Got an email from a Swedish guy named Marcus, he had found my Starlet site and it turns out we are pretty close (mileage that is). He seems to also like Starlets and I asked him if he could send me some pictures of his Starlet so I can show it here. Marcus was kind enough to that. Here some pictures of his nice Starlet.
A little background first:
Marcus has now bought a Corolla tubular intake to assemble on the car in the spring / summer. That gets him some more horses to play with. He has no garage to keep warm in so he would love to have some warmer degrees when he´s fixing with his car. It´s pretty cold here in Sweden as I write this..
Marcus has installed an open air filter, and also some for white indicators from ebay. And he´s also put a massive front of extra headlights on the car.
He has also obtained second-hand 15 "alloy wheels to be painted and is also thinking about buying a 40/40 lowering kit eventually.
Has he replaced anything on his Toyota?
He has not had to buy anything except a right front strut who he got an remark on in the yearly car inspection (mandatory here in Sweden) last fall, then he has changed his windshield (insurance) and a manifold gasket. I dont know how long he´s own his EP91 though. If I remember correctly it has run about 150 000 km.
He says he is often on the ukstarletowners site checking for tips and tricks, he also found a post from me there. Here are some pictures of his Starlet.
Five extra lights, I guess he see better than most in the dark.
Snow here in Sweden now.
Sideview, I think he has removed the plastic protectors on the door.
Night view... Looks nice, Is some of them leds? Havent seen those before..
An open air filter to be assembled on the car.
He ordered these from Ebay. White indicators.
White indicators on the Starlet.
Open air filter assembled on the car. He will change the intake to a tubular one, se next picture.
He´s bought a tubular intake manifold from a Toyota Corolla, to be assembled when the temperature gets warmer outside. Hope to hear from him again about it.
Marcus also found some 15" alloys wheel to be mounted later on. Looks nice. Dont know the name on these?
Marcus also have an starlet EP70 as he´s doing as a long term project. Expected to be completed for car inspection survey in 2018, when it also becomes tax-exempt.
Thanks Marcus for information and your pictures! Keep us updated.
I choose the cheap Biltema windscreen wipers. The had some good testresult and the durability got the highest points, so lets try them.
Biltema wipers.. Replace all three of them, diffrent lenght on all of them, smallest in the back. See size on picture.
Old ones that got replaced. Tossed them.
Works like a charm so far. Will update if they dont last..
-------- From another site ----------
Driver Blade: 1 x 20" / 500mm Metal Frame Spolier Blade
Passenger Blade: 1 x 17" / 450mm Metal Frame Single Blade
Rear Blade: 1 x 16" / 400mm Metal Frame Single Blade
---------------- -------------
Remove old Wipers
In my case to get the old ones of: pushing on "tabs" does not work (even though you might think so), you have to use a flat screwdriver and relase the front flaps holding the plastic clip in place. Need to do on both sides (pull the holders out) and then can pull the plastic clip backwards.. It was hard figure out.
Yes that´s what I did. Since my battery was really bad it is time to replace it. Since I already have a pretty fresh leisure battery I decided to test if that would work!
I can tell you, When I was at the yearly car inspection (mandatory here in Sweden), the car didnt even start after the inspector had fibble with the lights (when the engine was off). A bit humiliating it was..
Ok, so this is what I did:
OLD Biltema 44Ah was worn out.. Not the best stuff.
Removed it from the car
Bredd [mm]: 175
Höjd [mm]: 190
Längd [mm]: 207
Changing to this one:
Tudor dual TR350
Marine & Multifit by Exide
350Wh
80 Ah
Coldstart up to 510A
Height: 220 mm
Lenght: 260 mm
Width: 175 mm
Car battery gone! Now it´s emty were the battery use to be. I have connected some bigger cables to the "poles". The red and brown ones.
I´ve wired the cables through the "torpedo wall" into the inside of the car. Will do a better job with stripes and taping the cables better to get rid of electronic and magnetics fields. Also do it more secure.
