New owner of a Yaris 2nd Gen D4D

[albi.ad8]

Hello everyone,
Got a Yaris 2nd Gen 4 months ago and it has the 1.4 diesel engine. As a person addicted to maintain my cars in top condition I wanted some advice on maintenance and preventative measures for know issues about this gen Yaris.
Car has 156k km and will replace engine oil and the respective filters (oil, fuel, cabin air and intake) and also the automatic transmission fluid.
In the coming months I intend to replace the front diff fluid and brake fluid as well.
Do you recommend anything else to be replaced?
Are there any common parts that are known to fail which I should be looking at? Are there any know water leaks which may ruin electronics (asking because I have even a Mercedes ML which is known to leak water through the tailights)?
What I have noticed is that the car has developed a wierd like a humming noise when steering left at hightway speed or when going in reverse. What can this be? I am uploading even a video about this noise)
Thank you in advance and have a good weekend.

[bronsin]

On the 1.5 L gas engines you are supposed to check the valve clearances at 60,000 miles or roughly 100,000 km. But I’ve never heard of anybody doing it. This is essentially a motorcycle valve train where the camshaft have to be removed after checking the clearances, if they are out of tolerance in order to adjust them. Like I said, I’ve never heard of anybody doing it.

These cars really don’t have any inherited as manufactured defects. At least one new.


Congratulations on your purpose I would’ve killed for diesel engine not too long ago. Well not really killed anybody. But now diesel fuel is like a dollar a gallon more than gas in the states , and totally uneconomic compared to gas. We never got diesel echoes, or Yaris’s.

When I bought my 1979 four-cylinder diesel Mercedes-Benz in 1993 gas was a dollar a gallon and diesel $.80 a gallon. So you save 20% right there. It had a 20 gallon gas tank you could fill for $16 and drive 600 miles on the road. For 16 bucks!

Good luck with your new car. I think you’ve done everything possible to do. How much is diesel where you live?

[albi.ad8]

Thank you for the detailed feedback.

I am located in Albania, Europe and diesel is the dominating fuel in the market and currently it stands at 1.6$. During the 5 months that we have owned the Yaris it has averaged 5.8l/100km which I find it awesome since my V6 diesel ML has an average of 10.4l/100km(but it is used only as a weekend car).

Do you know whether there is any scheduled maintenance on the replacement of the timing chain on these engine?

Today did a check on Toyota's website and noticed that the car is due for a recall but now specifying what it is about meanwhile in some websites noticed that there have been some recalls during the years such as airbags. Tomorrow will give the dealer a call to clarify whether it is due for a recall and what it is about.

[bronsin]

No scheduled maintenance for the timing chain.

Recalls for airbags are total BS! My 2009 Yaris has been on recall for 10 years! And they told me the dealer would call me when the airbag came in! They have never fucking called! They’ve made maybe 20 million airbags and maybe 20 have actually killed somebody! Total bullshit on the recall and total bullshit on the danger to society!

My wife’s Camry will be 20 years old this September. How about those airbags! Would they work in a crash? If they didn’t work and my wife gets killed would I have grounds to sue?How about when the car is 30 years old? Total nuts!

I suspect replacement of rubber timing belt is also nuts! I’ve seen cars with almost 200,000 miles with the original rubber timing belt and everything was fine. Maybe one and 1000 break before required maintenance. The advantage of a rubber timing belt is the sprockets almost never wear out. Just replace the belt once in a while and you never have to do a timing chain/Gear replacement. Of course, it’s almost unnecessary to do one of those anymore either.

Now about synthetic oil ...

[albi.ad8]

Thats good to know about the recall nevertheless I just wrote to the local dealer and I am waiting for a response.

It is wierd that as you stated it is noticed a negligence by Toyota about the recalls which are of a safety nature. Mercedes issued a recall in December 2022 about a possible brake booster failure on some chassis including the w164 ML and on January I got the car inspected which it passed.

Its good to know that there is no replacement interval for the timing chain, I just had doubts knowing the cost-cutting tendency in newer vehicles which has lead to timing chains being replaced.

[bronsin]

Most, but not all, recalls involve very small percentages of the make and model car recalled. Usually they are statistically meaningless. Hyundai vehicles might be an exception at least the ones made as far back as 1993. One of my friends bought one then they only had about two years before it became totally economical to loan. That was after the warranty expired. I was at a junkyard about that time looking for parts for another car And I noticed quite a few Hyundais. They appear to be only two or three years old. Just like my friends car, they had to be scrapped quite soon. The new ones appear to be better and they want the same money for one of those as a comparable Toyota.

When I bought my echo in 2000 and it didn’t have ABS I asked my insurance company how much extra my insurance would be if I bought that car without ABS. How much would I save if I spent more money to get the ABS option on the echo?

