EGR cleaning?

[Merlin5]

Hi all. I've just bought a silver 2007 1.6 petrol Auris and so thought I'd join a Toyota dedicated forum.

My mobile mechanic friend went and looked at the car for me and said it's a good clean car and it's worth buying. So I did. I'm very happy with it.  It's got some cosmeric things but overall,  looks nice.  Insurance has just transferred over to it and I haven't  really driven it yet apart from a little test drive on the day I bought it, and it drives fines.  

I've been on another car forum where this bloke was banging on about how the EGR should be cleaned from carbon build up and that if it's not, a head gasket will fail and it'll all become very expensive. He said 'it's not a matter of if it will happen it's a matter of when'. He said it's common on Auris, Prius and CT200H (I think that's Lexus?)

Is this all a bit alarmist? My mechanic that I've used for years has looked at cars for me to buy and always picked decent ones. As far as he was concerned, even when I asked him if I should be concerned about replacing a drive chain at any point, (because my cambelt just snapped on my previous car hence my concern)  he said don't worry,  it's a great car, just drive it.

What do you guys say about the EGR? I already went over my budget to buy this car,  I really don't want to be spending £200 - 300 on a carbon cleaning job. My car is at just under 98K.  Are there likely to be noticeable symptoms in advance to inform me if the EGR ever needs cleaning? Thanks for any advice.  🙂

[Gerg]

43 minutes ago, Merlin5 said:

Auris, Prius and CT200H (I think that's Lexus?)

That's good advice, but not at all relevant to your engine type, year and model !

That EGR system can be an issue on the hybrid models (all those you've listed above), but they are 1.8 engines, I've never heard of any this on a 1.6, I'm not even sure that your year is fitted with an EGR valve, so you can safely forget about that.

The 1.6 engine is a good one.

But, it might be worth getting your mechanic to look into checking the rear steel brake pipes where they run behind the fuel tank.  No rush, just worth keeping in mind.  Eventually these rust and become an MoT issue, or worse, but if protected/painted in time then this could save you some annoyance and money further down the line.  A stitch in time an' all that.....

[Merlin5]

Thank you Gerg for the information, that puts my mind at rest!

I believe the MOT is good till next April. But if I can, I'll get the steel brake pipes checked. 

[Gerg]

You are welcome.

The camshaft drive chain is not a weak spot either - unless the oil change schedule has been missed, so an up-to-date service history is useful there.  But that's the same for most brands and models of cars with a camchain - the camchains are often the first thing to suffer if the oil is poor, so worth keeping on top of that. 

The oil isn't special or expensive, and neither is a decent brand of oil filter.  And the difference between a cheapie one and a genuine Toyota filter is only about £6-7.  This is a very personal opinion, but I'd probably pay the extra and get the Toyota filter when it's needed, that's not to say there aren't plenty of good alternatives. 

[Merlin5]

32 minutes ago, Gerg said:

You are welcome.

The camshaft drive chain is not a weak spot either - unless the oil change schedule has been missed, so an up-to-date service history is useful there.  But that's the same for most brands and models of cars with a camchain - the camchains are often the first thing to suffer if the oil is poor, so worth keeping on top of that. 

The oil isn't special or expensive, and neither is a decent brand of oil filter.  And the difference between a cheapie one and a genuine Toyota filter is only about £6-7.  This is a very personal opinion, but I'd probably pay the extra and get the Toyota filter when it's needed, that's not to say there aren't plenty of good alternatives. 

Thanks Gerg. Unfortunately there was no service history, but it's one owner and MOT till next April. Hopefully the drive chain will be fine,  my mechanic seemed very confident.  But yeah,  I don't know about it's oil change schedule history. 

The dealer I bought it from suggested to me that I buy fuel from branded garages rather than supermarkets because he said supermarket fuel can mess up some of the electronic wizardry in the car (or something like that). And he said I'd get better MPG on branded.  I don't actually know yet what MPG I can expect per gallon of regular unleaded. Maybe 40?

