New/Old Corolla Owner - Usual Questions

[Britcheflee]

Hi,

Just bought a 2002 Toyota Corolla CE for daughter - nice little car, rather grubby but a good spit and polish will cure that - has recent timing belt/chain and tensioner, starter, new tires, and oil change. It has not had a transmission oil change for a while and I am going to do that myself - couple of questions:
1. Any specific type of aft needed for this?
2. Is this a drop the pan to drain type or does it have a drain plug to get aft out first?
3. Going to buy a kit with new gasket and filter - any hints/advice about putting that in?

At last oil change they told po that the oil pan gasket was weeping - is this anything to be concerned about or ok to wait until next oil change to replace?

Small red flashing light under dash in footwell - po said was alarm system but no other information - should there be a way to arm this? Car has manual window winders and no central locking so no key fob alarm to set.

Has small spare road tire - is this original set up or should it have a full size?

Finally any other advice for things to watch out for, common problems etc?

Thank you

Lee

 

[AZ Pete]

Lee, I bought a 2000 CE for my granddaughter. Her's has a drain plug on the auto transmission and uses Dextron III atf.

The spare was a dough-nut on her car. I replaced it with a full size tire and wheel, when I put new tires on it (before giving her the car).

Can't say about the weep. I would monitor the oil level, and change the gasket at the next oil change. That is if it is the gasket for sure.

 

[Scott O'Kashan]

Hi Lee. Your daughter is fortunate to have a father that cares about her so much.

Any brand automatic transmission fluid will be sufficient, as long as it meets the original recommended performance standard of Dexron III or Dexron III-H. Check the owners manual for verification.

For a transmission filter/gasket kit, considering the the large investment an automatic transmission represents, (usually about $2,000+ to have rebuilt), I recommend a high quality synthetic ATF like AMSOIL along with a high quality Wix filter. Both of these If you wish, I can get both of these for you at low prices.

I'm not sure if your transmission has a drain plug or not. Taking a look will verify.

An oil pan gasket leaking is never a good thing and will only get worse over time and potentially create a situation where the engine doesn't have an adequate amount of oil. This can lead to engine damage of course. You can try snugging up the oil pan bolts to see if it helps slow down the leak, or even stop it, (not likely). Some vehicles are a relatively easy job to replace the oil pan gasket, as long as the vehicle is on a lift anyway. lol

I had no idea about an alarm system with this vehicle. Sorry.

With the spare tire, the temporary spare tire type has the advantage of being much smaller than a full size spare tire, which occupies much less space in the trunk. The downside is that they are for temporary use only, (including the rim),and the sidewall usually has a warning on it that it is only intended for up to 50 miles of use. Verify this on the tire itself.