The man said they didn’t see any difference statistically between cars with and without ABS. In terms of accidents. So there was no discount to lose.

[albi.ad8]

That is interesting to know, thanks for sharing.

So after a call with the local dealer he confirmed that the car is due for a recall related to inspection and placement of a reinforcement in the basement of the dashboard where it is fixed with the steering gear. Has anyone ever heard or has ever done this recall? Based on the terminology used seems like a big security concern😑. Nevertheless, went ahead and scheduled an appointment on Saturday and the work takes about 3-4 hours to be performed. Lets see.

[bronsin]

I think I remember something about that but I never personally got such a recall.

Tell us what the dealer tells you I’ll be interesting to know what happened

[albi.ad8]

Yes, sure will keep you informed on Saturday this week om the outcome of the appointment.

[sh0rtlife]

i wouldnt do the trans oil, as far as i know its interval is well over that mark...your yaris has about as many miles on it as mine and the fluid is still basicly new...unless its either an off color or smells funny

the main recalls i know of is
seat tracks, air bags, clock spring, tire sticker....and yeah something about a steering brace

[albi.ad8]

What is the planned service interval for the transmission fluid change? Is there any dipstick on MK2 Yaris in order to check the condition of the fluid or do I have to unplug the drain plug?

About the recalls thw dealer informed me only about the recall of the steering brace nothing about the others, maybe these were performed by the previous owner.

[bronsin]

There was a dipstick on my 2009 Yaris with automatic transmission. I don’t believe there is any planned interval for transmission oil change on these cars. It’s possible there is one for severe service. But remember and oil change will only get 2 1/2 quarts in there must be at least 8 quarts in one of these transmissions. Yes you could drop the pan and change the oil filter along with 2 quarts of oil. But I wouldn’t do it. It’s your call.

In the US at least, a Toyota dealer would have a record of everything that was done to your car. At least everything a dealer did. They should know if the brace was changed or not. Did they tell you?

[albi.ad8]

Yes the dealer confirmed that the car was due for the recall and I got an appointment to get it done on Saturday this week.

Regarding the service history I got the official service book in which are only included oil and filters replacement (oil, air, fuel and cabin air) and there is nothing related to the tranny fluid. I asked the dealer about the tranny fluid and he confirmed that only 2 liters can be changed and that there is no filter. The seller showed me a recepit in October 2022 when something was replaced in the tranny which is known to fail in these cars (dont know the exact terminology but locally people call it the robot of the tranny whatever this means��) and most likely if that work was carried out the tranny fluid should have been replaced.

From some youtube videos does not result that there is a distick in this car (or maybe is engine related so only diesels). From these videos the fluid is replaced same as in front and rear diffs in other cars so through a drain bolt and a filling one, fluid used is a 75W90 which is also confirmed in the proforma invoice from the dealer.

What would you do? Would you replace the tranny fluid or it can wait?

[sh0rtlife]

dont touch the trans

as someone whos replaced many a trans on many a car, these units are basicly built to never need service, in fact pretty much every import and econo box made since the 90s has been a use it till it dies replace the fluid when you replace the trans

the ONLY way to truely change the fluid would be to hook it up to a machine with it running and let it push new fluid while pulling the old out...ive figured out ways to do it without a machine but also found that what comes out is not contaminated, bad or otherwise...and by the time it is the trans is on its way out

but heres the thing, trans fluid doesnt age, it doesnt go bad, and it doesnt even break down unless its put thru hell of sever heat ..typicaly generated by towing or racing

[sh0rtlife]

Originally Posted by albi.ad8

From some youtube videos does not result that there is a distick in this car (or maybe is engine related so only diesels). From these videos the fluid is replaced same as in front and rear diffs in other cars so through a drain bolt and a filling one, fluid used is a 75W90 which is also confirmed in the proforma invoice from the dealer.

be carefull with those vids

anything using that fluid would be a MANUAL trans, automatics have the diff and trans as a single "shared" unit as in the fluid flows thru both areas unrestricted

[albi.ad8]

Was confirmed with the Toyota dealer that the tranny takes 75W90 fluid. In principle this auto tranny is a manual one but uses something else to change the gears as an auto. The desler also confirmed that there is no service interval on these cars and the fluid is replaced when an issue with the tranny arises.

[albi.ad8]

Update
Did the steering brace recall today at the dealer. It took ~3 hours and do not notice any difference. The dealer also did a full inspection and recommended the replacement of the rear brake pads. Got a quote but decided not to go with genuine Toyota pads but with aftermaket ones and got these replaced at a local car shop. Just curious what is the supplier for Toyota pads as I doubt that Toyota produces the pads in-house?

Did even the oil (genuine 5w30), oil filter and fuel filter today and the car is running perfectly.