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

[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.

[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.

[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!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[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.

[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!

[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!

[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

[geraintthomas]

They're fantastic cars for the money, but I wouldn't get fooled into one straight away. There's a few fundamental things that aren't great with the car from the factory that really let it down that its rivals never had (Type R, etc). I had these things in mind to fix when I bought it.

1. The brakes are terrible. Common fault - very spongy, and they're like that as standard.
2. Ride height is far too high, wheel arches are enormous even compared to a modern fiesta.
3. Wheels are too far sunken in
4. Doesn't sound 'special' when the revs are up.
5. Dashboard feels cheap

But for about £400 you can fix most of those with the following:

1. Braided hoses, new discs and EBC pads
2. Apex 35mm springs
3. Hubcentric spacers
4. Induction kit
5. Nothing you can do unfortunately.

That's the first things I did to mine when I bought the car, and it made the car the way it should have been. From the photos I've posted, you can't tell it's been lowered or spaced at all, because it sits just right. Compare it to a standard Celica and they look like moon buggies.

Here's the ride height on my Celica before I lowered and spaced it:



Notice how ridiculously high it is?

And here it is with the Apex springs:



That's my only bone to pick with them though. There's other things I'd like to have seen from the factory which, again, I've already added to the car. Aero wipers, Xenons (seeing as they have projector lenses), etc.

So if you do think of buying one, keep those things in mind and once done, you'll have a fantastic car

Edited by geraintthomas on Tuesday 12th May 10:51

[geraintthomas]

Lovely! Just had a read glad to see someone else as happy.

[geraintthomas]

Re-sprayed the rocker cover matt black, as my gloss black paint started to bubble due to a bad lacquer coating. Also gave the bay a good clean.

[geraintthomas]

Absolutely

Here's a little sound clip I filmed inside the car showing the cam lift engaging at 6,200rpm. Sounds great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOA-fhCt5Cw

Notice my spark plug cover? Toyota never had one, but Lotus had the good intention of making one. Even though it's upside down due to the elise being mid-engined, I still think it looks good

[geraintthomas]

Plenty of people have made track day cars out of Celica's! There's a few guys on Celica-club.co.uk who have done it with great success.

Andy - mine is now on 135,000 miles and runs, looks and feels like new. The engines are chain driven, which is a lovely bit of peace of mind. They're very reliable so I'd go for it, for as long as there's full service history!

Keep in mind that oil changes are every 7000 miles on these engines, and they're quite fragile when it comes to old/low oil. Make sure they've been looked after, and they'll easily go 200k onwards.

[geraintthomas]

Thanks for the kind words

I can only do small things while I wait until this handling issue is fixed. So the next things I'm doing is replacing most of the visual nuts and bolts in the engine bay with brand new gloss black ones, replace the red positive battery cap, get a newer flat matt black battery tie bar, and start going over the wheel arches and underside with some hammerite.

[geraintthomas]

Thanks for the recommendation Andy!

And yup, even the 1ZZ-FE engine (140bhp) is chain driven. Unlike a cambelt, you only have to do a sound check every 100k to see if it rattles when the engine isn't under load

[geraintthomas]

Lovely!

[geraintthomas]

Ahhh mate I'm glad!

Can't wait for you to find it. If you need any help just give us a shout - I'll be happy to throw as much help as I can your way,

[geraintthomas]

MonkeyWrenchRacing do them new. There's also a shop on ebay that has them new, but they're about £50+.

I managed to nab a second hand one for £30, they do pop up now and again!

[geraintthomas]

Are you kidding?! I could have had it cheaper new!

[geraintthomas]

In all fairness, it does sound fantastic when the revs are up

Spacers didn't effect the handling negatively in any way. I can't really say if it was a positive as I couldn't feel much of a difference, nor have I had the chance to track it before and after. They're just there for cosmetics!