Toyota Corolla 1fezz engine noise

[timkedz]

Hello,

While I am online and in the forums, I thought I would post a question and see if anyone else has any thoughts on it.

I have a '97 Prizm with the older 7afe engine and a 2000 Corolla with the 1fzz engine. The prizm engine uses no oil and is very quiet, in fact, it is so quiet that you have to check to make sure it's running so you don't accidentally grind the starter into the flywheel!!

The Corolla on the other hand runs very well, has excellent acceleration and does not use any oil either, but, I feel that this is a very noisy engine by comparison. When the engine is cold, it sounds like a diesel for the first few blocks. When under heavier acceleration, it sounds like a Waring blender on 'frappe!!! Maybe I'm just too fussy, but, it seems that when Toyota redesigned the Corolla/Prizm engines, they made them considerably noisier!

Anyway, is it just me, or has anyone else noticed a difference as well??? Just curious!!!

Regards,

timkedz

 

[ThirdeYe]

My engine's like that too. I thought it just needed a valve adjustment but that still didn't help. It sounds like a semi-truck when I start it cold and actually makes knocking noises, and I don't know what to think about it. The car's always been babied (owned by a little old lady since new in late '94) and I take great care of it too. The air conditioning recently gave out and the dealership said my car sounded fine -shrugs- i'll have to bring it back there sometime and have them look at it again, because it just doesn't seem right. Runs perfectly fine and uses no oil, like yours. Good luck

It's not the same engine, but same symptoms.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

My 84 Pontiac 6000 had a 2.5 four cylinder - where on any given day, 10-20-30 people standing near it would swear it was a diesel.... running cold or hot.

The end to this story is that I drove this rust bucket to the junkyard 19 years later -- with hardly any consumption, clear dipstick and almost 300K on the odometer. If I lived in a non-road salt state, I would of reached 500K easy on this engine.

The morale to this story is do not base engine life on the natural sound of the engine. If everything is fine, just keep doing what you're doing - don't change anything.

=================================

I have two sale topics in the "Items For Sale" forum-room here at BITOG.

 

[Quest]

Some engine tends to be noisier than others, given all else equal. Example: My dad's old written-off (accident) Mazda 323 EFI (89) with the notorious HVL was super-quiet, even when the engine reached it's ripe-ful age of 268,000kms.

On the other hand: my 1991 323 with B-6 block always sounded like a small diesel since day-1 no matter what I've tried to tame the noise. Tried swapping the HVL (hydraulic valve lash) set, oil pressure, etc. and it was still like that when I sold it last year @ 186,000kms. Not a drop of oil consumed.

Now, when I fire up my newly acquired fit, it would sound noisy with lots of tapping noise coming from the fuel injectors section. Once warmed up, it will be quiet like a mouse.

Ditto with my dad's 7th gen civic. That thing got 132,000kms to date (bought it brand new) in 6 yrs time and after hot valve adjustment, it would be quiet like a mouse once warmed.

Bottomline: some engines are smooth as silk and quiet like you wouldn't believe; others may sound loud and tappetty...

Q.

 

[RedGSR]

Hate to sound like a dealer but that is the way it is. I have a 98 Corolla with the same engine and it makes that noise. I also had a 92 Corolla that didn't. At cruising speed thought, the newer corolla is definitely more quiet. I've also been next to countless similar corollas on the street that make that noise.

My guess to why this is had always been toyota's use of a timing chain in the 1fzze engines where they used to use belts before.

 

[Merkava_4]

I'm thinking as long as the valve lash is within the specified clearance, there should be no reason why it's not as quiet as the motor in the Prism.

What oil grade and filter brand is being used in the Corolla?

 

[Merkava_4]

timkedz

Quote:

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I have recently purchased a 2000 Toyota Corolla with 34K original miles on it. The previous owner told me that he just changed the oil to a full synthetic oil (don't know what brand it is offhand) and he recommended that I continue to do the same. I am new to the synthetic oil thing. I've always used cheap dino oil in my cars, simply because they were usually older, high mile beaters. The questions I have are:

---

That's from your other thread. I'm wondering if the previous owner has been using Mobil 1 5W-30. If so, you may be experiencing the famed M1 noise phenomena. There are some engines that run very noisy on M1 oil for some unexplained reason. If you run a search on Mobil 1 going back 5 years, you'll run across some threads about it.

I've never heard the noise in person that people are referring to, but it's been talked about a lot on this board.

 

[timkedz]

Other than the noise that I mentioned, I have no complaints whatsoever. The car starts and runs great and when I pull out the dipstick the oil is nice and clean-looking.

As of this moment, I am running dino oil 5-w-30, not sure of brand, had it done at a dealer. For winter, though, I plan to switch back to synthetic. No leaks at this time.

timkedz.

 

[gaia]

The ZZ series engines have a very noisy valvetrain. If the motor is fine and nothing burns or has gone wrong, enjoy the clicks and clacks of your motor

 

[aquariuscsm]

Quote:

---

My engine's like that too. I thought it just needed a valve adjustment but that still didn't help. It sounds like a semi-truck when I start it cold and actually makes knocking noises, and I don't know what to think about it. The car's always been babied (owned by a little old lady since new in late '94) and I take great care of it too. The air conditioning recently gave out and the dealership said my car sounded fine -shrugs- i'll have to bring it back there sometime and have them look at it again, because it just doesn't seem right. Runs perfectly fine and uses no oil, like yours. Good luck

It's not the same engine, but same symptoms.

---

Hey Third,have you experimented with any different oils/filters? Like others mentioned,some engines are very finicky. My car hated Royal Purple and Syntec(made it sound like a diesel at startup),but many people love those oils.

I`d try a Mobil 1/Mobil 1 oil filter combination and see if your startups quieten down. I just left my car unstarted for a week and when I started her up this morning,she was absolutely silent.

 

[ThirdeYe]

So far i've only been using Valvoline 5W30 since I bought the car in January, and as far as I know that's what the previous owner used. I have all of her receipts saying it was done every 5k/6 months at the Acura dealership. I've used Valvoline oil filters, Napa Gold oil filters, and SuperTech filters thus far. Next oil change i'll probably go with a Honda OEM Filtech filter and either Havoline Synthetic or Pennzoil Platinum and see if that helps at all

If I had some Mobil 1 in my stash i'd try that.

 

[Michael Jones]

I have the same motor in my 98 corolla w/115k and I hear ya. The complaint is common in the 1zzfe according to research on other boards. Much louder than the previous design. Some of it is timing chain noise. (previous generations were belt)Also the block has open cylinders on the deck (almost look like freestanding liners). I have found that running synthetic seems to make it even louder, especially on startup. Right now I am running 10/30 Chevron Supreme and its tollerable. I have excellent UOA's so I am really not too worried about it.

 

[trixman]

I have 2 1zzfe's The 99 is louder of course. I have done a lot of reading and I echo mikejones' thought but I will add that in the winter I do notice more noise on startup. I attribute that to piston slap. Also the serpentine belt driven system is louder too than 4afe's and 7afe's. I changed the belt and the idler pulley and it is quieter.

There is also an intermitent noise with the AC compressor that sounds like that blender noise you speak of. I spun it with the belt off and traced it to that. Only the clutch not the bearings though. I feel. Goes away when I run the AC.

Hope that helps.

 

[lucerne06]

I know this is an old post, but I think maybe the noise is from rattling due to motor mounts being worn...especialy when cold.