· UpCars Team · Reliability · 8 min read
Toyota Yaris 1.33 Common Faults (2005-2011): What to Check Before You Buy
The 2005-2011 Yaris 1.33 is one of the safest cheap supermini buys going, but water pumps, clutches, rear bearings and rust all show up at this age. Here is what to look for and what each fix really costs.
Ask a mechanic what they would put a new driver in and the second-generation Toyota Yaris, the XP90 sold here from 2005 to 2011, turns up again and again. It is small, light, cheap to insure and, when it has been looked after, close to indestructible. The 1.33 is the version most buyers want, because it is smoother and noticeably keener than the little 1.0-litre three-cylinder without giving away much economy.
But these cars are now 15 to 20 years old. At that age what matters is not the badge, it is the individual car in front of you. Here is what genuinely goes wrong, which faults you can live with, and how to spot a tired one before you hand over any money.
Two different 1.33s, and what they cost
The 1.33 badge actually covers two engines. From launch until 2009 you got the 2SZ-FE, a 1.3-litre VVT-i with 87bhp, usually badged simply as 1.3. From 2009 to 2011 the facelifted car used the 1NR-FE, a 1.33-litre Dual VVT-i with around 99bhp. Both run a timing chain, so there is no cambelt to budget for, and both are tough engines provided the oil has been changed.
Prices for a tidy one sit around £1,200 to £3,000, with early high-mileage cars at the bottom and low-mileage 2010-2011 examples at the top. That is cheap motoring, but it also means a £900 car with no service history is a false economy.
Toyota Yaris 1.33 common faults
1. Water pump and cooling system
This is the most common mechanical failure on these engines. Watch for a coolant level that keeps dropping with no obvious puddle, pink or white crusty staining around the pump housing, a whine or growl from the front of the engine that rises with revs, and the temperature gauge creeping up in traffic.
A water pump is a wear item and many give up somewhere between 70,000 and 100,000 miles. It is not a deal-breaker on its own, but budget £180 to £320 fitted including the drive belt. Ask what coolant has been used. These cars want Toyota Super Long Life Coolant, which is pink. Top-ups with blue or green coolant can turn the system to sludge and block the heater matrix, which is an expensive mess to sort.
The deal-breaker is coolant loss combined with white smoke from the exhaust or mayonnaise under the oil filler cap. That points to a head gasket, and on a car worth £2,000 it usually is not worth the fight.
2. Clutch and gearbox
Clutches last well, but 70,000 to 100,000 miles is a realistic life. Symptoms are a high bite point, slipping when you floor it in fourth or fifth on a hill, judder pulling away from cold, and a rattle at idle that disappears when you press the pedal, which is the release bearing. Expect £350 to £550 fitted at an independent garage.
Worn clutch is fair wear and a bargaining chip. A crunch going into second when cold, or a whine in fifth that changes with speed, is gearbox trouble, and that is a walk-away.
3. Rear wheel bearings
Another regular visitor. Listen for a drone or hum from behind you at 40 to 60mph that changes when you load one side of the car, and keeps going when you brake gently. A rear hub bearing is usually £120 to £250 per side fitted. Annoying, easy to test, and a reasonable thing to negotiate over rather than reject the car for.
4. Corrosion, the one that really matters
Rust is what ends most of these cars. Get underneath with a torch and check the rear axle beam, the sills along their full length, the rear arches, the metal around the fuel filler, the boot floor and spare wheel well, the front crossmember and the brake pipes. Rubber mats and fresh underseal can hide a lot, so be suspicious of shiny black coating over metal that looks lumpy underneath.
Light surface rust is normal and treatable. Flaking, pinholes, or holes you can push a screwdriver into are not. Welding runs from £200 to £600 or more depending on how much has gone, and a rotten rear axle beam means a replacement part. Check the free MOT history on gov.uk before you travel to see the car. Repeated corrosion advisories are the clearest warning you will get.
5. Air conditioning
The condenser sits at the front of the car and corrodes, and the pipes behind the bumper are another weak spot. Start the car, press the air con button and see how quickly cold air arrives. It should be within a minute. If it is not cold, there is a leak, and a £50 to £70 regas will not fix it. A condenser is around £250 to £450 fitted, and a compressor is considerably more.
If the air con is dead and the seller has no diagnosis, treat it as a fault you are buying blind. If they can show you a receipt for a recent repair and it blows cold, that is a good sign.
6. Instrument cluster and electrics
There are plenty of reports of the centre digital display losing segments, or the clock and outside temperature readout going blank, and occasionally the whole cluster goes intermittent. It is usually dry solder joints rather than anything sinister, and a specialist repair is typically £80 to £150.
While you are checking, look at the electric power steering warning light, listen for a whine from the steering column, and test every window, the central locking and the key remote. Two working keys are worth having.
Smaller things worth a quick look
- Water in the boot, often from tired rear light seals
- Clouded headlights, which polish up but affect the MOT beam pattern
- Knocking over bumps from worn front drop links and bushes
- A brief rattle from the timing chain on cold start, which usually means neglected oil changes
- A misfire or rough idle from tired coil packs
What the common repairs cost
| Job | Typical cost fitted |
|---|---|
| Water pump with drive belt | £180 to £320 |
| Clutch | £350 to £550 |
| Rear wheel bearing, per side | £120 to £250 |
| Air con condenser | £250 to £450 |
| Air con regas | £50 to £70 |
| Instrument cluster repair | £80 to £150 |
| Timing chain and tensioner | £450 to £800 |
| Welding for corrosion | £200 to £600+ |
| Full service | £150 to £250 |
Deal-breakers versus normal wear
Walk away from structural corrosion on sills, floor or rear axle beam, a head gasket failure, a gearbox that crunches or whines, a car whose MOT history shows the same corrosion advisory three years running, and any car where the coolant is low and the oil looks like tar.
Negotiate, do not panic, over a clutch at 90,000 miles, a whining water pump, a droning rear bearing, worn brake pipes, tired drop links, a dead air con with a known diagnosis, or a cluster display with missing segments. None of these are unusual, and all of them are priced in the table above.
Your test drive and viewing checklist
Before you set off, check the MOT history online. It shows the mileage at every test, so you can spot a car that has been clocked, and it flags repeated advisories. Ask for the service book, and check the coolant is pink and the oil is clean and at the right level.
Start it from cold and listen for the first five seconds. Chain rattle that fades is acceptable. A rattle that stays is not.
On the drive, do these five things: cruise at 45mph and weave gently to load each rear corner, listening for bearing drone; find a hill and accelerate hard in fourth to test the clutch; press the air con and time how long the cold takes; check the centre display segments and every switch; and test the brakes, including the handbrake travel. Then park up, get underneath and look at the sills and rear axle with your own eyes.
Finally, check the V5C matches the seller and the car, ask how many keys there are, and ring a Toyota dealer with the registration to see whether any recall work, including airbag campaigns from this era, is still outstanding. It is free, and it is worth ten minutes.
The verdict
A well-kept Yaris 1.33 is one of the cheapest ways to run a car in Britain. Buy on condition and history rather than mileage, accept that a water pump or clutch will come along eventually, and be ruthless about rust. Do that, and you will get years of quiet, cheap motoring out of a car that still feels surprisingly grown-up on the motorway.
When you are ready to make that change, UpCars.uk is a good place to start looking, as every car there is checked over properly before it is listed.
