Thanks! Yea the grey car is getting pretty close to being “done” as far as a daily goes. I’d really like to get some very slight lowering springs and an exhaust on it and there’s a few smaller projects: non stop tuning underdrive pulleys (ive had a set of purple ones for like a year and I don’t want to put them on the black car because purple isn’t it’s color. Cars are stupid… or maybe it’s just me) a scion xD alternator that puts out more amps, and a nst upgraded water pump and it will be ‘done’.
Longer term, more and more guys are doing 1zr full blown 100% bolt on scion XD engine swaps and that sounds amazing, and I keep hoping I’ll come across a beat up but mechanically sound XD, or the front half of one from a junk yard. There was a post on /r/Yaris about a guy who did the swap and it’s apparently stupidly easy.
the body and engine bay is willing but the wallet is spongy and bruised
As for the black car, 1zz throttle bodies, and the joys of modern drive-by-wire systems, apparently even the 2az Camry/Scion TC throttle bodies will bolt up and plug right into the stock Yaris intake manifold, but you physically have to add material to the throat of the manifold to bore the intake out to the diameter of the 2AZ TB but even without porting it’s a net positive of volume of air over stock. Across the same generation of Toyota engines all the throttle bodies have the same spacing for the bolts and same connectors. The only thing that’s really different about them is the inside diameter of the TB and angle of the coolant hookups that go through the TB but I bypassed those lines and will probably cut the hard lines off my 1zz TB. The general consensus online is running the 1zz TB with the stock 1zz electronics introduces a slight lag in the response between when the gas pedal is pushed and the throttle plate opens, and ain’t nobody got time for that, so I swapped it.
I’m really itching to get this car done and on the street and seeing the difference between the stock ATX 1nz in the grey car and the modified one in the black car with the 5 speed. With all these 50 degree days we’ve been having, a garage heater and a few extra layers of clothes I might be able to have it out by spring…
Complete suspension rebuild.
Struts (Bilstein B4’s)
Springs (Tein Luxury Masters .5" drop)
Lower control arms (superpros with urethane bushings)
Hard race reinforced upper suspension mounts and front sway bar end links
All new motor mounts and inner and outer tie rod ends
Front and rear brakes (fronts stolen from the black yaris )
Had to roll my rear fenders a bit, so now I own a whole ass fender roller (and a heat gun) because rear tires were scrubbing.
also I noticed a hanger on my stock exhaust had rusted off. Initially I ordered an autozone ‘guaranteed fit’ oem-ish flowmaster and the muffler did not fit at all. Seeing as it had no exhaust, and I had 2 cars with interchangeable parts I put the Revel Medallion exhaust on I had for the black car on it and its loud at full acceleration but at idle/low rpm it’s almost silent.
And at this point … It seemed silly not to put an intake on it. Right? Perfectly sound logic. So I picked up a k&n typhoon short ram off eBay for slightly less than retail. Honestly these kits are pretty nice and came with new hardware for everything, instructions, brackets for sensors that were attached to the stock air tube etc.
Also I noticed the k&n intake tube is the same diameter as the Corolla throttle body. So if I ever wanted to upgrade the TB I didn’t waste slightly less than retail on a whole ass intake.
Externally, I added a JDM Toyota vitz front emblem, window visors and a Yaris SE spoiler
The suspension took months to do. I started before mother’s Day and was done with everything like two weeks ago. It’s a totally different car. I feel like I wasted a summers worth of opportunity to work on the black yaris which currently has no brakes and no shiny new exhaust. Last summer was also a wash because 4th of July weekend last year my appendix almost burst and I wasn’t able to wiggle under a car on jackstands with three fresh (although small) abdominal wounds. Hopefully soon. I might order a set of yaris SE front rotors (20mm larger big brake upgrade!) and Corolla calipers. Sorry for the lack of updates, life and stuff gets in the way sometimes
Bit of a quick update. AliExpress is an interesting place. I stopped going on Amazon, and need to delete AliExpress off my phone because I find myself on there a lot. Because these cars are so popular in Asia and Europe there’s a ton of parts that are just readily available if you search for vitz instead of yaris. We’re talking interior stuff by the way, I’m definitely going with legit parts for everything that actually matters.
The steering wheel in the daily was looking real sad. There was no texture where I usually grab the wheel when driving and the head unit worked essentially as a Bluetooth speaker which was functional for music and at least audio directions because the display was two lines of old school lcd text.
So, eBay leather steering wheel wrap kit (which my fiance graciously stitched for me) , alliexpress black steering wheel controls, and logo overlay attached with enough super glue that it hopefully won’t become a projectile should things ever go boom. Also they had Android head units made to look like the 2014+ units, had to spray paint the stereo bezel black which looks… Ok lol.
The wheel took a weekend, threw the head unit in after work this afternoon. Overall it looks great, the traction control light came on after I put the steering wheel controls in, which might be a weird canbus thing. Might have to invest in a real scanner…
Also I realized I didn’t post this here but I totally did this same thing to the black mk2 over the winter. Dude on the Yaris discord who I bought a throttle body adapter from then randomly started talking to on the regular posted links to swap all the silver plastic out of the interior on aliexpress for about $60usd Originally I got a full touch screen double din stereo for the mk3 (also off there) but it didn’t look right in the car. So I installed it in the mk2 instead
The steering wheel and HU in the first set do a lot to modernize the space. It feels sharper, more modern-er, and definitely sportier. I’m getting strong Celica GT-S vibes, and bet this platform is closer to those vibes. I mean, I could see this as being a 2022-23 model.
And you had me double-taking back and forth between Mk2 and Mk3. Those vertical knobs. Let’s just say I am not a fan. Lol. But the black surround–and that BAMF steering wheel–fricken’ work, man. The newer(?) model’s center stack feels more art-car. This one gives Evo RS vibes.
Kudos.
I cannot stress enough how much I love the slow/small-car-fast approach these days. Like, I’m even a little sad I don’t speak French because I really want to do the Twing Raid.
)
