The Real Cost Of Driving A $600 Toyota For A Year! What Went Wrong?

For the last few months I've been using my $600 Corolla as my only car. How exactly has it been as a daily driver and what exactly is it costing me? Is it very viable to use in the long term? Well let's take a closer look. In the last year this Toyota has become my main mode of transport and for several months even being the only car I owned. And after overhauling it in the first video have I had any major problems? The truth is I haven't had to do anything to this car aside from replacing the radiator cap. The original engine is as strong as ever even after 319,000 kilometers. However it does sound a bit loud thanks to the exhaust tip that had separated many years ago. During the year I also painted the heat shield purely for aesthetic purposes but I haven't been afraid to get the most out of this car. Frequently loading it up with garden soil or loading it up with whatever I need to to get where I need to go. One item I haven't yet installed is a new air conditioner belt and pulley. The old pulley is worn, the wrong size and appears to be bent. So the car has run without a belt for quite a while now. Here's the old pulley alongside the correct one for this car. But it clearly isn't going to fit. The bracket is not the right one. I'll have to find a replacement later in the video. But why would this car have a non-standard AC pulley? I guess we'll have to wait and see. And replacing the rocker cover gasket was well worth it in the original video. The leaks are all but gone. These 4A-FE engines are known to be reliable which is somewhat annoying as I was hoping for more YouTube content if I was to have a problem. Something I haven't yet done is replace some of the automatic transmission fluid. I have no idea when it was last done but it does shift fine even with the slightly black looking fluid. The fluid level does appear a bit too high as well and after wiping off the drain bolt let's see what quality of fluid and exactly how much comes out. The 14mm bolt came out easily enough with the fluid looking quite black. I was surprised as to the amount that came out. More than the 3.5 litres I was expecting. I actually did manage to drop the drain plug into the fluid and after fishing it out I screwed it back in. That is some rather black looking transmission fluid. I'd say it definitely needed replacing. Draining around 5 litres from the pan which is surprising. And I'd say this transmission was previously overfilled and I'll simply be replacing a portion of this transmission fluid. A full flush might actually do more harm than good and given the mileage and age of this car. And to put new fluid in I used a tiny funnel inside the dipstick hole. I placed a few rags around the funnel to minimise any spillage. The 1 litre jug made pouring so much easier and with a bit less fluid than I drained out it was time to put the car back on flat ground. So far it feels fine even with the lower fluid level. But just where is the level sitting now? The colour has definitely improved and it is sitting closer to the correct level. That's for sure. It shifted fine before but somehow it's without a doubt a lot smoother and there is no slippage whatsoever. The old fluid can be disposed of at most auto stores here in Australia. I wonder when this was last changed? Sadly the car came with no record of it ever happening. And wiping the bottom of the collection pan it's good to see that there are next to no metallic flakes which would indicate excessive wear inside the transmission. When it comes to finding parts, for very little money, a trip to my local u-pullet was well overdue. Surprisingly given how uncommon seeing a liftback corolla on the road is there were quite a few of them in the wrecking yard. Perhaps they all ended up here and most still have plenty of parts remaining. The cabin light cover in my corolla basically turned to dust when I touched it earlier this year. And it seems to be a very common problem as I struggled to find a corolla with the light cover I needed. So I broadened my search to similar vintage toyotas which should have the same plastic cover. Here we go, the first car I've seen with any cover still inside. However it very quickly became apparent as to why it hadn't yet been taken out. It was crumbling just like the original one I had before. On to the next potential toyota. This hatchback was almost complete. Will this one finally be usable? It's still attached to the light assembly. Ah and once again it literally turns to dust in my hands and is breaking apart. And after searching further I saw yet another liftback corolla. This one had a neat looking spoiler. Perhaps I could add one to my car in the future. But most importantly the car has an undamaged light cover. The search was finally over. And it fits nicely in our corolla. Now the search can begin for an AC pulley assembly. Most of them were seized pretty tightly. And I actually didn't bring any WD-40 to help loosen it off so I guess I'll have to find a different car to pull from. And as luck would have it there was another one that actually came off without much hassle. I've now got an undamaged straight pulley assembly. With all the parts I'll need for this video I feel as if I should clean out a few more areas and check the spare wheel again. Thankfully water hadn't been sitting in the boot well. But I'll give it a wipe to make it look nicer. And at one point I did forget to close the boot properly. Shortly before filming this segment. So the carpet had gotten a bit wet. And thankfully it's easy to remove and I'll let it dry off for a few days. And while vacuuming around I found a brand new wiper blade. Nice I guess. And the spare wheel has adequate tread. But could do with a little more air pressure. It was sitting at a slightly lower than ideal 25 psi. And you can actually see my Hyundai Elantra in the background. I actually sold this many months ago and the new owners are apparently very happy with it. While it's not easy to measure exactly what the pressure is I aimed for about 36 psi. I've never actually experienced a flat tire before. But at least I'm definitely prepared for one. And perhaps I should get a more complete wheel cover in the future. I'm not sure where some of this one went. And for a while the window squirters