Today's Maintenance

[06YarisRS]

I got a few things done today:

Oil change ~ 3.5 L Castrol GTX 5W30 and Pentius fiter (a solid little filter for $2.06 from Rock Auto)

Transmission fliud drain and refill - 3L Beck and Arnley Type WS. I'll do this again in a couple days.

Spark plugs - Denso iridium

Air filter - Pronto PA5655

By next week I hope to have the coolant changed. I'll also flush the brake fluid when I do my rear brakes.

Again, such a great little car to work on. The toughest part of today's jobs was getting the connectors off the coils. Getting the oil filter off was a bit of a challenge too, as I don't have a band wrench that small. I actually used a pipe wrench.

[bronsin]

Sounds like a good days work! :thumbsup: As a reward treat yourself to a fluted socket oil filter wrench! I find all the coolant comes out of my Yaris when using just the radiator drain. No need to use the block drain. :smile:

[ex-x-fire]

I did some rust prevention recently, I used this stuff. total cost $60. I did the underside, wheel wells, inside the doors/hatch, & the quarters. $35 for the fluid film & $20 for the harbor freight spray painter.

[06YarisRS]

Sounds like a good days work! :thumbsup: As a reward treat yourself to a fluted socket oil filter wrench! I find all the coolant comes out of my Yaris when using just the radiator drain. No need to use the block drain. :smile:

Thanks! I will definitely pick up a fliter wrench.

Good news about the rad draining all the coolant. How well do these car's prime? Is just the normal squeezing the upper rad hose enough to let the air escape before it overheats? What do you use for coolant? I've always used Prestone All Makes and Models in my vehicles and usually get approval from the dealers. Normally I would run distilled water through a few times with the thermostat removed but I think this time, I'll just drain and fill a couple of times. I'm all ears if you want to share your process.

[06YarisRS]

I did some rust prevention recently, I used this stuff. total cost $60. I did the underside, wheel wells, inside the doors/hatch, & the quarters. $35 for the fluid film & $20 for the harbor freight spray painter.

I love that! Fluid Film is the best. My principal and I used to go halves on a gallon and we sprayed it in our shop with the undercoating gun.

I was underneath my car today and found a couple of oblong rubber plugs just in front of the rear wheel, just inboard of the rocker panel. There's quite a large cavity in there. I sprayed Rust Check Red in those cavities - about 1/3 of a can in each and replugged. This section appears to be separated from the regular rockers as all the ATF I dumped in there the other day didn't make its way into these cavities.

[06YarisRS]

Tackling the brakes tomorrow. I don't anticipate any major issues having had the drums off a few days ago. The pads on there now are actually in pretty good shape. The drums are, I expect, the originals and are pretty rough looking. I plan to paint the drums with a few coats of ceramic header paint. I do this to my calipers and rotors on my cars. Then, once a year, I'll clean them up and respray. If you don't do this in our climate, they look like absolute crap after a winter or two.

https://i.imgur.com/qpSF22Z.jpg

[tmontague]

How well do these car's prime? Is just the normal squeezing the upper rad hose enough to let the air escape before it overheats? What do you use for coolant? I've always used Prestone All Makes and Models in my vehicles and usually get approval from the dealers. Nirmally I would run distilled water through a few times with the thermostat removed but I think this time, I'll just drain and fill a couple of times. I'm all ears if you want to share your process.

either get the long life pink stuff from Toyota or buy the OEM brand from Canadian Tire and you can buy it 50/50 or concentrated for a bit cheaper. Same ingredients as Toyota's stuff. I personally run it at a 55/45 coolant to water ratio and use the OEM stuff from CT in both my cars. It's good stuff.

I find the Yaris burps decently on its own. elevating the front of the car can help but typically I fill the rad until it's full and then turn the car on and continue to fill until it is full again. I then over fill the overflow reservoir and drive around for a day and let the engine get up to operating temps. I then re check the coolant and typically the overflow tank is almost empty. I'll top that up to the F line and then fill the rad if there is any space there.

