2008 Corolla CE - Daily Driver Revival

Commutes suck and miles stack up quick when you live an hour from work! In an effort to save my 4Runner I decided to buy a cash car.


Chatting with my family one day about this and my father looked at my wife and I and said "why not just take the Corolla back?" ... My wife immediately lit up with joy.

You see this was no ordinary Corolla; It was my wife's first car. Her parents bought this CE brand new in 2008; and it soon came to be affectionately known as 'Carrie'

My wife had logged 200,000 miles on this car and drove it all the way from California to Texas. When we met in 2015 this thing already needed some work. The only maintenance that had ever been done to it was oil changes, and front brake pads. I remember wooing her with my ability to fix and maintain this thing... Rear brakes making a horrible noise? New drums and pads. Didn't start this morning? Let me swap that battery for you. Misfiring? I'll get some spark plugs.

Fast forward to 2021 we were living together in an apartment in Dallas. The car was showing signs off it's age and I no longer had access to a garage or the tools to continue fixing this thing. So I bought her a brand new Corolla. A white 2021 SE which she immediately dubbed "Caritron."

The trade in value for the old 2008 was next to nothing. So we decided to give it to my parents since they needed another vehicle at the time. This was a win-win. My wife got to keep the old Rolla in the family, and my parents got a commuter. There, Carrie stayed; a reliable and efficient little town car.

Back to present day

With my wife and I moving into a house out of the city, taking old Carrie back just made sense. Reliable little car, easy to work on in my garage, decent gas mileage. So, I took my father up on his offer and drove it home. In the last few weeks I've slowly been fixing it up and thought I may as well share the story here in the "general automotive" section of the forum.

When I picked it up I topped off all the fluids and put some air in the tires. She started right up and I hit the road.

The sun was going down on the drive home and I realized how bad the headlights were. So, first upgrade was some modern headlight bulbs. Stopped at a parts store and shopped around. Sylvania high output incandescent bulbs kept the cost low but proved to be a huge upgrade over stock.



Upgraded bulb on the driver side.
Stock bulb on the passenger side.
(for reference)



Got it home and moved forward with an oil change. Replaced the engine air filter as well as the cabin air filter. Also changed the PCV valve. Then detailed the thing inside and out.



Started commuting with this old Rolla' and it became evident that my work shoes were going to ruin the interior. This is really only a problem because my wife actually cares about this car... So I moved forward with some new floor matts that were only $50 on Amazon.

Out with the old


In with the new:





Drove this car for a couple weeks before getting pulled over. A very polite police officer let me know my license plate bulb was out! I had checked all the bulbs, but I missed that one! Luckily he let me off with a written warning, and no fix it ticket. I swapped the license plate bulbs the next day. And kept on driving.



The last few days I've been noticing some hard shifting. It's not consistent, but I decided a drain and fill won't hurt. Stopped by the Toyota dealership and picked up some T-IV transmission fluid. Drained 4 quarts and put 4 quarts back in via the dipstick hole as the service manual specifies. (And yes, I had to buy a ridiculous funnel to do this)











Well worth it. Shifting nice and smooth now!

Gonna keep driving and see what else pops up. So far I'm having fun fixing up this little car. It's got 220,000 miles and I fully expect it to make it to 500,000.

I'll continue posting my maintenance and fixes here for anyone who is interested

 

Nice read
Looks really in tip top shape interior

 

Love threads/videos of people fixing up/maintaining older cars to keep them on the road. Great work.

 

That is a great looking car in very nice condition!

 

I can't believe I read this entire story of yours. It was like....the 4Runner version of The Notebook movie. So loving and heart warming. I teared up a little when you mention trying to woo her with your wrenching skills. I should try that when I run into a woman... "Hey baby, need your tires rotated? *wink wink nudge nudge*".



Okay, in all seriousness....Carrie should take care of your commuting needs just fine. And if I see you on the road, I will point and laugh at you!

 

Hahaha yeah man her sentimental value for this thing is incredible and if I’m honest, a bit contagious! lol

Hahah I’ll accept that! But when you take the easy alternate lines at Jambo this year I’ll do the same to you!

 

That officer has a light workload. In my metropolitan area, at least once a day, there's a vehicle ahead of me with only one working brake light out of three; once every month, a vehicle with no brake lights at all.

This was a good Corolla generation. It should serve you very well.

 

Yeah I noticed the same in Dallas. Cops there can't enforce it well enough. Doesn't help that safety inspections are no longer mandatory in most counties here. They just check emissions. (I'm all for deregulation but I think they got that one backwards.) Glad I moved somewhere it's calm enough for police to care about a license plate light.

