Toyota Avensis 2.0 vvti T Spirit - My first shed
Discussion
Benjijames28 said:
Oh no! Engine management light is on!
Light come on, car is running fine, took it to mechanic who plugged it in, no active faults. Reset the stored fault, light off and for now remains off.
O2 sensor (said it's the one under the car, I guess there's a few)
Looking on eBay the sensors are cheap as chips, not concerned. Might have to invest in a code reader for myself tho.
Any recommendations for a code reader? Budget up to 50 quid or so.
I got a cheap ELM327 code reader to use with my phone. Very much like this one, but not this one.Light come on, car is running fine, took it to mechanic who plugged it in, no active faults. Reset the stored fault, light off and for now remains off.
O2 sensor (said it's the one under the car, I guess there's a few)
Looking on eBay the sensors are cheap as chips, not concerned. Might have to invest in a code reader for myself tho.
Any recommendations for a code reader? Budget up to 50 quid or so.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Supper-Bluetooth-Compatib...
Dirt cheap, some people have probably had issues, I suspect they are all rip offs of another companies kit. But at £3.19 it's not huge outlay and the one I got has worked perfectly and been great at getting codes for misfires etc.
I can see where Mexman is coming from, within the trade certain cars have little value and the idea is to give as little money as possible for them and the best you can hope for is to get your money back. At the end of the day its cheap motoring.
A dealer is a business and its aim is to buy at the lowest price and sell at the highest and realistically do as little as possible, that said if you buy a car and are happy with the price then even if its overpriced who's to say its wrong, if you are/were happy to pay the price then so what.
What you do tend to find with the likes of toyota and honda is that they very often have full service histories and low number of owners and tend to be looked after much better than so called premium cars, in fact i would guess the likes of VW, BMW, Audi and Merc are more neglected at this end of the market compared to the so called cheaper brands.
A dealer is a business and its aim is to buy at the lowest price and sell at the highest and realistically do as little as possible, that said if you buy a car and are happy with the price then even if its overpriced who's to say its wrong, if you are/were happy to pay the price then so what.
What you do tend to find with the likes of toyota and honda is that they very often have full service histories and low number of owners and tend to be looked after much better than so called premium cars, in fact i would guess the likes of VW, BMW, Audi and Merc are more neglected at this end of the market compared to the so called cheaper brands.
The Mondeo is another great car, the fact is at this end of the market the good ones will sell, the depreciation is also non existent and while they have issues i have a feeling you will be like me, although its a cheap car you spend money on it because you want it to be right when in reality you could pay £1000 run it for a year and get £1000 back with no spend other than an MOT
Well it's not the two litre but I am delighted with my one owner from new 06 Avensis 1.8 VVTi that I bought from a neighbour last December. It's a hatchback in that beige metallic that they all seem to be. I was ruining my new Golf GTD and i saw the Avensis with a hand written FOR SALE sign on the roadside. The 1.8 isn't the fastest but I gave it a 250 mile motorway run recently and was surprised how well it cruised at 75-80 mph. Average mpg from the working computer is 42 mpg and everything works although I have no idea how to work the Sat Nav! No they are not lusted after but for £500 I don't think I could have bought a better runabout
steve-5snwi said:
I can see where Mexman is coming from, within the trade certain cars have little value and the idea is to give as little money as possible for them and the best you can hope for is to get your money back. At the end of the day its cheap motoring.
A dealer is a business and its aim is to buy at the lowest price and sell at the highest and realistically do as little as possible, that said if you buy a car and are happy with the price then even if its overpriced who's to say its wrong, if you are/were happy to pay the price then so what.
What you do tend to find with the likes of toyota and honda is that they very often have full service histories and low number of owners and tend to be looked after much better than so called premium cars, in fact i would guess the likes of VW, BMW, Audi and Merc are more neglected at this end of the market compared to the so called cheaper brands.
You will struggle to find a normal mileage 08 Avensis estate for 600 from a dealer. It'd have to be exceptionally bad. Really stand out bad. A dealer is a business and its aim is to buy at the lowest price and sell at the highest and realistically do as little as possible, that said if you buy a car and are happy with the price then even if its overpriced who's to say its wrong, if you are/were happy to pay the price then so what.
