Mk1 1.4 D4D to Mk2 1.33 D-VVTi!

[Cyker]

Woo, so I am now the owner of a Mk2 1.33 Yaris!

It feels so much bigger inside and out than the Mk1 and the seating position is noticeably higher; I'm level with the rear view mirror rather than beneath it, and I can see clean over the top of a lot of cars now!

I'm still getting used to the change in driving position; The car feels further to the left than it actually is and this is making me tend to drive more to the right of centre than normal.

The suspension is a lot less bouncy than my old Mk1; Shocks definitely work better, and despite the extra height the body roll doesn't seem significantly worse.

Tyres are more expensive; £60-70 vs £45-50.

Car feels a lot darker inside, but that is to be expected, missing the sunroof.

The inside is kinda odd - There are a lot more storage cubbies (It has 3 glove boxes alone!!!) but the placement of some of them is a bit more awkward than in the Mk1, and in some cases smaller; The centre console slots are so shallow they can't safely hold anything and the underseat tray is so small it can barely hold the owners manual; The Mk1's one was large enough to hold the manual, a full-sized atlas, and a bunch of power adaptors!

I love the rear seats; They still slide like in the Mk1 (And unlike the Mk3!) but can also recline slightly which makes them a lot more comfortable; Also the headrests can be pushed down so they don't obscure the rear view, unlike in the Mk1, where it annoyed me enough that I removed them!

The interior is noticeable quieter than the Mk1, although there is a deep bassy rumble either from the tyres or the road itself at certain speeds. The engine is super quiet and very smooth compared to the constant dakkadakkkadakka of the D4D, esp. when idle, but I must admit I kinda miss that diesel knock... esp. since it's hard to tell by sound alone what the engine is doing, or even whether it is running or not sometimes! (e.g stall, or start-stop!)

The steering feels nice and weighty when at speed but I can see why people prefer hydraulic PAS to electric PAS; At low speeds the wheel is much lighter and you can't really feel the road - This is very noticeable when trying to reverse parallel park in places that still have ice and snow because you can't tell if you're on the ice or not!

That said, the handling is noticeably more confident than my Mk1, and it doesn't have the same built-in understeer that the Mk1 seems to have, although I haven't done the tarmac test with it yet (There is an indoor carpark near me where, in the Mk1, if I steer more than a quarter turn while moving the wheels will start squealing like they are skidding because they aren't aligned correctly past certain steering angles!)

The gear shifter feels really nice; A noticeably shorter throw than the Mk1 and a much more positive engagement. Also, I think this is the first car I've driven with 6 gears and it will take me a while to get over the novelty of it :)

So far the only thing I don't like is the engine; I went for the 1.33 because it was still £30 to tax like my beloved old D4D, but that's where the similarities end!

It's so much easier to stall, but I just need to get used to it; Have to feed in a lot more accelerator before engaging the clutch - If I put in this much on the D4D it'd catapult the car into the opposing carriageway! XD

It's kinda weird as the engine has incredible launch from a standstill, but seemingly no acceleration while moving which makes overtaking really painful; I've realised I have to reduce my expectations even more than I had anticipated after nearly being rear-ended pulling into a gap! Despite dropping from 6th to 4th and flooring it and revving the engine up past 3000 it just does not have even close to the acceleration of the D4D going from 30 to 40 or 60 to 70. It's really unsatisfying how much noise the engine makes without making any actual progress, whereas the D4D's engine note would hardly change, maybe a bit more turbo whine, but you'd feel it really haul confidently and immediately.

The engine definitely prefers more laid back speed changes; As long as you don't need hard acceleration, it'll happily and very gently accelerate even in 5th and 6th. The 6th gear is a lot more effective than I thought from what people have said here, and will happily carry the car up a shallow hill at 60mph, albeit with a lot of accelerator input.

I find myself driving in 5th and 6th a *lot* to try and get the mpgs up; I'm averaging 42mpg according to the computer; First tank down to blinking at 380 miles, refilled 40 litres so cutting it close! Definitely can't do 100+ miles on the last blinking block like I used to!! I will have to make a point of refulling at 2 blocks rather than letting it go lower!

Compared to 550miles on 35 litres on my Mk1, and that's without me driving economically at all, it is kinda sad.


One nice thing is the oil doesn't immediately go black after it's been changed, but for some reason the air filter is right at the back of the engine; I haven't figured out how to get it out without removing the whole airbox as there is not enough clearance to just unsnap the clasps and pull the filter out; I don't know why they put it in such an awkward place; There is a huge space next to the Battery it could have gone!

