How To Change The Vvtl-i Screws

[ViPTsport]

hi

was wondering where i can get the tsport strut brace / antiroll bar shown in the photos...

do they improve the car a lot...

[MarcTS]

That strut brace comes as standard on the facelift t-Sports and I have never seen it for sale anywhere before. Your best bet is to get a 3rd party strut brace and fit that as they will be more easily available. Some names you can look at are TTE, TRD, Whiteline & Cusco.

[ViPTsport]

That strut brace comes as standard on the facelift t-Sports and I have never seen it for sale anywhere before. Your best bet is to get a 3rd party strut brace and fit that as they will be more easily available. Some names you can look at are TTE, TRD, Whiteline & Cusco.

didn't know they were fitted as standard on the newer CTs... there should surely be a parts number for it then... and they probably work better than any of the others as tey were designed for the tsport... and cost a packet !!! i don't know how to pm yet... but will try and pm partsking about it...

i have seen a TOMS one discussed in recent posts..

i see you opted for the cusco brace... any good?

[MarcTS]

i see you opted for the cusco brace... any good?

Yes I'm very happy with it. It has certainly tightened things up on the car noticeably but I am now dreaming of anti roll bars as the rear still doesn't feel great. But for the money it cost to get the Cusco I really can't complain :)

[T-Sport PT]

Hi everyone,

I have a 3 dr Corolla T-Sport from Feb/2002, thus one of the first ones sold in Portugal. Recently I had an engine problem - between the 105.000 Km and 120.000 Km revisions, my car has consumed more than 3 liters of oil, without any warning light. I only noticed a strange noise when I accelerated in some roudabout's but the Toyota responsible in my usual Toyota dealer said it was nothing important, so it could wait for 10 days till 120.000 revision.

3 days later, while overtaking an Audi TT, the engine suddenly started making a huge noise, followed by 3 yellow lights on in the panel: VSC, TRC OFF and Engine problems. Looking at the owners manual, It said to take the car to my Toyota garage as soon as possible, not warning not to use it till then.

When I returned home, I decided to order ACP help (similar to ADAC in Germany and RAC in England) to take the car to Toyota next day (monday).

Meanwhile I decided to take a look at the oil level, despite in the previous 115.000 Kms the car never presented any significant oil consumption. To my surprise, the car had lost 3 liters of oil (I only use BP Visco 7000 Sport). I know it lost 3 liters because I added 2 liters to force the oil level to its minumum.

Next day, when I took the car to Toyota, they were absolutely surprised, as the engine did not present any oil leakage. They disassemble the engine, to detect the amount of damage on it. They had to change a lot of material, despite they cannot justify why the car has lost such an high amount of oil. Afterwards, I was rewarded with a 3.200€ bill to pay.

Having seen this article prior to my car problem, I requested them to change the two screws, as specified above.

However, let me warn that my engine did not have those screws - I could check it with my own eyes, so I ended paying for them but not used them.

This huge post is just to warn at least those guys from Portugal that the E12 T-Sport Corollas sold till the facelift do not have these screws.

Also to warn the Corolla community about these sudden oil consumptions, without any warning light, thus when we noticed the problem we already have a huge bill to pay. No one in Toyota, starting in the garage, followed by the technical responsibles in Oporto, Portugal and Technical Department in Belgium could justify the situation. They received several photos of the car, together with a report from the garage, but did not assume any responsibility in the situation.

Sorry for this huge post by I felt I must warn everyone of such situation, which is absolutely annoying.

Cheers,

João Carlos

[borodaz]

That strut brace comes as standard on the facelift t-Sports and I have never seen it for sale anywhere before. Your best bet is to get a 3rd party strut brace and fit that as they will be more easily available. Some names you can look at are TTE, TRD, Whiteline & Cusco.

didn't know they were fitted as standard on the newer CTs... there should surely be a parts number for it then... and they probably work better than any of the others as tey were designed for the tsport... and cost a packet !!! i don't know how to pm yet... but will try and pm partsking about it...

i have seen a TOMS one discussed in recent posts..

i see you opted for the cusco brace... any good?

ive got a 04 model t sport (guesing you mean mine is new) and mine has a strut brace, looks like it came as standard. will post a pic in the near future to get assured it is a standard one.

eventualy i may think of buying a new strut brace and may sell my standard one, if i do i will put it in the for sale section in here. anyone know how much the standard ones go for ?