What you do tend to find with the likes of toyota and honda is that they very often have full service histories and low number of owners and tend to be looked after much better than so called premium cars, in fact i would guess the likes of VW, BMW, Audi and Merc are more neglected at this end of the market compared to the so called cheaper brands.
steve-5snwi said:
The cheapest auto that i could find was £1300, that has ripped leather seats, in all honesty the trader probably gave £500 or less for it.
Hopefully it stays on the forecourt for as long as possible. Some real dogged second hand cars for sale that traders are asking silly money for. Would be great to see them going out of business. Benjijames28 said:
What's Mileage? Sounds like a bargain!
Just over 100k miles and MOTd to the summer. I have had three taxi drivers calling at my door to see if i would sell it! Tempted but honestly I don't know what else i could replace it with. I also bought my youngest daughter a 2005 Toyota Yaris 1.3 which is a great wee car too. Talking to a friend who runs a breakdown recovery business he tells me modern Toyotas are much less reliable than their equivalents from 10 years before. Wow Benji, this is unreal, mine also had the EML light come on for exactly the same thing, lol! Reading about yours is like a mirror image of mine, haha.
Mine did it randomly a few times and would randomly switch itself off, sometimes after a day. Eventually I had the fault code read by a cheap handheld fault code reader and it said O2 sensor, but unfortunately there are four of them (iirc) and his device couldn't tell me which one.
A mechanic friend then took it into his garage and used his more advanced equipment, which said bank 1 sensor 1. He then tested it with a multi-meter and the sensor apparently showed no resistance, which he told me means that it was dead. I can't remember the cost of the new sensor but it wasn't a massive bill from what I recall.
Regarding the other points abut overpaying, I'm also inclined to believe you haven't. I don't think paying 200 quid is the norm!!
Mine did it randomly a few times and would randomly switch itself off, sometimes after a day. Eventually I had the fault code read by a cheap handheld fault code reader and it said O2 sensor, but unfortunately there are four of them (iirc) and his device couldn't tell me which one.
A mechanic friend then took it into his garage and used his more advanced equipment, which said bank 1 sensor 1. He then tested it with a multi-meter and the sensor apparently showed no resistance, which he told me means that it was dead. I can't remember the cost of the new sensor but it wasn't a massive bill from what I recall.
Regarding the other points abut overpaying, I'm also inclined to believe you haven't. I don't think paying 200 quid is the norm!!
Benjijames28 said:
Anyone know where I can get a service guide or workshop book for this car?
Long time lurker and fellow Avensis owner here - I've been using the 03-07 service manual to fix/repair/trouble shoot mine as and when required. Link taken from the Toyota Owners forum (well worth joining if you havent already)http://www.mediafire.com/file/gw1wm4kq2vj/Avensis+...
Has all the schematics etc for the car in pdf's
Hopefully of some use to you!
Unfortunately it's for the 1ZZ and 3ZZ petrol (1.6L and 1.8L), although the bulk of it is applicable to all T25 models - it's helped me no end with minor repairs/upgrades/problem solving with my 1adftv.
Some wiring etc is different on the facelifted version (06/08) - Sadly documentation is pretty patchy, I've never found a full manual for the d4d models - this is the best I've got!
Some wiring etc is different on the facelifted version (06/08) - Sadly documentation is pretty patchy, I've never found a full manual for the d4d models - this is the best I've got!
Benjijames28 said:
I've been considering selling mine. I'm getting a bit bored with it to be honest. Can't think what else is would get without putting a few grand extra in pot tho and to be honest this car is doing everything i want it to, not let me down yet.
Probably gonna give it a service with my mate soon. Might even treat it to a wash!
Don't fall into that trap, i have and now I'm £400 down in a month.. Probably gonna give it a service with my mate soon. Might even treat it to a wash!
At this end you can get something that's either fun, economical, comfortable or reliable, but never all four.
designforlife said:
quick one mate, looking at one of these as a mile munching mway daily - what sort of real world MPG are you getting?
How many miles are you doing? If you can bring yourself to drive an oil burner, the facelift (06-08) variant with 2.0 d4d diesel engines are a good shout -They're largely considered to be the bullet proof engine of the range
Chain driven so no cambelt to worry about
don't suffer the same head gasket issues that plagued the 2.2 diesel engine
No DPF (unlike the 2.2) so you can make short journeys without knackering anything!
They also respond really well to a remap
I get a solid 42-45 mixed mpg from mine, and it'll comfortably do 52+ on the motorway at cruising speed.
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