Paddy The Corolla - 1998 1.3 E11 3-Door

[mickburkesnr]

Here's your 500 mile(ish) update.

Exhaust is blowing something chronic. I'm putting it up on some ramps at the weekend and going to adjust the exhaust properly. I've a proper MIG welder now so I'm going to do the modifications to it myself. I'm contemplating welding the middle box to the back box, but not to the catalytic convertor, even though thats where most of the blow is coming from. The back box has made a nice curved hole in the bumper as well which is handy for when I go to cut a better hole for it.

The car doesn't seem as nippy as it did before, even after a good long jaunt down to London and back at the weekend. It seems a bit gutless, and it reminds me of how my Peugeot 107 was when I used a 3rd party catalytic convertor. It feels restricted, more than it should. So I'm going to look at getting a more free flowing catalytic convertor for it.

In terms of fuel economy, I remember on a full tank it would do 320 miles. So far it hasn't managed to get to 300 miles, let alone what it did do. I could deal with a lack of power from the cone air filter if it returned better economy, but it just isn't happening. So I'm going to reinstall the original air filter system and use a K&N panel filter. That should remedy some of the short commings the car has at the moment.

The knock is driving me mad, and I'm 99% sure it's the exhaust pipe that I haven't screwed in properly. So when the car is on the ramp at the weekend I'm going to tighten that back.

General driving has been a breeze really. Very enjoyable, firm suspension, so yeah I'm happy with all of that.

[tooSavvy]

Ooff! ..... And there's me ..... with a tube of 'flexible vinyl cement' to resolve my ills...

lol

2sav

[Notoyboy]

I'm tempted to suggest fixing the blowing exhaust first, before thinking of changing the catalytic converter.  I know in the past of a vehicle, decades ago, which was well down on power until the blowing exhaust was fixed.  Something to do with back-pressures.

[mickburkesnr]

10 hours ago, tooSavvy said:

Ooff! ..... And there's me ..... with a tube of 'flexible vinyl cement' to resolve my ills...

lol

2sav

Well I used some GunGum when I was putting it together, so I'm going to clean all that rubbish off anyway. I might weld it, although I've never done it before so who knows. I have an inch to take off the back pipe leading to the back box as it's slightly too long (causing it to be lower than it should) so I'd have to weld that when I cut it anyway.

10 hours ago, Notoyboy said:

I'm tempted to suggest fixing the blowing exhaust first, before thinking of changing the catalytic converter.  I know in the past of a vehicle, decades ago, which was well down on power until the blowing exhaust was fixed.  Something to do with back-pressures.

I was thinking that after writing what I said. It's just the way the engine responds to me at the moment is identical to how the 107 behaved. But like you said I'd be better off fixing the blow before looking at the cat.

[mickburkesnr]

Spent the weekend under the car. Didn't do half as much as what I thought I could achieve on Saturday, but that's because of the heat. But I dropped the exhaust down off the car, the blow was coming from the joint between the catalytic convertor and the middle box. So that's been gun gummed up although I'll have to smother it with sealant soon as the gungum will harden and break off.

I cut a 1" piece out of the exhaust pipe leading to the back box, which has allowed the pipe to move up in to the tunnel under the car so there's no risk of it catching. Impatience got the better of me (I'm blaming the heat) and I realised that the 0.8mm flux welding wire I bought to weld the exhaust together wouldn't fit through the welder I bought. Turned out that the tip needed changing, I didn't know, so I attacked the exhaust pipe with the arc welder I bought a few years ago.

Safe to say that I used too thick of a welding rod and too high an amperage, so I blew through the metal. I had a piece I cut off it a few weeks ago that I cut up and patched the holes with the MIG welder when I made a Sunday morning dash to Halfords to buy some 0.6mm welding wire. Until I started welding I didn't know the wire wasn't meant for a gasless MIG welder, so the welding is shocking. But, cruicially, I didn't burn through the metal. So in the space of a weekend my welding already improved in that respect! But safe to say after that debacle I didn't bother welding the pipes together.

