2003 Toyota Celica T-Sport

[geraintthomas]

Hey guys,

First post here! Been reading everyone's cars for a long while and it's fantastic looking at peoples pride and joy. So I thought I'd share mine.

Bought it back in September 2013 with 110,000 on the clock. Immaculate condition throughout, and full Toyota premium service history.

Some photos from the advert.





Chain driven Yamaha built 1.8 litre 190bhp 2zz-ge engine with high cam profile switch at 6,200rpm (similar to VTEC), redlining at 8,250rpm. At this mileage they're barely run in.

First thing I did was a thorough clean, polish and wax.



Then over the months, I went about making changes to the car to improve it. I don't want to go away from the original look, so I went about modernising it.

MTEC discs



Refurbished alloy center caps



Apex 35mm springs



Induction kit (now has a black foam cone)



Hubcentric spacers. 17mm front, 22mm rear.



Strut brace (now refurbished black to suite engine bay plastics)



New radiator and slimline fans



Worked on the leather interior





Brass gear linkages



And a lot of other small modifications.

Here's some photos of it to date:














I've also bought the following, ready to fit:

Wilwood 4-pot Superlite BBK & HEL braided hoses



Poly front engine mount



And a front Whiteline adjustable ARB, which I haven't got a photograph of.


So this is what's been done:

Engine, Performance & Transmission
- Direnza Induction Kit
- RamAir Induction Cone
- High Power Slimline Radiator Fans
- Mobil 1 EPS 5w30 Synthetic Oil
- Redline MT-90 Gearbox Oil
- Brass Gear Linkages

Brakes, Tyres & Suspension
- 4x KYB Excel-G Shock Absorbers
- MTEC Drilled & Grooved Discs
- Front Upper Strut Brace
- Apex 35mm Suspension
- Falken ZEIX ZE914 Tyres

Interior & Trim
- Auris Gear Knob
- Grey Stitched Gear Gaiter
- Bluetooth & AUX Connectivity

Exterior & Engine Bay
- 5000k 55w HID Xenon Headlights
- 5000k SMD LED Sidelights
- 5000k SMD LED Number Plate Lights
- Cree Indicator Bulbs
- Cree Reverse Bulbs
- Aero Wipers
- TRD Aerial
- TRD Dust Caps
- OEM Mud Flaps
- Gloss Black Rocker Cover
- Lotus 2ZZ Spark Plug Cover
- Silicone Vacuum Pipes

Refurbished & Replaced
- T-Sport Center Caps - Replaced
- Battery - Replaced
- Floor Mats - Replaced
- Radiator - Replaced
- Radiator Hoses - Replaced
- Cabin Filter - Replaced
- Custom Number Plates - Replaced
- Wheel Arch Metals - Refurbished
- Lift OCV Filter - Refurbished
- Body ECU - Replaced
- Brake Calipers - Replaced
- Brake Master Cylinder - Replaced
- Vacuum Solenoid Valve - Replaced
- Front & Rear Droplinks - Replaced
- Front & Rear Exhaust Manifolds - Repaired

Apologies for the amount of photos! Look forward to hearing from you guys

Edited by geraintthomas on Monday 11th May 14:38

Edited by geraintthomas on Monday 11th May 15:11

[Morry10]

Owned the Corolla equivalent for over 5 years - excellent car albeit more of a 'warm hatch' than anything else.

Contrary to a lot of others I liked the engine and power delivery, and irrespective of what people say these are not that slow.

Mine certainly felt good for most if not all of the 189bhp. And you have to love 'lift' ! It is addictive.

Some good mods there for yours as well and it looks in cracking condition - enjoy it

Cheers

Morry

[geraintthomas]

Cheers Morry! I do love the power delivery of the 2zz. Agreed you have to keep the revs up to get the most out of it, but it's lively and as you said, lift is damn well exciting!

Unfortunately it's got an issue with its handling at the moment, an issue I've had for about 6 months. Very nervous in a straight line, twitchy, and tramlines terribly in ruts in the road. I've changed tyres, balanced wheels, changed all shocks, changed and checked wishbone bushes and wishbones, track rod ends, ball joints, the lot. The only thing I haven't had done is a full alignment (and yup, I'm an idiot for not getting this done first). The ride was fine for about a year after lowering it 35mm - this issue happened overnight. I'm hoping I've hit some sort of pothole, and knocked something further out of alignment, as the alignment wouldn't have been great after the ride drop anyway.

