1991 Corolla 1.6 Gl Executive - New Owner Questions

[kevinmck]

Hi,

While looking for a wee runaround I recently parted with a few hundred pounds for a 1991 Corolla 1.6 GL Executive auto (liftback) with only 24k miles. It's been really well looked after generally with a shedload of receipts, all MOT's, etc but there's a couple of points I wanted to ask the forum, so any help greatly apprecited.

1) The sunroof has a couple of areas of rust, they're too far gone to repair and it's leaking a bit too. It's also closed solid and won't move. I wondered if any other owners have had experience of having these replaced at a Toyota dealer and if so what's the avg cost ? Or if I can get the replacement roof are they easy enough to do yourself ?

2) There's a sticker on the engine detailing that the timing belt was changed at 17k miles. This, however, was in 1997 and I just want to get a steer, especially given that it's a belt rather than a chain, if it would be wise just to get it changed again. The previous owner used to leave the car sitting while he was abroad so I reckon this was the reason for the change at so few miles

thanks in advance,

Kevin

[jay13]

yup i'm afraid all the rollas suffered from the sunroofs rusting due to the rubber round the sunroof holding the water which gets back up inside it causing it to rust, new ones around £230 from mr toymota,

if it was last done in 1997 then its defo overdue and get it done asap, for the price of a rubber belt and fitting its peace of mind B)

[flexy7]

!

[4afte]

these engines do go on for ages, i have a 4A-F series (mines 4A-FE to be precise but the cam belt is the same) timing belt genuine, brand new from toyota. I don't need it any more if you are interested.

[kevinmck]

Many thanks for the replies !!

[Bizarra]

yup i'm afraid all the rollas suffered from the sunroofs rusting due to the rubber round the sunroof holding the water which gets back up inside it causing it to rust, new ones around £230 from mr toymota,

if it was last done in 1997 then its defo overdue and get it done asap, for the price of a rubber belt and fitting its peace of mind B)

Am very interested in Sun roof info. Mine is starting to go. I keep putting Vaseline (Bit Ugly) on the bad spots. I was with a bodyshop in the last week getting sills welded (NCT Failure) & asked could he fix the spots on the sunroof, before they got worse. Wouldn't touch it.

Glad to hear that I can get one. I remember a post a couple of years ago, where replacing Sunroofs was discussed, not necessarily for our model. general opinion was that it is a bitch of a job. Has to be done from the inside, removing & replacing the Head cloth.

Has anyone had any experience of doing this ? Get Toymota to do it ?

[Bizarra]

Hi,

While looking for a wee runaround I recently parted with a few hundred pounds for a 1991 Corolla 1.6 GL Executive auto (liftback) with only 24k miles. It's been really well looked after generally with a shedload of receipts, all MOT's, etc but there's a couple of points I wanted to ask the forum, so any help greatly apprecited.

1) The sunroof has a couple of areas of rust, they're too far gone to repair and it's leaking a bit too. It's also closed solid and won't move. I wondered if any other owners have had experience of having these replaced at a Toyota dealer and if so what's the avg cost ? Or if I can get the replacement roof are they easy enough to do yourself ?

2) There's a sticker on the engine detailing that the timing belt was changed at 17k miles. This, however, was in 1997 and I just want to get a steer, especially given that it's a belt rather than a chain, if it would be wise just to get it changed again. The previous owner used to leave the car sitting while he was abroad so I reckon this was the reason for the change at so few miles

thanks in advance,

Kevin

Congratulations Mate. That was a fantastic find. She is barely run in Mine has 130k up & running like a sewing machine. Sunroof is a problem on them all. Handbook says to Garage them if you live near the Sea. Sea is 100 yards away, in my case.

If that is only problem, it can be fixed & you have a gem

Definitely would have the belt replaced for the sake of a few quid, you could save a fortune. I would wonder why it was changed @ 10k though. Without checking, I think it is recommended every 25k. Might have been done for same reason you should change.

[Bizarra]

This is a question probably best answered by Kingo, or anyone who can help.

Is it possible to replace the metal sunroof with a tinted perspex (?) one, without major readjustments ?

I have never yet seen one of this model without rust in that area.

[kevinmck]

Just a bit of an update...

I've had quotes from dealers of £230-£250 to source a new sunroof (the metal one). Apparently there's also a further £30-£40 charge to paint it and neither of the dealers I spoke to could say how long the job would take. One of them gave me a worst case scenario costing approx £550. Bit sore considering the value of the car. But that said the roof is stuck fast and I'll have to make a decision soonish before it gets any worse.

Will be getting the timing belt done in the meantime though just to be on the safe side.

[Bizarra]

Just a bit of an update...

I've had quotes from dealers of £230-£250 to source a new sunroof (the metal one). Apparently there's also a further £30-£40 charge to paint it and neither of the dealers I spoke to could say how long the job would take. One of them gave me a worst case scenario costing approx £550. Bit sore considering the value of the car. But that said the roof is stuck fast and I'll have to make a decision soonish before it gets any worse.

Will be getting the timing belt done in the meantime though just to be on the safe side.

Keep me posted about how you get on. Mine isn't a crisis yet, but would like to get it seen to before it becomes one.

These are well worth looking after as they are getting scarce. When I bought mine 4 years ago, there were always several on E - Bay. Not nearly as many now.

