6G Celicas Forums

Best advice so far. New rubber is next.

I did. I stand corrected. At first glance it appeared to lack a subject altogether. My apologies.

Wow! Only three times? I am kind of suprised. Well, you can add one more for spelling, and start a new column for grammar.

Here ya go

Yes, it would need to be aligned. The odds of swapping out your whole suspension and putting another one in its place and somehow hitting upon perfect alignment upon assembly is pretty slim.

Well, yes and no. The camber setting will always remain constant; however, the toe settings may need to be changed, and the caster settings might as well. In fact (and I don't know this to be true) it is possible that while the camber settings remain static, the toe and/or caster may change under load.

My point was simply that it was designed for use in WRC, and they abandoned it. Seems to me like its not something I want on my car. Sounds like it was a good theory that didn't work in practice.

A couple things to note here. I can't comment on the resilliancy of the super strut, but I am under the impression that it was designed specifically for WRC so as to retain the initial camber setting throughout its range of travel. While it is a good theory, for whatever reason, it was abandoned in favor of a more traditional setup. I think this fact alone speaks volumes. Also of note is the fact that it is near impossible to align the super strut car... couple that with the fact that there aren't any over here in the states, and I think if you pull into any alignment shop they'd be looking at your suspension as if it was some kind of alien thing... and probably refuse to touch it.

I think that there are a couple of companies that make complete coilover packages that include their own shocks (tuned to the respective spring rate). Tein and JIC come to mind. Erm, not that that is much help for you.

I will say that I worked directly with Koni North America on my shocks, and aside from the 2-3 month wait for custom work, the quality is top-notch and the customer service is excellent.

There are other shock manufacturers out there that might fab you up a set (Bilstien, Penske), but the $$ is going to be way north of Konis.

My suggestion would be to go Konis and have the shock body shortened to fit your needs and have the vavling done to fit the spring rate of the springs you'll be using... But that is some change, too.

Nothing I know of fits what you are looking for.

While a 50/50 weight distribution front to rear is certainly an even distribution, it is generally regarded that the optimal weight distribution front to rear is more in the neighborhood of 46% front 54% rear.

Obviously, this doesn't help much since we are talking about adding an additional 200lbs to the front of an already nose-heavy car...

If this was happening you have a problem in the brake system somewhere.

My first suggestion to you would be to bleed your brakes. Most likely what has happened is that you have some water in your lines. This is something that happens over time, as most brake fluid is hygroscopic (absorbs water) and absorbs water out of the atmosphere. When this happens, then end result is that you are reducing the boiling point of your brake fluid. Then when you hit the brakes hard a couple times, the brake fluid will boil, generating air in the brake line, which, unlike liquid, will compress under pressure.

No, the lines cannot rust. They are braided stainless steel brake lines; however, they are not invunerable. You will have to take care of them just like you would if you have regular lines (i.e. bleed the brakes every year or so).

My opinion about this big brake thing is this - unless you are doing track days at a racetrack, or maybe performance driving schools at a track, you DO NOT need a big brake kit. If you just want one because they look cool and fill up the gap of your bling-bling wheels better, fine, good for you, but make no mistake about it, they are not *needed*. The stock brakes work VERY well when taken care of. I autocross my Celica a LOT, and have never felt the need for more braking. A typical autocross will put much more stress on the braking system than you would ever see on the street, and I just don't see the need for a big brake kit. I will say that the kits do look good, though, and certainly don't begrudge anyone for throwing one on. I am also not saying that it wouldn't help braking, as it would, I am just saying that it isn't 'needed'. There is a difference.

Correct

Not entirely true. A larger diameter wheel will have more of its mass farther out from the center of the wheel, thereby making the car work harder to rotate it, even given the same weight as a smaller diameter.

The best performance gain will be seen with the lightest wheel in the smallest diameter that will fit over your brakes. This is probably going to be a 14". Run whatever tire fits your application best, speedo error be damned.

In pretty much every situation, though, you are going to have to make compromises. You need to decide what compromises you are willing to make. Do you want your speedo to be off by anything? Do you care that a smaller wheel won't 'look as cool' as a larger one? Is the tire choice you make going to be one that you can drive daily? If so, you are compromising dry traction in order to gain wet/snow traction.

All these choice are going to ultimately determine what you can run, and then from there you can take a look at the choices available in that size/weight/diameter.

In my experience, there are a LOT more choices of wheel/tire combinations in 15" than there are in 14". Rota Wheels makes a very affordable, lightweight wheel that fits our cars, and it tips the scales at 12 pounds each. If you want less weight than that, you are looking at dropping some serious change on some Volk TE-37s or SSR Competitions... about 3-400 per corner, but at 7 and 8 pounds, respectively, a significant gain. How much do you want to spend?

The best dry weather tire out now is either the Falken Azenis Sport or the Kuhmo MX, but running those is going to compromise snow traction, and to a degree, wet traction (as the tire ages and tread wears). Figure on getting around 10K miles on a set of these, too. *wince*

It is all about compromise.

Sorry, I don't have any way to get pics up. Maybe someday I will get my butt into the digital age, but probably not soon. I don't even have a regular camera

Anyway, they are just stock OEM rear shocks. The shock tubes are painted black. *shrug* Not much to see, really.

OEM Celica GT rear shocks for the 6th gen. Only on my car for 3 months while waiting for Koni to do my double adjustables. I bought them new from Toyota, and they retail for about $150 each.

