6G Celicas Forums

I have been having a few problems with a slipping clutch on my UK spec 3SGE GT . Its mostly noticible when starting from cold in 2nd and 3rd gears. I was wondering if this can be caused by oil leaking from the crank rear main oil seal onto the clutch plate? Has anyone encountered this before? I sometimes get a puff off blue smoke when the car is first started and the oil pressure light sometimes flicks on and off when cruising in 4th. The clutch also smells hot when manouvering at low speeds.

I am planning on having the clutch changed and will get my mechanic to change the oil seal at the same time. The car has done 85,000 miles.

I Painted mine yellow - check out the pics in my profile. Make sure you get paint designed for the job as brakes get hot and you don't want it to flake. Get a good gloss paint to give them a real shine.

I have spoken with a work colleague who specialises in performance mods and he has advised me against the K&N stating that they offer no discernable performance increase with a lot of noise. He recommends a performance filter for the stock air box as this offers best hp/£ or getting a proper HKS or Apexi system designed specifically for the 6G Celica.

Apparently unless the replacement induction kit is designed specifically for the car the airflow can actually be restricted by vortecies and other air-flow dynamics, rendering the device useless and possibly even degrading performance over the stock air-box.

Anyone agree with this?

Cost about £157 inc vat + del from Fensport

Pics of my new lights:

I know there have been many posts with regard to CAI's and Induction kits. However are they really worth the money and the hassle of fitting? I have a stock 3SGE which is totally unmodified but I am considering fitting the K&N 57i with CAI.

Here are my thoughts:

Pro's:
Makes my Celica a tiny bit faster.

Cons:
Costs £100.
Got to fit it.
Raises my insurance premium.
May affect main dealer servicing.

I would really like to make my car faster but without getting a GT4 or fitting NOS. I would particularly like to hear from UK owners of the 3SGE who have modified thier cars and have dyno results to show what gains are achievable.

I also know that once I start modifying my engine I won't be able to stop until either I blow it up or I run out of money.

A garage

Seriously though, get some locking wheel nuts. Get a good brand - one that has an allen key type nut that is recessed within the outer ring of the wheel nut to prevent them from being removed by a wrench. You may also want to invest in an alarm that sounds a warning if anyone gets too close to your car.

defgeph, I'll try and get some shots this weekend.

You're right batman, the standard side repeates will require quite a big hole.

I don't have any US currency for scale but here is the stock one that I took off my car next to a Pound coin:



The new one I fitted has exactly the same fitting.

No, they are designed to replace existing orange repeaters. I don't know if anyone supplies a complete ket, however you should be able to pick up some standard sockets from a dealer. You may need to work on the moulding to get them to fit into the side marker though.

I got them from Fensport: http://www.fensport.co.uk/partsfiles/st200accessories.htm

I changed my stock jdm ones with clear ones from AutoArt.



They just clipped straight in, although removing the existing ones required quite a lot of force (so much so that I broke one of them in the process). However as UK cars are supplied with side-markers as standard I did not have to cut any holes.

They are standard JDM parts. The ones I have look a little more red than those in the picture.

I've fitted them and they have given the rear of the car a complete face-lift (or arse-lift if you prefer). I'll get some pics posted soon.

I've ordered them from Fensport

OK, I've ordered them. Should be here tomorrow.

They are genuine Toyota parts used on the late-spec Celica's, however they were never supplied on UK models.

I am seriously thinking about buying the late spec style tail lights for my Celi. However as they are going to cost me £150 ($275) I thought I'd check to see if anyone had encountered any problems with wiring them in. Do they connect up easily?

Before:


After:

Just remember that changing the rolling radius will have an impact on your speedometer. The difference between a 225 and 215 tyre on an 18" rim can throw your speedo out by about 3mph at 30mph but about 7mph at 70.

Check out this tyre fitment calculator to see how your new rims and tyres will affect your speedo.

