01 Toyota MR2 Spyder 1.8 L 1ZZ-FE Mobil 1 high mileage 5w-30 full syn 1.2k mi OCI

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Vehicle: 2001 Toyota MR2 Spyder
Engine: 1.8 Liter 1zz-fe no modifications
Miles on vehicle: 101,144 mi
Miles on oil: 1,200 mi
Oil filter: Wix 51394
Oil: Mobil 1 high mileage full synthetic 5W-30
Air Filter: OEM Toyota


First time posting on here! Figured I would share this as I don’t see many reports for these cars on here. I believe silicon is high due to replacing the oil pan gasket (with oem Toyota fipg) two oil changes ago and having had replaced the valve cover gasket the previous oil change. Wear metals, especially aluminum and chromium seem a bit high compared to averages supplied by Blackstone for my engine type. This car gets abused every time I drive it. Alot of 4,000 rpm+ upshifts and the occasional run to redline. Im wondering if my wear metals are higher due to being compared to cars that have the same engine (Toyota Corolla and Matrix) that don’t see abuse as they are mainly commuter cars. Also, with my factory 4.3 final drive I’m at 3600 rpm’s doing 70 and a tad over 4,000 rpm’s doing 80. I imagine this could also contribute to wear as I spend about 40% of my miles driving on the highway with this car. Planning on doing a Corolla 5th gear swap next winter to drop cruising rpm’s by 400. Upcoming oil change will be with Castrol Edge 5w-40 A3/B4 and a TRD oil filter.
 
How long have you owned this vehicle? That's an amazing low amount of miles for the age! Congrats. Post a pic if you can.

One suggestion I'd make is do an extremely short oil change interval. I call it a flush or a rinse. Like, ridiculously short, such as 50-100 miles. Use any new, cheap oil you want for a 50-100 mile drive. Then drain, fill up with the oil you want to use and run the normal oil change interval. We have a 2006 Infiniti M45 we bought a couple of years ago. The first three used oil analyses, aluminum, iron and copper were all stubbornly high (like 2x universal averages). Then I filled it up with a combination of new oils that were leftovers from 5qt jugs. Took it on a 50 mile highway drive, dumped it, filled it up again with new oil, and ran it a normal oil change interval. Those three metals dropped to below universal averages, and have stayed there through three oil changes. There's always a certain amount of old oil that gets left behind, and if it's dirty enough, can affect multiple oil changes. This just speeds up the process of flushing the old crap out. You get to a known good baseline immediately instead of weeks or months later.
 
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@himemsys .. Had to post (besides the thumbs up) to say that is a really awesome idea! I know I've thought about it before but putting it in words like that made me have a wake-up moment! some might call it wasteful but it is 100% logical to flush it out. Even with the dishes in the dishwasher after the soap cycle it rinses it off!

anyway awesome post! (y)
 
View attachment 145519

Vehicle: 2001 Toyota MR2 Spyder
Engine: 1.8 Liter 1zz-fe no modifications
Miles on vehicle: 101,144 mi
Miles on oil: 1,200 mi
Oil filter: Wix 51394
Oil: Mobil 1 high mileage full synthetic 5W-30
Air Filter: OEM Toyota


First time posting on here! Figured I would share this as I don’t see many reports for these cars on here. I believe silicon is high due to replacing the oil pan gasket (with oem Toyota fipg) two oil changes ago and having had replaced the valve cover gasket the previous oil change. Wear metals, especially aluminum and chromium seem a bit high compared to averages supplied by Blackstone for my engine type. This car gets abused every time I drive it. Alot of 4,000 rpm+ upshifts and the occasional run to redline. Im wondering if my wear metals are higher due to being compared to cars that have the same engine (Toyota Corolla and Matrix) that don’t see abuse as they are mainly commuter cars. Also, with my factory 4.3 final drive I’m at 3600 rpm’s doing 70 and a tad over 4,000 rpm’s doing 80. I imagine this could also contribute to wear as I spend about 40% of my miles driving on the highway with this car. Planning on doing a Corolla 5th gear swap next winter to drop cruising rpm’s by 400. Upcoming oil change will be with Castrol Edge 5w-40 A3/B4 and a TRD oil filter.
I'm amazed that for once Blackstone labs didn't say that this 5w30 thinned out. They've been off by 1pt low lately on the viscosity. And never thought about the silicone from the FIPG doing the valve cover gasket, when I get that done on my Scion tC (2az-fe engine) I'll remember how that FIPG will get into the oil..

thanks for the post!
 
