Corolla 1,6 Motor Problem

[mczgb]

Hello,

I'm new on this forum so let me pls introduce myself. I live in Croatia (so pls excuse my bad english), and I am a Corolla owner since April 2004.

So far I think that I've done the right thing choosing Corolla instead of Megane II or Mazda 3 etc.

Unfortunately, recently I have heard of a problem with 1,6 motor and I heard almost the same story about 4 times.

The story goes like this - after 20-40.000 km, motor suddenly lost most of the motor oil which lead to almost fatal damage. Fortunately, guarantee lasts much longer than that so all these storys end with replacing almost entire engine free of charge. However, it's still a very unpleasant thing and I wouldn't want to expirience it on my skin. The official explanations were in most cases bad fuel which damaged piston rings and that caused rapid oil consumption. I find this explanation very hard to believe.

So, I would be very grateful if you could tell me if you have heard of similar cases, because now I am a bit worried for the future of my car.

Thanks

[TheNissanMan]

havent heard of that problem on this board with quite a few corolla owners, I would be very surprised if that was the case...

[tunix]

Hello Man,

Welcome to the forum! I spent my summer holidays in Croatia - beautiful place :)

Regarding oil consumtion - was your oil Castrol SLX? There was a serious problem with this oil and VVTi engines. The oil was causing serious damage resulting in huge oil consumption. My father experienced this problem with his Avensis 1.8 VVTi at ~40 000 km. Toyota tried to keep the case quiet and tell something about poor gasoline and stuff, but finally they replaced the engine.

Castrol SLX formula has been updated, so now AFAIK it's safe to use this oil with VVTi, however with my experience I recommend you Castrol TWS. When I bought my car (VVTLi engine) it was filled with Mobil 1. Oil consumtion was noticable, but not serious. After changing to TWS there's no oil consumption at all.

Best,

tx

[mczgb]

Hello Man,

Welcome to the forum! I spent my summer holidays in Croatia - beautiful place :)

Regarding oil consumtion - was your oil Castrol SLX? There was a serious problem with this oil and VVTi engines. The oil was causing serious damage resulting in huge oil consumption. My father experienced this problem with his Avensis 1.8 VVTi at ~40 000 km. Toyota tried to keep the case quiet and tell something about poor gasoline and stuff, but finally they replaced the engine.

Castrol SLX formula has been updated, so now AFAIK it's safe to use this oil with VVTi, however with my experience I recommend you Castrol TWS. When I bought my car (VVTLi engine) it was filled with Mobil 1. Oil consumtion was noticable, but not serious. After changing to TWS there's no oil consumption at all.

Best,

tx

←

Thanks for your answers. I'm not 100% positive, but I think that the oil they put in VVT-i here is Castrol TXT 5w-30 - I'll check that information. Since recently they started offering alternative oil - some kind of Valvoline. I do not trust that brand very much, so I asked for Castrol first time I changed oil (7500 km). My intentions are to change oil on the half of regular interval, and I also check oil level every 1000 km, so I hope this will prevent some problems.

But still, it is very interesting that all of these problems occured after the oil change. This is something to think about...

[mczgb]

BTW, I didn't notice any oil consumption so far - only color change...

[spwolf]

Hello,

I'm new on this forum so let me pls introduce myself. I live in Croatia (so pls excuse my bad english), and I am a Corolla owner since April 2004.

So far I think that I've done the right thing choosing Corolla instead of Megane II or Mazda 3 etc.

Unfortunately, recently I have heard of a problem with 1,6 motor and I heard almost the same story about 4 times.

The story goes like this - after 20-40.000 km, motor suddenly lost most of the motor oil which lead to almost fatal damage. Fortunately, guarantee lasts much longer than that so all these storys end with replacing almost entire engine free of charge. However, it's still a very unpleasant thing and I wouldn't want to expirience it on my skin. The official explanations were in most cases bad fuel which damaged piston rings and that caused rapid oil consumption. I find this explanation very hard to believe.

So, I would be very grateful if you could tell me if you have heard of similar cases, because now I am a bit worried for the future of my car.

