[pareekvirendra]

The parts for this car are extremely expensive. In my simple mind I had never imagined spare parts for a Toyota car could be so expensive.

My hid bulbs had blown out a while back and I had gone out to the showroom to get them changed thinking they might cost a couple of thousands at best. Imagine my surprise when the showroom guy quoted Rs. 14000! Per bulb! I still held hope and told him that I only need the bulbs changed not the headlight. He said that is the price of the bulb, the headlight costs Rs. 75000! You might have read books where the author says that suddenly time stopped, I never know how it could happen or how it happened, but that is exactly what happened with me on hearing the prices. All time stood still while I looked at him.

I looked for the bulbs in India on the outside, but couldn't find any, the Corolla uses D4r variant of hid bulbs. I eventually had to source them from Germany and they cost me Rs. 9000 in total.

Now I am looking for the steering rack and front brake discs for this car. Do you know that Bosch India manufactures the rear brake discs for this car but not the front ones? Crazy right? I called up the Bosch India factory and their representative told me this. I have been trying to locate the front brake discs for ages, but can't find them. There are good brands on boodmo, but they will take about two months to deliver. So now I am wondering what to do, eventually might have to go for Toyota discs, but they are expensive as well. Oh well, I guess they will be worth it.

[vigsom]

^^ I saw Philips D4R in Chennai at some 2700 bucks or so when I was looking for D2R for a Teana.

There was an unnamed make in D4R also available for 1000 bucks.

Anyways, 2 bulbs for 9000 bucks from Germany isn't too bad.

In 2010, the HID bulb for an Altis would cost 10,000 bucks. The ORVMs are also pricey. In India, Toyota has positioned the Corolla and the Altis as "premium" offerings, and hence this big deal around pricing of parts.

On the steering rack, what issue are you facing? I wouldn't expect the rack to go bad on a Toyota (unless they've dipped in quality).

On the discs, just get them skimmed if they have decent thickness. There is no need to replace the discs unless they've been skimmed, say, thrice.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by pareekvirendra

The parts for this car are extremely expensive. In my simple mind I had never imagined spare parts for a Toyota car could be so expensive.

My hid bulbs had blown out a while back and I had gone out to the showroom to get them changed thinking they might cost a couple of thousands at best. Imagine my surprise when the showroom guy quoted Rs. 14000! Per bulb! I still held hope and told him that I only need the bulbs changed not the headlight. He said that is the price of the bulb, the headlight costs Rs. 75000! You might have read books where the author says that suddenly time stopped, I never know how it could happen or how it happened, but that is exactly what happened with me on hearing the prices. All time stood still while I looked at him.

It's not just the Corolla/Altis but all Toyotas. Accident repairs are very expensive so while the car will save you money on routine maintance even a small accident will set you back quite a bit. Make sure you get comprehensive insurance even if some plastic and rubber parts are reimbursed at 50% of cost. This headlamp was about Rs 65K on Boodmo slightly lower but still very expensive. The current price is 20K but I am not sure if it is the right part # because there cant be such a big difference between Boodmo and TKM list prices. The D2R bulbs are about 3-4K a piece and some BHPians bought them from overseas.

Now I am looking for the steering rack and front brake discs for this car. Do you know that Bosch India manufactures the rear brake discs for this car but not the front ones? Crazy right? I called up the Bosch India factory and their representative told me this. I have been trying to locate the front brake discs for ages, but can't find them. There are good brands on boodmo, but they will take about two months to deliver. So now I am wondering what to do, eventually might have to go for Toyota discs, but they are expensive as well. Oh well, I guess they will be worth it.

Go to Genuineparts and you can buy both front and rear brake discs from them. I got the discs for my car in 2018 and this online dealer was very reliable and cooperative. The rear discs are made by Bosch and front are made by KBX. These 2 companies are OEM suppliers to TKM.

As for the steering assembly well, be prepared for another shock, it's about 30K on Boodmo and will certainly cost more at a dealership.