[borodaz]

Hi everyone,

I have a 3 dr Corolla T-Sport from Feb/2002, thus one of the first ones sold in Portugal. Recently I had an engine problem - between the 105.000 Km and 120.000 Km revisions, my car has consumed more than 3 liters of oil, without any warning light. I only noticed a strange noise when I accelerated in some roudabout's but the Toyota responsible in my usual Toyota dealer said it was nothing important, so it could wait for 10 days till 120.000 revision.

3 days later, while overtaking an Audi TT, the engine suddenly started making a huge noise, followed by 3 yellow lights on in the panel: VSC, TRC OFF and Engine problems. Looking at the owners manual, It said to take the car to my Toyota garage as soon as possible, not warning not to use it till then.

When I returned home, I decided to order ACP help (similar to ADAC in Germany and RAC in England) to take the car to Toyota next day (monday).

Meanwhile I decided to take a look at the oil level, despite in the previous 115.000 Kms the car never presented any significant oil consumption. To my surprise, the car had lost 3 liters of oil (I only use BP Visco 7000 Sport). I know it lost 3 liters because I added 2 liters to force the oil level to its minumum.

Next day, when I took the car to Toyota, they were absolutely surprised, as the engine did not present any oil leakage. They disassemble the engine, to detect the amount of damage on it. They had to change a lot of material, despite they cannot justify why the car has lost such an high amount of oil. Afterwards, I was rewarded with a 3.200€ bill to pay.

Having seen this article prior to my car problem, I requested them to change the two screws, as specified above.

However, let me warn that my engine did not have those screws - I could check it with my own eyes, so I ended paying for them but not used them.

This huge post is just to warn at least those guys from Portugal that the E12 T-Sport Corollas sold till the facelift do not have these screws.

Also to warn the Corolla community about these sudden oil consumptions, without any warning light, thus when we noticed the problem we already have a huge bill to pay. No one in Toyota, starting in the garage, followed by the technical responsibles in Oporto, Portugal and Technical Department in Belgium could justify the situation. They received several photos of the car, together with a report from the garage, but did not assume any responsibility in the situation.

Sorry for this huge post by I felt I must warn everyone of such situation, which is absolutely annoying.

Cheers,

João Carlos

what i dont get is if you had no lift bolts how did you have lift on your car ? or did you not have lift ?

thx for the info anyways

[Hawke56]

didn't know they were fitted as standard on the newer CTs... there should surely be a parts number for it then... and they probably work better than any of the others as tey were designed for the tsport... and cost a packet !!!

Here are the part#'s:

RHD Models:

Right side bracket 48607-12040

Left side bracket 48608-12040

Strut brace 48690-12020

LHD Models:

Right side bracket 48607-12030

Left side bracket 48608-12030

Strut brace 48690-12010

If you want the nuts that fasten the bar to the brackets the part# for them is: 90179-14065

There's also a rear strut bar on these models part# 48690-12030, fastening nuts part# 90179-08162

[ViPTsport]

Hi guys...

Thanks for the part numbers hawke 56... mine is a RHD...

Could you help us with some quotes partsking...

If you look at the pictures within this post, you can clearly see the front strut brace... would it be the same one fitted to your car borodaz... and is there any reason why you want to change it mate?

thanks for the info tsport pt; very sorry it cost so much to repair... did MrT attribute the damage to the vvtl-i screws? i will certainly be watching my oil consumption more closely now...

at what mileage is it advisable to change these screws anyway... should i ask for them to be checked at my next [60k] service if it doesn't cost too much to do ...

i would suggest a rear strut brace instead of an rear antiroll bar minimarc if you can put up with the inconvenience of a bar across the top of the seats in the boot... strut braces work better at tightening the car as far as i read...

