Just Bought A Celica, Worried About Oil Problem

[citizen__erased]

Hi guys. I've just bought a 52 plate Celica that was originally registered in February 2003. It appears that it isn't the facelift version, so am I likely to suffer from the oil problem I keep hearing about?? It's the 140bhp VVTI (sports pack) in chilli red with a mileage of 29000.

[edwardio]

I've got a 2002 140 Celica with about 77k on the clock and mine is just fine. I hardly ever have to put oil in her. So it's a sort of pot luck situation really. I hope that you don't get hit with it.

However, have fun with it as you've bought a good car.

Read this link for some more information.

VVTI engine issue

[citizen__erased]

Thanks for the reply. Good to hear yours is ok. I'm picking mine up on thursday, fingers crossed it's not an oil guzzler!

[citizen__erased]

Can anyone else reassure me about this problem? I guess I could still back out of the deal if this was a major issue.

Would be a shame though as it looks to be a lovely car with a full service history. Got a great deal on it too.

[T600]

Has it got Full Toyota Service History? If it has then you should hopefully find it's covered under warranty anyway if you get exactly that problem.

Alternatively I guess there's a good chance it won't have the problem anyway if you look after it. We've no way of knowing what percentage of cars are affected; probably not that many really, you could be lucky.

That said, if I were buying one I'd want either FTSH, or else would buy a face-lift one or a 190 unless the price was very very good.

[citizen__erased]

The car has a full service history and looks very well looked after. I've bought it from a local Subaru dealership for £6000 plus my old rover as trade. It has a 3 month warranty on it. Hopefully the percentage of cars affected is not all that high.

[MoGG84]

The oil problem is only present on the early models apparently 2000/01 (which mine is) so I read. Mine drinks the oil if you drive like an idiot, economic driving, it's just like any other car. The previous owner apparently wasn't aware of this, and it had to have the big end shells replaced just after I got it, got it knocked off the price though. Caught it early on too, so it's been sweet since then. If you look after the thing it'll be alright, if you abuse it then expect your bank balance to go down.

lil tlc goes a long way.

[citizen__erased]

Thanks for the advice. I have every intention of keeping it serviced and taking good care of it as it's about the most i've ever spent on a car. Plus it's a car i've always wanted ever since it came out. Fingers crossed i've got a good one.

[edwardio]

Everyone is being spot on with this. It's got service history which I take it you've seen, so that really good. It appears looked after, which is good and you know you're going to look after it because it's cost you a lot and you really want it. Same situation I was in when I bought mine but didn't know of the oil problem, and I've had mine coming on 3 years.

Just in case you've not actually seen the service history, demand to see it. Before I bought mine, I had another Celica which I only owned for 2 months. 3 weeks int owning it the engine light came on. It stated that it had serivce history when I bought it, but it wasn't present with the car as they we're waiting for the previous owner to send it in. To cut a very long story short, it it's past it had to have a valve(s) replaced. It had a bodge job done on it, had the wrong size fitted and hand the head machine bodged to fit it and 2 piston were leaking. I bought it from a garage called Marshams in Maidstone who got it from Toyota. They sent it to Toyota and after weeks of investigation found the problem & said the only possible solution was a full new engine. So I got all my money back and went privite, and bought a cracker! Still never did see that service history - I wonder why!!!

You've got 3 months warrenty, so all I can say is. Fit it up to max with oil and check it every few days, and vary your driving style between each check. So drive carefully, check oil, driver mixed, check oil, drive hard, check oil, get some good long journey's in, check oil etc. Betwen those you shouldn't have to fill her up that much or at all. I fill mine more up now, as I do a long journey everyday and drive mixed-hard. However I only fill her up every month and that's only with a little bit of oil.

[citizen__erased]

Thanks for the feedback edwardio. I have seen the log book and it has proper Toyota stamps in it, so it all looks genuine and above board. The cars previous owner was a woman who traded it in for a new Subaru. I've looked at several celicas so far and this one is by far the best. I just couldn't resist at the price I managed to get.

[aquazi]

As stated toyota will replace the big ends of car which suffer from the oval piston problem as long as you have a full service history.

May not be much of a concelation to those who have this problem... but I have never needed to top up my facelift 140 with oil in the three years, 28k miles i have owned it.

[Fresian]

Everyone is being spot on with this. It's got service history which I take it you've seen, so that really good. It appears looked after, which is good and you know you're going to look after it because it's cost you a lot and you really want it. Same situation I was in when I bought mine but didn't know of the oil problem, and I've had mine coming on 3 years.