PS - my DIY brake disc and pad replacements

[pareekvirendra]

When i was looking for bulbs i too found an unnamed brand here in Aurangabad for Rs. 2500 per bulb, but wasn't sure it would last long and Philips weren't available here, so I went for Osram bulbs from Germany.

I will get the discs skimmed now as you suggested, though I am not sure if they have been skimmed before.

As for the steering rack, the car used to make rattling noises when it went over bad roads, like metal clanging on each other. For now I have had it fixed, but the garage guy said this fix would last about a year or so considering the poor roads here, so I need a permanent solution. I can't even find who makes the steering rack, or else I could have it sourced directly from them at a fraction of the price quoted. As of now the car is silent on all roads, buts I am afraid the silence won't last.

There is something I have been meaning to ask you, if you don't mind. My car still has the stock head unit. Infact, it has stock everything. But since the head unit doesn't have bluetooth or USB connectivity, I find it somewhat lacking. I do have the stock head unit from Honda Amaze from last year that my father bought and had the head unit replaced for that car. Do you think it would be a good idea to replace the car's stock head unit with the Honda amaze one? Is there any possibility that the steering controls will work with the Honda amaze head unit? It is the non touchscreen version. It really breaks my heart to slap this on the dash, which is why i have had it for more than a year and still not made the change.

[vasanthjn]

Originally Posted by pareekvirendra

When i was looking for bulbs i too found an unnamed brand here in Aurangabad for Rs. 2500 per bulb, but wasn't sure it would last long and Philips weren't available here, so I went for Osram bulbs from Germany.

Hi Virendra,
I drive a 2011 Altis VL AT. It has clocked around 120xxx.

I replaced both of the bulbs with LED bulbs sourced from Aliexpress around May 2019. Have driven around 15k KM post the replacement and have driven extensively in highways and the throw of the lights in Low and High Beam is excellent. I think the make was Zdatt and I paid around $35.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by pareekvirendra

the car used to make rattling noises when it went over bad roads, like metal clanging on each other.

The next time you hear this noise on rough roads, just press the brake pedal slightly and see if the noise disappears. If it does, you just need to work to get a set of bushes in your calipers OR change the two rubber sleeved caliper pins to new ones.

[pareekvirendra]

Originally Posted by vigsom

The next time you hear this noise on rough roads, just press the brake pedal slightly and see if the noise disappears. If it does, you just need to work to get a set of bushes in your calipers OR change the two rubber sleeved caliper pins to new ones.

I did try it and changed the caliper mountings as well as the caliper pins. But this was actually some sort of play in the steering rack. The showroom people took me under my car and another Altis and showed me what was the play and what was making noise.i simply got the rack repaired and she doesn't make any rattling noise in any road as of now.

I can see that you have a vast experience in maintaining cars in general and Corollas in particular, so would solicit your advice on something that has been bugging me for over a year. Will it be sensible to replace this car's head unit with the one found in Honda Amaze from 2019? I have a brand new non touch screen version, but it's been gathering dust as I do not want to touch the stock beautiful interiors, plus I am not sure it would work with the steering controls, which I am rather fond of using. However, I do miss the USB connectivity and Bluetooth in the existing head unit. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by pareekvirendra

Will it be sensible to replace this car's head unit with the one found in Honda Amaze from 2019? I have a brand new non touch screen version

I would not recommend disturbing the stock set up unless you are absolutely sure of trying the new unit out.

1. I assume you are referring to this Head Unit in the Amaze. If yes, please check if this unit has the dimenions (L x B) of any aftermarket Double Din unit.

Non - Touchscreen Head Unit 2019 Amaze


2. If yes, it should be possible to fit this into the Altis, but you will need a fill panel and the wiring harnesses of the Toyota as shown; female harness of the Toyota and male of the Honda.

