2002 Corolla - Brand Interchangeable Parts?

[ctan800]

Hey again everybody. After two years owning my little Corolla, I got into a car accident on my way home from school. Since this happened 8 days ago, I don't want to divulge on the details on how I settled it.

What I want to ask you guys, is which cars, for which specific part can I obtain replacements from since we have two local Pic-A-Parts in our area. I don't care if the color doesn't match, I am only concerned with that everything fits. Even if it came off a different car, like the 2002 Corolla's sibling Chevrolet Prizm.

Currently the following things are bent/damaged/need to be changed. And I am willing to change them myself, because from what I was told from the body shop manager, most of the work can be done by my own hand with my cheapo $10 socket wrench set. Only thing that is going to be difficult for me is locating a Radiator Support, and then removing it from the spot welds of a different Toyota. And also, I don't have a arc welder, nor wish to buy one. I am simply going to bring it to my choice of a body shop to finish it up.

1) Hood Latch (I already salvaged a replacement from a 1996 Toyota Camry)
2) Hood Both Internal + External Frame
3) Radiator Support/"Upper Tie Bar"
4) Left Headlight Assembly
5) Left Turn Signal Assembly

I only found TWO 2001-2002 dead Corollas in both salvage yards on their website. The one I went to first, the 2002 Corolla, also had a bashed-in hood so its not going to be useful for me. Also someone already removed the Radiator Support out of that one.

However, I did locate and found a compatible hood latch from a wrecked Camry, and I know it fits because I examined pictures I googled online for new parts. It has three 10mm bolts on the left, right, and bottom center that bolts onto that one vertical bar of the Radiator Support behind the Toyota badge. I am not popping my hood open, not until I get all the parts I need to get the hood closed again on the spot.

I am interested (if my visit to the other yard doesn't pan out) in 1998 to 2002 Chevrolet Prizms, because from what I heard, most of its guts is pretty much the same. Unfortunately, I found one forum post through Google (different forums) that said that the bodywork, the Prizm Hood in particular would not fit. However, that is simply one person's opinion or experience and will not be my experience.

Does anyone here know if any of the parts I listed for a 2002 (E110) Corolla S can be found on other vehicles? I don't care if the car doesn't "look right" or "the right color", what I want the car to do, is to operate while abiding by road laws. Paint jobs and aligning the hood can come later.

 

[Donabed Kopoian]

You'll need them from a '98 - '02 Corolla. The Chevy Prizm has different exterior panels that won't match up (it'd be like trying to put '03 Pontiac Vibe parts on a '03 Matrix, the frame is the same but the panels are completely different).

The hood MIGHT work (you would definitely have to modify the front), but the headlights are completely different and the bumper would get in the way.

 

[ctan800]

Hey you guys, I am back. Bit busy balancing between exams, studies, and continuing on my DIY project. So this is what my car looks like when I finally got the hood off. I lie down on my back (I lost my cheap $1 pry bar), unbolt my hood latch, and get the hood up and off. Aside from what the body shop manager mentioned to me, I found no new issues with the car. All there is right now is a bent radiator support (it must be re-bended forward to attach to my replacement hood).

Note: I already fixed up the plastic bumper cover/fake grille. Under advice from the shop, I basically unbolted the top of the cover, and let it sit in the sun to regain its shape.


Before I went back to the salvage yard today, I made measurements of the hood dimensions. My hood is SUPPOSED to be, roughly 42 to 43 inches long from the center to the tip of the plastic fake grille. It also measures approximately 40 inches from the top left, diagonally to the bottom left. On the highest point of the hood near my windshield., it measures about 54 or so inches across horizontally.

I set back this morning back to Pic-A-Part, and to my surprise, the hood that I am looking for came off of a '93 Geo Prizm!

I took the hood off of the Prizm (it was fastened with metric 12mm, or 5/32nds imperial), bought it for $55 + tax, and then went back home with it after a fruitless search for headlamps, corner lights, and learning the frustrations of attempting to remove a Radiator Support. I fit the Prizm hood (1993 model) over, and it perfectly covers the car, even going around the top of my damaged headlights!