Just in case you've not actually seen the service history, demand to see it. Before I bought mine, I had another Celica which I only owned for 2 months. 3 weeks int owning it the engine light came on. It stated that it had serivce history when I bought it, but it wasn't present with the car as they we're waiting for the previous owner to send it in. To cut a very long story short, it it's past it had to have a valve(s) replaced. It had a bodge job done on it, had the wrong size fitted and hand the head machine bodged to fit it and 2 piston were leaking. I bought it from a garage called Marshams in Maidstone who got it from Toyota. They sent it to Toyota and after weeks of investigation found the problem & said the only possible solution was a full new engine. So I got all my money back and went privite, and bought a cracker! Still never did see that service history - I wonder why!!!

You've got 3 months warrenty, so all I can say is. Fit it up to max with oil and check it every few days, and vary your driving style between each check. So drive carefully, check oil, driver mixed, check oil, drive hard, check oil, get some good long journey's in, check oil etc. Betwen those you shouldn't have to fill her up that much or at all. I fill mine more up now, as I do a long journey everyday and drive mixed-hard. However I only fill her up every month and that's only with a little bit of oil.

Edwardio, hope you don't mind but I was going to look at a Gen 6 Celica at Marshams. Did a google search to find out any info on them and came across your post so joined the foum. Would you recommend purchasing from them? I see that you got your money back on your Celica, I assume it was a Gen 7, but was their after sales service any good?

Thanks in advance.

ps. Did try to PM you, but could not get it to work.

[edwardio]

I woudln't touch them with a barge pole. Ok now I'm going to rant!!

I bought the car from them and they said they'd service it, touch up some scratches and provide me with the log book. When I collected the car, took it home and checked it over I was unhappy. 1)The service wasn't done despite it being documented as done (oil not at correct level, oil filter not changed and spare tyre found to have a nail in it). 2)Scratches not touched up. 3)Service history not provided - though was informed that the they were waiting on this from the previous owner.

I returned the car to them and they did the work, after I made them look stupid!

3 weeks later the engine light came on. I took it to them who then sent it to a Toyota garage that they got it from. I still hadn't got the service history yet! I asked for a temp car and was given a Megane which sounded as though the engine was going to blow up! So a little over a week I got them to change that and they did, but it was a Civic that was full of rubbish and only did 15 miles to the gallon.

I kept calling them about what was happening with my car and kept getting fobbed off, so I contacted the Toyota garage directly, who told me that Marshams weren't communicating with them as to what they wanted done. So I had to tell Toyota. They looked at the problem and had to order new valves. The porblem was that the parts would take 2 weeks to come in. So I had to wait.

Marshams still had not produced the service history after saying they send it to me, plus still were not informing me of what was happening. Plus I got them to change the crap civic & got given a Laguna.

After the parts came in, Toyota did the repair and tested the car, but the fault kept happening, so they had to order more valves as they had discovered that it had, had a bodged valve job done in its past. So after more waiting, still no word from Marshams, still no service history. I got in contact with Toyota again who said the fault happened again. This time them 100% stripped the engine to discover that the valve bodge was worse than they had thought and also discover two cyclinders were leaking (I'm guess this might be the oil leak problem happening as it was a 2000 model). Plain and simple Toyota said it would need a new engine as that were be the only way to correctly repair it, but they had yet to hear from Marshams. So I told Marshams what Toyota said and then they finally called them! Even Toyota was getting fed up with not being told anything, as they had this car in bits taking up space for ages!

I also wrote to Marshams complaining about the time it was taking to repair the car, lies about the serivce history and the service I'd received. I gave them a deadline by which time I wanted the repair completed or my money back. We met to discuss the letter and I agreed to give them some time to find a replacement engine or car, plus to get me this !Removed! service history.

Well they found a replacement car, but I didn't like it as it wasn't in the same condition. So demanded my money back, and after a fight got it back and a little extra for all the messing about, but had to make threats for that. Even then I got a cheque, instead of it put back onto my card, which was how I paid for the thing! Funny thing was they had being telling me from day 1 that the previous owner had the service history, then on the last day they said the car had service history but had no idea where it would be!!!

In the end a week later I found my baby, though a little bit more expensive but better and newer.

Sorry about the length here, but it's best to give you all the facts I had. I wouldn't buy a car from them ever and I'd never let a friend buy one from them either. If you want to buy a car from them I can't stop you and if you do, be carefull. Though I would strongly suggest to don't buy from them.

Hope this helps.

[Fresian]

I woudln't touch them with a barge pole. Ok now I'm going to rant!!

Many thanks for taking the time to reply, won't be going to look at that car then. Thank heaven for forums! Will hopefully get a good Gen 6 soon, just have to be patient.

[edwardio]

No probs mate, thanks for reading. It was nearly 3 years ago now though. Regardless of that, I'd never go back there, not after what happened to me.

Take you time looking for the beauty you want. Look at private sales as well. I know you don't get a warrenty, but I got the RAC to check over mine and they did a detailed job. They even found a very small buckle in one of the alloys, which even a Toyota specialist garage was surprise the RAC even found it.

Lets us know when you get somethin.