Seeking Advice on Repairing Toyota Corolla Engine

[nobody]

Buckle up, friends! I've got a wild car story that'll make you think twice before buying a used vehicle. Here's what happened:

A few months back, I bought what I thought was a reliable Toyota Corolla 141 (2008). I did some checks before buying, and everything seemed fine. Boy, was I wrong!

Day one disaster: I'm driving from Negombo to Wijerama, feeling good about my new ride. Suddenly, near Kelani bridge, the car starts overheating. Not a great start!

First round of repairs: At the garage, they find a leaky radiator and two bad ignition coils. I replace those, plus the tappet cover for good measure. I thought my troubles were over. Soon, I notice the coolant level keeps dropping. I took it to Toy#ta L#nka , and they told me not to worry. But my gut says something's off. I took it to another garage, and that mechanic suggests replacing the radiator cap. The old one was 108 kPa, but TL said I need an 88 kPa one. I made the switch, but surprise! The problem sticks around like a bad smell.

Things get weird when the previous owner calls, insisting the car is "100% good, bro." Now, I don't know about you, but in my book, if someone has to tell you something's 100% multiple times, it's probably about 0%. This got my detective senses tingling. I check the engine number and – bam! – turns out someone swapped the original 1.6L engine for a 1.8L (1ZZ).

Last month, on Poson Poya day, I take the family to Dambulla. The car overheats again.

I brought in my uncle for a consultation. His diagnosis? A blown head gasket, complete with the telltale white, creamy goop oozing from the radiator neck. As if that wasn't enough, we discovered some past bass had decided the thermostat valve was more of a suggestion than a necessity and removed it entirely.

Now the car's in the garage, needing a new head gasket and valve. But here's the kicker – TL won't sell me the parts because of the engine swap. They only work with the original chassis numbers. I'm stuck!

The car's collecting dust in the garage. I don't want to sell it – I had big plans for this vehicle. But I'm in a fix. I need to find trustworthy Toyota parts that'll fit this swapped engine, and I have no clue where to start. I've learned more about cars in the last few months than I ever wanted to know. If anyone's got advice on finding reliable parts or dealing with swapped engines, I'm all ears. Help a confused car owner out!

Remember, folks: when buying a used car, check, double-check, and maybe get a mechanic to triple-check. You might just save yourself from starring in your own car repair soap opera!

Edited July 8, 2024 by nobody

[iRage]

44 minutes ago, nobody said:

Buckle up, friends! I've got a wild car story that'll make you think twice before buying a used vehicle. Here's what happened:

A few months back, I bought what I thought was a reliable Toyota Corolla 141 (2008). I did some checks before buying, and everything seemed fine. Boy, was I wrong!

Day one disaster: I'm driving from Negombo to Wijerama, feeling good about my new ride. Suddenly, near Kelani bridge, the car starts overheating. Not a great start!

First round of repairs: At the garage, they find a leaky radiator and two bad ignition coils. I replace those, plus the tappet cover for good measure. I thought my troubles were over. Soon, I notice the coolant level keeps dropping. I took it to Toy#ta L#nka , and they told me not to worry. But my gut says something's off. I took it to another garage, and that mechanic suggests replacing the radiator cap. The old one was 108 kPa, but TL said I need an 88 kPa one. I made the switch, but surprise! The problem sticks around like a bad smell.

Things get weird when the previous owner calls, insisting the car is "100% good, bro." Now, I don't know about you, but in my book, if someone has to tell you something's 100% multiple times, it's probably about 0%. This got my detective senses tingling. I check the engine number and – bam! – turns out someone swapped the original 1.6L engine for a 1.8L (1ZZ).

Last month, on Poson Poya day, I take the family to Dambulla. The car overheats again.

I brought in my uncle for a consultation. His diagnosis? A blown head gasket, complete with the telltale white, creamy goop oozing from the radiator neck. As if that wasn't enough, we discovered some past bass had decided the thermostat valve was more of a suggestion than a necessity and removed it entirely.

Now the car's in the garage, needing a new head gasket and valve. But here's the kicker – TL won't sell me the parts because of the engine swap. They only work with the original chassis numbers. I'm stuck!

The car's collecting dust in the garage. I don't want to sell it – I had big plans for this vehicle. But I'm in a fix. I need to find trustworthy Toyota parts that'll fit this swapped engine, and I have no clue where to start. I've learned more about cars in the last few months than I ever wanted to know. If anyone's got advice on finding reliable parts or dealing with swapped engines, I'm all ears. Help a confused car owner out!

Remember, folks: when buying a used car, check, double-check, and maybe get a mechanic to triple-check. You might just save yourself from starring in your own car repair soap opera!

Sadly this is the usual tale for most people buying cars. You really do need a very very exhaustive check before purchase. I used to think that places like Car Checks and even the agents were going a bit overboard with pointing out even rusted out nuts and bolts in a 15 year old car but having seen what cars in SL are like...I am totally in support of it now. In fact I think these tests are not stringent enough.

The typical life of a Sri Lankan car like a Corolla, Premio, etc.. is someone buys it based on all the social trends like easy to run, low maintenance cost, etc...then they do the bare minimum maintenance work (preemptive maintenance is a thing unheard of) and things start going bad. Then they take the car to the neighborhood garage baas who knows more than the engineers of Toyota Japan and fix the car using the cheapest parts ever. Then these mechanics start ripping things off just to mask the symptoms but never solve the issue. Then things start going bad...and the cars that don't get rescued get engine, gearbox and every other thing swapped that you can think of. When the car gets so bad and is cheap enough some get bought up by ricers for "modipication"...anyway...

As a tule of thumb..do not but any car that has undergone a swap unless the owner has a complete record of the swap and it was done by someone who knew what was being done.

Ig you have an actual engine number in addition to the engine number you can start looking up the part numbers of the parts you need for the 1ZZ engine and then start looking for the original part or an equivalent.
The ZZ engines were common and not so complicated engine so you should be able to find them rather easily.

[nobody]

Thank you @iRage. Are there any good sources for looking up part numbers? I haven't done this by myself before..

Edited July 8, 2024 by nobody

[iRage]

49 minutes ago, nobody said:

Thank you @iRage. Are there any good sources for looking up part numbers? I haven't done this by myself before..

Well....toyodiy seems to be a popular choice amongst Lankans. 
You need to figure out which model would have had a 1ZZ engine and go start selecting parts for that particular model. E.g. if the model that came with a 1ZZ is ZZE123 then you need to go start browsing parts for ZZE123.

This all comes with a small caveat, though...well, it can be quite big, actually...depending on the model and even the market a car is sold in, some parts might be slightly different even though it has the same engine. So, you do have the risk of ending up with a part that mismatches your particular engine or one of its ancillary components.

[nobody]

1 hour ago, iRage said:

Well....toyodiy seems to be a popular choice amongst Lankans. 
You need to figure out which model would have had a 1ZZ engine and go start selecting parts for that particular model. E.g. if the model that came with a 1ZZ is ZZE123 then you need to go start browsing parts for ZZE123.

This all comes with a small caveat, though...well, it can be quite big, actually...depending on the model and even the market a car is sold in, some parts might be slightly different even though it has the same engine. So, you do have the risk of ending up with a part that mismatches your particular engine or one of its ancillary components.

Thanks. Will give a try.