2004 Corolla 60K maintenance question

Maintenance/Repairs
1

Hi,

My 2004 Corolla CE has 62K now and I’m considering getting the 60K maintenance done soon, especially since I skipped the 30K maintenance. Below is the list from the maintenance guide. The car has never been used for towing or driven on dirt roads, therefore I skipped the “special driving condition” part of the list.

  1. Replace engine oil and oil filter
  2. Rotate tires
  3. Replace cabin air filter (if equipped)
  4. Replace engine air filter
  5. Inspect the following:
    __ Ball joints and dust covers
    __ Brake lines and hoses
    __ Brake linings/drums and brake pads/discs
    __ Differential oil
    __ Drive belts
    __ Drive shaft boots
    __ Engine coolant
    __ Engine valve clearance
    __ Exhaust pipes and mountings
    __ Fuel lines and connections, fuel tank band and fuel tank vapor vent system hoses
    __ Fuel tank cap gasket
    __ Radiator core and condenser
    __ Steering gear box
    __ Steering linkage and boots
    __ Transmission fluid or oil

I don’t want to pay dealer’s high price because:
a. This car comes with timing chain instead of belt (therefore no need to change the belt)
b. America Tires have been doing #2 below for me regularly (since I replaced all 4 tires there)
c. I guess #3 (cabin air filter) and #4 (engine air filter) should be relatively easy to replace, and I can purchase these filters from some auto parts store.
d. #1 (oil change) can be done at ~$30.
e. That leaves #5 (inspections) to be done, which I guess should be inexpensive.

Is my understanding correct? Do you think oil change/repair centers (like Jeffy Lube, sears, Midas, etc.) will accept an inspection job like this? Could someone recommend some places that do good inspections? Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

2

I don’t know exactly what services you skipped at 30,000 miles, but this isn’t something I recommend. You might get away with it, but you might also end up with an expensive repair that could have been avoided for not much money.

As for your actual question, most people here will tell you not to get any work done at a quick-lube shop (even an oil change). They often have undertrained people working in a big hurry, with a business model that encourages them to sell unnecessary service. If you don’t want to use the dealer, find a good local independent mechanic.

3

@lioncar I agree. The dealer wants $168 for all those inspections alone, in addition to the oil change and the air filter, topping out at $235 or so. I have those maintenance items done by a reputable independent shop and make sure I keep the records of that work.

4

Thanks for your quick replies!

Could you give a ballpark estimate of how much it will cost to do the work (oil change + replacing cabin filter & engine filter + all inspections mentioned above) at an independent shop?

Thanks!

5

You skipped the 30k maintenance? What have you done? Has the coolant ever been replaced? How about the ATF? How often do you have the oil changed?

Most of #5 is simply looking at the parts for leaks or defects. It doesn’t take very much time. When you have the tires rotated, the shop that does that can check your brakes for you at little if any additional cost. At 60k, I’d suspect you will need new brake pads soon if you have never had them replaced. Have the brakes flushed at that time. Your tire shop can probably inspect most of the other things while they have the car up on the lift.

Your cabin air filter is located behind your glove box. Open the glove box, pull up on it to remove it and then replace the filter behind it. You owners manual has pictures and directions. Its so easy a drunk, blind monkey can do it so I don’t see how the dealers get away with such outrageous prices for this. The engine air filter is a little more difficult but the blind monkey could still do it as long as he isn’t drunk, or not too drunk anyway.

If you have never had the cooling system serviced, then get it done asap. Do not allow it to be flushed, especially if any chemical flushes are used. Just drain and refill. Same for the transmission, its ATF is listed as a lifetime, but it isn’t. Don’t allow it to be flushed either, just drain and refill.

6

Forget the suggested maintenance schedule. You have a 10 year old car. All the fluids should have been changed several times by now; not just oil, I’m talking about coolant, brake, and transmission fluids. All the rubber hoses and belts are old and should be due for replacement. Forget a quick oil change place. Take the car to a good independent mechanic or shop and provide them with all the maintenance info you can.

This is a low mileage old car. Filter changes are easy and likely overdue. Fluid changes are easy and likely way overdue. Perhaps some tune up parts; plugs and wires are easy and likely due.

I sense the OP assumes that since there is a timing chain all that he/she needs to do is periodic oil changes. That can work up to a point, and I think 10 years is far beyond that point.

7

Never changed coolant. It’s a manual transmission car, therefore I guess ATF doesn’t apply? Oil change interval is ~5K.
I’ll add drain/refill coolant into the list then (brake pads inspection is already in the list; I’ll ask them if they need to be replaced). Any idea on the cost? Thanks!

8

No need to mess with the MT oil. Drain/refill cooling system drain block and radiator should be around $100. New front pads, flush brake lines, new rotors $3-400.

You can get an idea on the front brakes by checking the level of the brake fluid in the brake master cylinder reservoir. If no one has been topping off the fluid and it is near the min, you need new pads. If someone has been topping it off, then they will need to be inspected.

9

Corollas from that era have trouble-prone manual transmissions.
I strongly suggest you change the trans oil and every 30k miles hereafter.
At 22K miles the trans oil in my 2006 Matrix was very dark with a metallic sheen.
It looked dirtier than the oil in my "88 & '81 Accords did at 30K miles.

