Best place to discuss Corolla Fielder?

Hi team,

I've recently imported myself a 2013 Toyota Corolla Fielder 1.5L hybrid (model NKE165G). I love it. It's fantastic.

Before I go much further, is this the best part of the forum to be posting in? I do not see a Corolla Fielder section on the forums. I think because the guts of the fielders are very similar to the prius C this would be the best place?

It's running a 1NZ-FXE engine with 10 block NIMH battery pack.

 

Thanks for the welcome, glad I've come to the right place. Here are some photos of the wagon while it was still at the docks.

I wouldn't have thought of it as a mini-wagon, but I suppose you are right, it is fair bit smaller than say, a ford mondeo. To me this size is "just right", only just big enough to put the dog and a friend or two in the back and a bit of gear for a few days away, but no larger than it needs to be (and no more fuel hungry, tire hungry, etc.. than it needs to be, big fan of cycling, I have a dislike of oversized vehicles and the everyone drives a SUV trend).

My partner and I almost got a old nissan leaf and kept the beater car, but now am very glad we just stuck to getting one vehicle and maybe in 5+ years we'll think about an EV again. In the meant time, this hits the spot "just right".

So she's a jap import, just got it last week. Toyota Corolla Fielder 2013, 1NZ-FXE engine just like the prius C / aqua with 73,000kms on the clock.

I have a friend who has a EV battery rebuilding bay so we've gone ahead and just put the nickel plated busbars into it. Rotated the cells from the middle of the pack to the outside to wear level it a bit. See the last picture - those busbars were gross! As well as the battery cooling fan intake. Btw when I rebuild anything, I find the documents and everything gets torqued to spec, by the book. Keeps everything consistent, and trouble free.

So far:
Changed engine oil, just used toyota OEM 10w-30 (non synthetic I think?)
Changed oil filter (using OEM filter)
New transmission oil (Toyota ATF WS)
Air filters are looking great.
Cleaned the battery cooling fan.
Cleaned MAF sensor.
Tires pressurized to 35PSI (240kpa, 230kpa (33psi) was recommended on the driver door sticker but it always goes down a bit over time.. )

Todo:
Replace engine and inverter coolant.
I thought about flushing the brake fluid - I've had issues on other vehicles where the fluid has absorbed moisture and things started seizing. Figured _just do it_ and have that peace of mind.
Re-seat the spark plugs to prevent seizing (maybe replace while I'm at it? it's only at 73,000kms though)
Install cruise control - I have a Prius C cruise control kit with wiring coming in the mail, looking forward to this one

I've been able to average around 22.6KM/L (51MPG) this week, will see if having cleaned the MAF sensor this weekend makes a difference.

Looking forward to driving this for a long time. It's such a pleasure to drive coming from a vehicle that's late 90's that drinks fuel.

 

EDIT: @Mod pls just delete my last two messages and approve the first one, I thought I'd be clever and get my post count up and then put some pics up but looks like that's not working for me

I wouldn't have thought of it as a micro-wagon, but I suppose you are right, it is fair bit smaller than say, a Ford Mondeo, or other larger vehicles. To me this size is "just right". Only just big enough to put the dog and a friend or two in the back and a bit of gear for a few days away, but no larger than it needs to be (and no more fuel hungry, tire hungry, etc.. than it needs to be). I'm big fan of cycling and I have a dislike of oversized vehicles and the everyone-drives-a-SUV trend, it just seems a bit unnecessary and wasteful.

My partner and I almost got a old Nissan Leaf and kept the beater car, but now am very glad we just stuck to getting one vehicle and maybe in 5+ years we'll think about an EV again. In the meant time, this is perfect.

So she's a Japanese import, just got it last week. Toyota Corolla Fielder 2013, 1NZ-FXE engine just like the prius C / aqua with 73,000kms on the clock. Set me back ~7k USD landed and on the road. Not bad.

 

At least my messages got posted, they were all stuck in moderation before. Thanks moderator. Doesn't look like I can edit or delete posts to tidy it up which makes me a little sad but not end of the world.

 

I think it's mostly a japanese domestic market vehicle, and occasionally you see them new in the country here.

Thoughts on using the OEM toyota 10W30 oil with these engines?

 

Scored some new rims for 130NZD (~80USD) with 185/65/R15 tires. Absolute steal, with good tread, and a 2019 date stamp on them.

I'm loving the look. The 185/65 R15 M+S tires sure do impact the MPG a lot running recommended pressures.

 

Turns out the curb weight is 1170kg, vs the prius C at a reported 1130kg. Surprised the difference is so small!

Those tires are hitting the MPG pretty badly. Getting 18-22km/l around town whereas it used to be up more around the 22-26km/l mark.
I'll get some 175/65 R15 Continental EcoContact 6 tires, run em at 35psi.


Thank god for EU tire labelling laws - finding LRR tires was a headache till I discovered this. You can dig right into the details on how the rolling resistance is calculated in the PDF attached but the gist of it is as follows:

The take-away is car tires are C1 class which have the following ratings:



where the numbers are kg's of force required to keep things rolling per ton of vehicle mass.

Extremely useful numbers. Many manufacturers will list the label if you google for the tire and add "EU label" to the end of your search. Not all LRR tires are created equal as some rank worse than others even though they are labelled "LRR".

 

The tire shop made a mistake and fitted Continental ComfortContact 6 tires, which isn't what I asked for. I'm getting them to swap them. Anyway, so I had those fitted to my stock R15 5" wide steel rims, with wheel covers and they came in at 14.50 kg on the scales: (that's a brand new 175/65 tire just to be clear)



The 185/65 R15 with 5.5" wide alloy rims came in at 14.50 kg too.



The alloy rims are JDM "Joker" brand, model "magic" rims. Seems to be a bit of a budget rim, but it's another data point for the forum. Might be a few hundred grams lighter once I switch tires around between the rims. Will see..


Hopefully 175/65 tires don't mind being on a 5.5" wide alloy rim. I see 5" wide rim is recommended, but local low volume certifier documents indicate 5 to 6 inch wide rims are fine for a 175/65 tire so I'll just do it - should be fine.

 

(btw if you're clicking straight to the thread, it'll jump down to this message and you might miss my prior ones above).

I put about 1.2L of brake fluid through it flushing the whole brake system using the Techstream method (using a different scan tool, but same process). Fluid wasn't super nasty but there is a visible difference between old and new - mostly replacing it due to the age factor, rather than mileage.

I'm noticing some dry rot on the lower rear control arm bushing. Bit dissapointed that it's happening at only 10 years, I've had older vehicles with no issues (this vehicle is 2013).
Apart from that, I think that's all the maintenance done after the initial purchase! Then onto just happy driving, and regular oil changes for a good long while.

 

Lower control arms only come as an assembly from Toyota, after market I can't get the bushes separately (none within the country). So I'm left with replacing the whole lower control arm which includes the ball joint. I don't know about you but my experience with aftermarket ball joints is nothing good - they get sloppy far too quickly. OEM parts it is. 660USD = oof. I intend to keep this car 5-10 years so is worth doing right.