Fix It and keep it » Toyota Matrix

Toyota Matrix 2003 Air Conditioning Stops Cooling

bcrane1 — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:40:31 +0000

Toyota Matrix, 2003 model had the air conditioner suddenly stop cooling. After checking the refrigerant and seeing that it was ok I checked further and found that the compressor clutch was not engaging. The wires all tested ok and the connections were in good shape so now that all of the easy stuff was checked [...]

2003 Toyota Matrix Door Handle Covers Chrome

bcrane1 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:02:20 +0000

Our 2003 Toyota Matrix has painted door handles and they are always getting black surface marks on them from daily use. The marks look unsightly and they need to be removed with wax every time it happens. To fix this annoying problem with my 2003 Matrix I found some chrome door handle covers and put [...]

2003 Toyota Matrix Cabin Air Filter

bcrane1 — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:08:23 +0000

Is your air conditioner or heater air in your Toyota Matrix slowing down and getting a bit smelly? If it is the problem may not be a fan motor or anything expensive like that, it may only be that your cabin air cleaner in clogged.

The cabin air filter in the Toyota Matrix if cheap, [...]

1995 Toyota Corolla Power Window Stops Working

bcrane1 — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:45:11 +0000

It starts off slow, first the window starts to close slower and then, after a few months the window will be noticeably slower in both directions. No, spraying WD-40 inside the door won’t help. The only thing that will fix it is to replace the unit that raises and lowers the window, called a regulator. [...]

Toyota Headlight Lens Care

bcrane1 — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:01:23 +0000

When it was new our 1995 Toyota Corolla had a clear headlight lens covers, but through the years of road debris and weather the lens yellowed and become pitted. The yellowed look made the lenses almost look like they were permanently steamed over. I started looking for ways to clean cloudy headlights the right way.

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Diagnose Car Trouble

Bob Crane — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 03:22:10 +0000

I ran across a great suggestion in Popular Mechanics magazine pertaining to saving your cars computer memory when you change the battery.

When you disconnect the car battery all of the memory that saves the engine performance data is reset to zero or baseline. When that happens you have to drive [...]

2003 Toyota Matrix Front Brake Squeal

Bob Crane — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:43:33 +0000

The brakes started squealing on my 2003 Toyota Matrix at right around 60,000 miles. Not one thousand miles before I had checked the brake pads and there was plenty of material on them so I eliminated the pads as being the problem. There was no pulling to one side or the other just a squeal [...]

2003 Toyota Corolla A/C Doesn’t Cool-Compressor Won’t Start

Bob Crane — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:36:28 +0000

On my wife's 2003 Toyota Corolla/Matrix XR the A/C suddenly stopped working for no reason. She just pressed the A/C button and no cold air.

After checking into the problem I found that after turning on the A/C the engine RPM would increase as if the compressor was turning on, and the cooling fan would [...]

2003 Toyota Matrix A/C Compressor Not Working

Bob Crane — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:32:04 +0000

On my wife's 2003 Toyota Matrix XR the A/C suddenly stopped working for no reason. She just pressed the A/C button and no cold air.

After checking into the problem I found that after turning on the A/C the engine RPM would increase as if the compressor was turning on, and the cooling fan would [...]

Toyota Matrix-Replacing The Serpentine Belt

Bob Crane — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:15:12 +0000

Like most front wheel drive cars the Toyota Matrix has a serpentine belt that drives the alternator, water pump, air conditioner , and power steering pump. Our 2003 Toyota matrix got to where it had 50,000 miles on it and the old belt started to give symptoms of being stretched because the automatic tensioner was [...]