I'm not a mechanic and don't even own a technical manual for my Celica so these answers might be completely off. Don't blame me if you try a repair based on one of my suggestions and it doesn't fix it . However I can offer you some idea of what to look for to help diagnose the fault.

As it sounds like your engine is hunting for idle there are three specific areas that need to be investigated:

It might indicate that there is a problem with the idle control system who's job is to provide extra air to the engine when started from cold to regulate the idle speed. I don't know the specifics of the system used in Celica's but there are normally several components involved. You'll need to check with a mechanic as to which system is in the Celica (unless anyone knows?) but it will most likely be either a servo driven or an air controlled system, both of which have moving parts that can become clogged.

It is also possible that there is a problem with the fuel\air mix. This may be due to a clogged fuel filter or the O2 sensor may have a problem. The O2 sensor operates at very high temperatures and I have heard that failure is quite common on high mileage Celicas. Without a properly funtioning sensor the fuel\air mix is wrong and can cause the engine to either run very rich or lean. This is not something you can readily diagnose, but a good indicator would be to smell the exaust gasses and see if there is a strong petrol smell.

Finally this can be caused by a problem with the Catalytic Convertor. If its not connected or is damaged then this can also cause the fault, as the gasses can't escape. An emissions test will confirm if it has a problem.

All in all I would suggest taking it to a Toyota dealer and getting it looked at.

I was cleaning my car today and decided to see if I could get some of the grime off the muffler tip. I had been considering buying a new chrome one as the dull metal didn't exactly look good.

The muffler before cleaning.


It was really caked in soot and required a lot of work to restore.

I used a bodyshop rubbing compund applied with a scotch pad and some wire wool on the really tough spots around the rim. After about an hour of scrubbing I applied some Autogym metal polish and rubbed it down with a duster for about 10 minutes.

Here's the result:


I had no idea that this was hiding under the soot! (when I bought the car it was already dirty).

In the UK normal unleaded fuel is about 95 RON with 'super' fuels offering 97-99 RON. I always use a higher RON fuel as there is a small but noticeable difference in engine performance. I don't know if the car really accelerates faster or has higher torque but it certainly feels smoother.

Some info about higher octane fuels in the UK (Shell Optimax, BP Ultimate etc):

"Designed to clean your engine as you drive. It helps remove deposits on inlet valves and ensure fuel injector nozzles are kept in tip-top condition. This is one of the reasons it can begin to improve your vehicle’s responsiveness from the moment you use it."

"Can be mixed with all unleaded gasolines, but you’ll only reach its full potential if you use it all the time."

"It is well known that lack of deposits improves the efficiency of the engine, so using it should help fuel economy when compared to regular unleaded fuels."

However it does cost about 6 pence per litre more (about $0.40 / gallon).

I don't know about the US spec Probe and Prelude but the UK versions of these cars are beaten on both performance and looks by the UK Spec Celica GT & GT4.

Car Type | BHP | MPH | 0-60 | Comments
--------------------------------------------------------------
Probe 2.0 | 113 | 127 | 10.6 | Couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.
Probe 2.5 | 160 | 137 | 7.9 | Lookout, here comes Grandad.

Prelude 2.0 | 132 | 125 | 8.9 | It's ugly and it's a Honda.
Prelude 2.2 | 183 | 142 | 6.9 | It's still ugly and it's still a Honda.

Celica GTi | 177 | 137 | 7.1 | Looks fantastic and has the 3SGE - one of the best 16v engines ever.
Celica GT4 | 245 | 152 | 6.1 | 3SGTE, nuff said.

The best DIY paint guide I have seen is on the 7th Gen Celica site 'EverythingCelica.com'. The link to the guide is here:

http://www.everythingcelica.com/ubbthreads...html#1869791553

As you can see, this guy really knows what he's talking about:


You need to register (free) on the site to view the whole guide but it is well worth it if you want a detailed guide to a professional finish.

I bought some lights from them last week. They were very quick and efficient. Only problem was the courier tried to deliver when I was out and then made me drive to the depot to collect as they would not re-deliver.