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I had a transmission rebuilt and installed for my 91 Caprice and spent less than $ 800. This was NOT one of the national chains but a local specialist (has a big shop beside his house in a rural area and employs 5 transmission mechanics).
What MPG (mainly city) should I expect from an auto sedan w/ ac? What would be a good price for a low mi 03 auto/ac sedan?
THANKS!
I did a cost analysis between buying a used ECHO and a new Focus. I was leaning toward the Focus for my wife, but when you look at the comparison, the ECHO wins hands down. Except the Focus comes in a hatchback.
thanks. april.
(cross-posted to the problems & solutions board)
This ECHO (2000 automatic sedan, 37000 miles) doesn't get out much these except for my girlfriend's commute to and from work, less than four in-town miles each way. I think it may just be crying for more attention.
The last time this car lit up the CEL, the dealership told my girlfriend that I had mis-installed the air filter. (I didn't like that explanation, but it was only the scond time I changed it.) We'll see what happens when we get it checked out. I haven't touched anything under the hood since then.
Is the hatchback coming to the U.S.?
I'm leery of Scion with all the A/C complaints being reported. Time to look elsewhere .... i.e., the Honda Fit (Jazz) coming to the U.S. in 2005.
I dont like that either sounds like pure baloney. I checked my filter a year ago and didnt see a hose come off when I reinstalled it. No check engine light came on.
FRAM doesn't even list a fuel filter for the ECHO on their website. Is it attached to the fuel tank or somewhere else that makes it hard on a DIYer?
Being as the prices are remaining unchanged in 05 for ECHO I guess no major changes are coming. That's strange ... the ECHO has remained pratically unchanged, except for cosmetics since it's introduction.
A sign of an excellent design. My Honda ST1100 motorcycle has remained largely unchanged in its twelve years of production.
There is also a proceedure to remove the fuel rail with the injectors. You then need a hose which I bet you could make. You remove the injectors from the fuel rail and using the special attachment, hook an injector to the hose that ran to the fuel rail. Hook the injector to the battery so it runs and meassure the volumne of gasoline which should be 47-59 cm3. It looks doable.
There is also a proceedure to remove the fuel rail with the injectors. You then need a hose which I bet you could make. You remove the injectors from the fuel rail and using the special attachment, hook an injector to the hose that ran to the fuel rail. Hook the injector to the battery so it runs and meassure the volumne of gasoline which should be 47-59 cm3. It looks doable.
When itemized by repair, more than half of the bill was parts and labor for replacing the air flow meter. The other services on the invoice were throttle body cleaning and fuel injector service (one was clogging).
Murphy's law would have predicted that the first major problem would show up the year after the warranty's up, right?
Be sure to put everything back where you found it, or the dealership techs may blame you for triggering the check engine light! ;-)
Does the speedometer have to be recaliabrated if they install 15" wheels?
Wow! I was surprised that so few are sold.
There is speculation that Echo will be discontinued due to Scion. My thought is that Toyota will not discontinue Echo as it would leave Toyota w/o an entry level vehicle to compete with the Korean brands and Scion is only offered at 2/3 of Toyota dealers.
As gas prices increase perhaps sales of Echo will increase also.
Many thanks for reporting your experience changing the engine coolant. I've paid my dealership $ 45 twice already for letting them doing it.
The next time I'll follow your advice and save some $$$.
It protects your engine much better in extremely hot (like when you are stuck in stop and go traffic) and cold conditions.
It keeps your engine CLEANER because it is a better detergent than mineral oil (ask any mechanic that rebuilds engines).
It lasts several times longer than regular oil so you save time doing oil changes and save the planet from more oil going to the dump (I know, you recycle your oil).
It is especially good for forgetful people who exceed their oil change intervals because it survives longer without breaking down (sludging). There is a good reason for Europeans to specify synthetic oil for most if not all of their cars (besides the high price of oils that makes them think twice before having their car serviced).
There are a lot of very knowledgeable people on bobistheoilguy (dot com) and it pays to read what they say.
As for keeping the engine cleaner, it will NOT do that if you dont change it often enough. When is that? No one knows. It lasts longer but HOW MUCH longer? Many manufacturers allow the use of synthetic motor oil AS LONG AS YOU CHANGE IT WHEN THE SCHEDULE SAYS TO. That would be frightfully expensive. Regular motor oil WILL keep the engine clean enough. I know because I have taken dozens of them apart and rebuilt them. There is no advantage to synthetic oil here.