This has worked for me now over 3 times without issue

[06YarisRS]

either get the long life pink stuff from Toyota or buy the OEM brand from Canadian Tire and you can buy it 50/50 or concentrated for a bit cheaper. Same ingredients as Toyota's stuff. I personally run it at a 55/45 coolant to water ratio and use the OEM stuff from CT in both my cars. It's good stuff.

I find the Yaris burps decently on its own. elevating the front of the car can help but typically I fill the rad until it's full and then turn the car on and continue to fill until it is full again. I then over fill the overflow reservoir and drive around for a day and let the engine get up to operating temps. I then re check the coolant and typically the overflow tank is almost empty. I'll top that up to the F line and then fill the rad if there is any space there.

This has worked for me now over 3 times without issue

Excellent! Thanks very much. It sounds pretty fool proof. Without a gauge on the dash I'd get nervous, but I hooked up Torque Pro and my OBD2 adapter and it does tell me coolant temp. And, yes, I did notice that Canadian Tire is now selling the OEM specific coolant. I will get the pre-mixed as it will ensure a close to appropriate ratio.

I appreciate the description.

[06YarisRS]

Just drying up the ceramic paint on the header and drums before installing them. The manifold has been heated many times on the full heat gun setting. It will do its final curing on the car. I'll be happy if it lasts a year. :)

https://i.imgur.com/3Q1PeHD.jpg?1

[ex-x-fire]

I love that! Fluid Film is the best. My principal and I used to go halves on a gallon and we sprayed it in our shop with the undercoating gun.

I was underneath my car today and found a couple of oblong rubber plugs just in front of the rear wheel, just inboard of the rocker panel. There's quite a large cavity in there. I sprayed Rust Check Red in those cavities - about 1/3 of a can in each and replugged. This section appears to be separated from the regular rockers as all the ATF I dumped in there the other day didn't make its way into these cavities.

My local Napa store gave me a 30" straw to use with the aerosol cans of fluid film. At the end of the straw are 4 tiny holes that spray in all directions. It's like a mini-fuel injector. Perfect for doors, rockers, sub frames, & cradles. Napa said these straws are from Sea Foam intake cleaners. I haven't found much luck in finding where you can buy just the straws.

[06YarisRS]

My local Napa store gave me a 30" straw to use with the aerosol cans of fluid film. At the end of the straw are 4 tiny holes that spray in all directions. It's like a mini-fuel injector. Perfect for doors, rockers, sub frames, & cradles. Napa said these straws are from Sea Foam intake cleaners. I haven't found much luck in finding where you can buy just the straws.

Hey ex-x-fire.

I would love to get ahold of a few of those!

I had a flexible wand with 360 degree tip on it for use with FF. There is an outfit call Kellsport that sells these. Also, I've seen them on Amazon and Ebay. I really loved mine as it did an amazing job of 360 degree product application. The unfortunate thing is the tip on mine got lost inside a unibody subframe member despite my best efforts to carefully remove it. I did manage to do a couple of cars with it before I lost the tip.

[06YarisRS]

either get the long life pink stuff from Toyota or buy the OEM brand from Canadian Tire and you can buy it 50/50 or concentrated for a bit cheaper. Same ingredients as Toyota's stuff. I personally run it at a 55/45 coolant to water ratio and use the OEM stuff from CT in both my cars. It's good stuff.

I find the Yaris burps decently on its own. elevating the front of the car can help but typically I fill the rad until it's full and then turn the car on and continue to fill until it is full again. I then over fill the overflow reservoir and drive around for a day and let the engine get up to operating temps. I then re check the coolant and typically the overflow tank is almost empty. I'll top that up to the F line and then fill the rad if there is any space there.

This has worked for me now over 3 times without issue


Just got back from Canadian Tire with a jug of the Toyota OEM concentrated coolant. Also, dropped by the grocery store and picked up a gallon of distilled water. I have several old commercial plastic ice cream containers, one of which I have graduated with 1L increments. It's very easy to mix the concentrated coolant and water in this. I'll do a full drain and refill, run it around a bit and then do a final partial drain and fill. I think I'll pull the lower rad hose if the drain plug gives an resistance.

Hoping to get this job done later today, if I complete the rear brake job.