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What are your opinions on a 1998 Toyota corolla with 115000 miles on it? In general what has been some of our experiences with this car. What are the most common issues, what should I look out for? I have a chance to purchase one of these and am interested as to wether or not it will be a worthy purchase or not.
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If you really want to know the over all condition of the car take it to a mechanic and have them check it out.
Toyotas are great cars if taken care of.I work for Triple A taking roadside calls, I’ve taken prolly over a thousand calls in the past 2 years there, and I’ve gotten a lot of calls for Toyota corrolas and Toyotas in general. But, they are usually for smaller issues like jump starts, tire changes and lock outs. Most of the time its like that, occasionally I hear of a severe engine failure or transmission failure, but most of the time (judging by who’s on the phone AKA a moron) they probably aren’t treating it right. I agree with Trcustoms they are great if taken care of. My aunt has always had Toyotas and was habitual about the maintenance schedule and she never had any problems at all and drove many of them well over 100k miles. Believe it or not the cars I get the most calls for with serious problems are Mercedes and BMW. Basically look the car over for the usual warning signs, if you’re not sure of what to look for Popular Mechanics has a general guideline for purchasing a used car and what to look for, heres a link.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/ho … ing-burned
I hope it helps, good luck with your purchase!
Well the link didn’t work right, just type into their search bar, “how to buy a used car without getting burned” and it will come up.
I’ve had two Geo Prizms. They are Corollas with crappy badging. My first was a ’90, and i bought it with 160k miles on it for $100 dollars (yes one hundred) as it was what my buddy was offered on trade in. I had about 210k on the clock when some soccer mom turned her minivan out in front of me and it was totalled. I currently have a ’93 which is right at 200k, and it runs like a top. Had ~140k when I bought it. I delivered pizzas in both these cars for years, and I beat the crap out of my delivery cars. The only things I did between the two of them: 1 starter, 1 hub bearing, 1 clutch, 1 tune-up on the ’93 because a couple of the wires had started arcing to each other due to them laying on one another and I didn’t notice. The rest has been tires and front brakes. I LOVE these cars.
If I had a chance to get a ’98 with that mileage on it for a fair price, I would be all over it.
The only common problems that I know of on those cars are all simple fixes. Their MAF sensors get dirty and need a very thorough cleaning, which takes all of about 5 minutes, counting the time it takes to get the sensor off of the car. A liberal spraying of MAF cleaner (NOT carburetor cleaner) will clean it up good as new. A dirty MAF can cause all sorts of drivability issues, so that’s usually where I start when one comes in running bad. I’ve also replaced the intake manifold gasket on a couple of them, which isn’t as bad a job as it originally looks like. IIRC it’s only 7 bolts and then you can pull the manifold away from the head far enough to get the old gasket out and slip the new gasket into place.
The majority of the Corollas (and Geo/Chevy Prisms of similar vintage) that I see with really big problems are invariably owned by people that crash them into things (like curbs, trees, parked cars, etc), or go 15k to 30k between oil changes. I remember once working on one that had a complaint of a very bouncy ride, even down smooth roads. All 4 struts were blown, it had 4 bent wheels and all 4 tires had bubbles in the sidewalls. The undercarriage had more dirt in it than the ground. I found out later that the reason for all of that was the owner had build an impromptu rally course in a field behind his house and had been jumping the car for the past several days.
Overall, they’re not bad little cars. As something to commute back and forth to work/school with, you could easily do worse. I don’t think I’d want to take one one a long trip, but that’s mainly because I find their interiors cramped and uncomfortable.
That year falls in to the Toyotas engine oil sludging problem (google it) Make sure take a look inside the valve cover.
Quoted From skim3544:
That year falls in to the Toyotas engine oil sludging problem (google it) Make sure take a look inside the valve cover.
THAT is good info. I didn’t know there was a Toyota issue like this. Does it apply to all Toyotas? I recently acquired a ’99 Rav4 with the 2.0. It has been meticulously maintained by my mom at the dealer, so that wouldn’t be the issue. Guess I should just look for myself, now I’m worried… Thanks for the heads up though!
Toyota USA will cover the cost of engine repair caused by oil gelling in 1997-2001 Toyota Camry, Solara, Sienna, Avalon, Celica and Highlander, and Lexus ES300 and RX300.
This is what I found pretty much across the board. I also found that vehicles maintained properly didn’t experience the ‘oil gelling’ as Toyota called it. Thank gosh.
Quoted From Beefy:
Toyota USA will cover the cost of engine repair caused by oil gelling in 1997-2001 Toyota Camry, Solara, Sienna, Avalon, Celica and Highlander, and Lexus ES300 and RX300.
This is what I found pretty much across the board. I also found that vehicles maintained properly didn’t experience the ‘oil gelling’ as Toyota called it. Thank gosh.
I am not a lawyer but I thought they extended the engine warranty to 8 years to specifically cover the oil gelling problem… In either case, save your oil change receipts for these cars. If engine goes, you would have to provide this information to get the engine fixed.
Quoted From skim3544:
I am not a lawyer but I thought they extended the engine warranty to 8 years to specifically cover the oil gelling problem… In either case, save your oil change receipts for these cars. If engine goes, you would have to provide this information to get the engine fixed.
Aye, my mom was religious about the maintenance on the Rav4, and I just changed the oil in it today. Also did plugs and headlights. But from what I read, the car was not included in the ‘gelling’ issue. I will keep an eye on it though. Thanks again.
Corollas of this vintage are great little cars. I gave my son a 98 at 135000 miles and he now has 210000. All he really did was oil changes, brakes, and tires. I guess there was a battery in there. It is now starting to burn some oil and the suspension leaves something to be desired. I would have liked to see him do struts and springs all the way around and I think the oil burning is the valve seals. He did really well on changing oil, though.
He still drives this 70 miles to work each day and gets 38mpg summer and about 32 mpg in the winter. With attention to the above mentioned items I suspect he could probably squeeze another 50-75,000 miles. How can you ask any more out of a car?
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