6G Celicas Forums

Hello everyone.
Ive been a member of celicaclub uk for a while and opened there a project thread for this car. but due to the setup of the forum i find it dificult to update the thread, as well as being a paid membership there is less response than i expected when i ask for help.

So, im giving a bit of background of miself as an introduction.

Im a software developer, and basically my hobby is working on my cars.
Been driving gen6 celicas for about 5 years. I own a 98 SR (5 years) and a 94 jdm GT4 (little over 1 year) currently.
I also own a Lotus Elan from 91 which was my very first project car (long thread about its work on the relevant forum) as well as a Toyota 4Runner 94

I bough the GT4 December of 2015 from a fella in scotland for a whopping 1850 quid, I knew the car needed alloys, and that has been parked for a few years.
unfortunately when i arrived at the location it was already dark, and the car looked ok. the trip to pick it up was very long and after taking it home I just went straight to bed.

So what i bought myself was a complete lemon.
Very buckled alloy in one of the corners.
brake discs completely corroded all around, and the front passenger side pulsating quite a lot.
intercooler pump making a lot of noise.
brake lines were simple brake cables which I've been told are very dangerious because of the superstrut suspension allows unusual movement
front passenger side brake caliper was stuck, causing the discs to overheat
Termostat was stuck open
some considerable rust on the rear near the wheels. (i suspect that to be one of the more common places for rust to appear.
Rear Fog lights dont work
Tyres all around with very low (if not illegal) thread.
Rear wiper motor not working
ABS light on
No water jets working for front and rear windshields
Radio working only with a CD on, (not getting any stations)
one of the folding mirrors didnt fold
some paint pelling off near the door handles in both sides.
Spark Plugs full of oil

The good points.
Aparently. the SS suspencion is in good condition
no engine problems
no gearbox issues
no aparent colision damage (so far)
Stainless steel exhaust with a mid/sport tune (it does sound nice lol)

So, after takig it for an MOT to find the disaster i had purchased i got to work.

Im going to cut the story short and simply use color coding to update the current state of affairs on this project.
Green marks solved issues (and i will leave a small note afterwards stating what i did to fix it)
Yellow/amber marks issues that i intend to solve in the near future
Red marks issues that i have no urgency to solve.

Very buckled alloy in one of the corners.
brake discs completely corroded all around, and the front passenger side pulsating quite a lot.
intercooler pump making a lot of noise.
brake lines were simple brake cables which I've been told are very dangerious because of the superstrut suspension allows unusual movement
front passenger side brake caliper was stuck, causing the discs to overheat
Termostat was stuck open
some considerable rust on the rear near the wheels. (i suspect that to be one of the more common places for rust to appear.
Rear Fog lights dont work
Tyres all around with very low (if not illegal) thread.
Rear wiper motor not working
ABS light on
No water jets working for front and rear windshields
Radio working only with a CD on, (not getting any stations)
one of the folding mirrors didnt fold
Spark Plugs full of oil
some paint pelling off near the door handles in both sides.

Very buckled alloy in one of the corners.
Got a set of original 3 spoke alloys from a brakers. They sent me the alloys without the centre caps and in a very poor state. cost me 120 quid plus 4 days of sanding them down and painting them with spray cans. (video on youtube) im actually very proud of the end result of this one.

brake discs completely corroded all around, and the front passenger side pulsating quite a lot.
Changed all discs around. i believe they cost me 80 for fronts and 40 for rears

intercooler pump making a lot of noise.
it turned out to be the usual suspect. bearings. this was a cheap fix at 6 quid for bearings and a hell of a pain to get the pump out and back into the car, a whole weekend on that

brake lines were simple brake cables which I've been told are very dangerious because of the superstrut suspension allows unusual movement
swapped them with original ones from TCB parts at [17(Front Brake Hose comes in two sections UPPER) + 17(Front Brake Hose comes in two sections LOWER) + 7(Brake Hose Link Pipe)] x 2 +VAT cost for a wopping 98 quid PLUS delivery
fitting these was incredibly dificult because of the rust and the fact that i didnt have the right type of open ended ring spanners

front passenger side brake caliper was stuck, causing the discs to overheat
refurbished the calliper miself. this cost 12 quid on seals. + 4x 6quid for the pistons. 36 quid in parts. plus some brake fluid to bleed the system + 2 evenings and a few extra tools (grease gun) were needed to release the stuck pistons

Termostat was stuck open
15 quid for a replacement... and an afternoon

some considerable rust on the rear near the wheels. (i suspect that to be one of the more common places for rust to appear.
this was the only job i have not done miself. My neighbor is an auto weld specialist, been doing it for over 30 years. so i got mates rates for the job, and only cost me 60 quid

Tyres all around with very low (if not illegal) thread.
Replaced them with Toyo Proxes CF2 (i know T1R are the usual choice, but i picked the CF2 because of the improved fuel efficiency) from Ebay 220 the set. plus 40 for the local garage to fit them for me.

Rear wiper motor not working
Replaced it with one from a GT model. got it from Sheraz (some of you may know him) for only 10 quid

No water jets working for front and rear windshields
Replaced it with one from a GT model. got it from Abdul (some of you may know him) for 10 quid

Radio working only with a CD on, (not getting any stations)
This turned out to be the antena was not plugged in. 0 cost repair WOOP WOOP

one of the folding mirrors didnt fold
replaced with a mirror from a dark blue JDM GT, that Abdul sold me for 50 quid the pair. I had to paint it black, but the paint was already purchased for my other car.