One thing you do not want to be is lazy when it comes to maintaining your car. Ive worked on other people cars for a long time. Trust me you want to do it according to the manufactuers schedule. Most people treat their cars like dirt. Best thing is to follow faithfully what the book tells you to do. Snythetic oils look good on paper, but they will not make an engine last longer than one run on regular motoroil, if maintained properly. Synthetic oils look good on paper. They are good for people looking to have something they think is better than what other people have, but in practice they are just a waste of money. Just like hybrid cars are a waste of money.
Perhaps when the 05's arrive they'll be more.
Try doing that with a conventional oil.
I agree that since most people neglect doing proper maintenance the recommendation of oil changes with conventional oil every 3k will give most car owner satisfactory results. But what a way of lining the pocket of oil companies! Modern engines do not need oil changes that frequent in the majority of cases.
Only cars driven short distances or in extreme conditions warrant changes that often.
What a terrible waste of oil and time! I would have changed the oil 8 times in my car and worried about storing and recycling 40 quarts of oil. As it is, I only used 5.5 qts of synthetic and saved a lot of time.
Granted, this is only possible with careful monitoring of the contamination in the oil and I have been sampling and testing my Echo's oil for the last 3 years.
Another question kneisl1:
Any instructions in your manual for changing the belts? Mine have survived for 90k miles and I intend to change them this weekend.
The owners manual says to inspect your belts at 60k miles and thereafter at 15k mile intervals. You can inspect the belts yourself. Check that they have not become loose. Also, these belts are multiple Vs, they have four or five small Vs across the width of the belt instead of the one large V common a few years ago. These mini Vs tear up and when you see that, its time for a new one. Also its time to replace them if they become loose at all, modern belts seldom need tightening. Its possible your belts will last another 50k miles, modern belts are MUCH better than the older ones. Id love to do an experie\ment on mine and just replace them when they break. The only problem with that is possible severe inconvience, having to change the belt in the rain or cold of winter (its doesnt look easy to do on the ECHO) and mostly if the belt slips and your waterpump isnt turning you could overheat it and fry a head gasket, or even the engine. The water upmp on the ECHO isnt turned by the Vs its turned by the flat of the back of the belt. Im going to replace mine at 75k miles and watch the mini Vs for tearing and loosening. If you want to keep them check the Vs and loosness every six months or so and replace when you see dammage. Good Luck!
Yes, I believe it is better to change the belts before they fail.
As to the used oil, IMHO oil that has not been extracted and does not need burning or disposing of is much better.
I shudder at the thought of contaminated oil being burned in a furnace and the chemicals released into the air. I would prefer to see 100% of used engine oil re-refined and reused.
Changing the brake fluid would be an excellent idea. I suck the old stuff out of the master cylindar with a suction pump I got at Pep Boys and refill with clean brake fluid. Check your owners manual for the type to get (Dot 3 or Dot 4) Then i got a pieve of clear aquarium tubing which fits over the bleeder bolts. I remove the rubber caps from the bleeders and put the tubing over it so it fits snuggle. Then open the bleed and drain the old stuff into a screw top jar until it runs clean and tighten the bleeder. You can preloosen the bleeder before you put the tubing on if necessary. Changing the transmission oil would be great. Make sure you get it nice and warm by driving around on a hot day first. I dont know the size of the drain and fill plugs but youll need to measure and buy a socket. If you dont change it MANDITORY that you check the level every year from now on. Also keep an eagle eye on the axle boots every oil change or at least twice a year. If they crack and you dont catch it in time youll need new axle for $1000 whereas Toyota gets $400 for just the boots. I plan to write up a proceedure for the 30k service which is mostly inspection soon.
First of all I believe in using origional Toyota parts in most applications. Their air filters are excellent, much better than anything else availible. I also suggest you use their coolant. An exception would be the oil filter where I recommend you use FRAM because it has a grippy surface on the end that helps you remove and install it. I havnt used an oil filter wrench since I took the origional one off.
1) Change the air filter 30,000 miles/two years. I recommend you inspect it every year. Certainly you dont need to change it every 2 years unless its really dusty where you drive. I go by the 30k miles.
