Hello From New Member And Question No.1

[frank.lui]

Hello, eveyone. I am new in this forum. Well, before I joined, I have read some threads here, thanks to the suggestion from a car-lover. I tried to find out if my car having a time chain or timing belt. It is a big issue to me, considering several years ago a snapped timing belt costed my £1600!

I have an Avensis 1.8 VVT-i GS 2002. I got it in 2003 from TOYOTA UK (I guess it was its company car). My first question is about fuel cleaner. I sent my car to dealer for service and I was told a recommended fuel injection system clean is due at 50000 mile. What is it, anyone knows? The total charge is £24, including £8.5 material. My previous Golf had a injection system clean some years ago which costed me £70. This time it seems too cheap. Maybe they just pull a bottle of feul injection cleaner into my tank?

Thanks in advance

[jamesholden]

No belt, the VVTi's are chain.

Since you have a VVTi engine in particular the 1.8 please keep a very close watch on the oil, they are notorious for burning it and ended up needing new engines. A litre every thousand miles isn't uncommon.

[frank.lui]

No belt, the VVTi's are chain.

Since you have a VVTi engine in particular the 1.8 please keep a very close watch on the oil, they are notorious for burning it and ended up needing new engines. A litre every thousand miles isn't uncommon.

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?! That is horrible! I did not pay attention to the oil before. I normally drive 15K per year and the car is almost 50K. When would this happen? By the way, Avensis seems having power steering issue. My car and my friend's one all called back by dealer for steering.

[aven_man]

You will see numerous threads in this forum on oil consumption and steering. I had a 01 VVT-i with high oil consumption (approx 1 litre/1k miles) and noisy steering. Gaskets were replaced in engine to cure oil consumption but 2 dealers could not fix steering after replacing rack so just traded in for new model.

Keep a close eye on oil for first couple of k miles but since car has 50k you would think it has been caught and fixed by now. But don't assume, need to keep close eye on oil.