Barry and VW

All your comments are correct in my view..The issue with that vintage of corollas was that it burned oil because of 2 or 4 too tiny oil return holes in the pistons which clogged up with carbon made worse by infrequent oil changes with the wrong oil. On my "overhaul" I mice'd the pistons and cylinders and crank journals which were still in spec. I drilled bigger holes and added 2 more for good measure. New timing chain and reman head and injectors. VW is correct that it was not a rebuild per se because the crank stayed in and no seals or a few other components were replaced but my point is that access was so easy and fast and cheap tat fixing an otherwise well built and designed car made great economic and embedded energy sense. I threw in a new clutch and PP as well. On a lot of vehicles jobs like these are a thrash. On a long trip yesterday I got 43.6 mpg driving 65. Hard to beat. Now back to my 240D and I'll try to figure out why I can't get my shifter to go into reverse!