Other annoying thing is that, with the 1" removed, the back box now sits more or less where the original back box does, meaning I have a hole in the bumper where I thought it would sit. It doesn't anymore, so I'm going to have to think of a way to improve the look of it.

Tonight's job, through to Friday, will be consisting of laying a floor in the boot. I don't have a spare wheel and I wanted to utilise the space better as well as make the boot floor flat - as the original spare tyre cover was completely knackered. Might also fit the mud flaps this week. The Speakers came last week as well, but are sat in their boxes in the boot waiting for a weekend where I'm going to be drilling holes in the stock Speakers brackets to fit the Pioneer Speakers I bought. Won't be this weekend, might be able to do it next weekend but I'm not sure yet. I don't have a photo of it at the moment (phone died as the charger gave up the ghost on Saturday night) but I painted the trim around the drivers window in a gloss black paint. It looks alot smarter now so I'll do the passenger side this week too, as well as touch up the grey parts of the body that I painted in primer ready for a top coat.

One issue I have at the moment is that on cold start up it squeals a little like it's the belt again. I may not have tightened it, but as it's squealing the belst are more or less trash now, so I'll have to tend to that at some point due to the wife moaning at me about it every morning I bring her to work.

Speaking of the wife, I was at the pub with a few friends the other week and I was talking about the number plate I bought with "My Wife Hates This Car" on it. As with all pubs that have your friends there, it sounds like a good idea when someone says that you should do something on YouTube about the car (a la HubNut). Long story short, that's what I'm going to do shortly. More for the next project car, but this will be included in it too. I don't have a lot else to say on it at the moment although I've got the website set up. But, separately, I bought a new lens for my film camera and took a few photos of the Corolla for the website. It's 35 years past it's expiry, hence all the grain, but it makes Paddy look all arty without the need for an Instagram filter! Although it's a bit depressing that the second photo/bluer photo was taken last week in the lovely British summer.

The idea now is that while I film the work on the car(s) I can take photos of it as well. But that's far and away in the future.

[mickburkesnr]

This is roughly a 2,000 mile update.

So the major point is that I tracked down what the knocking sound was - turned out the nut for the front right shock absorber wasn't tight enough. Tightened it down and it's been a dream ever since. I drove to Hereford about two/three weeks ago for a wedding and I was late, and it gave me the opportunity to tackle the single lane country roads early on a Saturday morning. The car is even more stable and planted than I first thought and it's a dream to drive now really.

Power is suspect still, this is down to the cone. I've decided to get rid of it in 4,000 miles time when I do it's service (every 6,000 miles on this thing!). I'm going to get the K&N flat panel air filter and see what happens.

In the boot I've started putting in a new "floor" to make the most of the wheel well space.

So the idea is to build a box type of thing in the wheel well and for there to be a hatch on it, so I can keep the air compressor and tyre gunk in there as well as a few essentials. That's as far as I've gotten with it due to other commitments now but I'll knock it out over the coming weeks when I get chance.

I got hold of a black vinyl sun strip for the car too, which was a lot thicker than normal. I went for a plain black strip just to see what i'd be like. So far it's been good, keeping the sun out of my eyes just above the mirror.

I made a mistake with the application of the vinyl which left a noticable mark. No worries though, as I ordered a sticker by mistake (it was the wrong size) but it was big enough to cover the defect.

Finally added the obligatory "Made in Japan" stickers on the sides of the car:

I've purchased some Speakers to replace the standard ones in the Corolla.

Nothing fancy, although I wanted to get Pioneer Speakers to match the head unit. They're 3 way Speakers, so will be a little better than what is there already. They're mounted differently though so I will have to mess about fabricating brackets etc. It'll be the next proper job I do on the car actually.

And, other than checking the engine for oil, I've no complaints - other than the power. Fuel economy wise it's back up to 320 miles on the full tank which is the same as what it was before. Hence why the cone is doesn't nothing. Although I will say the high pitch whine I got when doing 60mph has gone. All that means is I'm going to tape up every joint so there are no air leaks!

