One problem related to gas recirculation valve (egr valve) has been reported for the 2002 Toyota Corolla. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2002 Toyota Corolla based on all problems reported for the 2002 Corolla.
Ive owned this car for 3 weeks and have had to put 2 quarts of oil in every week because every morning I start my car lot of blue smoke is coming out my exhaust. This is because the design temperature for the pistons in this engine was 120 degrees celsius and the actual temperatures reached are 160 degrees celsius, which causes the petroleum oil to sludge up and carbon to accumulate in the piston oil holes that allow oil to flow to the piston rings. This blocks those oil holes, preventing oil from getting to the piston rings and subsequently the piston rings wear very, very quickly, then allowing oil to be able to slip past the piston rings, into the combustion chamber and out the exhaust. This will lead to replacing the pistons which is an extremely expensive and labor intensive job just because Toyota made a mistake with the way they built the engine. It's a shame that Toyota hasn't recalled this vehicle because there are countless amounts of records on these cars having that problem. The car can break down after so much oil has been burned and that could happen un expectedly. It's drivable but not safe.