It's been a while since the last update and it's been a busy summer
Front Suspension Upgrade (updated 20/8/2006)
At the start of May I felt the need for new front suspension – the front Konis were worn out after only 15 months (not designed for the extra load of the transplanted engine / gearbox) and I needed a quick solution so I fitted new KYB units as a temporary measure. They were better than what was removed but not good enough to leave in place.
Adrian Smith at Fensport had used Koni Celica inserts but I was unsure if that would work for me. So having found out that Koni were able to modify the Corolla inserts I went down the route of getting custom shocks made. I also found a company called Track Developments near Castle Combe who do chassis and suspension analysis and all sorts of other track/kit car work. They took the weight and measurements required and came up with suggestions to get the suspension working properly. These included ride height, front and rear spring rates and castor and camber settings. As the front suspension needed the work most urgently that was what I concentrated on first.
I decided that I wanted to be able to adjust the ride height easily so bought height adjustable spring perches from Demon Tweeks; these would require 2.25” internal diameter springs, also sourced from Demon Tweeks. The whole lot was put together, fitted and adjusted by Track Developments. Dave utilised the Whiteline adjustable camber bolts front and rear to set the camber angles. The dampers are currently set to their softest setting and I’ll see how I get on with them – adjusting if I feel the need.
He also looked at fitting an 20mm adjustable Whiteline anti-roll bar but that would have entailed dropping the fuel tank which was almost full at that time. Kevin at S&M Services has done the installation and that makes a big improvement to turn in and cornering is much flatter.
With just the front suspension done the ride is so much better with this set up. The springs were a touch noisy when they were first fitted but settled down after a couple of days use. Dave Gallop at Track Developments tried to adjust the corner weights by moving the bottom spring seats but found that he wasn’t able to get the results that he wanted. So I’ll be re-adjusting the ride heights to get them the same on each side when I get the opportunity. I may change the springs from 12” long to 10.5” to allow adjustments both up and down – with the longer springs the lower spring seat is as low as it can go so I can only adjust upwards. Currently the ride height is a little too high for my liking.
The 12” springs have been swapped for 10.5” versions. Now the ride height has been adjusted so that it’s 30mm lower than standard and that complies with the chassis / suspension analysis results.
Pictures are here
This is a very short account of the hassle I went through to achieve the result I wanted - you wouldn't want to read it all - it’s a very long read!!!!!!!!!
Update :- Since putting the shorter springs on there has been a lot of noise from the front suspension. I’ve been back to Track Developments and Dave Gallop has looked at the components. There are “witness marks” on the inside of the springs where they have been rubbing against the strut casing. He eased the high spots on the grinder and re-assembled the struts.
Additionally he replaced the Eibach springs (+20% -20mm) on the back suspension with custom Fensport springs +30% -30mm. Though these have a greater lowering value they give a slightly higher rear ride height than the Eibachs, which after 7 years on the car had weakened and had sagged.
Update:- I’ve now got a set of 2.5” springs for the front. The bigger diameter will allow greater clearance between the springs and the damper unit but adaptors will have to be machined to locate the springs at the top and bottom to stop them moving around. Dave Gallop will do this when I’m able to get the car to him next.
Update:- 20/8/2006 The 2.5" springs have been fitted at Track Developments and they work an absolute treat - there is no noise whatsoever from the springs. Dave machined adaptors from aluminium alloy the top one replaces the original "top hat" and the bottom sits on top of the existing lower threaded spring seat.
Pictures are here
The biggest collection of Japanese cars in the UK takes place each year at JAE - Japanese Auto Extravaganza and the Toyota Owners Club always puts in an appearance.
With JAE 2006 at the end of July I need to get my alloys tidied up. The League GT-r alloys had been on the car since July 2001 and had been kerbed badly in the intervening years and needed serious work to get them back to a reasonable condition. I asked around about refurbishing and got a price of £75 a wheel + VAT. £350 is a lot of cash and for just another £30 I could buy a new set of Rota Grid rims. Virtually the same style but a different colour and at 7kg per rim they are each 1kg lighter than the Leagues. They were available in bronze (but not silver) in 16s but I wasn't sure about the colour so drove down to the UK distributor, Rare Rims in Crediton in Devon, to take a look. They looked good against the Rolla so came away with a set.
City Tyres in Cardiff fitted a new set of Pirelli P-Zero Nero tyres in 195 x 45 x16 and a set of lightweight locking nuts in black (again from Rare Rims) completed the package.
