OK so, in response to that grim english grey day picture a few posts up - how am I doing? Had to take an emergency picture for something coming up later this week.
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Well, itās been a (relatively) eventful week in the world of the Corolla.
I won an old magazine on eBay - CAR Magazine from September 1997, as it included a big 12 page group test between the Corolla G6, Peugeot 306 1.4 LX and Fiat Bravo 1.4 SX.
Again, you can see Iām maximum sad, as Iāve mentioned before mine looks like the press/launch spec cars. It got a pretty glowing review which was surprising as Corollas were usually slagged off by the British press, especially surprising that they claimed it was the best to drive. It lost out narrowly to the Fiat due to less cabin space and ācheaperā materials, but I dispute that last one as these survive a hell of a lot better than the Bravo has managed to. 
From my extensive (and believe me it is) searching, this is the only time a Corolla G6 has ever been featured in a motoring magazine in the UK at least. The only time until this week that is.
This is this quarterās Retro Japanese magazine. Itās only been in print for just over a year now, and caters to the more standard end of Japanese cars, their history etc. rather than Banzai style modifications, so I quite like it.
As itās out for 3 months per issue, you have to be quick to get your copy when itās released as they disappear quickly. I stopped off at a little petrol station near the office on the way home the other night and had a quick read in the car park, coming across something very familar looking on page 90:
Some Corollaception for you there, that is indeed my Corolla in my Corolla with a nice little write up I did, felt relatively proud reading it back. Iāve purposely made it tiny as I donāt want to get wrong for posting up a magazine thatās currently on sale. There are some great people behind it and itās a good read, I really recommend it to anyone thatās got an interest in weird japanese stuff. Itās on Pocketmags if you want to grab it digitally and read about some cool cars and then my Corolla guff. (No Iām not on commission, honest).
After itās 5 minutes of fame, I decided to take it to āRetro Toyota Dayā today, hosted by a Toyota dealer about 80 miles away from me. They let anything go so I couldnāt decide between this or the GT86, but decided to stick as close to Retro as I could. Spent a few hours yesterday doing my best restoring the faded pink bumpers and mirrors, coating the black trim to stay shiny, and polishing up the rest. I think I did relatively well, if I do say so myself.
I think there is a vote coming this week for best original Toyota at the event, so Iāll be spamming the link as soon as itās up. I do think the winner will be the absolutely lovely unmodified Celica GT4 that was there though. Iāve stuck the rest of the pictures up in a Flickr album, it was only small but there was some great stuff there.
Also getting closer to a little milestone, clocked over 99k on the way back home. The 1 is just starting to creep round.
It did the 160 miles or so no problems, A/C blasting as we actually had some sun and heat today. I filled it up on the way there and then when I got back home as I was interested to see what the MPG would be like on a longer run. The road up to where that Toyota dealer was is very hilly and mostly single carriageways with odd passing places, so not ideal but a good test anyway.
Imagine then how happy I was when I whacked the receipt into aCar and got this back:
Considering Toyotaās official figures for this were 31MPG city, 46.3 motorway and 40.4 combined, I was well impressed.
Now, onto 100k! Alloy wheel refurb is looking a tempting next step.
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Guys, can you do me a favour please?
If this link works and loads a photo of my Corolla with a few likes on it on Facebook, can you like it please?
If it doesnāt, this links to the full album, my car is about halfway through.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1400141390081930.1073741844.433420750087337&type=3
Iām in for the āBest Original Toyotaā category and I want to put in a respectable performance at least. 
Thanks guys.
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there i gave it a like
now what are your plans for the car. will you make it more excited like rims, or exhast, coilovers perhaps or maybe turbo it?
The rims will be sorted out but Iāll be sticking with the ones it has I think. 16"s from a later T Sport look tempting if I decided to change. Coilovers not really on my radar, I use this everyday so the fact it rides well and still handles well is a nice bonus. Besides, as in the magazine above, saying it handles like an old Peugeot is high praise indeed.
Turbo on the other handā¦ In a couple of years Iād think about it. The engine can happily take a relatively low pressure turbo and still stick out decent power figures, itās beginning to be done with great success as 4E-FTEs become more and more difficult to find.
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For some reason they seem to have changed the album so now all the likes have been reset, which is a bugger as I seemed to be leading.
If anyone isnāt sick of me yet, can you give this new photo (same one) a like please: New Corolla Photo
Thanks muchly.
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Hahaha itās good to have a bit of community support. Looks like youāre kind of killing it at the moment
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āBest Orginialā Nice!
Now you need to preserve it in a capsule.
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Yeah, and then bring it out in 10 years time covered in dust and straw for Ā£10000 calling it a rare barn find. 
It hasnāt won yet, they havenāt said when voting closes. But no, it wonāt be getting locked away this one, I like it too much.
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Itās nice to see a car that not even 10 years ago would have been a very common sight on the road be looked after and enjoyed, you really learn to appreciate cars like this when you stop seeing them on a daily basis 
You just defined every civic made from 1990-1999
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You could extend that to all 90s cars here at least, where Civics and Corollas werenāt as popular. Stuff that was seriously everywhere like Corsa Bs, Mk1 Puntos, Escorts etc are all but gone now (relatively).
The G6 was never particularly popular owing to the fact it was seriously expensive new (the equivalent of a new GT86 in todayās money). Probably goes some way to explaining why this one was sat for a year after being built before it was registered. There are only about 250 left as far as I know.