If you are doing the rear Koni inserts and are worried about cutting your shocks, why not use another set? That way when you drop the cutting torch/sawzall on your foot and remove two toes, you can still drive yourself to the hospital!! (Hope you have an automatic)

$150 for both, and I will pay for shipping.

Heh, I think the back of the car is jacked up... you are going to have to jack up the wheel itself (or the rotor if the wheel is off the car) so you compress the suspension (it is uncompressed when the back wheels are off the ground). Also, if you are a little guy and can fit under the car, let the car down off the jacks, and you should probably be able to reconnect the bracket.

The Celis are one of the best handling FWD cars out there. I imagine that you could toss a blacksmith anvil in the car somehwere and it would still corner pretty well.

That said, a stock car from the factory comes with some compromises so as to please GrandmaGroceryGetter. If you are interested in making the Celica handle better (3SGTE swpa or not) there are parts out there to do that. I would suggest a nice spring/shock combo and a some better sway bars. At the very least, this will more than offset whatever handling characteristics adding 200lbs to the front of the car would.

I am guessing that he is talking about the rear bar since the front one sits on top of the frame, and the rear below it. I think that he probably did not disconnect the sway bar from the strut before removing the bracket for the bushing.

Like the poster above mentioned, you are going to have to disconnect the sway bar or jack the wheel up.

Yeah, you gotta love it when that happens.

It isn't too bad.

If it hasn't been done in a while, then there might be a problem getting the end links off of the shock body. I had to cut mine off the first time.

You'll probably need a breaker bar, a couple 19mm sockets, the top nuts are 12 or 14mm, an allen wrench set (for the end links), and an open/box end wrench (14 or 15mm).

Best if you have a helper, as wrestling the strut out can be a bitch with one person (though it can be done).

I believe Phantom Grip makes a limited slip diff for the tranny. Might check with them if you are hell bent on putting one in your Celi.

All,

I have a set of all four motor mounts for a '94 GT. I bought them thinking it was time to replace them, and it turned out that I had some other issues that had made me think that.

The mounts are brand new, never been installed. I can probably dig up the specific part numbers if someone needs them, but I am pretty sure they are the same on all the 5SFE 6th Gen cars. If you are swapping to the 3SGTE, you should probably change these out.

These cost over $350 from Toyota. I'll take $250 for all four, and pay the shipping if you are in the US.

Heh, I tend to forget that I am a bit strange. I race my car in SCCA Solo II competition in the Stock category. There are a few modifications you can make under the rules. One of them is that you can change the front sway bar, but you can't touch the rear one. Strange rule, but that is why I can't change the rear bar. The Sus Teq bar does fit, but it is a b!tch to get on (so I hear... something about having to drop the gas tank a couple inches or something). There is a How-To article off the main page.

Sorry for the confusion...again

Sorry about the confusion. I abbreviated the Sus Teq to ST, which is confusing since there is the ST and GT bar as well. The front Sus Teq bar is 24mm and not adjustable. The stock ST bar is 19mm and the stock GT bar is 20mm. The Sus Teq 24mm bar is too stiff for my tastes, and the stock GT bar (20mm) is too soft. A 22mm bar would be just about right for me, I think.

Bear in mind, I only changed out the front bar. I suspect that if you change both the front and the rear bar at the same time that it would spice things up real nice. I can't do it, so take my opinion on the bar with a grain of salt.

I was wondering if anyone would catch that. Believe it or not, I don't feel ripped off. The thing is that they are not your typical off-the-shelf Konis. They were converted from single adjustable to double adjustable, shortened by half and inch, degassed nitrogen charge, and revavled for an autocross specific application. Ran me a bit over $560 per corner. This is about what it would cost Koni to do for about any car.

Basically what these shocks do is simulate a much higher spring rate than you have with stock springs. Additionally, if I crank the rebound down, I can 'jack' the car down onto the bumstops a few turns into the course, and end up with a real stiff ride.

Obviously, these are not shocks most people will want, and for what it is worth, they are hand-build by Koni NA upon request. Turn around time is 6-8 weeks.

You are right, though, you can get a full set of Koni + CG coilovers (with custom spring rate) for less... but I cannot change my springs, so the only option for me is to simulate a higher spring rate via crazy valved shocks. Believe it or not, there are more expensive shocks I could have bought... I chose the 'economy' route.

I looked around for new front bars for our car. The only one I found was the Suspension Techniques one. Wish there were a few more options. I think the ST one is a bit stiff for my tastes. Would really like to have a 22mm one rather than the 24mm ST one. *shrug*

Mark

Well, everyone has different opinions on this, especially what looks good appearance-wise.

Personally, I am an all performance kinda guy. I am a 95% suspension/handling and 5% motor thing. I love lateral g forces. Most of my money has gone to uprates shocks, alignments, and race tires. I wouldn't mind going with a really well-built 3sgte putting around 300 torque to the wheels, but at this point it isn't feasible for a lot of reasons. Probably won't ever happen, to tell the truth. I just don't see the point in doing it halfway (i.e. just dropping a JDM 2nd gen w/160 or so HP.... $$$ to power return is too low for me), and a full build like what I am talking about is just too much time/labor/fundage.

Looks-wise, I keep it simple and tasteful. My car is black, so I went with dark tint all around, and tinted the tails/sidemarkers. I would take off the badging if it was legal in SCCA stock competition. Wheels are from a stock 7th gen GT. Nothing flashy, but not totally stealth, either. I am not a fan of body kits at all, but I know some are, and more power to them.