We don't know if your healthy high RMS's are causing the higher readings yet. Running this another 1k as suggested & resampling would let you know how much it increased or not. Giving us a better idea of how much it's wearing over miles. It may level off & not increase any further or it may continue. All that being said running a car fairly hard is not the recipe for longevity for a reason. It puts extra strain & pressure on the moving components of the engine. That may not bother you though. The weakest link in this report is the Chromium which can be from a variety of sources that might be narrowed down on the auto forum by just asking what material of that engine was made with Chromium. If this wear will be a constant trend either change early with this weight or go to higher weight & still change early using UOA as a guide to see if the higher weight will reduce wear at all.
 
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Here’s a picture of the car. I have owned it since March of 2020. It lived most of its life in Florida (Im assuming as a sunday driver explaining the relatively low miles). It’s been alot of fun to drive and to work on. I decided today to fill it with Castrol edge 5W-40 A3/B4 and change it again at the end of the upcoming driving season and sample the oil again (I usually only average about 1,000-1,200 mi a year on this car). It will be interesting to see if my wear metals go down or stay the same. They dont seem to be high enough to be a cause for alarm, at least not quite yet. I recently did both a leakdown and compression test and both came back excellent. Between that and the lack of oil consumption Im honestly very pleasantly surprised. These pre 2003 1zz-fe engines are notorious for getting clogged piston rings and for having high oil consumption. I even pre-emptively bought a used low mileage engine from a friend out of a 2004 Pontiac Vibe that got totalled just in case this one turned out to be an oil burner. I have verified the engine block is vin number matching to the chassis and the front timing cover has very neatly applied grey rtv on it indicating to me that this engine has most likely never been opened up for overhaul. My long term goal is to install an aftermarket turbocharger kit in the car once it reaches 25 years of age and becomes emissions exempt. These little engines, if healthy, respond well to 7-9 psi of boost pressure on a small frame turbocharger and can reliably produce 230-240 wheel horsepower ( about double what a bone stock 1zz will do on a chassis dyno at 120 wheel horsepower). Thank you all for you comments and suggestions. It has been greatly appreciated.
 
Hey thanks for the update on your car.. Love those MR2's and yours looks like car museum quality! wow.. And I don't think any of the wear metals on your UOA (used oil analysis) really shows much wrong, and the silicon is easily explained by the FIPG/RTV that was used. I know those Toyota engines are legendary.. In my Scion tC (2az-fe, camry engine) I freaked out because of an oil leak, I'm going crazy thinking it's popped a head gasket.. Until I noticed that oil leak was not down low it was up higher.. simply the valve cover gasket! lol.. A mechanic friend of mine said "so.. how old is it? I said.. "17 years old".. he said "well.. how long did you think a gasket is supposed to last?" lol.. Kind of get spoiled with an engine that has barely anything wrong..:giggle:
 
