Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
View Threaded
Fri 23 May 2014 20:24
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required - Steveieb

Grateful for any guidance on buying this model

Its done 50000 miles with a full non main dealer service record.

But originally i was under the impression that corollas were bomb proof I read in the HJ good car guide that they suffer from excessive oil consumption after 40000 miles and have beed recalled (hopefully) for steering column faults.

This is a Burnaston produced car so are these faults appearing from UK built cars or were the Japanese built cars equally susceptable to these problems.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 23 May 2014 21:24
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required - bazza

Yes they are pretty bombproof. 50000 miles is nothing to be honest, we have a 2003 1.4 in the family and it feels good for another 10 years. Easy to maintain and well made, even in the hard to see areas. Parts are cheap and plentiful. Ours has 80000 miles and never uses a drop of oil, which still looks clean after its annual change.

Things to watch out for--- surface rust on front wishbones, easily sorted with Waxoyl, a squeaking clutch pedal which is annoying but not terminal, that's pretty much it.

Decent to drive with actually quite sharp handling and good roadholding. Gearbox is smooth but not sporty, engine the same. Clutch is heavy compared to many modern cars. Bargains cars really, for the money.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 23 May 2014 22:45
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required - Auristocrat

The section of the HJ review reads:

"All Toyota VVT-I 1.4, 1.6 & 1.8L engines (1zz 1.8, 3zz 1.6 & 4zz 1.4) made from 2000 to mid 2005 may suffer from excessive oil consumption of 1L/600miles. The cause was insufficient oil capacity, poor piston and piston ring design. This led to the oil-ways sludging up, eventually causing hardened oil around the rings to misshape the bores. The use of poor quality or overly thick oils (thicker than 5w30) increased the likelihood of the issues above occurring. The fix was re-designed pistons, rings and short block - some were replaced under warranty; after about July 2005 the fix was applied new build Toyotas."

The issue stems from the previous generation Corolla. It wasn't just a design issue that could cause the problem - the use of too thick or cheap oil could also be the cause.

We had a 2006 1.4 Corolla for three years from new, and the engine never used a drop of oil between services. The 1.4 engine was carried over to the Auris.


Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 23 May 2014 23:00
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required - retgwte

I think the 5 doors were UK built, and the 3 doors were made in Japan.

I had a 3 door Japan built automatic, not a single thing ever went wrong with it. Indeed I called the RAC out one time and the guy said "these never go wrong what have you done to it" and he was right it was my fault. Only problem was front brake discs which wore down too quickly and were replaced free by Toyota under warranty during normal servicing. Oil level never moved from just after service, to just needing a service.

5 doors had problems with rust in the spare wheel well I seem to remember. This was not an issue on the 3 doors.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 23 May 2014 23:50
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required - daveyK_UK

would not have a problem with buying a derby built toyota, the best UK car plant by some distance.

the factory is top class, as are others such as halewood and swindon.

I have also been told the MG assembly line in the midlands is also high quality.

Most people dont realise how good are car manufacturing factories are.

Edited by daveyK_UK on 23/05/2014 at 23:52

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 24 May 2014 01:03
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required - Auristocrat

The E110 Corolla five door was built at Burnaston from 1999-2002. The E120 five door from 2002-2006. The three door versions were built in Turkey.

This situation continued with the Auris 3 and 5 door until the current version was introduced in 2012 - when the 3 door was dropped. From November 2012 all Auris hatchback production was centred at Burnaston.

Tuirkey continues to build the Corolla saloon for Europe.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 24 May 2014 01:35
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required - Auristocrat

The 3 door van versions of the Corolla and Auris were also built in Turkey. The 5 door van version of the current Auris is built at Burnaston.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 24 May 2014 12:41
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required - Steveieb

Thanks to everyone for your very useful feedback.

Would Toyota have contacted all Corolla owners to correct the steering problem.

Or would simply turning up at my local dealer persuade him to check for the faulty part?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 24 May 2014 14:27
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required - RobJP

If it has been a recall (mandated by VOSA) then a main agent will still (probably) fix it and bill Toyota GB. If it was a TSB (technical service bulletin) then I wish you the very best of luck in getting them to do something free of charge on a 12 year old car !

EDIT : just looked on VOSA. No recall listed for Toyota Corolla from 2001-2003 for steering rack problems

Edited by RobJP on 24/05/2014 at 14:29

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 24 May 2014 14:53
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required - Auristocrat

I have just used the VOSA recall check and there were two recalls which affected the steering on some Corollas:

1. 13/09/2006 Recall reference R/2006/103 - affecting the intermediate shaft and sliding yoke of the steering column

2. 03/12/2012 Recall reference R/2012/145 - affecting the splines on the extension shaft of vehicles fitted with electric motor assisted power steering

You can use the recall checker on the Toyota website to check whether your car is affected: www.toyota.co.uk/owners-info/recall-checker

Or if you contact a Toyota dealer with the reg number and preferably the VIN, they should be able to say whether your car was affected by either of these two recalls and, if they were, whether the rectification w2ork was carried out.

Usually the manufacturer is able to determine the VIN range of possible vehicles affected by recalls - and only those owners of vehicles within the VIN range will be contacted by letter using contact information obtained by VOSA from DVLA.

Don't forget the VOSA recall system is dependent on whether DVLA have the correct contact details for current owners - if incorrect information is held or owners don't respond to recall letters, cars can get missed, and the manufacturer cannot be held responsible for that.

Edited by Auristocrat on 24/05/2014 at 14:58

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 24 May 2014 16:00
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required - RobJP

For the recalls that you list :

Recall 1 : cars built 1/1/2003 to 31/12/2005. The car being looked at by the buyer is a 2002 car.

Recall 2 : cars built 04/06/2003 to 27/03/2009. Same

So neither of those recalls apply to the car in question, a 2002 Toyota Corolla

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sat 24 May 2014 16:08
Toyota Corolla 1.6 Petrol 2002 - Buying advice required - Auristocrat

If you read my post you will see that I didn't imply the 2002 Corollas were affected - just confirmed that there were two recalls for steering that affected some Corollas.

The rest of my post applies as the OP can still use the Toyota Recall checker to confirm that the car in question is affected by recalls or not.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link