1.6 vvti oil consumption solved?

[Chris6656]

I'm considering buying an Auris 1.6vvti from 2007 (cheap and hopefully reliable 2nd car), but I have read quite a lot about the high oil consumption issue that affected these engines and I'm wondering if this car would be affected. I have read that the issue was sorted by Toyota at some point but different years are given for when this happened, so I thought I would  ask if anyone here knows if a 2007 engine would be an updated one or not?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Chris

[FROSTYBALLS]

The oil consumption issues were supposed to have been production addressed in the Auris' predecessor, the Corolla, from June 2005.

[Konrad C]

The Auris 1.6 uses a different engine ZR series, while the Corolla use the ZZ series. They have nothing in common. The ZZ oil consumption was fixed, so later cars should have no issues. The early Auris had two versions of the ZR engine. First the dual vvti for the first couple of years, then the Valvematic from 2009 onward. Oil consumption was never a major concern like the previous ZZ engine. If you can get the slightly later Valvematic model, you also get the 6 speed gearbox.

The subject was covered in a previous post -  

 

[Chris6656]

Thanks very much, that's very reassuring information!

I thought I read on Honest John that the early Auris cars were affected but maybe I have got that wrong.

I will try to get the Valvematic engine if I can get one in budget.

Thanks again, I knew this forum would know!

Chris

[furtula]

I would stick with the 1.6 2007 Auris, i had same fears when buying it, but oil consumption did not influence those models, but 1.33/1.4 ones.

Oil consumption should be around 1L per 6k miles, which i consider normal for a car that age.

[Chris6656]

4 hours ago, furtula said:

I would stick with the 1.6 2007 Auris, i had same fears when buying it, but oil consumption did not influence those models, but 1.33/1.4 ones.

Oil consumption should be around 1L per 6k miles, which i consider normal for a car that age.

Thanks for the reply, I would also consider 1L per 6k reasonable for a twelve/thirteen year old car. I was originally considering the D4D but I'm a bit worried that a second hand diesel at that age is possibly a big gamble, so I changed to looking for the 1.6 petrol and I was sure that a Toyota petrol would be bulletproof - until I looked at the internet! Anyway, thanks for the reassurance, there seem to be quite a few out there with good service histories that also look like they have been looked after well, so I hope I can pick a good one.

[furtula]

I'm pretty satisfied with mine, had it for 3 yrs now i think, i did have to replace the water pump, the bearing was on its way out, and i had power steering stop working on me.

It's a good purchase, revs nicely, goes well, consumption is pretty nice too, i dont spare mine at all, and sometimes rev it up to 5k as i have a very steep, but windy hill, so you need to give it a lot of gas before switching to 3rd. Consumption on mixed roads 42 mpg, if you take a longer trip, while crusing, even with some hills and windy roads, it does 48-46 mpg, with AC on, on a hot sunny day.

Known faults are water in boot, goes behind the light cluster seal, or in my case, through the bodywork gaps, so be sure to check the trunk, and take the spare wheel out, see if it has rust on it, to be sure it was dry.

Also, while parking, if you use power steering a lot, parallel parking, taking 5 mins for example, on next start the power steering can "die". This happens very rarely, but it can happen.

You need to unplug the module, wait 10 minutes, plug it back in, and start the car, it should work (unplugging the Battery does not help). Problem here is, you need to take the whole dash apart. It's a 1.5 hour job total. 

Happened to me once, i replaced the module with a used one, they are cheap, it worked out of the box. 

When i park it, if i use steering a lot, i usually wait a bit, then turn off the car, not sure if it helps, but has placebo effect on me. I do have the old module, which i tested and it's functional, so i guess it's just a weird quirk.

 

Other than that, the can should serve you just fine.