2006 YarisRS 'Renovations'

[06YarisRS]

Picked up this great little car for $2200.00 Canadian. It has 174000 km on the odometer and it's in great shape. It came with 4 new Michelin Defender tires - about a month old. I've ordered a used exhaust manifold from eBay for $45.00 and bits and pieces (gasket, donut, spring bolt kit etc). The manifold flange ears are gone, as in not even there anymore. The car's body is in fantastic shape for an older car driven in the salt and slush. The underbody, rocker panels, doglegs etc are all excellent. I hope to keep it this way and I have gallons of old ATF for interior panels, Fluid Film underneath.

A few jobs I'm working on:

This job is done. Driver's rear wheel well (so glad that the previous owner at least put some paint over the ding:





This is a WIP. Hatch: This took a lot of work behind straigtening out and reinforcing. The outer skin had detached from the inner frame at this corner:




This job is a WIP. Thresholds (various pics from both sides)




This job is done. Headlight restoration. These lights were both very oxidized and quite yellow. I wet sanded and polished. No clearcoat. I use my Klasse High Gloss Paint Sealant.




The hatch lock did not work. Thanks to this forum, I found a thread on disassembling it and cleaning. Also, the nylon tab that swings the latch back was broken off. Fortunately, it was in the bottom of the hatch. A little hot glue fixed that. I wasn't looking forward to buying a latch assembly, so was really glad to see that it was repairable.


Since I love Rock Auto, I've ordered rear brake drums (these are a bit rusty), a hardware kit and shoes. Also, ordered 6L ATF, a transmission filter, 4 oil filters, 4 Denso Iridium plugs, and a couple air filters.

[ern-diz]

You hit the ground running with this one!

[06YarisRS]

Originally Posted by ern-diz

You hit the ground running with this one!

Thanks. Well, it's such a great little car and there was a lot to work with. I took it to a body shop today; the same one I went to before I did the body work. I was quoted ~$600.00 - $700.00 to do the 2 areas initially. With the body work done now, the shop will charge me around $300.00 to paint it. I'm not fully satisfied with the job the rattle cans did (or the job "I" did with the rattle cans, lol). It looks OK, but the rest of the car is in such good shape, the 300 is worth it IMO. I set myself a budget of $1500 ($1800 at the outside) for repair work. So far I'm only in for about $250.00. I have a battery light flickering and have read that the connector or the voltage regulator are possible causes. If the connector isn't the issue, I may grab a reman alternator and pop that on. The seller said the light had been on for 3 years with no issues. Voltmeter says the alternator is producing 14V at idle and no starting issues at all - lots of crank power, but the DRLs are out and I read that may be related to the voltage regulator.

[WeeYari]

Yeah, the DRLs will be dead with the regulator acting up. My battery light intermittently flickered for several years before eventually staying lit solid.

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[06YarisRS]

Originally Posted by WeeYari

Yeah, the DRLs will be dead with the regulator acting up. My battery light intermittently flickered for several years before eventually staying lit solid.

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Thanks! Great to know. Rather than take the alternator apart to install a new regulator, I think I'll just got for a whole reman..

[kimona]

It's coming along nicely! Looking forward to more photos as you get it all sorted out.

[06YarisRS]

Originally Posted by kimona

It's coming along nicely! Looking forward to more photos as you get it all sorted out.

Thanks Kimona! I'll be sure to post more.

[hairygityeti]

Gonna look nice!

[06YarisRS]

Originally Posted by hairygityeti

Gonna look nice!

Thanks! I hope so. I got lucky as silver is my fav color choice in automobiles. :)

[Bart68]

I had a 06 Corolla that did that with the battery light and I was talking with a
good friend of mine that told me to whack the alternator while the car is
running, he said the brushes probably just have crud on them. So I took my
tire iron and with the car running gave it a few good whacks, the light never
came back on and I drove that car for another 200,000 with no more issues.
Not sure if that will fix your problem or not but it an easy cheap fix if it does.

[06YarisRS]

Originally Posted by Bart68

I had a 06 Corolla that did that with the battery light and I was talking with a
good friend of mine that told me to whack the alternator while the car is
running, he said the brushes probably just have crud on them. So I took my
tire iron and with the car running gave it a few good whacks, the light never
came back on and I drove that car for another 200,000 with no more issues.
Not sure if that will fix your problem or not but it an easy cheap fix if it does.

Well there you go. I just picked up a reman unit this morning. It's still in the box, so I'll try tapping it first. Thanks!

[06YarisRS]

I replaced the alternator and the battery light is gone. Yay!

[06YarisRS]

Final priming is done. Just a light sand with 320 and then the base and clear. Hoping to be done today.

[kimona]

Originally Posted by 06YarisRS

Final priming is done. Just a light sand with 320 and then the base and clear. Hoping to be done today.

Looking good. You're moving quickly.

I guess I would have removed the rear mud flaps rather than taping them.

[06YarisRS]

Originally Posted by kimona

Looking good. You're moving quickly.

I guess I would have removed the rear mud flaps rather than taping them.

Yeah, it's coming along. Haha, yes, removing them would have been more wise for sure. I just didn't want to take the wheel off to get to the screws. I suppose I could have used a stubby screwdriver. Incidentally, I did later remove the wheels to check the condition of the rear brakes. My pedal is a tad soft and I thought I'd poke around in there and play with the adjusted a bit. I did tighten them up a bit but still have a bit of pedal softness. I have to say that this car is indeed the easiest car I have worked on. Well designed and intuitive. Removing the drums was a joke with a couple 8Mx1.25 bolts.


The pads are a bit worn, but since this thing is so easy to work on, it should be a snap to install my new brake parts.

I'm thinking I might bleed the brakes soon and see if that stiffens up the pedal. I haven't owned a drum brake equipped car in eons. Will have to research how to bleed the system. Calipers are easy with the bleeder screws. During my quick inspection I didn't see such an item on the wheel cylinder. I also adjusted my handbrake and that, at first, seemed to help, but after a short drive it was a bit soft again.

Enough rambling...

[WeeYari]

Where in NB are you? I spend two weeks every year in Greater Moncton visiting in-laws.

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[06YarisRS]

Originally Posted by WeeYari

Where in NB are you? I spend two weeks every year in Greater Moncton visiting in-laws.

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Hey WeeYari.

We live in Beaver Harbour, near St. George/Pennfield. Moncton is a regular visit for us in the summers. Kids love it! I was in Moncton about 3 weeks ago test driving small cars.

[WeeYari]

Originally Posted by 06YarisRS

We live in Beaver Harbour, near St. George/Pennfield.

Beautiful country. Been a lifer there?


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