However, now I have to deal with fixing the bent radiator support before going further on replacing the lights.

How should I go about this? In my experience of attempting to remove the radiator supports out of several 1990s models Toyotas in the junkyard, I quickly learned (after spending 2/3rds of my time measuring things) that the radiator support is a pain in the ass to remove. When people told me "spot welded", I did not expect the entire internals of the side panels being welded onto the damn thing as well. Here is another junkyard picture of a wrecked 98-02 Corolla

I basically have to, after not heeding their warnings beforehand, cut the damn thing off with one of those orbital grinders that shoot sparks everywhere. Except, the salvage yard only lets me bring electric tools. So dropping a few hundred for another tool (I came in with only a socket wrench set and the biggest breaker bar available at the store) is not a guarantee that I will succeed.

So I took a step back, and I thought over what the body shop guy told me. He said a alternative method is to attempt to bend the radiator support back into shape. One thing he told me was... hook the thing up to a tree with chains and put the car in reverse. Or take my dad's truck, and then slowly pull it out after attaching a chain to the towing iron.

But since the radiator support is where the lights bolt on in the first place, am I better off buying a new one instead? And then just rip the old one off after removing the lights, pushing back the radiator/AC condenser, removing hood latch and bumper covers? I don't have a arc welder or torch, so the furthest I can go from this point is to bolt a new radiator support in place, and then take it to someone with a welder to finish the job.


I have found NO anomalies since the accident a little over a week ago. Coolant temperature from my OBDII scanner app shows that the radiator is trying to maintain a operating temperature of 188 degrees fahrenheit. In situations like idling, it'll briefly go up to 203 degrees, and after moving around it'll quickly go back down to 188 again. Sometimes the temperature goes down to 183 for a split second and then return back to 188, but I often heard a cold gust of wind (its cold in Vegas right now, windchill) when that happened.

Also air/fuel ratio is at 14.7, and I see no trouble codes. I thought maybe I would have a leak in my intake manifold but nope, all perfect.


Edit: OR should I try to obtain the cheapest spinning metal cutting thingy from Home Depot for under $100, and then slice off the ends of the upper tie bar of the radiator support, smash it back into shape, and then buy the cheapest welder to weld it back on?

 

[ctan800]

Ok new update today...

So after school I went over to Harbor Freight to buy myself something called a cable winch puller, or "come-a-long" for 20 dollars. I was watching a YouTube video of some guy using a similar device to work on his frame.

I was kinda squeamish of buying from HF, for one I never ever heard of the place until the body shop guy brought it up. Second, I googled HF and noticed that their tools are kind of shoddy. So I was pretty scared to use this thing, thinking that a cable holding hundreds to thousands of pounds of tension force could snap and slice me in half (I use crossbows, and one of the first safety tips is to keep fingers away from the flight rail unless you want 150 pounds of chopping power cutting your tips off).

But I did it anyways, adding alot of emphasis to caution. I also bought two crappy chains from HF as well. Here is my setup that I used this afternoon.

I know it isn't the best choice to anchor the base to. But I simply sat on another tile and watched it closely as I slowly drew back the winch one tooth at a time.

Then it got dark, but I was around 85% done when it got dark. As I was putting away my tools and fasteners and broken parts into labeled ziplock bags, I found something alarming...

What exactly is this supposed to mean? That crumple is getting me concerned, since the radiator support is practically what saved my life in this 10mph crash. In Vegas, we have a trend of drunken dip****s hopping the median or yellow lanes of the freeways and hitting us head on. Does this mean, a front-end impact will result in having NO PROTECTION for me at all? To me, that crumple, if bent back is a serious sign of metal fatigue. Like I feel it will snap off from another impact, kind of like how you would repeatedly bend a paperclip and it finally breaks off.

Should I just buy a new radiator support, or have the shop cut it off and weld another half section instead?

If you guys are giving me the go-ahead to continue with this, I am simply going to run my chain and puller through that end of the bar and pull roughly 30 to 45 degrees towards the left.