And thanks! I keep hearing good things about the 9th Gen Corolla!

About the only negative thing I've heard is the intake manifold gasket is prone to leaks. I am planning on checking for vacuum leaks and address those before I replace the coils and plugs. I'll likely do the valve cover gasket and clean the throttle body during this job as well. Currently gathering gaskets and parts for this.

Front brakes need some attention too. I'm picking up some rotors, pads, and remanufactured calipers today since this is a higher priority job.

I honestly like wrenching on this thing. Everything is so easy and parts are super cheap. I can see why so many are still on the road... They are tiny little tanks that don't take much to keep going.

 

Wow, the PCV is up high on the engine, makes sence. My Corolla's pcv is on the bottom front. I recently needed an oil catch can 230,000 miles. Getting some liquid. Had to take the intake manifold and tb off to get to it.

 

Interesting. Wonder why it's burning more oil now? Worn cylinders/ piston rings or just some carbon buildup on the rings?

I was curious about using some Valvoline restore and protect to remove the carbon buildup from mine. But I've seen a couple reviews now saying it works so good that the removed debris can clog oil filters.
Still, I might try it out and just swap the filters a little early.

 

Woo!

One fun factoid about that generation of Corollas. The 4 speed auto was arguably one of the best transmissions Toyota put in sedans, ever. It's so good that it is widely known as one of the few vehicles in existence where the auto transmission was more durable than the contemporary manual version.

 

Nice work on the Corolla! My wife has a 2013 that I like to drive. Feels like it's on rails after driving the 4Runner around! Unfortunately she has a knack for slow speed collisions with fixed objects so the exterior is not as nice as yours. It's the kind of car you don't worry about too much if you forget to lock it. But it's in good condition mechanically, and like you said, easy to work on.

 

Serra Toyota of Decatur still has 25% off parts until the 28th. No tax and free shipping over $75. It almost feels like a crime to save as much as that!

Shipping does take a few weeks, but hey… can’t complain. Good luck with it! Cool story keeping it in the family.

 

A little thread hijack, but:

I'm running Valvoline R&P in my 1990 Mustang GT that was disgusting with sludge/carbon buildup (i'm also running Redline SI-1 in the fuel). For just the combustion chamber i saw major improvements, but that could be more attributed to the Redline fuel additive. This is my #7 cylinder which i'm having issues with, burning oil and fouling plugs.

Pre Fuel additive and R&P (with old bad borescope):



After running Valvoline R&P (only at ~300 miles with this oil) and Redline SI-1 for one tank (still have about a little more than 1/4 tank):





Here you can see my cylinder head/valve is still pretty crusty, just imagine the entire piston top looking like that as well.


I plan on only running this oil for 2,000 miles due to how bad my engine was, then i'll do another for 3,000, then another for 4,000. Or they may all be shorter because i'll have to probably change the oil by time, not mileage since this isn't my DD. I don't want my filter to get clogged either.

 

Nice! Did you happen to test compression before and after?

 

No, i need to get a compression tester (been on my list of things to do) but i have to assume compression sucks in this cylinder anyways. Some numbers to back that up would be nice.

Oh and the other thing i'm going to do is once a little more oil burns off, i'm going to put a can of Engine Restore in.

But you also have to understand my situation. I'm trying every trick I can before bowing down to an engine rebuild. Our use cases are probably severely different. I know i'm in dire straights, just prolonging my engine life (or hopefully fixing) what I can with additives. I'll keep everyone updated as time goes on in my Valvoline Restore and Protect thread. /end hijack

 

No worries. It's definitely worth a try before you tear it down. If the rings aren't moving, they're not sealing! Additives certainly can help free carbon and sludge from the compression rings so it's totally worth a shot for you!

Yes I agree our use cases are very different but it's good to hear from someone with firsthand experience with the product. Thanks! You should link the R&P thread here!

 

For anyone wondering. I just updated it with these new photos too:

Valvoline Restore & Protect | Toyota 4Runner Forum [4Runners.com]

 

Its more of a condensation liquid kind of tan, light brown color. Like a half a cup a week every other drive i have to drain it.

 

Its got a plastic gas tank had to replace it. Yours is metal im sure.

 

Put the car up on jack stands and inspected the undercarriage. No big issues, just some worn bushings which was to be expected. Took the front wheels off to inspect the brakes and to my surprise they’re in great shape. I must have done the front brakes for my wife sometime around 2019 but forgot all about it. Definitely should have kept service records for this thing!