Would you know if there's any truth in that? I fed my peugeot 307 on Tesco diesel all it's life, from 51K to 165K over 13 years.  Mind you,  it didn't have anything like the level of electronics as this Auris.

[Gerg]

If you don't know when the last service was done then that's something to look to get done very soon.

You probably know that there are phone apps that will detail your cars mileage/MoT history, so you can see what has been picked up on in the past.

When you can find a Toyota main agent that is open, then you could ask them to see if the car has any main dealer service history, this information has been held on their database for some time.  I think you can view this by creating a 'My Toyota' account at the Toyota GB website, but there probably isn't much to see.  But it is free to do.

Obviously, all petrol and diesel that is sold in the UK has to meet the British Standard specification.  I think the range between supermarket petrol and branded petrol is smaller than the gap between the different types diesel fuels.  I don't think it will make much difference in this car, petrol engines basically run cleanly in comparison to a any diesel from that era.

I don't own one, but your 2007 1.6 is quite conventional in design.  The engine model that replaced it in 2009 (Valvematic) can, just occasionally, give expensive electronic-related problems with its advanced throttle-less engine, but yours has none of those  developments to go wrong.  I would just give it an oil change/service, and until you know how much oil it uses, keep a regular check on the oil level on the dipstick - earlier models did have a tendency to burn oil, with no outward signs to the driver.  Yours might be new enough to have a minor redesign incorporated to prevent this.  Oil burning, if it happens, is probably the engines only weakness,  and if it gets too low (i.e. not visible on the dipstick!) will damage the engine.  So worth keeping it topped up.

1000 - 2500 miles per litre would be at the worst end of the oil usage, if it was one of those.  Slightly contradicting what I've said above, just a few owners have improved the oil problems that some of these engines have by using the highest grades of 'super' fuels, which the car shouldn't ordinarily need, but the extra additives help clean out some of the caked-on crud that causes the engine to burn oil. 

But hopefully yours isn't an oil-burner anyway.  An owner will likely be along to enlarge on when the oil burning engines were modified.  There are topics about it on this forum in the Corolla and Avensis forums.

HTH

[Catlover]

Hi Lee

you can check the MOT history online by going to www.gov.uk, then look for Driving and Transport, then look for  Vehicle Tax,MOT, and Insurance. Type in your car reg and you will see MOT history. No charge, it’s free.

[FROSTYBALLS]

MOT history check - https://www.gov.uk/check-mot-history

[Merlin5]

Thank you Joe and Mike.  Very helpful. Well here's the results. 

Gerg was certainly on the money about rusting brake pipes. It's got advisories all to do with corrosion. There's also a recall. I was aware about a recall on this model, before I bought it. I believe it's an airbag issue. Anyone know more?

Here's screenshots. Don't know how expensive it would be to repair these advisories?

 

 

[MrZardoz]

Hi Merlin, I’ve the same engine in my Auris. The chain drive and simple engine is what swayed my buying choice (and low miles in my case).

Similarly my car came without service history but a quick look at the oil on the dipstick and a visual inspection of air filter (spotless) showed it must have been serviced just before I bought it.

However because I always service both my wife’s and my own car, I’m itching to change the oil in mine incase it’s not up to scratch.

[MrZardoz]

Toyota recall work is undertaken for free although you can’t book in at the moment due to Covid-19 restrictions. All the other MOT fails will have been worked on for it to pass on second test so all should be good there.

[FROSTYBALLS]

As regards the recall, if it is for an airbag (presumably for either the front passenger or drivers airbag), this is probably part of the Takata (airbag manufacturer) series of recalls which have affected thousands of vehicles and numerous manufacturers globally. 

If they are open, contact your Toyota dealer and they should be able to confirm what the recall is for - although they may not book it in til after the COVID-19 situation improves. 

Recall work is done free of charge to the customer.

