2004 Corolla T sport

[LayerCake]

Hi I've just purchased a corolla T sport which I'll be picking up on Monday.

Service parts ordered

Lift bolts ordered

MTEC brakes and discs will be bought 

Roof liner is sagging and interior dome light is hanging slightly, will do this myself and order new roof liner fabric + 1/2 of the centre console storage door flaps swings open on lift.

Main thing is that its 124k miles with one previous owner, the gent used it as a daily for work, dry stored it (I think) and religiously serviced it. He passed away (may god rest his soul) and his daughter sold it to dealer. At that mileage what else outside of service should I focus my attention on? I'm getting the timing chain inspected at work and will probably change it soon, brake fluid flush, should I do coolant change too? Inspect the OCV filter? 

Teach me your ways fellas 

[oldcodger]

Hi,

No one come in yet ?!   if you Search the forum for ' T Sport '  you should find some helpful old posts.

Sounds like you know most of this points to check on the TS engine, but don't forget to change the gearbox oil and pollen filter behind the glove box.

Coolant typically changed at 100k miles, worth giving it a good flush as the cabin heater matrix can junk up if  the coolant gets dirty.

On our 1.6 there is an extra drain tap at the back of the engine block, though do not know if the TS has one ,  if it has be careful as if it feels very tight, you could break it off !

Something to look out for is the driveshafts, partic the N/S,  as they can corrode under the rubber damper in the middle of the shaft and let go under sudden heavy acceleration.

Those dampers are just held in place by some claw type fingers and can be drifted up the shaft so you can see if they are corroding.  Rust treated ours then returned the damper and sealed it with silicone.

 

[Mooly]

I had a TSport from new and kept it 8 yrs. Fantastic car really.

One possible issue can be the forced induction (part of emissions control I think) that uses a fairly powerful electric motor. This caused worry among many owners when new because when it cuts in you can see the illuminated dash momentarily dip in brightness. You can also see the headlights do the same. That is normal. On older cars the motor can become noisy and in some cases seize/fail causing (I think) a fault code/indication.

Auxiliary belt tensioner can squeal a little from cold. You can actually get oil onto the bearing by tricking it down a screwdriver blade. Happened on mine at around 4 yrs old. A little oil and it never did it again.

Standard front shocks are not standard Toyota parts (might be Bilstein from memory) and the fact I had one leak at only 3 or 4 yrs old reinforced my experience of German cars (Audi) and why I would never ever buy a German car again.

Bonnet switch for the alarm is at the base of the windscreen. It is set so sensitive that the alarm can be triggered as the bonnet cools and move slightly. Easy fix. Quick and dirty is to add a thin (1mm) pad to the bonnet to press the switch a little more. I elongated the brackets mounting bolt hole and moved it upward that way.

Can't just think of anything else tbh. I never had issue with the lift bolts and regularly took mine to 8k plus. Bullet proof engine.

[APS]

On 10/14/2023 at 8:13 PM, LayerCake said:

dry stored it (I think) and religiously serviced it.

At that mileage what else outside of service should I focus my attention on? I'm getting the timing chain inspected at work and will probably change it soon, brake fluid flush, should I do coolant change too? Inspect the OCV filter? 

Not much really. If it has been serviced properly, then the brake fluid and coolant should have been done too.

• Rust: under sill covers  
• Engine mounts - excess driveline slack
• CV joints - any clicking/knocking on full steering lock
• Suspension components: shocks will normally get a bit tired around 100 - 150k miles

Reg. OCV - If the car has had frequent oil changes the filter is probably going to be clean enough. You can obviously check (once thoroughly warmed up) if it goes on high lift at 6.2k and stays there. If there is any hesitation, drop out of high lift or not going on high lift at all, then the OCV filter is the first thing to clean. Obviously, if you are going to do liftbolts anyway, you may as well pull the OCV too.

Considering the previous owner's age, the car has unlikely spent most of its time on the highlight cam with two wheels in the air. I suspect you can just give it a good inspection, drive it, and listen out for anything unusual. It will most likely give you many miles of reasonably trouble free driving. By the sounds of it, you should have a solid car there.

[LayerCake]

Appreciate everyone's replies, hopefully will have this car up and running by next week. Need to add coolant and gearbox oil to my to do list. I had a look and didn't see any rust, there was a crack in the driver's indoor area so I gave it a screwdriver test and nothing happened. Hoping it'll be rust-free but will underseal the vehicle at some point. The coolant reservoir was below the maximum more level so that may explain the weak heating in the car slightly too.

I'm just waiting on the dealer to get an AC regas and oil top up will be collecting tomorrow.