Decided to move on to a diagnosing a small engine problem. It’s been slow to start the last two weeks and I noticed it has a small stumble/ bucking sensation under hard acceleration.

My guess was the ignition system, but before I started replacing parts I wanted to check for vacuum leaks. Apparently, this generation of Corolla is known to have intake manifold gasket leaks. Reading about how common this is convinced me to buy some gaskets and get prepped to reseal the intake.

Checked vacuum and inspected for leaks with a can of carb cleaner. To my surprise I had no vacuum leaks.

Decided to pop some new coils in since this Corolla was STILL on the factory coils. Wild they lasted this long!

Denso coils did the trick. Car started right up with no hesitation. Idles a bit smoother as well. Took it on a test drive and sure enough the stumbling/ bucking is gone. Super simple fix.



Update: Drove to work today and this thing is driving better than it has in years. I think those coils were on the way out for a long time...

It still has a code stored in the ECU. P0420 (Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold) But no CEL. Gonna let it ride for a while and see if the new coils help.

I suspect one of the following
1. CAT or 02 failed
2. Failing coils pushed unburnt fuel into the CAT and either prompted the code or damaged the CAT. I could try Cataclean if that's the case... Need to check voltage on the 02 with a scanner as well.
3. An exhaust leak could cause this code as well. Going to check for this with some soapy water. Although with how well it's running and no smell in the cabin I doubt this one...

Vehicle inspection isn't for another 3 months so I have some time to diagnose. For now, it's driving great!

 

Assuming you watched this as well?

https://youtu.be/GVCk8q_6xPU?si=iz0J1X7Y8mz9ko78

I tried a bottle of Rislone mechanic-in-a-bottle to see if it could help my P0420 code. The CEL came on again a few days after, cleared it, and it hasn't come on since. Here's hoping.

 

My 2008 corolla has the god awful black paint & it’s gone. The car is great except the paint is basically toast. Figured it is what it is at 232k miles. I love my Corolla

 

Somewhere out there in Mexico or Afghanistan, that Corolla will live on for another 30 years as a taxi.

 

I haven’t watched that video but I might have to. Unfortunately my father put an aftermarket cat in this car about two years ago. I was planning on trying cataclean and checking for exhaust leaks, then 02 voltages. If everything points to that aftermarket cat failing, I’ll replace it with a magnaflow unit.

the likelihood of the aftermarket cat already failing is hard to ignore. My father does not remember the brand and referred to it as a “cheap replacement cat to pass inspection”… I told him a magnaflow cat is only a couple hundred bucks and could have lasted a lot longer. I don’t think he cared too much to hear that

 

Just cut the cat off and make it sound like a REAL car!

 

I've had good luck with Walker CalCat converters. They fit well and, based on my nostril sensors, actually convert unburned HCs and NOx into CO2 and water. They're not cheap, though.

 

I love stories like this. Carrie looks to be in great shape for her age! The Super White paint even looks to be holding up well. I hope she continues to serve you and your family well for years to come.

 

Haha! My old Subaru did not have a cat and the smell was atrocious. Fortunately, the turbo on it had the side benefit of sounding like a really good muffler!

Nice! The more I dig into it the more I’m considering just buying a magnaflow cat. Need to test for leaks first and see if I need to replace just the cat or possibly more if I find an exhaust leak.

Thanks! I really hope so!

 

The new coil packs certainly helped with cold starts and high load stumble, but after a few more days new problems popped up.

Now, it cold starts great, but hot starts have become a problem. Also, there’s less of a high rpm stumble, but it’s not gone. I figured I was on the right track addressing the ignition system since it certainly had an effect. Dug a little deeper today.

Pulled the plugs and found oil pooling up. Telling me the valve cover gasket had failed and was coating the plugs with oil. This is why it kept fouling plugs.



Pulled the plugs to read them properly.




Definitely oil getting in there.
Decided to do it right this time and tear into it. Luckily, I already had a valve cover gasket on hand.



looks pretty good for 225,000 miles!



Also cleaned the throttle body, and mass air flow sensor while I was there.

Had a funny moment here I decided to record.
https://youtube.com/shorts/ixDq2oOewM8?si=l-Hdi3GzYBAnCbmW
I had disconnected the battery while doing this and found the terminals had some severe corrosion. A little sandpaper and dielectric grease took care of that.

Got it back together, re tested for vacuum leaks, and followed Toyota’s instruction for “idle relearning”



Seems better for now. But I have high standards so if it starts stumbling or struggling to start I’ll keep digging. At least now I can rest assured knowing the ignition system is not the problem.