Well a very helpful local garage has saved me a couple of hundred quid. They put the Copen on the ramp and had a quick look over it. The disks and pads are fine, as are the rear brakes. They reckon the underbody looks good and they will do the fluid changes for £30-35 but I'll have to source the Castrol if I specifically want that brand, which I do as it's recommended. They didn't have the engine running or look at any codes but when I got home I found that the cooling fan isn't the source of the noise under the bonnet but I'm stumped what it might be. It's exactly the same sort of constant drone as an electric motor and I can hear it inside as well. i guess the only possible culprits are the alternator or water pump but there's no evidence of a leak and it sounds like the "smooth" noise of something running well rather than a grumbling noise of something not quite right. An ideas?
Ah, OK Its the same in germany that you lose insurance coverage, but only if your car did not pass the MOT Can you maybe record it on video, or have a look under the bonnet if the noise happens again? Im a bit stumped at the moment You can get the oil here: Castrol Syntrans Transaxle 75W-90 - Gear oil - Oils at 123engineoil.co.uk You will need 2,5 liters
It sounds like it's not a fault then, maybe get the bonnet open and stick your ear to various things might work to see what it is, though humming noises can be hard to locate. If you have a smart phone, an ODBII bluetooth diagnostic dongle is £5-10 off ebay and paired with a free app can check various engine settings that are mostly gibberish to me, plus see and clear any fault codes - I believe a garage charges £60 just to check a fault code!
I've just taken it out for a quick run. The noise isn't very evident at start up but once up to temperature it's audible. I've attached a couple of captures from the iPhone so it isn't hifi by any means. The first clip (1206) is just the noise in the background and the second (1207) is the fan kicking in for comparison. It could be the PAS pump so I turned the wheel a couple of times. Unfortunately it wasn't conclusive as the revs increased slightly and that would have affected the alternator and water pump equally. Looks like I can't upload MOV or MP4 files unfortunately.
I may as well change the PAS fluid. Helpfully, the manual states Dexron-III but doesn't give a quantity.
I guess it's possible that everything else is quiet and the PAS just happens to be the noisiest thing in the engine bay. On the other hand, the iPhone recording mainly picked up the tappets which sounded loud to the phone but prefectly normal to me. First world problems eh ? * Update. A bit of googleing points to PAS or throttle body. I'm leaning towards throttle body as PAS seems more prevalent at cold, the steering weight is fine and consistent, and the noise seem to be coming more from the battery side. Also, there have been a couple of times when the idle has faltered Hopefully, if it's throttle body it will respond to cleaning.
Well another helpful local garage thinks it's coming from the air box. He undid the clips and slid the front part forwards and the noise was definitely louder. He then clipped it back together and shrugged.
Remove the airbox and piping completely, you will have to do that anyway to clean the throttle body (use throttle body cleaner spray, its good). Then you can start it without the airbox, if the noise is gone you will know
I do not know if its a direct fit. But the Yaris had the same engine, its a Toyota 2SZ-FE/Daihatsu K3-VE Why would you want a new one? I can't really think of anything that could go wrong on a mechanical throttle body
I notice that the service manual states that the gaskets shouldn't be reused when you change the transmission oil. I doubt the garage will bother getting new ones though so I'll keep an eye out for leaks afterwards.
Its just 2 regular aluminum gaskets. They should have these in stock. You can reuse them, but its always risky
@Salieri I'd prefer they used new ones. Do you happen to know the size and I'll get a couple to take up with the oil ? Stupid thing is that I've just bought a trolley jack so could easily have done this job myself
I can tell you the parts number, its 9004430178 Its an aluminum gasket about 22mm in diameter, but I do not know any exact measurements
Thanks again. Not quite as simple as I hoped as I can't seem to order them, or the Toyota equivalent, in the U.K. or at least not online anyway. I'll try a Toyota dealer on Monday as it's going in on Tuesday. The place it's booked in to is a small fast fit franchise (but with good feedback and they knew their stuff at the last visit) so they may not have an extensive spares stock. A Toyota part will no doubt be expensive but at least I'll only have to buy one lot of oil.
