VVT Actuator Corolla 1.8 2009 (Cold Start Rattle Sound)

[bilal_khpk]

Hi Everyone, So just bought a corolla with 61k Miles. Only problem that is annoying and bothering me is on cold start it rattles for 1 second and after that is good. According to my mechanic is not worth spending ton of Money on it since it will be a lot of labor and according to him its harmless and i can drive the car with no issues. His suggestion is to drive the car until the engine dies and swap engine since its gonna be much more cheaper to that. I am from US and labor is pretty high. So, wants a feedback what's your thoughts. Thank you.

[umair149]

@Xulfiqar bhai, kya US mein b tu "motta hail" ka virus tu ni phunch gya.

[bilal_khpk]

motta hai

??

[Xulfiqar]

Toyota corolla engines are not cheap like your mechanic is assuming,

A corolla 1.8 engine costs abt 1400 or more for a good one from a yard while a chevy 5.3 can be had for 600 or less.

If your car was being maintained at jiffy lube or somewhere similar this is bound to happen, The rattle can be fixed with a new vvt phaser unit but costs about 350 in parts and about 2 to 2.5 hours labour.

However, i have seen these engines run forever with this noise. When the phaser fails though, your engine will fail to work, the repair cost will be slightly higher,

i never advise to buy a used corolla in USA as they are owned by poor students or people who dont care or dont have money to maintain it, so they usually suffer from no oil change to driving them to death.

Camry is better choice than corolla in used market

Btw 61k miles on a 2009 corolla? Sounds fishy

[bilal_khpk]

Hey man Hope you doing good. well my mechanic said the engine needs to be taken out and its a lot of work to do. so, i am not sure what to do? well the car was maids car of rich family so its not being driven a lot. and i got it pretty cheap clean title, clean Carfax.

[Xulfiqar]

Your mechanic is doing drugs, the phaser replacement only requires camshaft removal which is done in place with very basic tools.

Sounds like you have scan tool part swap jockey mechanic. Find better ones.

Lol maids car of rich family, lol - sounds like she forgot a lot of maintenance as toyotas are considered maintenance free cars by some people. Only 1 out of 25 corollas are actually maintained, rest are used as mules.

Btw dont fully believe in carfax, have it inspected thoroughly, even big dealerships here sometimes dont report repairs that can devalue it, Ive seen hundreds till now

[bilal_khpk]

i guess he is on drugs, lets see if i could find someone competent i don't keep cars for very long and eventually i will sell it and i don't other person to curse me once they find the problem. Other than that the car is pretty good no issue other than that.