[liner33]

Great looking car , and would certainly benefit from a proper geometry check by the sounds of it

[geraintthomas]

Purchased adjustable rear camber arms to get fitted before the alignment. They're a pain to fit and looks as if the subframe needs dropping! Lovely pieces of kit though.

[190bhp]

Nice clean Celica enjoyed reading your thread on Celica club UK
A guide If you havent found one, I may have to purchase some new arms as Ive just installed BC coilovers 2 week ago and it looks as if the notorious camber and toe bolts may be seized

https://www.celicahobby.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/...

[Andy665]

One of these is on my consideration list - this thread has pushed it up the order a little

[Chunkymonkey71]

Lovely!

I just bought a 140 at the weekend for Mrs Chunky.

To be fair, she hasn't had much chance to drive it!

[Chunkymonkey71]

Lovely!

I just bought a 140 at the weekend for Mrs Chunky.

To be fair, she hasn't had much chance to drive it!

[geraintthomas]

Thanks guys much appreciated!

Gave the car a thorough going over today.
 
Refurbished the headlights, wet sanded scratches that appeared over the past few months, polished the exhaust, polished all glass and clear plastics, washed, waxed and photographed.
 
Also new valve caps!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Joey Ramone]

Yep, good looking car. I've got a 2006 GT (avec tasteful '17 year old boy's wet dream' bodykit) that I picked up with about 55K on the clock. Only thing bugging me is that the rear wheels don't fill the arches. Considered spacers but a mechanic (to be fair he's one of JLR's top bods) told me that they tend to put undue pressure on some point of the wheel (I wasn't really listening to be honest).

I love the car. Quick enough for me, durable, fairly distinctive, very comfortable, spacious enough to lob a bicycle and baggage in the back, petty economical. And they can be picked up for a steal.

[geraintthomas]

Awesome I completely agree! Easy to work on, looks great, cheap, fast, economical, etc. I bought this for £2,000 with full service history - absolute steal if you look hard enough.

Normal spacers are indeed dangerous and they put stress on the wheel bolts. Hubcentric spacers work by the wheel bolting to the spacer, then the spacer bolting to the hub. They also rest on the hub (hence the name), and that's what makes them safe.

[wjb]

Very nice, I used to own a 140 years ago. Very underated car the Gen7, especially the 190. Great value these days too!

[paul1087]

Looks great!

Where was this for sale out of interest? I think I may have looked at it when I bought mine around that time in 2013.

I bought a very similar car in the end to put the 2zz in my MR2, felt quite guilty stripping the Celica though!

Next time you change the oil give this stuff a go. I have been quite impressed with it.
http://www.millersoils.co.uk/news/2012/250312-Toyo...

[geraintthomas]

Bradford on Avon to be exact bought it from a 52 year old gentleman who really looked after it.

I did try Millers Nano CFS 5w40 at one point but noticed that the engine was considerably 'tappier'. Thine is though as it's an eater oil it'll no doubt protect better, but I do find t quieter with the Mobil1 in there. Strange!

[Joey Ramone]

geraintthomas said:

Awesome I completely agree! Easy to work on, looks great, cheap, fast, economical, etc. I bought this for £2,000 with full service history - absolute steal if you look hard enough.

Normal spacers are indeed dangerous and they put stress on the wheel bolts. Hubcentric spacers work by the wheel bolting to the spacer, then the spacer bolting to the hub. They also rest on the hub (hence the name), and that's what makes them safe.

Thank you my dear man. They are now on the shopping list.

[geraintthomas]

Not a problem!

Contact a guy called Stewart at FreakyParts.co.uk as he machines them to order, and they're tailored to fit the Celica perfectly to be as safe as possible. About £150 for the four if I remember correctly - pricey, but you can't skimp on safety!

[paul1087]

Ah yes I thought that was the one from B.O.A . !

I opted for a slightly cheaper one in the end, however this was the nicest one I saw during my search.
Done any track days in her yet?

[geraintthomas]

Not yet! Waiting for the 4-pot BBK, adjustable ARB, adjustable camber arms and poly mounts to go on first! But they're only getting fitted after I fix this damn handling issue.

Car's getting looked at by a mechanic in the family on Wednesday. Hopefully he might spot something

[phillllh]

Big fan of these, and you've got a great spec list going on there.
It looks really well.

I would like to track one of these actually *goes to look at classifieds*