Here the new battery is conneted, trying it out. Works like a charm
As a fuse, I use a 3-pole 50 ampere automatic fuse and use all tree of the connection so that about 150 ampere can run trouch when starting the car without the fuse going.
Put the battery inside the car temporary to try it out. Will eventually move it to the back carrige room if it seems to work out ok. Now I have almost double the battery power in the Starlet! Yes!
It´s a djungle out there, and I dont have much knowledge, but I´ll try to pick anyway..
Biltema motor oil or Swedol? Which one should you choose? This seems to be the most oil for the buck here in Sweden? Any opinios? I know this subject has lots of opinions.. :-)
In Swedish: Biltema oljor vs Swedol motorolja..
Big size picture: Comparing semi synthetic vs fully synthetic, not much diffrence ackording to the certification?
Price can be seen.
Front of Biltema motor oil.
These oil are sold by Swedol, a few crones cheaper, but are the better or worse than Biltema? Who knows?
Swedel semi synthetic oil.
The Swedol comes from Q8 oils. Cant be to bad right?
Swedol supergrade oil, only 130 swedish crones. It you anint got hot engine this might work for you.
One of the test standards Petroliuminstitut test and approve are the API (American Petrol Institute) and it starts with "S". The "higher" the second letter, the better the oil. Today's well "SN" the highest. "SJ" is slightly worse. "SH" yet meet lower requirements, etc.
So let us compare Swedol with Biltema.
Swedol Helsyntet SAE 5W-40 (225 SEK) : API SL/CF, ACEA A3/B3, CCMC G5, PD2. 4 liter.
Biltema: Helsyntetisk motorolja 5W–40 (279 SEK)
API SN/CF, ACEA A3/B3/B4, MB 229.3/229.5, BMW LL-01, VW 502.00/505.00, Porsche A40, RN 0700/0710, MB 226.5, GM-LL-025-B.
Biltema is the better choice according to that norm.
What have I´ve been doing to the Starlet lately?
Well... I noticed that there were some rust forming on the right door. Me no like. Decided to do someting about it. Clean it (sand-paper), and then use Primer and then zinc color and after that white and some clear coating. Will see if it keept the rust away or if it comes back.
Here the primer and the zinc color is applied. Have to wait a day or so before applying the original white color and last clear coating. Used an earpad to apply the color, not a brush.
I did not change the tensioner pulley and the idle-pulley, the condition were fine. Felt perfect in their bearings and the car has only done 76090 km, so I only changed the belt. If the bearing is going bad you will here them also. Hey this is Toyota quality, they will last atlest double the miles before they need replacement.
Part 1
Part 2
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[EDIT 2019-01-22]
Always glad when I get some emails from people pleased with the videos and that it helped them out.
----------- Mail -------------
Johnny from Australia
"I'm writing to you from Australia after watching your videos and reading your steps for changing the timing belt on a Toyota starlet 1997. Same car as me!
Thanks to you, I successfully replaced the belt, tensioner, idler (and water pump while I was in there...)
It was really helpful to watch how you did it. Thanks so much!"
"I've attached more of the water pump and tensioner/idler if you want to post those too. I only drive the car maybe 200km in a whole week, but so far I have had it for 12 years and only changed the oil regularly. I did have to replace the CV joints once (both) as they were leaky, but that's it! Great car."
Here's some photos.
--------------- Thank you Johnny for your supportive email and pictures! :-) -----------
Last week I ordered a new Cambelt for the Starlet. I decided to go for the Gates Powergrip. I´ve google some on it and not found any negative and Gates is very common. The belt looks good
This is the original Toyota Starlet 4E-FE cam belt. It didn´t look old, it felt pretty fresh. I guess it would have lasted a bit longer. However 18 years old, it was time to replace!
