hi all, considering getting a pre-facelift corolla t-sport as a new daily. i know people say the suspensions a bit wobbly but I'd eventually be putting it on coilovers anyway. the one thing that worries me is the whole oil consumption thing. anyone have any knowledge on this? from what I've read, some cars consume 1L of oil for every 1000 miles, and that toyota considered this normal! also seen that some people say that it only affects the vvti engines and not the vvtli in the t-sport? is the oil thing just a few rare cases, fairly common or just complete bullshit blown out of proportion from Internet 'experts'? it also seems that if the car had the problem they replaced the engine under warranty, and that it normally starts happening around 40k miles, so, will it probably be fine with full service history etc? any input would be great. cheers.
Its true for all pre-facelift VVTI or VVTL-I engines (i owned a Celica TSport so know the Celica side, same engines though). I wouldn't get 1 unless its a facelift personally just to play safe. The problem with 1ZZ/2ZZ FE engines is the pistons went oval and drank 1l of oil in 1000miles (thats the test they do before swapping engines), if the car has full Toyota service history all at the right times they should rebuild the engine with new block and pistons under warranty, I believe if it has full non-Toyota service history it should get replaced under warranty too but i'd imagine its not as simple as if it was with Toyota. It was quite common over on CCUK and they had a thread dedicated to this problem. A pre-facelift 'T-Sport' is a VVTL-i 190, VVTL-i 190's came with the 2ZZFE where as a T-Sport comes with a 2ZZGE (facelift), so if its a genuine T-Sport its a facelift and should be OK. I'd suggest signing up to the appropiate owners club where they will remember more than i can after 4 years! Also remember people will put a badge on anything, i ripped apart a Celica last week as to how its not a T-Sport to a mate (he likes his facelift 140 after i recommended he get 1) Edit: Also if your going to mod it for power you'll hate the self learning ECU as it slowly resets itself back to standard for emissions reasons, so adding aftermarket parts can be a pain! A chip wasn't an option and dont think anyone has cracked them yet. You'll also find Toyota are liars when it pulls ~170hp on a dyno
cant really see much point in choosing a car thats renound for having big engine issues from factory when there is literaly thousand of better cars that dont though? must be some better options?
so, if it has full service history etc, it will probably be ok, but itd still be a better idea to get a facelift? I would get a civic type r instead but they are literally £1000 more to insure than the corolla. part from those two, there's nothing else of that type of car I really fancy, mk4 golf gti I find boring/common/dull, clio 172s are too small, and focus st170s are a bit chavvy. plus I want something japanese if possible. anyone got any other suggestions lol?
Good cars for what they imo. I owned one for 2 years then sold it to my brother, he's still got it, no issues, sails through each MOT. Good reliable Toyota. It's an understated Civic Type R EP3, keep it in 'lift' and it's fairly nippy. You can park it on any street corner and not worry about it attracting the wrong attention. I rate them highly but I knew what I wanted when I bought it and it served it's purpose perfectly.
I quite like them, i prefer them to ep3`s because they are a lot less common and i work for toyota so maintenance is cheap. i think the fact that its a corolla which is probably the most bland looking hatchback ever made puts people off but they are just as quick as an ep3 and quite a bit cheaper to insure. the air pump for emissions can be an expensive thing to fail. it has a plug that goes brittle and snaps off and the only way to fix it is to replace the pump. the radio surround can get a bit saggy after time so a gap appears between the dash and the heater vents. aux belts can wear weirdly and make a noise and when changing it the tensioner will probably round off so a new one is required.
so no oil issues on them then? I heard that the avensis suffered with it most. my dad works for Beadles which has two toyota dealerships, which is also another reason for me to choose the toyota over anything else seeing as I can get parts at trade prices.
If you are constantly in 'lift' it will use a wee bit of oil but that's the same as most high revving engines.
I had a facelift Corolla T-Sport and really liked it - very much a "jack of all trades". It was really comfy, not too thirsty and fairly quick. I think it sounded really nice at high revs. My secondary air pump got a bit noisy for a while, then went back to normal a few months later but I picked up a spare one from a breaker for £50 just in case (Toyota quoted something crazy like £700 for the part). I'm sure some people remove it anyway when fitting an induction kit - it literally only runs for 30 seconds on a cold start. I never had any other problems with mine. I've heard of problems with lift bolts on the pre-facelift - the bolts that engage lift wear prematurely. I don't think it's a massive job to replace them though and I think they were redesigned/made stronger for the facelift version. This page has a lot of info & pics on the issue - 40K Elise: Changed My Lift Bolts / Cam Wear / Oil Thoughts… My old one: My only criticisms were that it was a bit boring - it just worked! Also, the gear ratios mean it's hard to keep it in lift when going up through the gears and 6th gear isn't much different from 5th - revs are quite high when motorway cruising.
