Some help with T-Sport 190

December 7, 2022

Hi all, I've recently bought a 2005 Corolla T-sport 190 VVTLI in the UK that needs a bit of care and attention and information on these cars is becoming very hard to come by, almost like the info is being purged from the internet - I'll try to upload some photos later to support my thread, but basically I have noted these issues so far:

1. The car has an Injen type aftermarket intake on it, so no factory airbox. It also looks like the previous owner has messed around with the secondary air intake/pump system as I can see a number of blanked off vac pipes and possibly a resistor in there too, it looks a bit like spaghetti junction and a mess. Anybody know if this is required when fitting an aftermarket intake or do you think the previous owner just wanted to bypass the SAI system for some reason?

If I wanted to return it to standard in this area, can I simply buy the intake pipe and airbox and swap over - I'm not entirely sure how all these pipes and vac hoses are configured normally. Does anyone have any diagrams / guides for both the SAI system and the airbox/intake pipe?

2. The engine seems to run really nicely when on the move, goes into lift etc but upon cold startup, it has a very lumpy idle and the exhaust shakes quite a bit underneath, the rpm also sits at around 1500rpm for a long time - where do I start to investigate this issue? Is this likely caused by secondary air intake being messed with?

3. The gear change is really hard to decipher - what I mean is it doesn't seem to sit in the middle of the gear gates, but over towards 5th and 6th gear, so I have to go quite far over to the left to get 1st/2nd, this makes it really hard to work out which gear I'm selecting - conversely, when moving into 5th and 6th I barely have to push the gear lever over to the right, which makes it feel like I might reselect 3rd or 4th gear. It goes into gear quite nicely, but is not very precise - what should I investigate for this issue? Is there a way to reset the gears so the gear lever finds the natural centre between the gears, in between 3rd and 4th normally I presume? Oh and how do I disconnect that awful beeping in reverse??

4. There is a crappy aftermarket stereo in there, which means I don't have any trip/MFA data and the steering wheel controls don't work. If I buy a 2nd hand original stereo, do I need a code for it? Most sellers state they don't have a code.. Alternatively, is there an aftermarket stereo that gives the trip/MFA display like the factory option?

If anyone is in the UK and has any original parts for sale that can rectify the above, please let me know! 👍👍