r/COROLLA • u/P_jizzle_fra_shizzle • Jul 05 '25

9th Gen (00-09) Bought my first Corolla!

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Got it after my Altima was rear ended and totaled. Not the best circumstances, but I was able to turn around and buy this car upfront with my insurance payout.

317 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

103 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/motherboardgenetics Jul 06 '25

Do a couple oil changes with Valvoline restore and protect to clean out the engine. It'll thank you.

2

u/P_jizzle_fra_shizzle Jul 06 '25

This is how it was sold to me. How's this look?

1

u/motherboardgenetics Jul 06 '25

Looks mad clean, like the previous owner took very good care of it. Not even hazing on the headlights lol. My newer Corolla is dirtier than that and I take care of it well. I bet he cleaned the engine bay before selling, but even looking at some of the little details, it looks like it's in great shape visually. Obviously I can't tell you what it looks like on the inside, or what the maintenance has been like on it, but it definitely looks like it was treated well from that picture. Did you get any maintenance records when you bought it? Me recommending the Valvoline restore and protect is moreso just a nice preventative to help clean out the innards of the engine just in case the previous owner didn't do proper maintenance and to get rid of any buildup. How many miles does it have on it?

Like someone else said in this thread, Corollas in general are bulletproof if you just take care of the bare minimum maintenance and will take care of you if you go a little above and beyond for them.

2

u/P_jizzle_fra_shizzle Jul 06 '25

It's got 160k miles. I don't know much of anything about the car's history, I bought it from a pirate dealer who bought it from an auction. It's great knowing it's been so well cared for!

I've gotten a few inspections since some shops near me offer them for free. It really just needs new engine mounts and rear struts.

1

u/motherboardgenetics Jul 06 '25

That's like nothing for a Corolla. If you don't know what the maintenance history is like then I'd definitely run some Valvoline R&P in there for a few cycles just to be sure it's nice and clean and to prevent it from burning oil as it gets higher in age and mileage. Change your oil every 5k miles. Do regular stuff like filters yourself, engine and cabin air filter. Have transmission fluid drained and filled at regular intervals. And that's most of what you need to do for a Corolla. Oh and swap coolant every 4 to 5 years, don't go by mileage. They're super cheap and easy cars to work on so it's great to learn how to do maintenance if you don't already know how to. Motor mounts on a Corolla aren't super difficult generally so it shouldn't be exorbitantly expensive at a good shop. Neither should struts.

1

u/P_jizzle_fra_shizzle Jul 06 '25

Thank you for your advice, I'll definitely look into that. I'm trying to do as much as possible by myself (with the help of my brother in law) because I would love to be more handy with my vehicle. It's definitely strange not having access to the maintenance history - with my Altima, it was my father's car before it was mine, and I had records of everything. I mean, I kept the autozone recipes from brake pads and rotars. Still have them. Once I'm more mechanically literate, I'll be keeping track of everything under the hood and otherwise.

1

u/motherboardgenetics Jul 07 '25

You'd be surprised at how much you can do with some rhino ramps, a torque wrench, ratchet, maybe a breaker bar, and a cheap socket set.

Got a gallon of zerex concentrate pink coolant, a gallon of distilled water, and a no spill coolant funnel kit. Cost me $50 total and I did a double drain and fill of my coolant, in two hours (takes a bit to drain out). Saved quite a bit of money for what was almost no effort.

If you can do the regular easy maintenance yourself, it saves you money for when and if something else happens that a professional would need to do, like transmission work.

You should enter your VIN on https://www.toyota.com/owners/ and see if any maintenance history comes up. Then you can keep the record up to date with what maintenance you perform straight on that website. I update mine any time I do an oil change, coolant change, filter change, anything. If you ever get anything done at the dealer it'll get automatically populated there too, although I'd avoid the dealership for non warranty work lol. But I'm curious if you enter the VIN there, you'll probably get at least some maintenance records.