tough little 01 corolla

[finalyzd]

orry if this is in the wrong forum. but anyways i saw another members post about what he has done to his saturn since day one all the way to 150000k i believe it was critic?

i have a 2001 toyota corolla power windows and locks, and a cd player basic stuff. car has 183,xxx miles. im just amazed how the car requires little maintenance. it has had no major repairs at all. not even a check engine light has clicked on since my aunt bought it brand new in 01.

only thing that has been done to this vehicle is:
oil changes every 5k (conventional)
oem battery died in 2007 replaced with a everstart still going strong
front brakes have been done twice oem rotors been cut once then replaced

rear brakes replaced once cut drums new shoes

replaced serpentine belt once after oem started having multiple cracks that was about 100k

transmission serviced twice. once with a machine then a drain and refill about 20,000miles ago. shifts great. i do need to replace the filter(its oem)

coolant has had a service also with a machine then one drain and refill.

two tune ups have been done

test compression recently and its right at oem specs!

replaced pcv once(just found out it had one)

and its gone threw about 4 air filters,couple light bulbs.

burns little oil. for about most of its life it was a stop and go monster. now i have it all highway driving now. i love this little car plan to keep it till the wheels fall off.

this weekend will do a oil change with maxlife synthetic and a champ lab filter. possible do a trans drain and refill with a filter change. then replace front struts and rear shocks(struts and shocks are expensive! 315.90 plus tax)

aanyone else have a corolla with a good experience?

 

[addyguy]

If you lke it that much, why isn't it listed in your sig line?

 

[KrisZ]

Every car is different even across the same models and I bet there are other owners that have the exact same Corolla that would tell a different story. In Critic's thread there were several people saying they have a Saturn with much shorter repair history or just maintenance items.

Maintenance, driving habits and environment play a huge role on car's mechanics. Some people drive smoothly (doesn't equate to slow) and some are jerky. Some treat gas and brake pedals like a light switch, etc.

Just like with shoes and clothes, some people can wear them for years and they will look like new and some people will trash them within months. Sometimes you can do all the right things and still have problems or don’t care at all and the car will go forever, it all depends.

 

[TomYoung]

Timing belt (chain???)??? Still on the original tires?

But kudos to you. This is a great example of "doing it right," staying on top of the important stuff, keeping up the cadence of maintenance and being rewarded with a car that puts money in your pocket when you drive it.

 

[panthermike]

Glad the car has been reliable for you. We had an '00 Corolla that needed more parts than yours, burned oil and pinged! We traded it at 167,000 miles. Never broke down though.

Parts needed:

-Lots of tires(AZ heat).
-Belts.
-MAF sensor.
-Shocks/struts.
-Catalytic converter.
-o2 sensors.
-1 oil seal.
-Thermostat.
-Tune ups, filters, fluids.

Had original starter, alternator, radiator and hoses.

Ran fine when traded but burned 1qt/500-700 miles and pinged badly.

 

[finalyzd]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
If you lke it that much, why isn't it listed in your sig line?


i do need to update my sig. using different oils and filter in the z also

 

[finalyzd]

Originally Posted By: TomYoung
Timing belt (chain???)??? Still on the original tires?

But kudos to you. This is a great example of "doing it right," staying on top of the important stuff, keeping up the cadence of maintenance and being rewarded with a car that puts money in your pocket when you drive it.


it has gone threw three sets of tires. that includes oem ones. and it has a chain

 

[finalyzd]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
Every car is different even across the same models and I bet there are other owners that have the exact same Corolla that would tell a different story. In Critic's thread there were several people saying they have a Saturn with much shorter repair history or just maintenance items.

Maintenance, driving habits and environment play a huge role on car's mechanics. Some people drive smoothly (doesn't equate to slow) and some are jerky. Some treat gas and brake pedals like a light switch, etc.

Just like with shoes and clothes, some people can wear them for years and they will look like new and some people will trash them within months. Sometimes you can do all the right things and still have problems or don’t care at all and the car will go forever, it all depends.


thats true, i could understand that a different climate could affect things.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: finalyzd

anyone else have a corolla with a good experience?


I sorta hate replying in threads like this because it gets into the "mine is better than yours" mindset for some folks but I really love my 2005 Corolla.

To date 190k miles. Well over 40mpg average MPG. Worst 36.x to best of 47.x

Repairs;

Oil changes were every 5k till 70k then bumped it up to 7-8k (one went 11k) mostly on Conventional 5w30. A few syn oil OCI if the oil was on sale (like the $8 QS syn)

Air filter every 20-30k miles.
Transmission Fluid changed twice. 130k on the last fill.
1 PCV valve
1 set of Spark plugs
1 set of tires. (To be honest I do switch to snows for the winter. They have 70% of tire life left and the P4s have about 40k on them)
1 coolant flush to Peak Global lifetime
2 headlight bulbs. (same side)


Original;

Brakes
Belt
Battery (though its getting noticeably slower to crank since the temps overnight are below 30f)
Struts
Hoses
And everything else that came with it from the factory in California.

It had 285 miles on it since it was a dealership trade from Idaho. Uses between 8oz to 1 quart per OCI depending on what type of oil I use.

Paint is typical EPA with thousands of rock chips all over it. No rust on those but I do have slight rust on the rear right lower inside fender where they are welded together.