There is an excellent proceedure to change the filter complete with pictures here on this forum. But I dont know how to find it. The filter housing is to the right of the battery. There is a fat black hose coming out of the top of it which runs to the front of the car. Youll see a clamp with a philips head screw which holds the hose to the housing. Loosen the clamp and remove the hose. On the housing itself there are two spring clips at the front of the housing which hold it together. The clips are to the immediate right of the negitive terminal on the battery. (the one towards the front of the car) Undo the clips. At the rear of the housing the top and lower halfs of the housing are hooked or hinged together. Seperate the housing halfs and remove the old filter and replace it with the new one. It might be a little tricky to get the housing together where the hook/hinge arrangement is but if you can get the two clips back on its probably right. When the housing is back together, reattach the fat black hose and tighten the clamp. Check all of the other hoses which go into the housing to make sure they didnt come off.
2) Change the coolant every 30k miles, 2 years. If you use Toyota long life coolant it should last 5 years or 50k miles. I think this spec is meant for the old green stuff. Toyota long life coolant is red so if you have red stuff I would not change it at this time. If you scroll up this forum a ways I explain how I recently changed mine. Its easy.
3) Replace engine oil and filter. I have explained further up this forum how to do this. I recommend you change the oil three times a year at four month intervals like the manual says regardless of the mileage. If you REALLY drive a lot then change it every 4000 miles. You probably can go 7500 miles but not more than four months between changes. Oil and filters are cheap. It only costs me about $6 to do an oil change. I recommend when you change the oil that you inspect the drive axle boots for wear at that time while the car is up on ramps. ESPECIALLY WHEN THE CAR IS OVER FOUR YEARS OLD AND/OR HAS 60K MILES ON IT. How to do it is explained in the oil change instructions further up the list. Also, at this time check the battery acid level if your battery not a sealed unit.
3) Change the sparkplugs every 30k miles or 2 years. Forget the two years just change them every 30k miles. You need a very good sparkplug socket (5/8") which will grip the plug as they are down on the bottom of a very deep hole in the cylindar head. Bring a sparkplug to the store and test the socket out on it. You also need a 3/8 in drive ratchet, a six inch expension, and a 10mm socket all in 3/8 inch drive. A spark plug gauge is needed too.
First remove all the plugs from their packages and check them with the gauge. The gap should be .043 inch.
Using the ratchet and 10mm socket, remove the four black acorn nuts from the black plastic cover on the top of the engine. It says like VTTI on it and has a hole in it for the oil filler cap. Put the nuts in a tin can and remove the plastic. Now you can see the sparkplug sockets. Each one is held on by a 10 mm bolt you have to remove to pull the wire off the plug. Remove one of the 10mm bolts and pull the socket off the plug. Look down in the hole with a flashlight to check for crap down in there. If you find any blow it out with a can of Dust Off. If your car is older, there might be oil down there from a leaking valve cover gasket. Replace the plug anyway but bring the car in for a new VC gasket. Using the ratchet with a six inch extension on the sparkplug socket, loosen the sparkplug turning counterclockwise. Once the plug is good and loose you can remove the ratchet and turn the extension with your fingers. CAREFULLY draw up the sparkplug. This is where you want a really good socket because you dont want to drop it now and you dont want to go dropping the new plug into the engine. Put the new plug you check the gap in into the socket and extension and lower it down into the engine. Tighten it by hand then when its started use the ratchet. When you feel the plug bottom give it 1/2 turn more with the ratchet. Install the ten mm bolt and move on to the next plugs until you do them all.
4) Rotate the tires. If you want to.
There that is it! THAT IS ALL THAT IS DONE AT THE 30K SERVICE. There are some inspections Ill get to another day, but nothing else is changed or adjusted. You dont really need to do the inspections until the car gets like 60k miiles on it when you should perform them once a years. This is the service Toyota gets like $350 here in NJ to do! Lets do the math. The air filter at Toyota is $12 and the sparkplugs should go $1 each at AutoZone or similiar. A Fram oil filter and four quarts of oil on sale should be 6-7 dollars. Lets see 12+4+7 equals $23 for the 30,000 service!
Or...anyone have any idea if there is a product out there that has the ability to shmush the surrounding paint into the scratched part to cover it up. Seems like on the bumper this might be possible, but probably not.
Thanks
I was trying out sockets and wrenches on the drain plug for the manual transmission today and I believe a 15/16 inch socket will fit it perfectly. It will need to be a very short socket however as suspension components come within 3 or so inches of the plug. I dont think you could get a wrench on it either. Im thinking the metric equivelent would be 24mm. Its a scurvy plug however in that the head is very thin and undercut. It looks easy to bugger up. Im debating whether or not to change the transmission oil next year at 30k miles. It certainly doesnt NEED to be changed however the oil level needs to be CHECKED once a year or so as the car gets older.