2002 Avensis 1.6 VVTI

JJJJNR

Any thoughts on the above as a school run car, any known issues with them, do they have a chain or a timing belt.

JohnBoy26

JJJJNR wrote: »

Any thoughts on the above as a school run car, any known issues with them, do they have a chain or a timing belt.

Timing chain and the only real issue with them is that they like a drop of oil now and again.

zurbfoundation

VVTI has a chain - early 3ZZ-FE like this one can be oil burners - otherwise grand for the school run, decent economy from them - I used to be comfortably getting above mid 40's mpg on mine.

JJJJNR

Great, theres about 200k miles on it, any cause for concern on the chain.

Toyotafanboi

JJJJNR wrote: »

Great, theres about 200k miles on it, any cause for concern on the chain.

Not really, have a listen to it from cold start and if it sounds good i'd have no concerns. The chains aren't known to be troublesome.

JJJJNR

Would it be worth getting a compression test done on it, how would you know if it was a oil burner without owning it for a couple of months, any tell tail signs like white/blue smoke etc

Toyotafanboi

If it's survived to 200k, chances are it isn't an oil burner as the ones that were fond of a drop were very fond of it and i'd say most that didn't get recalled are dead by now.

Get the engine warm, find a decent straight bit of road, try to carry out 10 seconds or so of engine braking then put the foot down and look for smoke in the rear view. Would admittedly be easier if someone could travel behind you.

JJJJNR

Great will give that a go, do they take standard obd port scanners?

Toyotafanboi

Yes any link to the car?

JohnBoy26

JJJJNR wrote: »

Great will give that a go, do they take standard obd port scanners?

I think even if it is burning oil you won't see any smoke out of it tbh.

If burning oil is an issue I'd consider a pre vvti instead. Something like a 00 avensis has the 4a-fe which is a brilliant engine.

bazz26

They have a timing chain, most are reliable but they have been known to burn excessive oil. Car is light enough on the road but fuel economy is good on them due to thins and they are relatively nippy enough. Interior is typical 1990s Japanese though they are not as well built as stuff from Japan.

JJJJNR

no linkage at the moment, friend of a friend sale.. cool thanks all.

Toyotafanboi

I had a vvti with the oil burning issue to the tune of a liter every 500 miles or so and the smoke was very evident out the rear view after engine braking but that was in a corolla hatch so maybe a little easier to see out the rear window. Not saying that any other will be the same but it's surely a guideline.

JohnBoy26

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

I had a vvti with the oil burning issue to the tune of a liter every 500 miles or so and the smoke was very evident out the rear view after engine braking but that was in a corolla hatch so maybe a little easier to see out the rear window. Not saying that any other will be the same but it's surely a guideline.

It could be. Your one sounds like a very bad case though. 1 liter ever 500 miles :eek: The most mine ever burned was about half a liter every 3k miles. I know some had it bad though but most of those were repaired afaik.

Toyotafanboi

Yeah, I bough it from a dealer who clearly had an arrangement with the NCT's. Not a hope it could get through for me and that was the end of her. In fairness it went like a trooper if you didn't mind topping it up all the time. Was almost like a 2 stroke, 50:1 petrol:10w40 to do 500 miles ish.

Leonard Hofstadter

If it's got to 200k it almost certainly doesn't have oil burning problems. It will probably use a bit (and I certainly would be checking the level at least every 1500 miles just to keep on top of it), but nothing abnormal for a petrol engine with that mileage or anything to be concerned about with the NCT. If it was an oil burner it would have had the problem after about 60-70k miles and would be going through it like a trooper.

Those early 2000s VVTi Toyotas are a car you want to buy with lots of miles on the clock because the more miles there is the less likely it was affected by oil burning (and the rest of the car is solid anyway)!