I fitted the new rims to the Rolla but after a weeks use I decided I didn't like the colour on a silver car. I took the wheels to Renowheel in Bridgend and asked if they could change the colour for me - they can but the cost is the same as a full refurbishment. Well I'm not going to use the wheels as they are so I bit the bullet and left them there to be re-finished in Silver. I picked them up following Friday afternoon - Renowheel have done an excellent job on the paintwork and had even supplied shiny alloy sleeves and caps for the valves. Their first run out was to the Annual Bubble Inn Charity car meet where they attracted lots of favourable comments.
Having removed the oil catch tank I now had room to fit a separate water injection reservoir. I found a suitable 0.5 gallon tank with a screw-on cap at UKtuning.co.uk. and modified the existing catch tank mounting plate to suit the new tank. I had to ensure that the bottom level of the tank was above the level of the injection pump.
I bought a couple of meters of 6mm tubing from Aquamist and drilled the tank cap to accept a 90* washer hose bend. It doesn't matter that it's a loose fit as the tank has to be vented to atmosphere to allow the fluid to be drawn from the tank by the pump without creating a partial vacuum in the tank. There is a piece of hose inside the tank from the cap to the bottom of the tank so it picks up the water/methanol mixture. The hose from the tank has been routed across the engine bay underneath the bonnet slam panel to the in-line filter. Job done.
The injected fluid no longer contains dubious washer additive and I'm no longer spaying methanol mixture to clean the windscreen so that's saving me money on methanol purchases. Marks that I've put on the tank allows me to monitor the level of the methanol mixture and over a month or so and I've found that it's only using about a pint of injection mixture every week.
JAE was a complete no-go for us this year. We had spent the week prior to JAE tending to the Rolla with loving care and attention. We washed it, clayed it, polished it, detailed all the trim, vacuumed the inside, cleaned all the interior trim. The engine bay sparkled – polished chrome and clean Samco hoses and plug leads, you could eat your dinner off the underside of the bonnet. We had bought a new set of Rota Grid rims in Bronze with new Pirelli P-Zero rubber. All I needed was to leave work early, get home and load up the boot and drive to Peterborough.
But on the drive home from work the JAE Jinx struck. Just as I was on the slip road at Junction 32 exiting the M4 everything stopped working and I coasted to a halt in a queue of traffic. I managed to get into the inside lane (with the help of a passenger from the Celica that was behind me – thanks fella) but there is no hard shoulder there and I was obstructing the inside lane. With the ignition switched on there wasn’t a single warning light lit on the dash – no electricity – nothing at all. I checked the battery connections and the in-line fuse but all that was OK. I phoned the RAC and they said they would be with me in about 30 minutes. While I was waiting a motorcycle policeman arrived and asked what the problem was – I explained and he called a traffic car which towed me off the motorway to a safe lay-by on the roundabout underneath the junction. That’s where the RAC man found me. He confirmed that the battery had no juice and that the charging system was dead. He fitted me up with a battery so I was able to drive home (only about a mile).
A Toyota parts man told me that a new alternator would cost £311 +VAT (and was on back order so not available for at least a week) so that would be my absolute last choice. Fensport suggested that there were two different types of alternator and sent both out to me by next day delivery. I received them at 10:00 am on Saturday morning (excellent services guys) but sadly neither of them was suitable as the connector and pin layout were different on my alternator. Kevin said that he might have something suitable but he was in Southampton at a mates stag weekend and wouldn’t be able to check until Monday. I’d explored all avenues of getting a replacement to allow us to get to Peterborough for Sunday but they had all turned into dead ends. Back to the Toyota parts man who said that they sometimes used a local company to re-condition alternators and starter motors. He supplied the telephone number but this had changed and so had the name and address of the company – though they still did the same work. I searched the local Yellow Pages looking for suitable places in Cardiff but I kept coming up against hurdles. My wife suggested a newish local company (Osaka) who had just moved their workshop to larger premises in Newport. Kalid said yes they could get the work done – probably 24 hour turnaround if the parts required were in stock. He would be taking to the same place I’d already spoken to on the phone earlier and it turned out that the Osaka workshop was located in the same building that the repair company had previously used – round and round in ever decreasing circles it seems to me K.