Thanks

←

it is not really an common problem and yes it is caused by sumpor buildup on piston rings, but again it is not really common ( i should say very uncommon) and even if it does happen Toyota will cover it. I didnt hear of the problem happening on any Corolla we sold, nor it happened on our rental Corollas (3 that have gone more than 200,000 km). And hey, if it didnt happen in Mostar then I dont see why should it happen in ZG - INA should have that real Eurosuper come 2005.

I would not be worried about it, there is really nothing mechanical you should be worried about in Corolla, it is pretty nice car - we still have one with 100,000km after 1.5 yrs and you wouldnt be able to tell if it is used or not. And Toyota has by far the best warranty in Croatia - no matter what you do to it, it will be fixed under warranty...

I did hear about a lot of FSI's in new Golf V giving up after less than 1,000km though, gotta love the fuel and VW doesnt cover it at all :-).

p.s. TXT is one of the best oils you can get for your engine, it will be fine. You really dont need to change your oil sooner than 15,000 km unless you really drive in very hard conditions...

p.s.2. some changes were made to the O rings long, long, long before april 2004 (i think it was in 2002 or something) that made them more resistant to sumpor build up that hardened O rings. But again, dont worry!

[Twincam.GTi]

Hi guys

These are problems no one as ever heard about in England (to my knowledge). Most Toyota engines do 150,000 miles + (that would be well over 200,000km) with no problems at all that we know of.

Alot of my friends and I with our cars change our oil every 4000 miles with something like Castrol or Duckhams semi synthetic of the grade around 10w/40. Regular oil changes prelong the life of any engine. So many manufacturers claim their cars can nowadays do around 10,000mile (15,000km) between oil changes, this I think is silly; it may be ok when car is new but what about it's long term life span when is 10+ years old.

Didn't realise people in Eastern Europe were runing Toyotas, last time I was in Eastern Europe (a few years back) it was mainly Trabants, Wartburgs, Moskvichs and Volgas.

Happy motoring

[mczgb]

Thank you all for your answers. Well, I wasn't worried when I heard the first case, but after hearing the same story few more times from different sources, I began to worry. Spwolf, INA sells very bad gasoline (especially diesel), and most of it does not meet latest Euro normative. That is why I buy gasoline (Eurosuper plus 98) only on OMV, which was much better rated on all tests. It is also true that Toyota has the best warranty here, but when you have to change half of motor so early, there is not much comfort in that. Anyway, I am very pleased with my Corolla and if nothing bad happens to her, I will enjoy driving it at least next 5 years...

Twincam GTI, first of all we were never a part of Eastern Europe (politically or geographically). Second, I invite you to Croatia and if you see any Trabant, Wartburg, Moskvich or Volga, I'm buying you a dinner. It is true that our standard is not very high, but we're not so poor either. For the last few years, bestsellers in Croatia were Opel, Renault, Fiat, Peugeot, Skoda and VW, so those are the brands that you will mostly see on our streets. ;-)

[CTS03]

Hello mczgb

Aren't there any Yugo/Zastava cars in Croatia? We still have 20year-old Yugos running in Greece! They were sold also in USA around 1990!

I learned sporty driving with a modified Yugo 45 with a 65bhp Lancia 1.1lt engine (Weber double carbuerator).

[mczgb]

Hello mczgb

Aren't there any Yugo/Zastava cars in Croatia? We still have 20year-old Yugos running in Greece! They were sold also in USA around 1990!

I learned sporty driving with a modified Yugo 45 with a 65bhp Lancia 1.1lt engine (Weber double carbuerator).

←

You're right. Yugo/Zastava was made in ex Yugoslavian country Serbia and we all drove them because they were very cheap. I also had Zastava 128 and I'm glad I don't have it any more. :D

There are still many Zastavas on our streets, but not for long I hope. You mentioned "sporty driving with a modified Yugo" - there are still some driving competitions in our country on which modified Yugos make good results.