This is the new Gates Powergrip belt, that I bought from skruvat.se, cost med 280 SEK plus shipping 29 SEK. about 36 USD.
The Gates model is 5358XS for the 4E-FE, Toyota Corolla, Starlet 1,3, Corsa, Tercel 1.3, Cynos 1.3
Disclaimer! This is not recommended for beginners! Don´t do it if you don´t have the knowledge, OK?! DON'T BLAIM ME if you fail. Doing it wrong can damage your engine.. In this post I just tell you what I did OK?
Enough of disclaimer, everyone has to take their own responsible for their life and the choices they do..
Ok, lets get started!
First! Jack up the car, Remove front right wheel.
Then remove splashguard under the car, the right one, 4 bolts on my car and clip holding it together with the left splash guard.
I suggest you start with the crankshaft pulley, if you can get that one off is the main question. This how I did it.
Remove the 19 mm crank pulley bolt.
If you are mad enough to try the startengine method....
Remove the 15A EFI fuse before cranking, I missed this so the engine started. But fortunatly I stopped it before anything bad happend...Phew. Dont miss this.. Be careful and dont do it if you dont know how. Se pictures down below for how I did it.
Alternator Belt / Drive belt.
Loosen Pivot bolt and then loosen adjusting bolt and move the alternator so you can slide /get the alternator/ drive belt of.
Date of the job, 2015-07-20, 76069 km, and 18 year old car, time to change the belt. Every 6 year or 90000 km whichever comes first.
After removing the wheel and splash-guard: First thing, loosen this 19 mm bolt. My first approach was too try to hold the crankshaft pulley with M8 screws and a bar, but had a hard time drilling trough the bar.. so...
I decided to go with the start-engine and turn the ignition key a short moment method. It felt like high risk but I did try it and was successful. I put the socket wrench against the frame, as you can see in the picture.
Next I loosen the Alternator Pivot bolt and the adjuster bolt so I could remove the drivebelt.
Got the crankshaft pulley of easy, thanks for that! It wasn´t stuck. YES! This was the biggest challenge to get of, and it went like a breeze.
4E-FE engine. Here you have the crankshaft pulley and drivebelt removed. Time to remove the two plastic cover.
Here I have removed the upper cover. 4 screw of 10 mm bolts if I remember correctly.
The lower cover had 3 bolts, 10 mm socket wrench. Here it just coming of.
Toyota Starlet, 4efe: Now the cambelt is fully visible.
Checking out the alignment of the original belt.
View, from the bottom of the engine. Crankshaft teeth at the lowest point.
Tried to but the crankshaft pulley back so I could rotate the engine, clockwise. But was to heave, had to put the wheel back on and put the gear in 4th gear, then It was pretty easy to turn the engine around by hand.
Tensioner pulley with spring, I put some marks here, thought it might be useful, but really wasn't. This one has to be moved. To get the cam belt of, the tensioner wheel has to be moved as far left as possible. The spring will be longer. And then tighten the bolt, (12 mm)
Clean everything that was dirty, here the Idle pulley.
Checking TDC, top dead center. on the cam. The 4E and the little hole must align. So must also the crankshaft teeth / cogwheel.
I decided to go for a Gates Powergrip cam belt.
Checking that the crankshaft mart is where it should be according to TDC. Last picture before changing the belt.
I got the belt of, bit by bit. And then check the tensioner bearing and idle pulley bearing. Felt good and solid. Don´t have to change them.
Here the new belt has been mounted. Took a while to get the new cam belt on, it was pretty tight even though I´ve moved the tensioner pulley. But finally got it on and then turn the camshaft cogwheel 2 whole turns and checked if the marks lined up as they should. When I was sure they were correctly installed I tried starting the engine and it the sound was OK. YES! I then re-assembled everything in reverse order.
Finally I put this little sticker that was in the Gates cardbord case. Noting the km and date so that next owner has a clue of the status of the cam belt. The least I could do..