Hey thanks for the update on your car.. Love those MR2's and yours looks like car museum quality! wow.. And I don't think any of the wear metals on your UOA (used oil analysis) really shows much wrong, and the silicon is easily explained by the FIPG/RTV that was used. I know those Toyota engines are legendary.. In my Scion tC (2az-fe, camry engine) I freaked out because of an oil leak, I'm going crazy thinking it's popped a head gasket.. Until I noticed that oil leak was not down low it was up higher.. simply the valve cover gasket! lol.. A mechanic friend of mine said "so.. how old is it? I said.. "17 years old".. he said "well.. how long did you think a gasket is supposed to last?" lol.. Kind of get spoiled with an engine that has barely anything wrong..:giggle:
Thank you for the kind words about my car! It is far from a museum piece but it looks much better then when I bought it. And I agree. I am most likely overthinking this oil analysis. Thats why Im going to retest at the end of the summer driving season and see which way the wear metals go. Maybe Ill even try driving it a little more gently! I used to be a mechanic at a Toyota dealership. Worked there for 5.5 years as a factory certified technician before realizing the money and benefits just werent there and went to my current job at a defense contractor. Anyways, we used to have this saying “old Toyotas like to mark their territory”. And its true! Especially in the case of your valve cover gasket. How many miles are on your Scion Tc? Ive personally seen a 2az in a Camry that last I knew had over 330,000 miles on it last time I saw it. It always came in late for oil changes and burnt smelling muck drained out of it... But it still ran!
 
Thank you for the kind words about my car! It is far from a museum piece but it looks much better then when I bought it. And I agree. I am most likely overthinking this oil analysis. Thats why Im going to retest at the end of the summer driving season and see which way the wear metals go. Maybe Ill even try driving it a little more gently! I used to be a mechanic at a Toyota dealership. Worked there for 5.5 years as a factory certified technician before realizing the money and benefits just werent there and went to my current job at a defense contractor. Anyways, we used to have this saying “old Toyotas like to mark their territory”. And its true! Especially in the case of your valve cover gasket. How many miles are on your Scion Tc? Ive personally seen a 2az in a Camry that last I knew had over 330,000 miles on it last time I saw it. It always came in late for oil changes and burnt smelling muck drained out of it... But it still ran!
hey you're welcome for the kind words, nice to know you got it into better shape now than when you got it! I wish Toyota would bring back some of those cool mr2s! I've heard they might bring back the "three brothers" meaning supra, celica, mr2.. so far they have the supra, gr86, maybe an mr2? that would be awesome!

I'll tell ya, the high revving engines don't like to be driven like grandma. The 96 Civic I have is a higher-rev engine (most of your 90s civics are), you have to if you want to get any power out of it! There's even a comment in the owners manual that says something like "as an athlete needs exercise to keep themselves in top condition so does your Civic".. I laughed so hard when I read that.. Meaning, it needs to get higher rpms.
I personally don't think you're doing any wear issues with higher rev driving. As long as the engine is fully warmed up.. I'd say you're merely exercising an athlete! :giggle:

I know with the Civic if I drive like grandma eventually carbon starts to set in and needs an "italian tune-up"..

anyway.. glad you moved on to a better paying career.. and hahah.. marking their territory! yup I caught it before it did make marks on the ground! I have about 70k miles on the tC, I know hardly any miles on it.. Lots was going on in my life and it was put into storage. wow 330k yeah I believe it! Good to know I have a long time ahead of me to enjoy it.
 
One more thing.. Looking at your test results.. I see you're going to try 5w40.. That will be interesting to see how that helps with the wear, would be interesting to "swish, spit out" sort of flush if anything was floating around in there from previous oil changes. also be interesting to see if the Castrol is more "quiet" since there are many who say Mobil 1 made their engine "loud". Personally in the past Mobil and Castrol have kept my engines quiet, it was the other brands that made it loud. I remember back in the day Valvoline made the Civic sound like a thrashing combine! my fuel economy went down as well. Went back to Mobil, quiet and mpg's shot back up. Back then people made fun if you claimed an oil helped with your fuel economy! Now Mobil has a fuel economy formula! anyway, keep us posted..
 