Also I am having trouble comprehending the instructions on the cable winch manual. There were times where I wanted to remove the chain after reducing the tension, but my teeth on the drive pawl keeps getting stuck, and I couldn't disengage my safety either. Is it possible for me to just flip the winch level upside down, so when I turn it over and THEN DISENGAGE the drive pawl, it will simply fall out and instantly reduce the tension? Out of 5 feet of double-cable, I only utilized two feet.

I am planning to tomorrow morning..
1) Hook that chain winch on the left crumpled bar HORIZONTALLY, at it's highest point.
2) Put the Prizm hood back up over and see if the loop fits directly over the latch. (I have not changed the latch cable yet, it seems intact but a section is squished when I changed hood latches, if it doesn't work, close, or stays open, i'll just reopen the hood again by sticking a philips or flathead screwdriver to push the little claw back)
3) Reinstall the entire front body, I actually loosened the bumper cover on purpose so I can remove my headlights and turning signal lights in fear of breaking them.
4) Put in and tighten all lamps, tighten the retaining clips and 10mm bolts, replace the two missing bolts at the top of the "fake grille" of the bumper cover, and drive around.
5) Take the car back to my reference body shop, ask them to inspect the work, show the crumples on the driver's side of the radiator support, and see what he can do for me. I don't think welding is required, unless he tells me to cut it and get him another radiator support.

 

[Kev250R]

One word of caution, toss an old T-shirt or a towel over the chain you are using with that Come-A-Long, that way if it breaks parts won't go flying; the towel will prevent that from happening.

Kevin

 

[Donabed Kopoian]

If this was my car and the radiator frame was bent, I would replace it with a new one, no question. rockauto.com sells them.

You can bend it back, yes. Will it snap like a paperclip? No. Will it bend a lot easier with the next impact? Definitely. So that means the next 10 mph fender bender is likely to do more damage than what you see now. You can strengthen bent metal by removing everything in that area, heating it up with a torch until it is glowing, and then spraying it down with cold water. That tempers the metal and strengthens it (I've done this with body panels before) ... however, you have to remove the paint to do this, so then you have labor to sand the paint, bend it as close as you can, heat it up, shower it with cold water, dry it off, then re-spray it before rust will accumulate.

So it depends on what you want to do. When you bend metal, you'll never get it perfect to the original shape, and there is a lot of labor involved in doing it correctly. RockAuto.com lists your radiator support for $28.79 ... so it depends on how far you are willing to work to save money (and for $28.79? Just buy the damn thing and pay someone the $50 to weld it).

Various Manufacturer Part #TO1225235

 

[ctan800]

New Update For You Guys on the 2002 Corolla LE/CE/S DIY body repair:

After investing about 2 hours a day after classes, I am about 80% done with the repairs. So far the majority of the hardest work is done, and I spent just over $100.

Items (before sales tax):

1. Cheap Come-A-Long Device from Harbor [Freight $20
2. Heavy duty 36" pry bar from Lowe's $25. Optional, see bottom of post.
3. "New" Replacement Hood, $55 from Las Vegas Pic-A-Part. I got mine from a 93 Geo Prizm
4. Replacement Hood Latch, $11 from Las Vegas Pic-A-Part. If you can't find it on a 93 Prizm, try looking for a `1996 Toyota Camry, same exact thing.

Here is what I accomplished.

As you can see, there is a gap between the bottom left and right of the Prizm hood and the horizontal length from top left to top right is "a little fat". Also note that there is a "overbite" from the nose of the hood, versus the plastic bumper cover. Aside from that, I would say on a DIY job for a 12-13 year old car that I wrecked, its perfectly suitable under my standards.

Like I mentioned before, I used the chain puller to pull the bent radiator support (some sort of steel-like sheet metal) back into position. Then, I straightened it (put on the hood latch first) the front end with pliers and crescent wrenches (one to keep it stable, the other to bend), as you can see the radiator support is "rolled forward" and I have to "un-roll it" to have the hood latch in proper position to accept the hook.

