Toyota Celica 190

[thatguy11]

Something that's been bugging me for a while was the car's filthy engine bay...last time it was cleaned was roughly two years ago. Finally gave it a good once-over today.

Gave the car a decent wash first. Body hadn't been washed in ages, forgot how good spectra blue mica looks when it's shiny!





Then into the garage for an engine bay scrub



Good light is a massive help, nice to have a big-ass spotlight!




Before...



And after.




Also gave my exhaust a quick going-over. Started with steel wool, then worked down through wet & dry, t-cut and metal polish.

Before



After

[thatguy11]

Codestud said:

Nice car, I think the Celica looks good even today, I'm glad you're taking care of it.

Cheers it's getting on slightly now, 14yrs & 144,000 miles. Needs looking after properly

[thatguy11]

FINALLY managed to get new centre caps for my wheels. A little over a year ago I had my wheels refurbed and powdercoated, and the wheels had come back without their centre caps.



Apparently they were old and brittle, and the clips had just snapped when the guys took them off. “No big deal”, I thought at the time – how hard can it be to find new ones?

Turns out VERY HARD.

These wheels are made by Fondmetal (that’s right, the same Fondmetal who ran an extremely st F1 team in the early ‘90s) and for some reason Fondmetal centre caps that fit these wheels are near impossible to find. Searching for months turned up nothing, and I even gave up looking for the proper caps and bought some generic Toyota one...which didn’t fit. Back to hunting in vain for genuine ones.

Finally, after OVER 9,000!!! searches a set popped up on eBay. I immediately snapped them up. The faces were far from perfect but the clips were in good condition, and another set could never appear.

After a little sanding and spraying I got them from this:



to this:



I know they're not perfect but it's a lot better looking than no caps at all. Rather than spraying them charcoal to match the wheels, I went for black...still undecided if I like it or not.

[thatguy11]

BING! 150,000 miles And you know what? The car looks and feels like it's done about half that much...

Edited by thatguy11 on Tuesday 12th May 13:55

[thatguy11]

So in a few days I’ll have owned the Celica for three and a half years. In that time I’ve put over 50,000 miles on it, taking it to over 150,000, and it hasn’t missed a beat.
So I thought it was high time I treated it to a few bits and pieces I’m hoping to have all these done within a few weeks.

First up is a simple one – new number plates. They were getting a bit scabby and now the front one has taken some damage (thanks to the van in front of me on the M8 relieving itself of its mudflap at high speed, which struck the front of my car…) it’s time to get some fresh ones.

Next up is something all Gen 7 Celica owners will relate to – sorting out that stance. It’s simply too high for the body shape, and the wheels are tucked away right inside the arches. I wouldn’t go as far as to say it ruins the car’s footprint on the road, but the lowering springs & wheel spacers combo is one every Celica owner should go for. So I am ? need to do a bit of research but Apex springs and Hubcentric spacers are looking likely.

I'm also wanting to have a look at the interior, but unsure of how far exactly I want to go. Options on the list are re-spraying the centre console gun metal grey, getting the steering wheel re-trimmed, new dial faces, possibly more if budget allows.

Updates to follow….

Edited by thatguy11 on Tuesday 23 June 12:34

[thatguy11]

l354uge said:

Also, I noticed the K&N sticker, did you notice a drop in MPG after fitting the K&N?

I didn't notice any difference in mpg, continued to hover around high-30s typically on the motorway. No noticeable change in power either, neither up or down, but I found it a little noisy and 'brappish' for my tastes. It was only a basic one - it was only on for a matter of weeks before I removed it and sold it!

Back to the standard airbox now, with just a simple K&N high flow filter dropped into it

[thatguy11]

Soooo...I might have jinxed myself by stating recently that nothing has ever gone wrong on the car! Last week I got in the car, tried to start it and...nothing. Not even a turn of the starter motor.

Quick investigation revealed the starter fuse had blown, but I had no idea why. Fuses tend not to go for no reason, so there was obviously something up. I got a new fuse in, but didn't know how long that one would last. It lasted about half a day.

Something was clearly up so I got the car into Toyota and they discovered the secondary air pump was malfunctioning, and a side effect of this was the pump putting too much current through the starter fuse and blowing it each time I started the car. It was a simple job to replace the air pump, but Toyota were asking about £1,800 for the job, the majority of which was for the cost of the part.

F**k that I thought, so I sourced one myself online, in good condition, for £80. I genuinely do not know how dealerships get away with their part prices, it's absolutely crazy. I had the air pump sent to Toyota and they fitted it for me no problem.

So I'm now several hundred quid lighter but at least the car's back on the road and the planned mods can now go ahead

[thatguy11]

So the lowering springs are on I went for Apex 35mm's and I must say, I couldn't be happier with the results; the car looks sensational now, it's sitting absolutely perfectly. It feels flatter and more planted through quick corners and doesn't pitch quite as much under heavy braking/acceleration - not a total transformation but there's definitely a positive difference. The ride's definitely firmer at lower speeds, but the ride quality over speed bumps etc is no worse than before.

A few pics from the bedding-in drive...








The springs were an absolute bugger to fit - it took 12 hours in total to do all four corners, partly because of a few stuck bolts (common with working on cars this age)
but mostly because of the rear two corners.

Firstly all of the boot trim has to come out in order to access the rear top mounts, but then the suspension assemblies themselves are incredibly difficult to remove from underneath the car after everything is undone/unbolted. After a lot of jigging however we eventually got them out, swapped the springs over and after much more jigging got them back into position.

We also discovered my rear drop links had had it, so they were replaced too. One wouldn't come off at all thanks to a totally seized nut, and the nut's kung-fu grip was only released by Dremelling the sh*t out of it. The new drop links slid on with the greatest of ease - god, to work on a car with all-new parts...

But after all that I finally have the Celica lowered, something I've been wanting to do for ages but never gotten round to. Happy days...next stop is some spacers!

Edited by thatguy11 on Monday 27th July 13:40

Edited by thatguy11 on Monday 27th July 13:43

[thatguy11]

Time for a quick update as it's been a while! The car is now on 165,000 miles and still running beautifully for the most part, however there are a few minor things which will be addressed shortly:

- The front near-side wheel bearing has started making interesting noises and needs replaced. The off-side can't be far behind it so both will be done at the same time

- The car's due a major service, which will also involve replacing the A/C pump

- The windscreen has managed to acquire a spectacular chip, so will need repaired or possibly replaced. Thankfully this is covered by insurance so the max I will be paying for this is £75 excess

- Two years ago I had the front bumper and a wing resprayed...however two years later and two years worth of commuting on the gravel pit known as the M8 and the Celica now looks like it needs an Accutane prescription. So...another front end respray is on the cards. The wings are perfectly fine, so this will just be a bumper & bonnet respray.

All the above added together won't be cheap (rough estimate puts it about a grand) but it will be worth it to get the Celica back to its former glory!

On another note, I've been given the opportunity with work to relocate from Scotland down to sunny Woking for 6 months I moved about six weeks ago and have been having a great time exploring Surrey's b-roads