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oh mate, Civics and Corollas of all ages are still everywhere on Australian roads. Anything from EG onwards is pretty common, though I must admit, anything before then is now quite rareā¦
Right, so itās about run in.
Seems to have proved itself. Itās got into the weird habit of slowly loosening itās own rocker cover nuts currently, so I keep getting a little oil leak. I need to clean it up and stick a bit thread lock on really. Itās just craving attention.
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Aww itās just a baby Toyota!
No pictures of this today but I decided to try and clean up that rocker cover gasket. Found out why they were going loose.
To explain a little, the parts guy at Toyota reckoned they wouldnāt sell me just the rocker cover gasket kit unless I paid over Ā£300 for a full engine gasket kit. Some of the aftermarket stuff seemed to get a decent rep, so I bought a BGA kit for just over a tenner. Mistake.
These little washers sit over the threads on the cover under the nuts that tighten it down.
Theyāre like a flat metal disc with a slightly chamfered rubber washer attached underneath, they sort of squeeze into a little ridge round the studs and put pressure on the cover. Well, after a couple of thousand miles and a couple of months, they had already turned to plastic mush, had started to work their way inside the cover and detached completely from the metal washer part. Totally useless, even the gasket itself is starting to harden. I didnāt notice this until I took the cover off and they came away, so for now Iāve got it bodged up with some O-Rings in place of the rubber parts of the washers until I can hopefully try and find someone selling the Toyota gasket kit.
On the plus side, it didnāt seem to leak immediately with the O Rings. If these hold and donāt make it loosen up, it might become a semi permanent temporary fix.
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Is there another Toyota dealer nearby? It shouldnāt be so difficult to get proper rocker cover gasket parts! 
Seemingly not! Iāve found somewhere thatās selling just the gasket alone, but I need to check with them if they can get the little washer bits as well as that seems to be most of the problem.
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Well itās been a rough couple of weeks for this poor old bugger.
Have you considered going into a career as a psychic, @nialloftara?
Someone drove into the back of it when I was stopped waiting at a roundabout just as I was on my way to work. I was gutted, but I had the car checked out and the damage is pretty much cosmetic, and I managed to get most of it straightened out. They sure as hell donāt paint em like they used to, didnāt even mark through the paint.
Again, something attempts to kill the Corolla and it keeps going.
The oil leak is still getting progressively worse, those Aldi O-Rings have sort of worked but it is desperate to be fixed now. I was at a Toyota event earlier today and spoke to a guy there whoās been a technician for years (and also had a mean Starlet Iāll post elsewhere). Heās told me the way he usually fits the gaskets, where to get a genuine Toyota one and strategic use of some sealant, so fingers crossed I get it sorted soon as itās making a bloody mess everywhere. 
Also, have a picture of how itās standing today with my new camera. Absolutely desperate for a wash, thick of dust and some kind birds hanging out in the trees above it had papped on the bonnet.
Itās not doing too bad I donāt think.
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Had a fair few bits done on this over the last few weeks, just general tidying of things, and an added pointless annoyance.
The temporary Aldi O rings were showing their temporariness (is that a word?) and oil leak levels were at maximum annoying levels now, so I finally managed to get a proper Toyota gasket and washer set to replace the crappy aftermarket one Iād fitted. I asked my mechanic to give it a quick look over and while most of it was coming from the rocker cover, he pointed out that when the car had a replacement sump at some point in the past, theyād used the wrong sealant which was starting to go like mush and break apart round the oil pump housing. I left it to him to seal everything back up and clean the now massive oil mess round the engine bay (it was getting down the side of the block from the rocker cover to the crank pulley so going all over the shop).
Quite happy that I had no leak anymore, I set off home. However, about halfway, I pulled out to let someone join off a sliproad, and on the overrun pulling back in I had a sudden bad noise when the engine was revved. Iāve got a clip here of me slowing up fearing something had gone very wrong. Not sure how well itāll be picked up on the dashcam.
I did actually think Iād killed something this time, fortunately the road went downhill from here and I pulled off into the next village. I was partly relieved and annoyed at the same time.
Not the clearest picture but the outer strands of alternator/water pump belt had shredded for want of a better word. Bits of rubber and wire all over that side of the engine bay, the noise was fortunately just the pieces still attached flapping themselves around. Luck was on my side and it hadnāt snapped entirely, so a quick tidy with a pair of scissors and I drove home on the 2 ribs that were left.
Fortunately for me the local motor factors in my town had both aux belts in stock for it so I managed to get them swapped quite quickly, really easy to get to on this thing.
The pile of shredded bits in the centre were what I scraped out of the outer aux belt, it had all wedged itself in there when the inner one shredded.
Kinda weird, never really seen one go like it before. It was a Continental belt, fitted and tensioned properly, even the two ribs that were left still had the correct tension on. It was only fitted back when the head gasket was done in November or whenever it was, very strange.
Anyway, this event inspired me to stop playing timing belt roulette and get that done too. It was only done 40k ago, but that was also 10 years ago, so on a 6 year change interval I thought it best to be safe despite this being a non-interference engine. This also gave me the perfect excuse to renew the front crank oil seal, as at this point it was the only oil seal I hadnāt changed, and was only 5 quid extra to do when the belt was done.
Thatās all major consumables done in my ownership for a while now anyway, belts, brakes, clutch, oil seals, plugs etc, maybe Iāll eventually get round to getting those wheels refurbed now. 
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