This is the latch for a 1996 Toyota Camry. Same design principle, and almost the same exact dimensions. However, the spacing where you run the 10mm bolts through is exactly the same. I am showing you this picture because I wanted to point how where the hood loop is supposed to "snap in". This is the rear-end of the latch, the side that faces the driver and the engine. On the left is the long "Safety Latch" and on the right is the actual hood latch. Goal is to use your winches and pliers to bend the radiator support back into position to where the ACTUAL LATCH snaps in. I sprayed some WD-40 on it to make sure any rustiness in the thingy would be eliminated. In the event that the safety latch refuses to lock in and "moves to the side", open the hood back up again, and you can actually bend it with your bare hands with a strong one-handed grip.

When handling your pliers (cheap triple set for just over $10 at Autozone will do, when a stranger helped me with his own set to bend it back into shape), you gotta grip onto them with a kung-fu grip. Although this radiator support is sheet metal, its pretty hard, and sharp in some places depending on your impact.

Note: I found a easier way to reattach the plastic bumper cover and lights post-impact. Note that there are two holes where 10mm bolts go in (if they are still even in there). Also, you are going to find out that you have to at least LOOSEN the sides of the bumper cover to remove the headlights and corner lights pairs. THey are held together on the side with a 10mm nut, and the corner (turning signal) lights are anchored to the headlights with a plastic clip.

What I did was... remove the remaining bolts attaching the top part of the bumper cover (the fake grille) to the two possibly mangled flanges that are welded onto the radiator support left and right. Then I removed one 10mm bolt underneath the wheel well from each side of the front tires. THis one is concealed behind the plastic "roof" of the wheel well, but you can easily just pull it aside with your bare bands.

After that, you should be able to LOOSEN (not remove, just LOOSEN) the sides of the bumper cover by sticking a pry-bar between them, which would cause the plastic retainer clips to break off (body shop guy told me that they are not really necesssary). You will find a 10mm nut on each side, that keeps the headlights + turning lights in. Remove and save it, and then remove the two to three other 10mm bolts on each side of the radiator support. Take the headlights out first, and then the corners.

I am going to order my replacement lights after thanksgiving. But I already re-fastened the bumper cover ahead of time to gain a "better understanding". Before you re-fasten the bumpers you have to...

(1) Make sure that the bottom left and bottom right corners of the headlamps are completely OVER the edge of the bumper cover. When you think that its fitting correctly, give the bumper cover nose a good shove to get those metal clips to "snap back in" to the holes on the bumper. This is critical, otherwise the bumper cover will not be able to be bolted back on underneath the wheel wells.

(2) If you have not already... use your pliers to bend the previously mentioned welded flanges (on radiator support) that your front bumper cover bolts right onto. It's gonna take a bit of time and a decent amount of grunt.

(3) Bolt the bumper cover on the welded flanges FIRST. Look from the side to see that they are perfectly (or near perfectly level). If there are any complications, get your pliers back out again. The 10mm bolts should go directly into the flanges without any odd angles.

(4) Finally bolt those screws for the wheel wells back on.

You wont be able to notice it from the first picture, but my badly damaged corner lights are held on with transparent packaging tape. Right after Thanksgiving the local body shop is gonna open again and I can put in my one-day order for new headlights and turn signal lights without shipping costs. I just have to pay a 15% mark-up. Which is better than spending more than half my money on shipping in the first place.



You don't actually need the pry bar for this kind of work. The only reason why I recommended it, was that I realized that the replacement hood that came from a wrecked Prizm (it really didnt look like it got wrecked) had its "Safety Latch Pit" sliced open and bent back by some sort of welding device and metal grinder. I only realized this in the last minute, and in my frustration, I busted out my walking stick pry bar, and then carefully (avoiding bystanders) bent it back with ease.

Like seriously, the hood looked PERFECTLY fine to me. I don't even know why the person even chopped it open. He or she could have gotten themselves a bit dirty, and then unbolted the latch and popped the hood just like that. But thats just my end of the story. But a day later, after bending everything back into position, my car can hit the freeways again!

 

[1503carpenter]

Your comments on how you fixed the lights and bumper are very helpful and I will be referring to them once I get my rear components located. Thanks again.