Corolla 4AFE 263,000 miles - flush or not?

[Drew99GT]

Originally Posted By: Footpounds
Originally Posted By: Pat in Speedway
Keep an eye on your oil level. The 4AFE is known to consume. 1qt every 1,000 miles isn't uncommon.


I've never heard that. I've owned a couple of these engines, one in a Corolla and one in a Prizm. The oil level didn't budge from the FULL mark. Maybe I was just lucky?


Apparently it's a known issue, especially in some of the older variants of the AE101 chassis, and especially with the 93-94 7AFE.

 

[Footpounds]

Those engines ARE great! My daughter now drives the Prizm and I've told her as long as it has gas and oil, it will pretty much go forever. At least I don't worry about her making highway trips with that little engine.

 

[Pat in Speedway]

Originally Posted By: Footpounds
Those engines ARE great! My daughter now drives the Prizm and I've told her as long as it has gas and oil, it will pretty much go forever. At least I don't worry about her making highway trips with that little engine.


I agree! The exhaust on 'em are noisy little buggers when you're in the car, but I fully expect her Prizm with 172k to get her through college and beyond, though she's already talking about wanting something else.

I told her with a new paint job this summer, she might change her tune. I've seen a lot of Prizms with bad paint, so I think a combination of prior neglect and possibly GM/Toyota not putting on the best of paint jobs made it prone to fade. I've done everything I can to save it, but the clear coat's peeling away and the base won't be far behind. The body's good, so a weekend of wet sanding this summer and a shot of paint will make it look like, oh, a $2200 car.

 

[Drew99GT]

I for one kind of enjoy the body damage my car now has (roofing tile flew out the bed of a truck passing me on the highway and left a nasty dent on the hood). Next time it happens, I won't care so much!

 

[Drivebelt]

Quote:
Is Red Line overkill or a waste of money? Perhaps.


Yes. Running Redline in a little normally aspirated stock 4 cylinder 1.6I is somewhat like gopher hunting with an AK-47.

If we were still using Group I based oils in our mainstream conventional's I would steer you towards some synthetic (probably a less expensive Group III). But given our Group II/II+ (5W-20, 5W-30, 10W-30) SM/GF-4 oils are such good performers out to 5K miles (or beyond -- even a 5K mile OCI in a little 4 cylinder is very conservative in many cases). I don't really see any gain by going synthetic in terms of engine longevity. You will get "synthetic" like wear performance and engine cleanliness out of these Group II's.

I would just find some good quality SM 5W-30 and use that year round with 5K OCI's. Just make sure oil stays topped up if the engine uses any.

 

[Steve S]

There will really be no benefits from running syn in your engine unless you wanted to run 1 year oil changes etc.

 

[ThirdeYe]

What I would do is run one or two rounds of Auto-RX (depending on your budget) and then run whatever you choose to run, be it conventional or synthetic. Personally, I switched to synthetic after my first round of Auto-RX but then back to conventional for my second application (currently in progress). No leaks with 14 year old seals always used to seeing 3-5k oci's with dealer bulk conventional. I did it as a precaution as even though the engine was as clean as could be, I wanted to use it for the benefits to the seals. My :2cents: