hey fellas, my names andrew and just about to purchase my first car tomorrow a 89 corolla, just wondering what the go is such as what are the main things ill be needing to look at before buying it. Help would be greatly appreciated :)

 

cheers.

Edited January 14, 201115 yr by crundyy

Hi Andrew and welcome to Rollaclub :)

 

I'm assuming its and early ae90 or ae92?

 

Common flaws I have seen of these are..

 

Rust either bubbles or small holes above the windscreen, down the lenght of the A pillars on the hatchbacks, and C pillars on the sedan. The hatchback usually rusts out in the corners below the window first.

 

Interior plastics i.e: doorcards can have the vinyl trim that shrinks from sun exposure on the top of all four doors. The plastic trims on the B pillars can get rather chalky again due to exposure, and this also the same on the centre console lid.

 

Upholdstery can begin to wear, notably on the driver seat.

 

If the paint is metallic, Eg maroon, light green, dark blue and gold to name a few you'll be hard pressed to find one with really good deep paint.

 

Mechanically like any older vehicle, look for leaks around the rocker cover gaskets, and the distributor "o"ring seal. These engines do have small tendency to burn a little oil on start up due to valve stem seals.

 

This is a general what to look for advice, I'm am not saying all models of this car are like that so don't be disheartened from Ive written by any means. There are a number of members on here who have ae90-94 Corollas which are really, really good examples of what 20 year old Corollas should be. And like the saying goes, if you look after it, it will look after you :)

 

So good luck mate and bring on the photos when you get it.

 

I'm sure other guys will be happy to offer suggestions or share experiences :y:

Edited January 14, 201115 yr by "The Mint KE70"

First and foremost. Drive it. If it speaks to you "i'm a sex machine" :y: , if it doesn't turn corners by itself and doesn't coff and splutter and doesn't look like the th 3801 chugging down the track, you may have a winner. If it says i'm an abused dog who is likey to chew your nutsack", you can a)negotiate price. b)walk away. c) accept the price and rectify the issues.

 

From there you can judge the car cosmetically. Is it attractive to you. Does it have to be? Is it what your looking for? How is the paint?

These are purely cosmetic judgements and just like picking a mate for life it could be an ugly winner, an ugly loser, a hot loser or a hot winner. Its up too you from there. :happy:

Edited January 14, 201115 yr by GJM85

cheers boys, yeah its a 1989 ae92 and from what ive been told is pretty much the same "if you look after it well it will serve you well" which is what i want to hear as I'm getting pretty into it. I'm going to have a look at it tomorrow,cosmetically my mate looked at it for me and said it looked perfect apart from a tiny bit of rust on the back door which shouldnt be too much of a hassle to fix, but as i said I'm going with the old man tomorrow to have a geez at it and if i do ill throw up some photos.

Got it :) apart from a bit of surface rust and some minor f@$kups wih it its pretty mad, the old man took it for a drive and we picked it up for 1500 so I'm cheeeeeeeeering, thanks for the advice boys as it helped a fair bit, I'll chuck up some photos for ya tomorrow when I get home