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Old 09-29-2018, 06:33 PM   #1
dj92
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Drives: '14 Prius Executive
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: mid-western Germany
Posts: 256
For those curious about the 1.0 1KR-FE engine

I've heard rumors that some people miss the 1KR-FE on the US market.
As I have driven one for about 4 Years from about 30000 to 113000km on the gauge, I'd like to share my experiences.
In the beginning, I was happy about the fuel efficiency (about 6l/100km) and the reasonable power for urban driving.
However, when going for speeds above ~100...120km/h, the engine went loud due to the short gearbox and struggled to achieve any acceleration at all.
Over the years, the fuel efficiency slightly deteriorated (finally 6,5l/100km).

I could have lived with that, but at about 110000km, the valve gaskets got so stiff and worn out that I had a huge cloud behind me when accelerating after rolling down a hill, that I decided to change them, along with the VVT adjuster whose bolt was broken (my fault, too long story to tell here) and the valve lifters (as valve clearance was out of the tolerable range on several valves).

I had 2 or 3 evenings of work on it, including a huge hassle with a tool told to be able to keep the valves up with pressure inside the cylinder bore with an adapter screwed in instead of the spark plug. It worked so well that the first valve I let loose fell almost instantly down.
After a loud curse, I managed to fiddle it back into the valve bushing and lock it up by turning the crankshaft far enough. Believe me or not, I had only fiddled around with two wires and a 5€ endoscope camera for 20 minutes.

I could happily swap some lifters, but ended up buying 3 of them, each for a whopping 30€.

Some time later, I recognized that the oil consumption was still high. Taking that, the prevailing piston slap, the intact (but prone to failure) head gasket and the amount of money I had put aside into account, I bought a used Prius 3 Executive and am way more happy with it than with the Yaris - and it consumes about 1l less per 100km.

Some time before, I had changed the timing chain. I'm mentioning it separately, because it was not really necessary, but my only idea to get rid of the rattling noise which came in fact from the VVT sprocket.

Changing the timing chain on this engine is such a pain in the a$$ that I wonder whether Toyota really thought of people doing this.
1) You take off the valve cover. Nothing special.
2) You take off the belts and the things keeping from taking off the timing chain cover.
3) You start cursing because the oil pump is integrated into this cover and is stuck inside the oil pan with its widened suction pipe.
4) You drain the oil and unscrew the oil pan. All screws are seemingly out, but it does not come down.
5) You curse everyone of the engineers having constructed this engine as you consult the horrible service manual and find out that the last 2 nuts on studs are behind the flywheel.
6) You think about taking out the gearbox, but heavily refuse to do so, anticipating way much more sh!t. You end up cutting down a nut, putting it into position through the small hole in the oil pan and rotating it with a ratchet extension pushed in sideways.
7) The same stuff in reverse, except for me not putting the last two nuts back into position (the engine remained dry anyway).

Later, I found out that at least Bosch in their work time calculations include taking out the engine

As much as I like the quality of the rest of the car, that much I can only shake my head about such a throwaway engine.
I wouldn't say this, hadn't I taken apart and put together one and a half VW engines (Golf 3 and T25, complete overhaul and head gasket) and found working on them way more comfortable, each with its own quirks, but in the end way less complicated.

I don't know what a dealership would have taken, but as I did everything on this car on my own, my maintenance cost (including my repairs, oil and filters) over the 4 years summed up to only 850€.

TL;DR: The 1KR-FE is a questionable construction and you might be better off with a bigger engine.
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Last edited by dj92; 09-29-2018 at 06:44 PM.
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