AE 101 newbie from California!

Greetings everyone! Im fairly new to this site and to the countless customizing possibilities to my '97 Corolla! I must admit, at first I was kind of disappointed when I graduated from high school and was handed the keys of a AE 101 by my dad. I always felt as if I was driving a soccer mom van (yes I know it sounds silly lol) since I originally wanted a coupe and not a 4-door. Recently, a cousin of mine got himself a Honda Civic and started bragging about the things he was gonna upgrade on his car. It wasnt till then that I thought to myself, "maybe I should check out what I can do with my car!" Hence, I ended up here! And seeing all these fixed up AE 101's has me all hyped up now! Lol Customized Corollas arent so common out here in California, let alone '97 Corollas! I wont lie, I have little to no clue as to what I can do to my car, both performance and exterior wise. What I currently had in mind was going for the most common upgrades, intake and exhaust, but idk what brands I should check out or which ones contain parts for my make and model. I hope you guys are able to help me through here as well as give me suggestions! Im looking forward to making new friends here and share the joy of being a proud owner of a AE 101!

Frankie

welcome along bro ull really love the drive of an ae101.....

Thanks man! One thing Ive noticed so far is that most if not all the Corolla's I see displayed on here have custom body kits! But when I go and google body kits for my car, I find none! Where is it that you guys bought them from???

Sup Frankie!

I don't see anyone here with a body kit. lol Unless you're referring to the JDM bumpers or lip kits.

Ebay is your best friend for body kits but Kiwi-Corolla (Scottio) is your best friend for JDM parts.

Welcome aboard Frankie! There lots 'o mods available for the rolla, just check out some of the projects on the site. For example you can use a subaru bumper, which is a populair mod. You can buy them off of forum members on various forums. Or just check ebay (and I think in the US Craigslist or something like that).

@Kenny, I have a body kit... Just not installed/used and still need to repair some things

FRONT

SIDE

BACK

Whether they are stock or custom, I still havent seen ANY of those styles and looks out here where I live lol As for Lyna's comment, would a Subaru kit really fit on to an AE101?? and if so, what model would I have to look up? Major thumbs up on your car btw, looks really badass!

I see you found the body kit section already

welcome bro im fairly new too and i know exactly how u feel my sister bought a 2010 mustang and handed me her corolla i was dissappointed so my dad was willing to give me his civic but b4 that i was thinkin of doing upgrades to my 97 corolla and when id tell my friends theyd just laugh which pretty ,much inspired me even more so i told my dad no thanx and im determined to fix my car now. i know exactly how u feeel now i have all these plans for my corolla but no money haha thatll come soon though! you should check out "http://www.andysautosport.com/" you find mad body kits lights alternatives, interiors, spoilers short ram intakes etc i personally am waiting to save up to get a more powerful enigne i dont think ull be able to get much out of the 4afe stock engine u should look into engine swaps but that really up to u, im leaving my carexterior all stock until my performance is far from stock get me? haha anyways nice having another californian on here!

Won't be able to get much out of a 4afe? Don't tell that to Pedro...

But welcome dude! And Rachid, I never knew you had a bodykit :O haha, I like the way your Corolla's lookin now though

The 4AFE and 7AFE are nice engines, but they aren't really meant for high performance. Nevertheless, they can be turbocharged in stock form with good results as long as you keep the boost low. Also, they could be rebuilt with all new seals, gaskets, custom low compression pistons, and then a high boost turbo system would be possible. For really serious power, you should look into the 4AGE swaps. "http://www.phoenixtuning.com/toyota/1997corolla.html" im sure u can get power out of it but me personally would swap to something the can put me over 200 hp but idk bro im not hating on anyone im just learning in the process

Look up Hulk Corolla, that's a guy named Pedro that a lot of us know. Got 300 something HP from his 4afe, turbo'd of course

Yep. Anything is possible when you have a ton of money.

are u serious!!!??? wth how he do that? did he replace everything except the block i didnt know that engine would withstand that much power

hi everyone, still trying to figure out how to use this forum but it'll come to me eventually lol.. so i bought myself an AE101 levin recently and im loving it, need some parts for it to complete it, and i dont care who ya are start adding me as a friend or on facebook..

Thanks everyone! I considered swapping engines, but when I started doing some research, everything was $1k+ USD, so that kinda made me reconsider lol, but yeah, like I stated previously, I wanna start off with an intake and exhaust, and work from there. I also looked up that Hulk Corolla, and if you say that that car is rolling on its original 4AFE engine, then I might as well stick with mine lol. As for ROLLAenthusiast, I checked out that website, and its badass dude! Have you personally ordered stuff from there?? ANd yeah, everything on my car is stock so far. I swapped out my regular bulbs out for some HID bulbs a few months back along with some other bulbs for some LEDs, but I left on the original units on it. Now I need to replace my wheels cuz theyre wasted -__- lol

yeah dude i order some halo eye head light for my dads car! only problem was i had to do the wiring myself but the lights work perfect they nice too! besides that i havent ordered anything cause im still debating on engine swap or tune the engine i didnt know about the hulk any sooner then u did so mirror eyes made me reconsider -_- thanx to him for that haha so for now im just gonna save me until i decide what i want haha, if u want good performance bro ull gonna at least need too spend a 1000 IMO so get to saving X) oh and when u cant find it on andysautosport ebay it XD

welcome to the site mate..

theres quite abit that can be done to the corolla, just need to know whats what tbh.
dont be afraid to ask questions, thats how most of us started off, by asking questions..

and to answer one of your questions, yes subaru bumper and skirts can be made to fit the corolla, i know this because i have done this

Nice! Ive seen a couple of things on that site that I wanna get my hands on already. Ive also looked on ebay, and they also have a few cool things I like. But honestly, Ive never ordered or purchased anything online before, so Im kinda insecure about the whole money transaction stuff. And thanks Miib! What Subaru model and year did you use? Everything on my Rolla is stock performance wise, what would you recommend I start upgrading on it since I plan on sticking with my 4AFE engine?

i used 95 impreza sti front bumper and 4 piece sideskirts..

best thing to do at the minute would be breathing mods, so better air flow (cold air feed), free flowing exhaust and manifold

Ohh ok cool! Ill start searching for that type of Subaru model out here then. And thanks for the tip! Ive been looking into intakes and cat-backs, but Ive had a bit of struggle finding the right match for my Rolla, but Im still searching haha

welcome

id say a 2.25" system would be fine for a 4afe

frankie41992 wrote:

Ohh ok cool! Ill start searching for that type of Subaru model out here then. And thanks for the tip! Ive been looking into intakes and cat-backs, but Ive had a bit of struggle finding the right match for my Rolla, but Im still searching haha

yeh they arnt easy to find im looking inot a custom build

welcome aboard my friend, if you need replacement oem usdm parts im your guy. if you need anything just let me know and i can usually source it pretty quickly.... just not wagon parts. ive only seen one in a junkyard in all my time scouting them. but any who, welcome once again and good luck with the slowrolla

Hahaha thanks kickfli. Nah I dont own a wagon, never really been a fan of those honestly lol. But yeah, Id actually be interested in getting a mesh grille for my Rolla. 2 years ago I was involved in a car accident, wrecking my whole front end. I replaced evrything new, except for that grille. Now it just doesnt fit in properly, not sure if it might be bc of the OEM headlight units that were put in or something else (since apperently theres a slight difference USDM and JDM parts). But yeah, Ive seen a couple of Rollas with mesh grilles and the TRD insignia on them, but Im not really sure where to get it!