So I hired a car to get me around for a couple of days and delivered the alternator to Kalid on Monday morning. He phoned me at 2:30pm to tell me that the rotor in the alternator was damaged beyond repair and a replacement cannot be purchased from any of their three usual suppliers. Kalid has a Celica alternator to try the rotor from. It may also be possible to use the innards from one of the Fensport alternators. The Celica idea didn’t work as the rotor shaft is a different length. So I took the later Fensport alternator to Kalid – it may be possible to use the generator part of that one with the regulator from mine (with the correct connector). The repair place said that wasn’t going to work either so I phoned Kevin again - he said to take the two up to him - he would see what he could do. I collected the alternators from Kalid and went to Droitwich. After a bit of close scrutiny Kevin reckoned that the three pin electrical connector was part of the rectifier assembly so swapped the one from my broken alternator to the later alternator from Fensport. It fitted and appeared to be OK so I took it home and my son fitted it in the evening. I started the Corolla and there was no battery light showing – my son checked the charging system with a diagnostic tool from his garage and it all looked hunky dory. Took it for a spin and everything is fine. The annoying thing is that if I had known what to do I could have done this on Saturday and gone to JAE on Sunday after all. L On a positive note - it has been a learning experience and I now know more about alternators that I did before. Another positive is that the alternator did not fail as I was on my way to JAE on the Friday – that would have been even worse.
Kevin has been doing some research on the rear suspension on his 1998 AE111 Corolla G6R (very similar to my SR) and has found that the Koni inserts for the rear of the AE92 Corolla GTi fit the original strut casings. This is good news as the AE92 inserts are top adjustable whereas the ones I have need to be removed from the car to adjust them. So another quick call to Fensport finds me with a new set of AE92 Koni inserts ready to be fitted the next time the Corolla goes to Kevin.
Update (17/9/2006)
The Rolla has been back to Kevin for some minor maintenance - checking the cv joints on the drive shafts - trying to find out where a clicking noise was coming from. Both shafts were removed and the rubber cv boots refilled with grease. The passenger side outer joint needed a new boot and the drivers side inner joint was nearly dry. There was no play in any of the joints and with it all re-greased and re-assembled the noise has gone. The new AE92 rear strut inserts have been installed (direct replacement for the AE111 inserts) so now I have top adjustable rear dampers - makes life so much easier that having to remove from the car to adjust.
NO!! - this does not mean that I'll be parting with my AE111SR.
This latest problem with the alternator has prompted us to look for an additional car to use as a daily driver and it will also mean that I won’t have to hire a car to get around while the Rolla if off the road – for whatever reason. The plan is to use the Rolla for the summer (show) months only and take it off the road during the winter. Maintenance will be deceased this way and the other car will be newer and in less need of repair.
The current Corolla range goes from the T2 base model, T3 with a few extras, Colour Collection, T-Spirit, SR to the top of the range T-Sport Compressor
We looked at a 2003 model Corolla T-Sport (this model is no longer made - it has been replaced by the T-Sport Compressor) but I found it very flat unless it’s in “lift” (over 6,200rpm) and I don’t like the idea of having to rev an engine that hard to get any performance out of it. The rest of the car is very good – the ride is comfortable and interior is better than the lesser specified Corollas by having the brushed aluminium fascia which relieves the uniform plasticness (is there such a word?) of others. The one we have driven was the pre-facelift model (facelift is 2004 onwards) and in our opinion not as attractive as the later model. We have also driven a 2006 T3 2.0 D-4D. This I found was better to drive as it has more grunt (torque) in the lower rev range but Babs didn’t like the interior. There is the chance of getting a T-Spirit with a D-4D engine but the only one we have found locally does not have side skirts (another requirement).
After more research it appears that the new Colour Collection models have everything we are looking for and there was a 2006 model in Silver Steel for sale in Bristol with 5000 miles on it. I phoned to ensure they hadn’t sold it - they haven’t but it’s a Colour Collection 2 (without the brushed aluminium dash and digital climate control). The salesman explained that what we were looking for was a Colour Collection 3 – so no trip to Bristol.
Saturday Morning saw us trawling the internet searching for the used car we want. Our quest found us looking at an 06 plate Corolla SR (this year’s new model) in Alsace Granite with 5000 miles on the clock in Worcester. But you’ve guessed – it had been sold the day before. They asked if I had a car to part exchange and when I said "no" they made me a very good offer on a brand new SR – just £200 more than the used one we had been looking at. We took all of 5 seconds to say yes. We drove to Worcester in the afternoon and finalised the deal. The standard model comes without an alarm so we’ll be having that fitted prior to taking delivery on 1st September (with the new 56 plate). The SR comes with all the things we wanted and some extras – rear privacy glass, front spoiler, rear roof spoiler, rear bumper extensions and 10 spoke 16” alloy wheels.
As this car is slightly wider and a longer than the AE111 we decided to have rear parking sensors fitted
The dealer called to let me know which registration numbers had been allocated to him for new registrations next month - nothing worth having as the DVLA makes sure it sells those at a profit. We chose something that was easy enough to remember.
Finance is in place so all we can do now is wait for the phone call to say we can go and pick it up.
Pictures will have to wait until I have the car