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14 Year Old Avensis Flies Through Mot


Konrad C
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Just had my Avensis MOT'd. Leanburn 1.8

The tester was impressed with the overall condition of the car. It has done 118774 miles.

I have all the previous MOT certificates and the emissions printout from 2005.

The fast idle CO - 0.01(max 0.2), HC - 11 (200), Lambda - 1.021 (1.030), and natural idle - 0.008 (0.300). These are good figures, especially the HC figures. This shows the engine is very fit.

I wonder what other cars are showing for their emissions - old or recent?

Let me know.

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Hydro carbons HC (unburnt fuel) was 7ppm in my old lexus is300 with 178k

Celica GT4 Turbo 1995 was about 14ppm with 130ish k

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A low HC is a very good indication that your engine is very healthy with no leaking valves or worn piston/rings.

Basically means that all the fuel being introduced into your engine is being burnt and producing power

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My 2005 Avensis is up to 16 HC and yet it is doing over 40 mpg, I wonder how accurate the test equipment is?

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@ roker, 16ppm is still very low mate

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I have a 1999 V reg 1.6se saloon. Had it 3 years now, and the 3 mots i have had done, its passed.

Really pleased with it. It has nearly 140k miles on the clock.

Not got the emmission sheet to hand, but all i can say is that its always scraped the 1st test, and the second test it is fine with. Tester says its a bit slower than normal to fall back to idle rpm.

My avg mpg is 46mpg.

Would like to know what generally kills these older avensis models off, so I can try and increase lifetime.......

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What kills older Avensis off?

  1. Availability and cost of spares is one - Scrap yards, eBay and internet can save on costs.
  2. How it was cared for - regular servicing and cleaning - keeping the car in good order.
  3. Accident damage - stolen, insurance right off.
  4. The owner - can affect the first two. Cannot afford to run the car any more.
  5. Major car faults - vvti engine oil burning issue!

There may be other reasons. I think the body does not rust as quick as competitors, and unless you visit the supermarket a lot, the body should be tidy.

The Avensis pre-2000 engines are durable with no major issues.

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What kills older Avensis off?

  1. Availability and cost of spares is one - Scrap yards, ebay and internet can save on costs.
  2. How it was cared for - regular servicing and cleaning - keeping the car in good order.
  3. Accident damage - stolen, insurance right off.
  4. The owner - can affect the first two. Cannot afford to run the car any more.
  5. Major car faults - vvti engine oil burning issue!

There may be other reasons. I think the body does not rust as quick as competitors, and unless you visit the supermarket a lot, the body should be tidy.

The Avensis pre-2000 engines are durable with no major issues.

what do you mean vvti enine oil burning issue? I have a vermont vvti ?!

my car does ~35 mpg

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What kills older Avensis off?

5. Major car faults - vvti engine oil burning issue!

Agreed.

Despite regular service, our 1.8VVTi went bang on the way back from France.

We had a slight ticking noise around 2500rpm near the end of the outward journey, so we topped up the oil as I had taken to doing every 500 miles or so, and it kept running for 2 weeks, keeping the revs down and accelerating gently. On the homeward journey some 20 miles short of Calais, it slowed to a maximum of 40 miles per hour (on the A16) and even the gentlest touch on the accelerator was accompanied by a sound like someone emptying the cutlery drawer into the tumble-drier. AA Relay home.

Con-rod broken apparently. Not worth the garage bill even to see whether big or little end or what other damage, or what's salvageable. Momentarily tempted by the "one piston plus con-rod" on eBay for £25, just to get the car fit to trade-in :boxed:. But too much work and I'm too honest.

£800 for a used engine supplied and fitted is the best I found and the car is not worth that investment.

Searching the web (which is always correct, isn't it) suggests that pre-2003 1zz-fe engines have questionable oil-control design, whereby the drain holes in the piston skirt can get clogged, allowing oil into the combustion chamber, causing increased consumption and degradation of the ceramic pre-cats.

The pre-cats break up and the engine pulls the dust and crud back into the cylinder in the scavenging phase while inlet and exhaust valves are open together (emission reduction strategy), which wears the bore, letting more oil past and accelerating the process.

Eventually oil pressure on that cylinder is compromised and the bearings suffer.

I'm told by my local mechanic that once that ticking starts, it's a one-way street. The only preventative action then is to replace the bearings and to use post-2003 pistons instead.

Of course, had I known about it sooner, I would have been using the best quality and thinnest (appropriate) oil I could afford, rather than whatever default oil the garage chose.

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What kills older Avensis off?

  1. Availability and cost of spares is one - Scrap yards, ebay and internet can save on costs.
  2. How it was cared for - regular servicing and cleaning - keeping the car in good order.
  3. Accident damage - stolen, insurance right off.
  4. The owner - can affect the first two. Cannot afford to run the car any more.
  5. Major car faults - vvti engine oil burning issue!

There may be other reasons. I think the body does not rust as quick as competitors, and unless you visit the supermarket a lot, the body should be tidy.

The Avensis pre-2000 engines are durable with no major issues.

what do you mean vvti enine oil burning issue? I have a vermont vvti ?!

my car does ~35 mpg

The vvti engine had a poor design with the block and pistons. The 1.8 and 1.6 were the worst, though I have read the 1.4 can be affected too. The fault generally happens at about 40,000 miles, though it varies from lower mileage to about 80,000 miles. The engines was supposed to be modified by 2006, so car built from that time should be fine. If not the forum will be aware.

Some engines never have the fault - I am not sure about the figures. Toyota have a engine warranty for 7 years with service history, for a free replacement lower engine. The first symptom is high oil consumption - a litre of oil for 500 miles(please correct me on this).

If you search the forum on oil burning issues, you will find out more on that topic.

My car is the leanburn 7A-FE engine which is a different design. It hardly uses a drop of oil, and I check the dipstick regularly.

I also change the oil and filter twice a year.

Your engine may be one of the unaffected engines, that is why you are not aware or need to worry. Keep an eye on it though.

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My friend has a 1979 1.8 Avensis, passes the mot each year 1st. time. He does an annual service with all the usual oily bits.

No rust, the alloy wheels look new, does 45mpg, now upto 160,000 miles on the odo.

Now and again he says he'll buy a newer Avensis, my words to him is "don't"

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