentage blends were more widely available and certified then the emissions ratings of diesel would be even lower (With the exception of NOxs, but that's what research is for! ;)).

But here's hoping someone cracks high-density electricity storage and we can be shot of both of them in favour of Tesla-style electric engines! :D

Besides, it's 2011!! Where's my electric flying car Tomorrow's World?!?!!