View attachment 145671

Here’s a picture of the car. I have owned it since March of 2020. It lived most of its life in Florida (Im assuming as a sunday driver explaining the relatively low miles). It’s been alot of fun to drive and to work on. I decided today to fill it with Castrol edge 5W-40 A3/B4 and change it again at the end of the upcoming driving season and sample the oil again (I usually only average about 1,000-1,200 mi a year on this car). It will be interesting to see if my wear metals go down or stay the same. They dont seem to be high enough to be a cause for alarm, at least not quite yet. I recently did both a leakdown and compression test and both came back excellent. Between that and the lack of oil consumption Im honestly very pleasantly surprised. These pre 2003 1zz-fe engines are notorious for getting clogged piston rings and for having high oil consumption. I even pre-emptively bought a used low mileage engine from a friend out of a 2004 Pontiac Vibe that got totalled just in case this one turned out to be an oil burner. I have verified the engine block is vin number matching to the chassis and the front timing cover has very neatly applied grey rtv on it indicating to me that this engine has most likely never been opened up for overhaul. My long term goal is to install an aftermarket turbocharger kit in the car once it reaches 25 years of age and becomes emissions exempt. These little engines, if healthy, respond well to 7-9 psi of boost pressure on a small frame turbocharger and can reliably produce 230-240 wheel horsepower ( about double what a bone stock 1zz will do on a chassis dyno at 120 wheel horsepower). Thank you all for you comments and suggestions. It has been greatly appreciated.
Great choice of oil & I suppose the MR2 was toyota's competition to the Miata perhaps? Seams the Miata's were more prevalent around my area. Great example of an older used auto & I think most older vehicles like to leave a bit of oil on the ground.
 
View attachment 145671

Here’s a picture of the car. I have owned it since March of 2020. It lived most of its life in Florida (Im assuming as a sunday driver explaining the relatively low miles). It’s been alot of fun to drive and to work on. I decided today to fill it with Castrol edge 5W-40 A3/B4 and change it again at the end of the upcoming driving season and sample the oil again (I usually only average about 1,000-1,200 mi a year on this car). It will be interesting to see if my wear metals go down or stay the same. They dont seem to be high enough to be a cause for alarm, at least not quite yet. I recently did both a leakdown and compression test and both came back excellent. Between that and the lack of oil consumption Im honestly very pleasantly surprised. These pre 2003 1zz-fe engines are notorious for getting clogged piston rings and for having high oil consumption. I even pre-emptively bought a used low mileage engine from a friend out of a 2004 Pontiac Vibe that got totalled just in case this one turned out to be an oil burner. I have verified the engine block is vin number matching to the chassis and the front timing cover has very neatly applied grey rtv on it indicating to me that this engine has most likely never been opened up for overhaul. My long term goal is to install an aftermarket turbocharger kit in the car once it reaches 25 years of age and becomes emissions exempt. These little engines, if healthy, respond well to 7-9 psi of boost pressure on a small frame turbocharger and can reliably produce 230-240 wheel horsepower ( about double what a bone stock 1zz will do on a chassis dyno at 120 wheel horsepower). Thank you all for you comments and suggestions. It has been greatly appreciated.
IIRC, Mother Toyota did produce a factory Supercharger for the 1ZZ engine. Don’t know about the logistics involved in fitting it to the MR2 but it’s there for the research if you wish.
 
One more thing.. Looking at your test results.. I see you're going to try 5w40.. That will be interesting to see how that helps with the wear, would be interesting to "swish, spit out" sort of flush if anything was floating around in there from previous oil changes. also be interesting to see if the Castrol is more "quiet" since there are many who say Mobil 1 made their engine "loud". Personally in the past Mobil and Castrol have kept my engines quiet, it was the other brands that made it loud. I remember back in the day Valvoline made the Civic sound like a thrashing combine! my fuel economy went down as well. Went back to Mobil, quiet and mpg's shot back up. Back then people made fun if you claimed an oil helped with your fuel economy! Now Mobil has a fuel economy formula! anyway, keep us posted..
When I started it up it sounded exactly the same. Im hoping going to a higher viscosity will help with my wear. I had been planning on running this oil for a while. I had a feeling even before doing the oil analysis that I should be running a higher viscosity due to my “spirited” driving habits. I spent quite a bit of time researching on here before I settled on the castrol. And 70k is nothing on that Scion Tc! Not even broken in yet.