Toyota Altis stereo fill panel


Toyota Stereo Harness that plugs into your Altis stereo wiring coupler


Honda Stereo Harness that plugs into your stereo


3. Have you tried out some currently available bluetooth to aux adapters? Then you won't need to do all this jugaad.

If you are sure of going ahead with the swap, please re-confirm if the Honda coupler I have shown matches your Amaze head Unit wiring pins

[pareekvirendra]

Originally Posted by vigsom

3. Have you tried out some currently available bluetooth to aux adapters? Then you won't need to do all this jugaad.

If you are sure of going ahead with the swap, please re-confirm if the Honda coupler I have shown matches your Amaze head Unit wiring pins

I did look into several of the available Bluetooth to aux adaptors, but somehow none of them appealed to me. I liked the MI one in particular, but since they need to be charged whereas the one in a head unit doesn't, I couldn't bring myself to get those.

I also saw those bluetooth fm thingies, which you plug into the charging socket and it transmits to the car's FM receiver, but they had very poor reviews for the sound quality.

You are correct, i have the head unit you have shown and I have had the honda head unit for over a year and still couldn't bring myself to make the swap, and I guess now I won't even try, I like the original toyota look far too much to change it.

There is something else that I have been considering, although I don't know how to go about it. My car is the variant G, however the variant above mine had the head unit that had bluetooth and USB access, plus it's a toyota, so it will look stock, fix into the space available and work with the steering controls (something like the image attached here). I tried looking for this unit with old scrap car.dealers, but was told that this car doesn't get scrapped very often, so won't likely find it there. Would you happen to know who manufactures that head unit for Toyota Altis? Maybe I could try sourcing it from itr original manufacturer. That would solve all my issues with the head unit. My current head unit if from Fujitsu I think. If I try to source it from the manufacturer or other supplier I won't have to pay the bomb that Toyota would charge for it, if they sold it, not sure that they do.

[sumeethaldankar]

Originally Posted by pareekvirendra

The parts for this car are extremely expensive. In my simple mind I had never imagined spare parts for a Toyota car could be so expensive.

I was checking prices on spareshub.com, compared to what you were quoted they seem ok. I have just randomly selected Corolla so not sure if the model is the same as yours. Also 14k is for the assembly it seems.


https://spareshub.com/catalogsearch/...olla+headlight

[nirmaljusdoit]

Originally Posted by pareekvirendra

I looked for the bulbs in India on the outside, but couldn't find any, the Corolla uses D4r variant of hid bulbs. I eventually had to source them from Germany and they cost me Rs. 9000 in total.

Now I am looking for the steering rack and front brake discs for this car.

The rate looks OK for the HID bulbs but there are sources to get these bulbs in India as well.

What is the issue you are facing with the steering rack ? how has it been diagnosed ?

Are your brake discs having a step in them ? Facing discs requires a very specific set of steps in the process to get uniform material removal and i would not suggest that you do this in the aftermarket as its very difficult to ensure.

A lot of brake facing cases end up experiencing high speed brake shudder.

Usually Toyota discs last a very long time !

[pareekvirendra]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

I was checking prices on spareshub.com, compared to what you were quoted they seem ok. I have just randomly selected Corolla so not sure if the model is the same as yours. Also 14k is for the assembly it seems.

I thought Rs. 14000 was for the assembly as well, but i was assured that it was just for the D4r hid bulbs. Toyota uses harisons hid bulbs for the altis I think.

Originally Posted by nirmaljusdoit

The rate looks OK for the HID bulbs but there are sources to get these bulbs in India as well.

What is the issue you are facing with the steering rack ? how has it been diagnosed ?

Are your brake discs having a step in them ? Facing discs requires a very specific set of steps in the process to get uniform material removal and i would not suggest that you do this in the aftermarket as its very difficult to ensure.

A lot of brake facing cases end up experiencing high speed brake shudder.

Usually Toyota discs last a very long time !

I tried to get those bulbs in India, but couldn't get either Philips or Osram brand here and I didn't want to trust another brand that I didn't know at that time, hence I sourced them from Germany.

As for my issue with the steering rack, there used to be a rattling noise when the car passed over rough roads. I had tried pressing the break pedal over such roads as vigsom HS suggested, but the noise still came. It was like metal clanging on metal. The showroom lifted my car and showed me the steering rack that was moving and said it wasn't supposed to do that. They called it okay and showed me another Altis that didn't have the so called play. However they suggested replacing the boots for now, which is what I did and the car is absolutely silent now on every type of road.

