Has anyone recently successfully managed to obtain a letter from Toyota as proof of engine age? I need to do this, so before I start making enquiries I wondered if anyone had details of where I need to contact etc. I`m using a 4AGE 1600 btw.
Thanks,
Nick

I hope you have more assistance than I got last time I asked the Q!

Link to thread

There has been a bit more info in the past

link to older thread

& the original where I had excellent success with Toyota providing a letter for free & immediately

link to original thread

Unfortunately the last time I contacted them they were a lot less helpful, however fortunately my customer got a helpful IVA inspector (Chris at Edmonton) & he was happy to accept the V5 & some other original documentation from the Toyota donor as adequate proof.

If you have an original service book or something of that nature (original purchase invoice etc) then as long as the engine no. matches that should be adequate. The phone no. I had for Toyota was 01737363633 though I would expect that to no longer be in use.

Best of luck

[Edited on 28/2/17 by russbost]

Toyota UK were not helpful at all when I needed one They said they wouldn't be able to provide one.

The problem for me is I don't have a donor car and no paperwork for one. The engine was originally supplied by Raw back in 2003 as a new reconditioned engine. I have a receipt for its purchase. So I just need to age the engine. I know from research that the 16v 4 cylinder 1600 4AGE was produced from May 1983 to May 1991 in 3 generations. In June 1991 it was superseded by the 20v 5 cylinder 4AGE.
All I have to go on therefore is the engine number, no chassis number.

what is the engine no.?

Are Raw not able to help, had they stated the engine age on the invoiuce that would probably be adequate

Unfortunately the invoice doesn`t list the engine number. However it is still clear on the block - 4A 1783913.
I have e-mailed Raw in the hope they can help. I`ll update when I hear from them.

From the engine no. that's a fairly late engine, I'd guess at late '88, poss early '89, but I have no way of proving that unfortunately

Well Russ, Raw agreed to help with sending me a copy of a Toyota letter to show when engine was produced (because my engine was bought from them). Great customer service from Raw.

Could you post a copy of the letter, would be good to get a firm date for another 4AGE engine?

It`s not that detailed. It`s not specific to my engine number, just a general letter about the overall dates of production for this type of engine.

I have exactly the same issue coming up. I have contacted RAW regarding the letter they have to no avail.

Could you kindly send me a copy please? Can PM an e-mail address.

Thanks

Matt

Has anyone used the RAW letter with any success? Went for IVA the other day and they would not accept it as it did not have my engine number on it! So now awaiting a call from Toyota to try and sort it out, other than that I'm screwed!

Did explain to the IVA man that other centres are accepting it, but he wasn't budging! Don't have the V5 either as it has got lost

What's your eng. no. I have a letter from Toyota confirming no. 1148766 was produced 21/1/88, if your no. is prior to that a copy of that letter should suffice?

Mine is 3165288 from a 89/90 corolla from memory

Just a bit annoying that they wont accept the letter I already have from RAW. He did say if there was 4A-GE cast in the block or head he would accept it, but there isn't, so that was that option out!

Does he actually mean "cast" - it should be stamped in as start of the engine no. unless that looked as tho' it has been tampered with surely he should accept that?

I would suggest talk to VOSA & see what they say - the can't actually over rule him, but if they "recommend" to him by email that he accepts a certain type of proof that should be adequate. Mark Vickers on 01792 454256 or Steve Jones on 01792 454351 should be able to help - I hope those no.'s still work, not spoken to them for a while

My engine number starts with 4A and all is stamped on the block where it should be.

He was looking for additional proof basically.

he said he was going to check it with Swansea to see if they would accept the letter or not. Whether that actually happened or not I'm not sure...

Ring VOSA they are usually really helpful

ok will do. Speak to the IVA technical people? Usually it is e-mail only, well has been in the past anyway

Try the numbers I've given above, if not just ask on the forum for Mark Vickers email, I would think loggyboy probably has it!

ok thanks, will give him a call

According to Toyota they cannot provide an engine age letter as they do not hold such details!

As VOSA wont accept the RAW engineering letter either, I assume I will need a CAT on the car then to get IVA?!

Have you spoken to VOSA?

yep have tried. Cant get any response from either numbers. I have been told to e-mail my enquiry and they will call me back.

Well, emailing would seem a good idea as then you get it in writing, but they have recently changed all contact points - try 0300 123 9000 option 1, then ask for IVA technical, I spoke to someone there only this morning about an IVA application

Tried that and they said they dont recieve incoming calls lol!

Finally got through to Mark in the tech dept. He has confirmed the letter from RAW should not be accepted as it is not sufficient for what they require.

So need to either get something out of Toyota or buy a scrap car with a log book and engine or meet the current emissions test!

Looks like the car wont be on the road this year!!

Was he not able to offer any alternative form of proof? They won't accept a V5 as proof of engine age as obviously you could fit a late engine to an early car, get the V5 updated with new engine no. & then pass the new engine off as an old one.

VOSA must know that that engine physically cannot be later than about '93 no matter what it's come from

Mark is telling me that the Jap engines were fitted much later to vehicles in Asia than Europe and so they need full proof as it could have come from Asia etc and be different to what they think!

I have someone at Toyota looking into what they can do for me, but its looking more like a Zetec will be going in it shortly and get rid of the Toyota lump all together. Have little choice!

Just wondering if snippy and ttalps2000 managed to resolve the issue of proving the age of their 4AGE engines, or whether anyone else has? Did you manage to convince VOSA/the IVA test centre that the engines must be pre-1992 since they went out of production in 1991, did you end up fitting a cat to pass the tighter emissions test or did you go for a different engine altogether?

I ask because I have a 4AGE 16v engine that I'm planning on installing in my MK Indy but, after reading this post, I'd rather make sure I can verify its age before going any further. Also, I'm planning on putting Weber DCOE carburetors on it but I have no experience of catalysers so am not clear whether one would work with them to meet the tighter emissions test. Does anyone know if this would work please?

thanks

Pete

I had no luck with Toyota at all. They tell me that they do not keep engine and chassis numbers and cannot produce letters. Despite the fact I told them several times that I have copies of letters from them, they still say they cannot produce them! It got to the point where they would not speak to me any further on the issue!

Spoke to Mark Vickers at DVSA, he advised that Toyota are appalling with trying to get any information out of them and usually are unsuccessful. We did have a conversation about putting a CAT on the car, however like he said, unless you spend a lot of money on a very good fuel injection system you will never get through the test, so don't bother!

I have now gone down the Zetec route. Sent a letter to Ford, a week later I get a response with all the information they need!

Personally, save yourself a lot of money, effort and stress and don't fit the 4AGE! Great engine, but you wont get through IVA easily if at all with one!

Matt

If anyone needs a MK1MR2 log book I know a breaker very well that would help out.

Haven't done much work on the GTA for the last 3 months but now back on the case. Just reading this thread again and it makes a depressing read. Has anyone successfully Iva'd a car with an old 4age lump in the last 12 mths? It would be a real shame to swap engines at this late stage not to mention the added costs.

it is depressing and cost me close to £2k to do the engine change to a Zetec and get everything sorted out. Now passed IVA and sold the 4AGE engine, but my advise would be to go to your local test center and speak to them before you go any further.

When i spoke to DVSA tech department, they said they would not accept the letter from Toyota that RAW engineering have! However if you go to the Kent test center that RAW use i'm sure it would all be fine....

Other option is to fit a CAT, which if you are running injection it wont be much of an issue, but good luck on carbs!