Great choice of oil & I suppose the MR2 was toyota's competition to the Miata perhaps? Seams the Miata's were more prevalent around my area. Great example of an older used auto & I think most older vehicles like to leave a bit of oil on the ground.
The NB chassis Miata is very comparable to the MR2 Spyder in performance. Ive never driven a Miata but Ive been told that they hold comparable lap times if you bring both of them to the track. I know of a few people who own both a Miata and an MR2 Spyder and most have told me they like the MR2 Spyder‘s handling better, but like the Miata better for long trips due to the fact that it actually has a trunk.



Thank you for sharing that with me! They made some excellent points in their review. Especially about the lack of storage space. I have yet to do any long distance drives in mine for this reason. I mostly use this car for trips to car shows/cars and coffee, going to the local ice cream places and some spirited backroad driving. I was cringing watching that stock ride height car going through the cones. Mine is lowered and has a long list of suspension and chassis bracing upgrades. The best thing you can do to a car like this that handles well is modify it so it will handle even better.

IIRC, Mother Toyota did produce a factory Supercharger for the 1ZZ engine. Don’t know about the logistics involved in fitting it to the MR2 but it’s there for the research if you wish.
You are correct sir! It was an option in the Corolla and Matrix. It was a factory installed option in European market Corollas. The supercharger will fit the engine… however the firewall has to be “massaged“ with a hammer so it will fit in the chassis. The superchargers themselves are unfortunately very rare over here in the United States. Ive spent alot of time looking at the many options available for increasing my cars relative lack of power compared to modern cars and there are some very interesting options if you have deep enough pockets. The Toyota 1.8 L 2zz-ge is a very popular and relatively easy to do swap. There is also a good deal of aftermarket support for the 2.5 L 2AR-FE as well as the 3.5L 2GR-FE. Honda K series engines are also a very popular swap. These cars only weigh 2200 lbs so anything more then 300 wheel horsepower is very overpowered and easily ruins the good balance and handling Toyota gave these cars from the factory. Thats alot of the reason why I decided to eventually run a low pressure turbo system on my 1zz-fe. The fact that I own three spare engines and two spare transmissions also helps. I have alot of spare parts if anything lets go.
 
love those cars, hardly see them anymore. it always amazed me how they built them as a spaceframe with panels bolted on, instead of the typical unibody! we used to have a local run in C-stock autox years back and they would carry their inside front wheel all over the course at max grip levels, so cool to watch. as an aside its also great to see Toyota building enthusiast vehicles again under the GR nameplate...they were in a lull for way too long.

with that chromium in a 1ZZ i wonder if its worth keeping an eye on the health of your catalytic converter. from what i understand these are prone to break down and the turbulence in the exhaust runners sucks some of the particulate back into the combustion chambers due to how close the cat lives to the exhaust valves. obviously the first thing to go is compression via the rings and cylinder walls getting scraped down.

as a fellow owner of a high-revver (K20 Si with a 4.7 final drive, sits at about 3600RPM at 80mph) i've had excellent results with M1 0W-40. the cold flow properties have all but eliminated any variable timing cam adjuster rattle on startup and reduced oil consumption, along with nice low wear numbers for whatever that's worth. cheap and easy to find, and basically a "35" weight if you don't want to get too thick.
 
love those cars, hardly see them anymore. it always amazed me how they built them as a spaceframe with panels bolted on, instead of the typical unibody! we used to have a local run in C-stock autox years back and they would carry their inside front wheel all over the course at max grip levels, so cool to watch. as an aside its also great to see Toyota building enthusiast vehicles again under the GR nameplate...they were in a lull for way too long.

with that chromium in a 1ZZ i wonder if its worth keeping an eye on the health of your catalytic converter. from what i understand these are prone to break down and the turbulence in the exhaust runners sucks some of the particulate back into the combustion chambers due to how close the cat lives to the exhaust valves. obviously the first thing to go is compression via the rings and cylinder walls getting scraped down.

as a fellow owner of a high-revver (K20 Si with a 4.7 final drive, sits at about 3600RPM at 80mph) i've had excellent results with M1 0W-40. the cold flow properties have all but eliminated any variable timing cam adjuster rattle on startup and reduced oil consumption, along with nice low wear numbers for whatever that's worth. cheap and easy to find, and basically a "35" weight if you don't want to get too thick.