Spark Plugs full of oil
i havent confirmed if this fix is done or not. But what i did was to replace the top gasket of the engine. it cost me 20 odd quid for the gasket plus 5 for the sealant material.
the job is a hell of a pain to do, as i needed to take out the inter-cooler in order to get to the plugs. this took me a whole weekend

So, yes, this is the current state of affairs.
in fact. the car is currently in this situation, As i found a water leak, and had to take out the interior carpet to dry,
i decided to add a rear camera to it and wire it properly

pictures for your pleasure








Sorry the lens were dirty when i took this one.

Honestly, for 2000 quid (after all was fixed) I'd say that you still got a pretty good deal.

Especially considering something in that condition would sell for significantly more here in the states, just based on rarity. Have the rear quarter panels been fixed yet? I'd like to see some progress pictures of how they made the repairs....

Please post more pictures of the car overall!

This post has been edited by bloodMoney: Mar 7, 2017 - 9:34 AM

here in the UK they are worth less than in the states, but taking into account the current sale value of one comparing to the total amount of money i spend on this one i am probably on the "break-even" line.

I know any "cheap" GT4 you buy in the UK will be in need of work, so i decided to buy the cheapest out there that was black and fix it up miself. after fixing up the Elan, i was pretty confident i could fix up a GT4.

Ill add more pictures later probably in the weekend, I plan to put the interior back then.

I will be needing help with the ABS issue in this forum. I Have already done some investigation on the issue and will give details later tonight.

pictures of the welding done.

I painted it over. although my neigbor said i shoudl be able to use a sand disc attached to a angle grinder to smooth the bulges, I havent tried that yet, as im a bit scared of ruining the weld joints.

today's progress.

fixed the rear fog lights.
plugged LED rocker switches correctly for both rear fog lights as well as the parking camera. (video attached)

AAAAND
the carpet is back inside.
this went through both the hoover and rugdoctor. it looks like it lost a few years of use

https://youtu.be/GB6jcMscshg

very nice. glad it's been simple fixes so far.
not bad for such a cheap grab.

Well... you clearly have a different definition of "simple fix" to mine.
I wouldn't call a rocker cam Cover gasket swap on the 3SGTE engine a "simple fix" or a calliper refurb neither a intercoller pump removal and bearing swap.
I'm guessing you've done things way beyond my comfort zone around your car

But i gotta admit the hard one is still to be dealt with.
The ABS error. is code 35 — Open in left front or right rear wheel speed sensor (WSS) circuit.
I have checked both ABS sensors for resistance when the wheels spinning slowly and both registered resistance values within the ranges specified in the manual.
I will only ask for help in more detail about that one after running the special WSS test mode.

more pictures of today's progress.

I have used some interior plastic cleaning spray and the result as the images show.







Centr concole before cleanup. seems like i forgot to take a "after" picture.


I found the centre console was missing a bolt to hold it in place.
so i decided to replace it with stainless steel bolt and a washer.
it turned out my washers were too small for the bolts. so i enlarged the whole to fit.



and a low quality image of the interior after fitting it all (ill be taking more pictures tomorow with some light.)

haha, I must've a few of those while skimming through.
and no i haven't done nearly as much.

Really though, Chee is right.

Everything you've done so far has been pretty simple. Maybe time consuming, but simple.

With the exception of the welding of the rocker panel, hence my comment about picking up a pretty good deal.

Either way, congrats on getting the car back together! Now go take more pictures!

what kind of jobs should i stay away from ?

today polished the outside and finished the last bit missing on the inside. (door cards)
tomorow will take it to work and see if i get anyone mentioning it.

pictures just for the sake of it. with a few before and afters to show how badly the car needed to be polished.




left side done, right side waiting.

Excellent result.

If replacing the valve cover gasket was challenging, I would stay away from replacing the clutch, or anything requiring a deeper dive into the engine. I've owned GT4s for the last 12 years, and there isn't much that I haven't done on them, so my opinion can be skewed.

Either way, you have yourself a great looking car. I still maintain that 2 grand was a steal.

took the car to work today.

when i parked at work, pulled up the handbrake and took the key out.... the engine kept running still for about 30 seconds to a minute and then switched off.

I know the car has a turbo timer box underneath the dashboard. that i found while cleaning up all the interior.

can you guys confirm to me that the behaviour i had was expected of a turbo timer ?
and any ideas why i never had this happen before ?

im asking cus it really freaked me out to take the key and the engine still running, so im just double/triple checking this is correct.

Thanks for the help guys.

This post has been edited by Tuga2112: Mar 13, 2017 - 9:51 AM

That's exactly what a turbo timer is supposed to do. It keeps the engine running for a minute or so, however long it's been set to run, then shuts off after the timer runs out. That way the oil and coolant in the turbo keep circulating and cooling the turbo down. Nothing out of the ordinary.

I tought turbo timer lubricated muffler bearings and was supposed to assist the vtec lag

vtec lag ? dont think the S3GTE engine has VTec (im assuming vTec is another acronim for variable valve timing )