Runs like new (really) and still enjoy driving it. If I keep it (dumb ideas going through my head for me to give this to my 17 year old, I either take over the 07 Outback or get a newer/new vehicle and sell her 98 contour) I'll get more than 400k out of it.

Or unless someone hits me....

Take care, bill

PS: Forgot that the ODO has a segment out of it so some numbers are "interesting" to figure out. Just happened so I've got to get that fixed if its not real costly

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: finalyzd
orry if this is in the wrong forum. but anyways i saw another members post about what he has done to his saturn since day one all the way to 150000k i believe it was critic?



Between new and 150,000 miles, the only thing I did apart from routine maintenance to my wife's 1993 Chysler LH (Vision TSi 3.5L) was replace the timing belt and water pump at 100k and new fuel rails due to a TSB.

Now at 157k, it ate the transmission and an AC evaporator core... :-/ But then it proceeded to run fine until we sold it at 256,000 miles with only further routine maintenance (oil, fluids, tires, timing belts and belts), plus a set of struts and motor mounts in there.

Last I heard, its still puttering around central Texas with the new owner. Bottom line- take care of a car and it will return the favor.

 

[Errtt]

I had a neighbor who drove a Corolla and she abused the [censored] out of that little car. Gas, oil water, air and no maintenance. I was talking to her before she moved - she never changed the oil! Just added when it went low. It looked like it belongs in a junk yard. She could never drive like a normal person on our street - always speeding (& neighbors yelling for her to slow down all the time)and had to squeal tires at the corner. It looked terrible.
So when I needed to get a better economy vehicle, I bought a Camry. It wasn't for me - been used to full size trucks all my life. So I gave the Camry to my youngest son to drive. After a couple years, it had been reliable & no issues. So gas prices soared and the miles to work were racking up fast on the odometer - so I bought a used RAV 4 with 71k on the clock.
It's in today for the 120k maintenance service (has 126 on the odo). But since I bought it, I have not had a single issue on it, so now I'm a little more prone to keep it up in top maintenance shape - hence the 120k service today.
My original idea was to get a Corolla for the kid, but he has the Camry now instead. I was going for the Corolla to begin with because of how it kept running for the previous neighbor, and then I had asked around + online etc - heard a lot of good stuff about it like the the low maintenance, economy, & reliability.
10 years ago my frame of mind was "I'll never have a import" - I don't think like that anymore.
If something happens to my RAV 4, I'll be shopping for another RAV or something like it. If I could could used to a smaller car and being lower to the ground & that is good on gas, I'd consider the Corolla myself, but just can't, so the small Toyota SUV fits my bill for now and I have been totally happy with it.

That little Corolla the neighbor had - unbelievable so say the least. so trashed and abused but she kept driving it.

 

[Spyder7]

My 2000 Corolla is lower mileage then the other examples, but before I got it, it, as you can guess by mileage in sig, didn't see much highway and I think it can accumulated a lot of idling hours, particularly in winter through its remote start. This will be my first winter on it.

In 15K km since I bought it, its needed:
2 winter tires, rears have 1 season left, fronts wore out.
PCV valve (first time replaced)
air filter
brake line
brake fluid bleed - fluid looked so old it might have been factory
serpentine belt tensioner - not done yet
serpentine belt - this will be its second; first was replaced at 55k km when the oem tensioner was replaced and tsb on it called for new belt - also not done yet, but will replace with tensioner replacement 2 as per oem recommendation.

Not much cost involvedon the above.

Original owner had a lot down, about half under warranty:

timing chain tensioner - o-ring started leaking, service station replaced entire assembly;
brake drums and shoes - owner had drums replaced once, shoes twice
rotors and pads - rotors replaced once, pads twice
air filter
left struts - front and rear
engine mounts - warranty
vsv - warranty
battery
muffler pipe gaskets
added one set of AS tires; oem goodyear integrity lasted two years
-atf changed as per service manual by dealer
- coolant same as above

I still need to replace the AS tires - I junked them at end of the summer - too much dryrot and treadwear.

That was over a 10 year period, as I only got the car in May, owner bought it 10 years before in April. Original owner drove it regularly, but only short distances. I may need to do struts, springs and coils next summer, as our roads are terrible - every winter they are torn up by too many freeze/thaw cycles.

It consumes one quart of oil every 1200 miles.

Its lower mileage but as old or older than many other here. Needed a bit more too. Runs perfect, other than too much play in the suspension and tensioner generated noise at 2000 rpm, which will be fixed when i do belt and tensioner.

-Spyder

 

[Bill in Utah]

Spyder I personally agree that these remote start things are VERY BAD.. Over the years I've seen over and over people that use these have more "issues" than when we did not have them. Same with the idling forever folks (and before anyone brings up a Trooper/Highway patrol different use and vehicles)

Bill

 

[ls1mike]

I find mileage comparisions useless.
I have a 1989 GMC 1 ton with 192,000 miles on it. Original engine, transmission rearend. Can't remember how many set of brakes but I can tell you what I have had to do to it. 1 radiator 2 seasons ago after a flush, 1 front drivers side ball joint, valve cover gaskets, a new set of injectors along with a larger TBI (more for towing) and a set of intake manifold gaskets, they don't have them from the factory and the maniflods started leaking. It has had various tunes up from time to time, Unlike most cars the truck has spent half of its life towing a 8000 lbs 5th wheel, and I don't know how many loads of gravel, dirt and cottage stones.
Point is every car will be different and "tough" is relative term.