[Merlin5]

Many thanks MrZardos and Frostyballs. Ah yeah,  Takata is the name that was mentioned to me in regards to the airbag.

As you say, with the covid-19 it'll probably be difficult to get it fixed right now so I'll just get that booked in later on. Hopefully the airbag/s will still work!

I'm just wondering now what state of urgency the rear coil springs,  brake and fuel pipes are at from those advisory notes.  What sort of estimated price would you think it might be to replace (or repair, doubtful?) those parts?

[FROSTYBALLS]

Did they appear as advisories on the MOT that was done this month, or were they on last year's?

[Merlin5]

42 minutes ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Did they appear as advisories on the MOT that was done this month, or were they on last year's?

Good question which I didn't observe from the last MOT! On the last screenshot I posted above, the advisories are on the February 2019 to March 2020 MOT but not on the latest MOT done this month on the 2nd. Now I guess this latest MOT was probably done by the dealer perhaps at his friends garage, so could he in any way get the advisories to not be put on the MOT? Else I have to assume the rusty parts were fixed. 

[FROSTYBALLS]

OK why not get your mechanic to have a look and assess whether the work still needs doing, and, if it does, give some timescale of what needs doing and when.

[frankie406]

Check for all recall work on Toyota recall checker online too.

[Stivino]

Out of curiosity, I just checked the Toyota recall checker and it said this;

We have identified that your Toyota is subject to a voluntary customer service campaign or outstanding safety recall.

That's odd because it's not long since it was in for the airbag recall.

[FROSTYBALLS]

With the Takata recalls, and this applies across a number of manufacturers, issues have been found with replacement inflators, so some manufacturers have had to address further recall action. Not the fault of the vehicle manufacturer.

[frankie406]

2 hours ago, Stivino said:

Out of curiosity, I just checked the Toyota recall checker and it said this;

We have identified that your Toyota is subject to a voluntary customer service campaign or outstanding safety recall.

That's odd because it's not long since it was in for the airbag recall.

This either could be they havent took it off the recall or theres more recall work that has to be done, mine i think recently was the door switch. That was after the air bag recall iirc

[Merlin5]

Thanks guys.  And thanks Frostyballs, I'll get my mechanic to check if corrosion was fixed.  I somehow doubt that and suspect it was conveniently omitted from the MOT certificate. 

Well I had my first drive in it today and it's really nice.  Very nippy and pretty quiet. For some reason it's taking me a while to get used to 3rd gear, spacing feels closer to 1st than I'm used to. But it's fine. 

I was keeping my eye on the range display. I did a 5 mile journey at an average speed of 26mph,  and the range started at 94 and was down to 84 by the end.  I presume range is how many miles I can do on the fuel remaining. That's approximately 2 miles of fuel per 1 mile of driving.  Doesn't that seem too much?

What kind of driving speed would I need to drive at to go 1 mile and see the range only drop 1 mile?

About the fuel gauge. I've never had a digital fuel display. I started with 3 blocks and still have 3 blocks. I presume each block just disappears rather than reducing in size?

 

 

 

[MrZardoz]

Yeah the blocks disappear rather than reduce in size. I find I’m getting around 340 miles from a full fill before the low fuel warning comes on in mine mate. Usually a 50/50 mix of town and motorway driving.

The first block takes ages to go then they seem to speed up as the tank goes down, not very well calibrated really.

[MrZardoz]

Just switch the dash display to miles travelled rather than fuel economy 😄

[MagicBoy]

Also R is reserve, not empty. If I run my Mk2 until it drops off the bottom of the gauge and says 0 miles there's still at least 7 litres in the 45L tank.

I guess it must be a Toyota thing.

[FROSTYBALLS]

As regards the fuel gauge, the blocks disappear faster as the fuel in the tank gets lower. The low fuel light comes on when there are approx 7.2 litres left in the tank - Toyota are quite conservative as regards fuel reserves.