[mickburkesnr]

I think I'm at the 6,000 mile mark now, the odometer is reading 111,101 miles! I do have a fair bit to say about it, but I'm lacking the time at the moment to put it down. I will say though that I drove Paddy to Berlin and back in October! The only thing that happened was that the bumper nearly fell off at the indicated 124mph I managed to get to!

I am starting to write about the other cars I've got, and I've written a bit about Paddy on that website here. I've got a Lada to work on with a Rover engine, so there's not really any Toyota stuff related to them so I can't put them here.

I'm away for a week now again but when I get back I'll give a full update. 

[tooSavvy]

What...... You no mention on here? 😞

 

2sav

[mickburkesnr]

I would've if it was Toyota related 😂

I've an engine swap in mind for the Corolla. Just need to get the Lada done first!

[mickburkesnr]

It's been a long time since I did any work on Paddy! Life gets in the way, other cars take up your time, but sometimes life does open doors for you to find time to do things. So while I work from home I'm spending my lunchtimes sorting out the rear bumper on Paddy.

I'm basically doing to the rear bumper what I did to the front. I'm painting the black trim white as well as painting the rear spoiler. Both of these are textured, and I'm using the same process as I did for the front bumper above. This time though I've decided to film the process.

So here it is, I hope you enjoy it!

 

 

[mickburkesnr]

Like a bus, nothing happens for ages then two come along at once.

This is the next video in the series on what I'm doing bodywork wise with Paddy. In the video above I go through the filling steps etc. This episode there's a whole lot of sanding, filling, sanding, wiping, spraying etc.

I did also end up discovering a bit of rust hiding under the boot rubber. Fairly insidious really which surprised me. I've managed to get on top of it, which you'll see in the video below!

 

[mickburkesnr]

Over a year since I last updated this, and nothing much has changed. The car is still here, in a state of disarray really as I never re-fit the interior bits to the boot.

However, it was on sale for a bit. I considered I had my use out of it, and I needed something a little bigger. I had got the RAV4 at this point, so stuck it up for sale. No one bit on it for some reason. Then a friend of mine lost his mother and was losing his finance car at the same time, so I passed the Corolla to him to use for a bit. He's the first person to drive Paddy since I've had it - and he's been nothing but complimentary about it. It drives really well, sounds great etc.

Since then the RAV4's been scrapped - the ungrateful b*****d that it was - and I've since got a Land Cruiser. The one thing I thought about when I was under the RAV4 was that, given a few years between that and the Corolla, the Corolla is such a better car. It's in so much better condition.

It very, very nearly got swapped for a van but that fell through as I couldn't store the van anywhere. 

So, much to the displeasure of the wife, the Corolla is staying with me for the foreseeable. But other than (maybe) replacing an engine mount which I think is kaput, there's not much to do with it thank God!

[Luke22]

On 7/22/2017 at 8:59 PM, mickburkesnr said:

What a lovely day of getting gravel rash and getting wet ankles.

Yesterday it absolutely peed it down, so I couldn't do a whole lot. What I managed to do was change the brake pipe leading to the rear offside brake drum. Bought the proper flare nut spanner from Halfords and it was an easy enough change. I left the rest of it as I needed to adjust the shock absorber as I noticed it wasn't square.

As well as that, I decided to swap the metal bushes from the poly bushes on the trailing arms. Here's a photo of the one the engineering guys made up for me (left) compared to the ones that came with the bushes (right).

Only difference between the two (aside from dimensions) is that the new ones are made from mild steel, not stainless. If this was going to be a permanent fixture I'd have waited for them to get the stainless steel to mill. But as I said before, the whole rear end will be getting new stuff next year so this isn't an issue.

What was an issue was this horrible thing. The nearside brake pipe on the drum. Stripped to hell even with the flare nut wrench.

Bad photo, but it was raining and I was annoyed so I wasn't fussed. Couldn't do anything really because of the weather, so I waited for today. But in preparation for any weather today, I found the world's worst gazebo and turned my front drive in to a rally stage prepping area.