My discs have developed what they call a collar and said have reached the minimum thickness required. It's as if a circle around the edges which is not touched by the pads. I do agree they last a long time, with mine having done 130000 kilometres. Now i have two options, i could either get them skimmed, which means getting the collar removed I think, or go for new discs. For new discs I will have to go for after market suppliers because the Toyota discs cost Rs. 11000 for a pair and i can get after market ones at less than half that. I can see brembo discs on boodmo, and was wondering if those would be the right size.

To go off topic, I wanted to share something. I have been reading team bhp for years, but could never muster up the courage to join, I am not sure why. But now that I did join, I am asking myself why I took so long. We have so many people here that all come forward to help that it is simply amazing. I do not have the words to thank you all for taking interest in my issues and helping me solve them. I simply don't know what I would have done without the guidance I receive here from the more experienced members.

[GTO]

R Balaji drops the following note for you

Feedback for vigsom

I have heard a lot about Team-BHP from some known people. Just read some content on your forum on a 2005 Corolla and relived my experience of using an Altis and travelling the same route. Man, vigsom's ability to capture such fine details is just out of the world. I do hope you encourage your members to continue to post such interesting and memorable content.

Regards

[fulcrum29]

I totally agree with the feelings of clean,pure love expressed by vigsome in his thread. I too am a proud owner of a 2003 H1 Toyota Corolla. The car was bought by my father in October 2003. Being from a defence family spending 10 L on a car was a big thing for us at that time. Our old faithful Uno was beginning to show signs of trouble and a new car was bound to come home. We considered the Corolla and the Chevy Optra. For the money of the base model Corolla we were getting the top model Optra. Me and my brother were leaning towards the Optra because it had a sunroof and that's all we could care about. Thank God my father took my mother's advice and went for the Corolla. At that time the car had a few features that I had never seen before ( even though it was the base model). It had 2 airbags, front armrest, a huge cavernous boot in which both me and my brother could fit in comfort and boy was it fast. Fast forward to 2018 and the car had served us in Delhi, Mhow, Wellington ( the Indian one ) , Pune, Trivandrum, Bangalore and back to Delhi. Numerous Highway trips undertaken in this car have made it an unforgettable part of my childhood memories. Even though it only has 70k on the odo as we always had a small city run about along with it, it could no longer do duty in its home state. It was replaced by a Jeep Compass in my father's garage, the registration was transferred to KA and the ownership transferred to me, the car began its second phase of life. Even though I loved the car, i wanted to spruce up the exterior of my silver coloured family Sedan. After a thorough visual makeover and after giving it a new, deep,bassy voice the car starting turning heads all over again. In my 2 years of ownership the car has remained trouble free ( touch wood). The chiller AC, comfortable cabin, excellent slow speed driveability, the bullet proof reliability and the new looks and exhaust have kept me more than happy. So whats next for the good ole 'rolla- air suspension?? Forced induction?? Only time will tell
P.S.- Last photo taken today, getting is weekly wash.

[sanyog26]

Such a detailed review mentioning such minute details of ownership. Time well spent reading your review @visgom sir.

I can somehow relate to your 2 Corolla's ownership as my family too owns a used Toyota Corolla May 2004 MT. We brought her home on 24/05/2007 almost 3 years old. Fortunately, it's still with us. Although the fitness expired (15 years) last May (2019), however, I'm still retaining it. Have a lot of memories with this car and can't think of parting with it. Tried to obtain a NOC from Delhi RTO last year, but was unsuccessful in this attempt. Post completion of 15 years, drove it in Agra (UP) for almost 1.5 years during my posting there. Although, now that I have been transferred back to Delhi, I'm a bit confused as to how to keep it running. Although, I haven't faced any mechanical issue with it ever since we brought her home 13.5 years ago, but yes, there are signs of rust on some outer body parts, which is a matter of concern. As a preventive measure, have parked it in a closed parking area and I make it to drive it atleast once in 2 weeks to keep the engine in top shape.

Few pics of my steed..