Removing the pre-cats was the first thing I did when I bought the car. Thankfully they were still intact and in great condition with none of they honeycomb missing. This was done at around 98,000 miles when I bought the car in spring of 2020. I have seen some real horror show cars on spyderchat where I hang out often. I recently saw a member on there who bought a spyder that was chugging a quart of oil every 50 miles. He has since replaced his engine… My cousin had a 2007 Civic Si two door coupe. That rev happy K20 engine was both peppy and sounded great going to redline. I miss going for rides in it. Im going to see how the Castrol works out. I may change over to the Mobil 1 0W-40 though. I have hear a lot of good things about it.
 
Removing the pre-cats was the first thing I did when I bought the car. Thankfully they were still intact and in great condition with none of they honeycomb missing. This was done at around 98,000 miles when I bought the car in spring of 2020. I have seen some real horror show cars on spyderchat where I hang out often. I recently saw a member on there who bought a spyder that was chugging a quart of oil every 50 miles. He has since replaced his engine… My cousin had a 2007 Civic Si two door coupe. That rev happy K20 engine was both peppy and sounded great going to redline. I miss going for rides in it. Im going to see how the Castrol works out. I may change over to the Mobil 1 0W-40 though. I have hear a lot of good things about it.
Hi - I was just curious - How is parts availability from Toyota for a 2001 Toyota. Wondering if Toyota parts availability is better than Honda for 20+ year old vehicles?

The reason I am asking is that I used to own a 1997 Honda Accord EX, and certain parts were already discontinued by Honda, so it became hit or miss to get genuine OEM parts like Alternators, AC compressors, power steering pumps, etc. I try to never use aftermarket parts as they are made so cheaply and usually only last a few years instead of the few decades that OEM Japanese parts last.
 
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Hi - I was just curious - How is parts availability from Toyota for a 2001 Toyota. Wondering if Toyota parts availability is better than Honda for 20+ year old vehicles?

The reason I am asking is that I used to own a 1997 Honda Accord EX, and certain parts were already discontinued by Honda, so it became hit or miss to get genuine OEM parts like Alternators, AC compressors, power steering pumps, etc. I try to never use aftermarket parts as they are made so cheaply and usually only last a few years instead of the few decades that OEM Japanese parts last.
Parts availability for these cars is surprisingly good. Fortunately the engine and transmission are shared with the 7th generation Toyota Celica and many powertrain/drivetrain parts are shared with the Corolla. Most of the suspension and brake parts are shared with various Toyota models. Due to the parts commonality with high volume Toyota models it hasn’t been an issue for me to get parts. Granted some exterior and interior trim parts are discontinued but just about everything is still available as far as mechanical and wear parts go. This is where watching for part out on owners forums and Facebook and eBay have come in handy. There is just enough aftermarket for these cars so that pretty much everything you can imagine is made for suspension, brakes and powertrain/ drivetrain upgrades. But finding name brand parts from Japanese tuning companies that were popular when the car was new is difficult at best. Brands such as apexi, HKS, TRD and others. So far the only authentic TRD parts I have on my car are the shift knob and oil cap. I am the same way with parts purchases. If I can buy from my local dealer I go that route first as I never have issues with oem parts but have had a lot of issues with poorly made aftermarket replacement parts. As they say buy once cry once. The last thing I want to do is change out a difficult to replace part a week after I replaced it because I cheaped out and bought aftermarket.
 