Horrible thing, but it cost £15 from Homebase and it'll do for the next month while I get this car sorted.

Before dealing with the brake pipe, I made the most of the dry weather and decided to drill out the anti roll bush bolts that had broken off. They were drilled out fairly easily, although they went back in to the chassis. Not too bothered about that. The thread was slightly damaged from the drilling, so I took the tap and die set and re-thread them. Took the two anti roll bar bolts that didn't break off to test the two newly threaded holes. Perfect fit, tight as well. Job done!

I ended up taking a heat gun to the brake union and on it's highest setting I got it glowing a little. I took a pipe wrench and managed to get it off. It wasn't easy, even with the heat. The union looked corroded, the rust had welded it together. But I installed the new pipe without an issue, along with the rubber hose too. So the rear brake drums are now connected to the brake system for the first time in a month.

You may notice behind the brake hose that red bar. Well thats the anti roll bar, connected to the new shocks with some new stabiliser links.

I divided the anti roll bar bolts, so right now there's one bolt holding both sides to the chassis. I'm going to have to go to Toyota next week (yay!) and order two new bolts, so this isn't technially finished but it's allowed me to crack on. I've no idea what the big black thing is called, sub frame I think? Anyway, that's been stone chipped and had the control arms attached to it.

Ignore the exhaust mounting at the top, but you'll see the control arms attached. You'll also notice the fuel tank (under the anti roll bar) is a bit wet looking. There was some corrosion along the lip of it, so I converted the rust and stone chipped it.

But with the trolley jack and some blocks of wood (in lieu of any help) I raised it to the body, thrown on some bolts, and boom. Rear suspension (more or less) finished!

With that battle won, my attention turned to the front of the car. Along with the attention, the weather also turned. So I was a bit limited to what I could do.

I don't have any photos of it, may take some tomorrow, but there's a stabiliser link holding the anti roll bar to the control arm/wishbone. So, logically I decided to take these off first. Allen key goes in, 14mm spanner on the nut, and I go to work.

NOTHING HAPPENED. I can turn the spanner, and I can feel tension on the allen key. But when I look at it, the inner thread where the allen key slips in to isn't moving (which is correct) but the nut that is moving isn't moving along the threads towards me if that makes sense? It's like it's broken internally (although I didn't feel/hear it break) and is just stuck. Same applies to the bottom nut too.

Now it might be that I didn't spend enough time on it, but I was spinning that spanner for a good 10 minutes and it doesn't move. I'll give it another bash tomorrow morning, but I might just cut the nuts off with a Dremmel. I didn't bother on the near side (this was only on the offside) but I might just take the Dremmel to that, by pass the whole hassle of trying to get it off. It's not as if the links are going to be used or they have anything that I need to reuse.

Aside from that, very happy. Time's ticking though, I have 4 weeks to get this mechanical work sorted before I drive it to Ireland. I think now though I've broken the back of this, any tools I was missing I've got now and any bits and pieces I've got here with me (double checked that as best I could).

What was the torque settings you used for the rear subframe to the body of the car, there’s 3 bolts either side that mount to the car, I’ve tightened mine to 75nm and I’m afraid to tighten them anymore incase I strip one of the bolts 

I can’t find any torque settings for the e11 Toyota Corolla rear subframe to the chassis 

[mickburkesnr]

On 5/4/2022 at 5:47 PM, Luke22 said:

What was the torque settings you used for the rear subframe to the body of the car, there’s 3 bolts either side that mount to the car, I’ve tightened mine to 75nm and I’m afraid to tighten them anymore incase I strip one of the bolts 

I can’t find any torque settings for the e11 Toyota Corolla rear subframe to the chassis 

I tightened them until they were tight. They've been on there since and grand.

[mickburkesnr]

It's been over a year since I last posted here!

Just to bring this to a close (for now anyway), the Corolla was sold last year and is currently living it's best life in good hands I think.

Maybe one day it'll come back, maybe it won't, who knows. But I hope whoever sees this thread when they buy their own E11 finds it helpful!