Likewise, the cabin filter is super awkward; I can see why they omitted the carrier the Mk1 had as you have to squash the filter to get it in!! It's like they made a mistake when designing it and ended up with it mounted too far to the right of the glovebox.
It's silly little things like that really make me appreciate the attention to detail the Mk1 had!


One mystery I'm trying to figure out is the Start-Stop - It seems to be completely random when it'll kick in, and usually I don't even notice because the engine idle is so quiet anyway I don't notice it shutting off until I push the clutch in and it suddenly revs up!


Also, does anyone know or have a guide on how to get the passenger A-Pillar off? I'm trying to run a USB cable for my Dashcam, but having pulled on it quite hard it won't come off... and I'm too scared to yank on it any harder in case I set all the explosives off and take a 300 mph curtain to the face!

[bathtub tom]

17 hours ago, Cyker said:

I had that sort of problem when switching from diesel to petrol. When I bought the Yaris, I soon discovered it comes alive above 3,000 RPM. I thought it had a misfire until I realised I was hitting the rev limiter (around 80MPH in third).

 

[Madasafish]

I FEEL BETRAYED - a fellow D4D owner has sold out..

Off in a huff...

 

 

Enjoy your new purchase...

[Cyker]

@bathtub - Yeah, I'm finding that too; The quoted 132Nm of torque is supposedly at 3800rpm (vs 170Nm at 1800RPM in the D4D!!) so that makes sense... I just psychologically find it difficult to rev the car that high! Coming from a diesel where I never needed to go past 2500rpm unless I was in full Sunday mode and I'm conditioned to feel that kind of RPM is very bad for the engine... even the sound of such RPM makes me wince!


@fishy - I knooooooowww! I'm sorrryyyyyyyy... Blame that Sadiq Kahn fellow!! If it's any consolation I'm hating every minute of it! (Well, when I'm trying to accelerate... or overtake... or go up a hill....) (Although the steering wheel feels quite nice... and the suspension has been much kinder to my back... and...)

I had considered keeping the D4D for another year or two but after the shenanigans with the dent in my fuel tank messing up the sender and wanting to jump ship before everybody else down here does too it just seemed the right time...

Keep the Mk1 D4D flag flying! To me, it will always be the best car Toyota have ever made!!

[Gerg]

We have a diesel and some petrol cars, so I feel your pain about the lack of torque!  But Japanese petrol engines always liked to rev.  Even back in the '60s.  Admire the gentle warm-up technique in this video:-

Even when diesels were simple, non-turbo affairs, they still had emissions issues.  This one would not have had any EGR to improve things.  You've put this behind you, now.  Millers diesel additive would probably have got rid of a lot of this smoke, do they not have it in the US?

 

[Cyker]

I know, I've even told people not to be afraid to rev a jappy engine in this forum!

It is ironic that I can't take my own advice!!

It also doesn't help that I keep looking at the mpg gauge go from 42 to 12 if i squeeze the pedal a tiny bit more! :S

I wonder if I a supercharger would help... ;)

[Cyker]

Is the boot struts being shagged a common problem with the Mk2s? This one has less lift than a lead balloon!

Having been hit on the head by the boot lid several times now, I'm after some replacement struts - Any one got any recommendations for a source?

[FROSTYBALLS]

If the car was bought from a dealer, I would go back and get the struts replaced either under warranty, if it came with a warranty, or under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

[Cyker]

Oooh that's a good idea... I didn't even think of that!

[Cyker]

Okay, I know we've mentioned the inconsistency of the fuel gauge on a few Toyota cars, but is this normal for a Mk2 Yaris??

I covered 300 miles on the first half of the fuel gauge, but only 100 on the other half!!

Is there a way to recalibrate it more evenly or something?!

[FROSTYBALLS]

Not as far as I'm aware.

[rufnek2kx]

On 17/12/2017 at 6:37 PM, Cyker said:

Also, does anyone know or have a guide on how to get the passenger A-Pillar off? I'm trying to run a USB cable for my dashcam, but having pulled on it quite hard it won't come off... and I'm too scared to yank on it any harder in case I set all the explosives off and take a 300 mph curtain to the face!

No need to take the a pillar off. I was able to push the wire in behind the roof lining, A-pillar and rubber seal (and then took it behind the glove box to the 12v power socket) with fingers (though I had to use a blunt plastic tool at some points where my fingers weren't thin enough). 

[Cyker]

Okay, I managed to get it down the A-pillar but how did you get it down inside behind the glove box??

There is a significant gap at the bottom near the windscreen-end but it's not big enough to get a USB plug through even if I pull on it more...

At the moment I've duct-taped it to the dash-top and run another cable up the door rubber and up and over the dash-top to connect to it; It looks delightlfully half-ubikd! XD