10

“Corollas from that era have trouble-prone manual transmissions.
I strongly suggest you change the trans oil and every 30k miles hereafter”

…and their engines are prone to sludging unless synthetic oil is used, and it is changed at least every six months/5k miles (whichever comes first). The OP’s statement about oil changes being done “~5k miles” makes me wonder if “~5k” actually means 6k or 7k, and it also makes me wonder about the amount of elapsed time involved between oil changes.

Skipping the 30k service on any car is…not smart.
Skipping the 30k service on a car with a history of engine sludging and transmission problems is especially not smart.

The saying, “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later” comes to mind when people tell us about skipping maintenance. Invariably the decision to…save money…by avoiding scheduled maintenance has pretty serious consequences.

People who lease cars and/or who trade their cars in every 3 years can get away with lax maintenance. People who keep their cars for the long-term are VERY foolish if they don’t maintain the car at least as well as the mfr specifies.

11

On the “pay me now or pay me later topic”, I just analyzed 18 years of mainteance and repairs on the 1994 Nissan we had till 2012.

The total regular maintenance cost was $4776, repairs and replacements were $4396 and tires $928 over that period. Comes to $562 per year total on average. Skipping “maintenance” would no doubt have driven up the repair cost dramatically.

This was consideredd an above average car by Consumer reports.

12

The most overlooked thing on that list is valve lash . . . aka engine valve clearance

No matter what anybody says, have them pull off the valve cover and check it

If somebody tells you it’s not necessary, because the valves aren’t noisey, walk away. Their logic is flawed. Tight valves aren’t noisey, but they lead to low compression, burnt valves, misfires, hard starting, and other bad things

Be aware that if your car uses shims to adjust the valves, whoever’s working on it may have to head to the dealer to get the appropriate thickness shims.

13

A well-recommended dealer shop would likely do the job right. But the price might be more, and you’d probably be subjected to their many up-sell tactics. The other good option is to realize you won’t be able to continue to postpone routine maintenance much longer on this car, without incurring huge repair bills for major things failing. So its best to accept this as a basic fact . And deal with it by being proactive.

It’s not that difficult. Don’t just open the yellow pages to find a shop though. Ask friends, co-workers, relatives, anybody you have a personal relationship with which shop they use for car maintenance and repair. Call around from the ones mentioned, find one that works on Toyotas, preferably specializes on Toyotas or at least Asian models. Then – and this is very important – tell the shop when you meet them the first time who it was that recommended them to you. This gives the shop a big incentive to price your repairs right, and do a good job, as they’ll know if they don’t, you’ll be telling their other customer that you were mistreated. Gives you much needed leverage with the shop.

I own an early 90’s Corolla and do my own maintenance and repairs as a driveway DIY’er. So I can offer up some advice from that perspective if you are interested.

If I were in your situation and wanted to do this myself at 60K I’d check for any engine diagnostic codes, current or pending, do 1-4, replace the coolant (I’d probably inspect the thermostat while I did this, if doing so is a simple thing), inspect the brake pads (make sure they measure to spec), rotors (again, check the thickness measurement) , lines, and hoses, ball joints and dust covers, drive belts, CV boots, exhaust system, fuel lines (including evap stuff), gas cap gasket, a general look-see at the radiator and water pump for signs of deposit build up and/or leaking, power steering fluid level, steering boots, and check the level and general condition of the manual transmission (differential) fluid.

Me, I wouldn’t bother w/the engine valve clearance measurement unless there is a symptom that could be related to valve clearance. Lack of power, poor idling, high emissions, etc. I should add deferring the valve clearance measurement might have undesirable consequences if the exhaust valve clearance is off, so not doing that has some risk. The reason I say I’d defer it is b/c it is fairly time consuming job, and I’ve been checking valve clearances since the late 70’s in either my VW Rabbit or my Corolla, and never once have I found a single valve to be out of spec.

14

You saved a lot of money ignoring the routine maintence on this car…now it’s time to pay the piper.
It sounds like you can do some of it yourself. So you should do the things you are capable of and check them off the list. Then find a reliable independent mechanic and have the rest of the work done. But I wouldn’t wait too long…it’s way over due as it is.

I doubt that the enginev will last past 150,000 miles at this rate. Had you taken better care of your toys, it might have lasted to 250,000 miles or more.

Yosemite

15

@Yosemite Do you think not replacing the air filter @30,000 miles will make that big of a difference on life span of the engine? Odds are it was replaced during one of the oil changes, air filters are sold more frequently than needed.

16

“and their engines are prone to sludging unless synthetic oil is used”

Toyota revised the pistons in 2002-3 and that solved the sludging problem in the 1zz-fe.

17

@Nevada545; Where did I say that the air filter was the only concern.
What the heck were you reading!!!

I referred to all the maintence that was not done in 60.000 miles.

Yosemite

18

The OP stated that the 30,000 mile service was not done. The oil was changed every 5,000 miles. What other maintenance would you like to see done? Tire rotations aren’t going to affect the engines life.

19

My point is that I feel some are being too critical for skipping what is sold as a “major” service. I have customers that pass on the 30K and just get an oil change, I think they may be too savvy to pay an inflated price for an oil change, tire rotation, two filters and replacing the brake fluid.

20

So sorry @Nevada545; I was talking about the car in general and the drive train, not just the engine.

These would be my major concerns

Replace engine air filter, Drive belts, Engine coolant
Engine valve clearance, Transmission fluid or oil

And a good inspection of the suspension and brakes.

Yosemite