When I started it up it sounded exactly the same. Im hoping going to a higher viscosity will help with my wear. I had been planning on running this oil for a while. I had a feeling even before doing the oil analysis that I should be running a higher viscosity due to my “spirited” driving habits. I spent quite a bit of time researching on here before I settled on the castrol. And 70k is nothing on that Scion Tc! Not even broken in yet.


The NB chassis Miata is very comparable to the MR2 Spyder in performance. Ive never driven a Miata but Ive been told that they hold comparable lap times if you bring both of them to the track. I know of a few people who own both a Miata and an MR2 Spyder and most have told me they like the MR2 Spyder‘s handling better, but like the Miata better for long trips due to the fact that it actually has a trunk.



Thank you for sharing that with me! They made some excellent points in their review. Especially about the lack of storage space. I have yet to do any long distance drives in mine for this reason. I mostly use this car for trips to car shows/cars and coffee, going to the local ice cream places and some spirited backroad driving. I was cringing watching that stock ride height car going through the cones. Mine is lowered and has a long list of suspension and chassis bracing upgrades. The best thing you can do to a car like this that handles well is modify it so it will handle even better.


You are correct sir! It was an option in the Corolla and Matrix. It was a factory installed option in European market Corollas. The supercharger will fit the engine… however the firewall has to be “massaged“ with a hammer so it will fit in the chassis. The superchargers themselves are unfortunately very rare over here in the United States. Ive spent alot of time looking at the many options available for increasing my cars relative lack of power compared to modern cars and there are some very interesting options if you have deep enough pockets. The Toyota 1.8 L 2zz-ge is a very popular and relatively easy to do swap. There is also a good deal of aftermarket support for the 2.5 L 2AR-FE as well as the 3.5L 2GR-FE. Honda K series engines are also a very popular swap. These cars only weigh 2200 lbs so anything more then 300 wheel horsepower is very overpowered and easily ruins the good balance and handling Toyota gave these cars from the factory. Thats alot of the reason why I decided to eventually run a low pressure turbo system on my 1zz-fe. The fact that I own three spare engines and two spare transmissions also helps. I have alot of spare parts if anything lets go.
thanks about my tC! ya all I can complain about is a valve cover gasket at this age and a little rust that I'm going to take care of with Eastwood's rust converter. Not bad for this long!


ya you'll have to keep us updated how the new oil is doing, now I've been away from the forum for a couple days.. did you already used the 5w40 on this oil fill? Or that's next time? And yes your car is like the tC, sharing parts with other high volume cars, love that! It's easier to get parts!

Also.. you want to cry more, try getting Honda parts, they have really raised their prices!! Toyota, not so much, the brake fluid I just got from the Toyota dealer was $1 more than last year! Not bad with inflation.
 
Parts availability for these cars is surprisingly good. Fortunately the engine and transmission are shared with the 7th generation Toyota Celica and many powertrain/drivetrain parts are shared with the Corolla. Most of the suspension and brake parts are shared with various Toyota models. Due to the parts commonality with high volume Toyota models it hasn’t been an issue for me to get parts. Granted some exterior and interior trim parts are discontinued but just about everything is still available as far as mechanical and wear parts go. This is where watching for part out on owners forums and Facebook and eBay have come in handy. There is just enough aftermarket for these cars so that pretty much everything you can imagine is made for suspension, brakes and powertrain/ drivetrain upgrades. But finding name brand parts from Japanese tuning companies that were popular when the car was new is difficult at best. Brands such as apexi, HKS, TRD and others. So far the only authentic TRD parts I have on my car are the shift knob and oil cap. I am the same way with parts purchases. If I can buy from my local dealer I go that route first as I never have issues with oem parts but have had a lot of issues with poorly made aftermarket replacement parts. As they say buy once cry once. The last thing I want to do is change out a difficult to replace part a week after I replaced it because I cheaped out and bought aftermarket.
Toyota OEM parts are excellent - It's great you can still get them for your 2001.
 
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