[Twincam.GTi]

Twincam GTI, first of all we were never a part of Eastern Europe (politically or geographically). Second, I invite you to Croatia and if you see any Trabant, Wartburg, Moskvich or Volga, I'm buying you a dinner. It is true that our standard is not very high, but we're not so poor either. For the last few years, bestsellers in Croatia were Opel, Renault, Fiat, Peugeot, Skoda and VW, so those are the brands that you will mostly see on our streets. ;-)

If I have offended you in any way please accept my apologies; I was not impliying anyone is poor. In fact you people nowadays probably run newer cars than my friends and I. As for Trabants and Wartburgs I think they are Ace, there's quite a club in UK for such cars.

It's just I remember the days when you were 'Yugoslavia'.

Aren't there any Yugo/Zastava cars in Croatia? We still have 20year-old Yugos running in Greece! They were sold also in USA around 1990!

I learned sporty driving with a modified Yugo 45 with a 65bhp Lancia 1.1lt engine (Weber double carbuerator).

These Yugos are very popular in the USA, they tune 'em and race 'em in clubsport events.

My favorite Yugo is the clone of the 60's Fiat 600.

Let the good times roll.

[mczgb]

If I have offended you in any way please accept my apologies; I was not impliying anyone is poor. In fact you people nowadays probably run newer cars than my friends and I. As for Trabants and Wartburgs I think they are Ace, there's quite a club in UK for such cars.

It's just I remember the days when you were 'Yugoslavia'.

←

No need for apologies my friend - nhf from me... :) I just wanted to correct you because the things you said better apply to some other Eastern-European countries then Croatia. Moskvich, Trabant and Volga were never too popular here because we had our own poor-quality/cheap vehicle production. 15 years ago we mostly drove Zastava, Skoda, Fiat, Lada & VW (Golf was produced in Sarajevo). Now, most of that junk is taken off the streets...

[corsol]

mczgb:

About petrol:

well ....U really try to avoid INA stations because they really have bad petrol(...and also DIESEL........I heard a lot of complaints about it....cars stoped,etc.......but as soon they refill the tank in SLO everything was OK).

I also saw a test of petrol(&DIESEL) samples from different(OMV, INA & PETROL-near SLO border) pumps........................and INA was the worst.

About OIL:

In SLO(venija) Toyota also use Castrol TXT, and there is probably nothing wrong with the OIL.

I think that Castrol TXT is also used in YU & BiH because the importer of Toyota is the same(TOYOTA ADRIA is importer for SLO, CRO, BiH and YU).

...and thank you that you remind me to check the OIL(... 36 000km .... )

[mytbyte]

Pozdrav spwolfu i mczgb-u!!! :D (Hi to spwolf and mczgb translated from Croatian)

One of the people that had the problem with the 1,6 VVT-i mentioned by mczgb was ME...I haven't been to this forum for quite some time and so forgot that there are a lots of people here that could have cleared things up, especially spwolf who is in the neighbourhood and is more likely to have heard of the problem...maybe he can help me with something else here:

Now that they have replaced nearly the complete engine, I can hear a noisy sound from the engine compartment between 1500 and 2500 rpm, much like a tin can that was punctured or something rattling, buzzing...at first the service didn't believe me and then they admitted that it could be the intake manifold (I believe that is what it's called) or "usisna grana" in Croatian for spwolf to be sure what I'm talking about... ;) anyway, they said that it can get a little noisy and that they could replace it... Are they talking rubbish since the original engine was absolutely smooth in operation so if it was a common problem I would have noticed it before, i.e. in the two years that I have had the car before the engine went bust...I believe they messed something up when they replaced the lower part of the engine...

Let's hear it, people!!! :D Thanx!

[Damnjan]

Hi, i'm from Macedonia and i own corolla 1.6 sol (2002) with little over 105000 km.

At 60.000 previous owner changed the engine (in warranty) because of oil loss.

I bought my corolla 4 months ago and all the time I'm hearing some buzzing inside the dashboard. But when i push the cd player it stops. I have some knowledge of mechanics but i never open the dashboard before. I think it myth be something easy to fix but i would like to hear if someone else had the same problem and how did you fix it .