[borodaz]

Hi guys...

Thanks for the part numbers hawke 56... mine is a RHD...

Could you help us with some quotes partsking...

If you look at the pictures within this post, you can clearly see the front strut brace... would it be the same one fitted to your car borodaz... and is there any reason why you want to change it mate?

thanks for the info tsport pt; very sorry it cost so much to repair... did MrT attribute the damage to the vvtl-i screws? i will certainly be watching my oil consumption more closely now...

at what mileage is it advisable to change these screws anyway... should i ask for them to be checked at my next [60k] service if it doesn't cost too much to do ...

i would suggest a rear strut brace instead of an rear antiroll bar minimarc if you can put up with the inconvenience of a bar across the top of the seats in the boot... strut braces work better at tightening the car as far as i read...

howdy yeah that strut brace is the same as mine matey, looks a bit odd to me (looks thin) i would maybe change it to a better looking one, want my typhoon first though :)

[ViPTsport]

howdy yeah that strut brace is the same as mine matey, looks a bit odd to me (looks thin) i would maybe change it to a better looking one, want my typhoon first though :)

the one you got is a damped one... i read in one of the threads that it allows for 'comfort' in extreme conditions compared to the fixed ones...

vanity, eh B) ... probably not why we drive the CTs...

[MarcTS]

howdy yeah that strut brace is the same as mine matey, looks a bit odd to me (looks thin) i would maybe change it to a better looking one, want my typhoon first though :)

Honestly mate, I wouldn't bother wasting my money to get a "better looking" one. The stock one you have will do a decent enough job, and spending an extra £100-£250 to get a different one won't provide you with enough of an improvement to justify it all.

[Armz]

howdy yeah that strut brace is the same as mine matey, looks a bit odd to me (looks thin) i would maybe change it to a better looking one, want my typhoon first though :)

Honestly mate, I wouldn't bother wasting my money to get a "better looking" one. The stock one you have will do a decent enough job, and spending an extra £100-£250 to get a different one won't provide you with enough of an improvement to justify it all.

I agree, unless he can sell his original on eBay for a good price.

I gave my car a little thrashing today after i got my screws changed on friday, and wow! my screws were not even worn but my lift is definetly hard all the way to the red-line. With a vengence. 1st to 2nd to 3rd lift pulls very very hard.

My Old screws:

I would have to say even if the screws are slightly worn it would be a good move to change them immediately. Infact depending on how much lift you use, it could be worthwhile to change them once a year or 2 years. (DIY, and save alot of labour costs). I didn't think such little wear could affect the lift so much. And i didn;t have any problems with lift before, but now it's totally savage.

Armz.

[ViPTsport]

i'd consider taking the TTE strut bar if the price is right borodaz...

am just wondering whether the original 'screws' fitted had an inherent problem... it has been suggested that MrT does not want to admit that there was a problem with them ... the colour of the new ones is also different... could be a different metal alloy... will look into verifying mine as soon as possible...

enjoy the lift to the max armz...

[Armz]

i'd consider taking the TTE strut bar if the price is right borodaz...

am just wondering whether the original 'screws' fitted had an inherent problem... it has been suggested that MrT does not want to admit that there was a problem with them ... the colour of the new ones is also different... could be a different metal alloy... will look into verifying mine as soon as possible...

enjoy the lift to the max armz...

Thanks. the screws are definetly different. The new ones seem like some sort of hardened steel alloy. I will change mine again this time next year and will know the exact wear on the bolts then.

Armz.

[Jase88]

This is a ridiculous observation and nothing whatsoever to do with the topic in general, but the town shown on the satnav in the first picture - Watermael Boitsfort - is twinned with the town I grew up in, small place called Annan in the South of Scotland, populated by 8000 inbreds!

I left the place as soon as I could.

i live in annan bud... full of cockends :)