weren't doing much. But now they're apparently flowing fine once again. I'm not sure why they started working. But hey I'll take that. And with a whole year passed since I did the last general service. How has the engine held up? The new radiator cap is holding in the coolant and it's still nice and green. The coolant reservoir is also still right on the full mark. But how about the engine oil? I added stop leak and it no longer leaks. It mustn't be burning any oil either as the level is still perfect. And has the initial power steering leak been remedied by the stop leak I put in? Well the level hasn't changed after a whole year so I'd say yes it worked pretty well. Installing the salvaged AC pulley was next. And after partially removing the old one I slowly got the new one in place with a magnet. Getting the top tensioning bolt to line up was a real pain though. And to get the hole facing upwards, allowing me to screw in the tensioning bolt, I used some vice grip pliers. At one point I did have a new pulley but I can't seem to find it now. So for now I'll simply be using the seemingly good pulley that I removed from the junkyard. And after finding out the old pulley assembly wouldn't come out any other way, I removed the heat shield which gave me just enough room. The old pulley assembly was absolutely stuffed. And is much bigger than the one it would have come with from factory. And before we do an oil change it's best to let the engine warm up a bit, making the oil less viscous. These inexpensive ramps I purchased have been super useful for at home servicing. It's such a healthy engine with almost no movement or vibration while it's at idle. And to make the oil drain easier I loosened off the filling cap. I might have not tightened the drain plug enough last time as there was a little bit of oil seeping out of it. And while a year had passed this oil has only done 4100km and it appears reasonable. Getting to the oil filter is a bit of a pain on these cars, it's mounted sideways at the front. And getting a good grip will be a challenge as the clearance is pretty tight. I was able to get my hand around the filter but applying any force was difficult. Perhaps I'd have better luck from the top instead. With the heat shield removed and using my right arm proved almost impossible, with my left arm I was able to grip it well enough. But the glove did make it a little bit slippery and after many turns it was finally off. And with the new filter seal sufficiently lubricated with oil and the mounting surface wiped off clean it was time to put it on. Doing it up as tight as I could by hand should be enough. The cooper oil filter is considered a budget option, but that's fine by me in such an old cheap car. And I've actually found 3L milk containers to be great for storing used oil. I got just under 3L out of this engine. It's also great to see that almost no metal flakes were found in the collection pan. And since it worked quite well last time with no apparent downsides, I'll put in some more engine stop leak. Using this stuff can definitely cause issues in modern engines, especially ones that use variable valve timing. But this engine is ancient and high mileage. And just like the previous service, in goes some 15W-40. The jug definitely helps me pour in an exact amount, just under 3L should be sufficient. It was at this point that I noticed a bit of a crack in the exhaust manifold. There was never any exhaust smell from the engine bay, so it mustn't have been a big problem. I'll see if this muffler and exhaust putty will help, but I have a feeling it might get a little bit too hot on this part of the exhaust system. It feels as if the car is running fine, so I'll consider the oil change a success. And the oil level, once back on flat ground, was also right on the full marker. Last of all, it's time to fit a new AC belt since a good pulley assembly is now installed. The correct belt doesn't fit and the AC compressor doesn't look original. And that's because it isn't. It was very common back in the day for cars to be delivered without air conditioning and have them fitted locally to save money. This one was fitted here in Adelaide, before being sold according to the original documents. Now knowing this, we tried longer belts until we found one that was suitable. The real question is, after about a year of no usage, does the AC system still work? And I'm glad to feel that it is blowing cold once again, just in time for summer. This 1992 Corolla has been super dependable and most importantly cheap to run. But how cheap exactly? Let's start with the third party insurance. It's been just about a year since I put insurance on this car. And when I first got this car, insurance was only $8.39 per month for third party property. Yeah, I got a good discount because my partner worked at this particular insurance company. But she no longer works there and it's up for renewal. Let's see what the new price is. Okay, oh, okay. It's gone up, but only to $9.53 Australian, which is still incredibly cheap. If I was to try and get a new policy with pretty much any other insurance company, it would cost around $30 a month. So I'll take $9.53 any day of the week. I've calculated my average fuel economy for the year to be 7.51 litres per 100, the equivalent of about 31.3 US miles per gallon. So factoring in the service we just did, including the transmission fluid, insurance, 12 months of Historic Reggio, AC pulley, drive belt, and an estimated fuel usage of the year driving 4,117 kilometers, we get a total of 788 Australian dollars, about 515 US. So that's more than the car originally cost me. But for the limited driving I do, this is totally fine to get me around Adelaide. And I do have a second car on Historic Reggio, which gives me a total of 180 days a year to drive between them. And I'll be sure to keep this Corolla on the road until it well and truly dies. This car really is a bit of a survivor. And with a bit of regular maintenance, I hope to get many more years out of it. Anyway, thank you very much for watching and I'll see you in the next one. Thank you so much for watching. And if you'd like to get your name at the beginning or end of my videos and see a bit of behind the scenes content as well, definitely consider becoming a channel member. Have a good one and I'll see you next time.