If you hunt back through this Forum you will find a post "Has anyone else got one of these" . That is approx, as I am quoting from memory

[Johann]

Hello Kevin,

Toyota recommends that a timing belt should be should be changed at 40,000 Km intervals. I have a 1991 CLi 1.6 Twincam and I am looking for a steering column shaft to replace the one some dimwit job broke trying to stell it. Can you recommend a place where I may get lucky?

Johann.

[kevinmck]

Hi,

I just wanted to give a bit of an update on the progress I've made with getting the sunroof replaced, hopefully some of the below could prove useful to anyone else in a similar situation.

The sunroof was in a bad way, it was rusted on both sides at the front and had started leaking quite badly and it's warping had damaged the seal. It was also closed solid and wouldn't open at all. My initial idea had been to get the whole thing replaced and refitted by a Toyota dealer however the couple of dealers I spoke to couldn't give an accurate estimate on the labour costs given the age of the car and the fact that none of the staff had ever carried out the job before.

Basically I just ordered the replacement sunroof from the dealer, it turned out that the £30/£40 quid I'd been quoted for painting was actually the cost of the paint and the actual painting of the roof would be a further £90-£110 quid. Wasn't best pleased at this little revelation so I paid for the part and just took the new sunroof to a local bodyshop/panelbeater. I just got the guy to do as close a match to the car colour as possible. He only charged me £20 for the painting !!

With my newly painted roof in the boot I waited for a dry day (not too often in Scotland) and I removed the trim, visors, mirror and loosened the front section of the headlining. I removed the bolts holding the old roof in place and simply swapped old for new reconnecting the new roof with the existing bolts, etc All pretty straightforward. I replaced the headlining and put all the bits back in place.

The sunroof motor was dead, propably burnt out by the previous owner trying to open the stuck roof. So I just decided rather than trying to replace the motor that I'd just seal the edge of the roof with some sort of filler. Note that the new roof did not come with a new rubber seal so I went for the 'filling' option as I didn't want to have to go back and order another (overpriced) part from the dealer. I wasn't overly bothered about not having a working sunroof, just needed a watertight one. A quick trip back to the body shop and the guys there did a quick fill around the edge of the roof with some resin filler, again they were really good and only took £10 for the work.

Although I forked out quite a bit of cash for the replacement sunroof I'm sure if I'd a dry place to store the car (or better weather) I could have held out and tried to locate a good clean one from a breaker. I thought about trying to replace the metal roof with perspex or just filling the roof space with some sort of panel but I'm not sure if that would have been any cheaper in the long run unless I attempted it myself (I shyed away from that idea as I'm not the best with bodywork).

So the car's now watertight, been serviced and timing belt changed, I've done about 1500 since I've got it and it doesn't miss a beat. Can't see it costing me much anytime soon, never though I'd enjoy bangernomics so much !!

cheers,

Kev

[jigdev]

Hi,

I just wanted to give a bit of an update on the progress I've made with getting the sunroof replaced, hopefully some of the below could prove useful to anyone else in a similar situation.

The sunroof was in a bad way, it was rusted on both sides at the front and had started leaking quite badly and it's warping had damaged the seal. It was also closed solid and wouldn't open at all. My initial idea had been to get the whole thing replaced and refitted by a Toyota dealer however the couple of dealers I spoke to couldn't give an accurate estimate on the labour costs given the age of the car and the fact that none of the staff had ever carried out the job before.

Basically I just ordered the replacement sunroof from the dealer, it turned out that the £30/£40 quid I'd been quoted for painting was actually the cost of the paint and the actual painting of the roof would be a further £90-£110 quid. Wasn't best pleased at this little revelation so I paid for the part and just took the new sunroof to a local bodyshop/panelbeater. I just got the guy to do as close a match to the car colour as possible. He only charged me £20 for the painting !!

With my newly painted roof in the boot I waited for a dry day (not too often in Scotland) and I removed the trim, visors, mirror and loosened the front section of the headlining. I removed the bolts holding the old roof in place and simply swapped old for new reconnecting the new roof with the existing bolts, etc All pretty straightforward. I replaced the headlining and put all the bits back in place.

The sunroof motor was dead, propably burnt out by the previous owner trying to open the stuck roof. So I just decided rather than trying to replace the motor that I'd just seal the edge of the roof with some sort of filler. Note that the new roof did not come with a new rubber seal so I went for the 'filling' option as I didn't want to have to go back and order another (overpriced) part from the dealer. I wasn't overly bothered about not having a working sunroof, just needed a watertight one. A quick trip back to the body shop and the guys there did a quick fill around the edge of the roof with some resin filler, again they were really good and only took £10 for the work.

Although I forked out quite a bit of cash for the replacement sunroof I'm sure if I'd a dry place to store the car (or better weather) I could have held out and tried to locate a good clean one from a breaker. I thought about trying to replace the metal roof with perspex or just filling the roof space with some sort of panel but I'm not sure if that would have been any cheaper in the long run unless I attempted it myself (I shyed away from that idea as I'm not the best with bodywork).

So the car's now watertight, been serviced and timing belt changed, I've done about 1500 since I've got it and it doesn't miss a beat. Can't see it costing me much anytime soon, never though I'd enjoy bangernomics so much !!

cheers,

Kev

Kev nice post good advice !

Where in Scotland are you?

[jigdev]

Folks, I couldn't pay out over £200 for a new sunroof. I have the same problem rust on both sides and thats the only thing letting this old beast down otherwise its a very tidy car.

I am thinking of attempting some DIY on the sunroof, using filler etc

Just wondering if anyone here as tried this? Also would I be able to buy a sunroof seal from the main dealers? if so anyone know of the cost

Cheers