celica newb! Options

[windowlicker]

been on here off and on for the last couple weeks since i recently got the car. its a 96 25th aniversary with the 1.8 liter "torqueless wonder" engine. can't complain too much since i picked up the car from a co worker for $700. got the car because i got in an accident where my srt 4 was totalled and i'm still fighting with the insurance company to get it covered.

i'm not really familiar with the celica, as it is my first, but i had a toyota back in high school and loved it (1980 toyota tercel hatch FTW!!). i look forward to talking with some of you guys and hopefully i can learn a few things about the celica from you guys. as far as the car goes, not really looking onto investing much in the car. maybe a few things like a k&n drop in filter, strut bars and possibly sway bars, new tires, new battery, maybe new spark plug wires, but over all, not much. gonna leave it as a commuter car and take it to a couple rallyx events till i get something nicer. of course since the car is so good on gas, i'll keep it even after i get another quicker car.


the first two pics are the most recent. i painted the wheels black cause before they were all tarnished/rusted and looked like ass. i think the car looks way way better. now i just need to paint the calipers and drums. also need to get the rally lights i have setting in my room put on.















oh yeah, and the string that was holding up the headlight in the last pic has since been fixed.....it now has adjustable zip ties....FTW!

[parriehunter]

Welcome,

A lot of stuff can be learnt from these forums.

Love the black

[Tigawoods]

pedobear beware!

[MrBubbles]

Nice ride man and welcome awsome deal for $700 she looks real clean

[97Celica]

great deal...now do an auto to manual swap. It's like the opposite of being neutered.

[DropTop95]

700$ i paid almost 5 grand!!!!!!!!!!!

[windowlicker]

sorry not much money is gonna be invested in this car. no offense to anyone in here, but i can't see wasting money to try and add a couple hp to the 1.8 auto only to have it still be slow. no doubt this car has surprised me as far as how the handling is, but its undeniable when i get in it that i really really miss my srt4. this car is pretty much gonna be a commuter with a little bit of spirited driving/rallyx until i get another car when i can afford one. i'll still keep it to save money on gas, cause this car does really well on fuel economy.

next thing on my list of things to replace is the washer fluid pump. getting power to the connector, but the pump isn't coming on. probably stop by autozone this weekend and pick one up. the other thing that needs to be changed real soon is the lower radiator hose. when i change that out i'll most likely add some water wetter. might also think about picking up some better quality bulbs for the headlights, probably some bulbs from autobacs will do just fine. i think i also need to change out my exhaust gaskets cause it sounds like i have an exhaust leak some where mid car. oh, and i also want to put in a new head unit since the stock cd player doesn't play burned cds.



oh, and before i forget, what type of coolant does this car take? is it the ethyl glycol base?

pedobear beware!

[windowlicker]

just filled up my gas tank last night, was able to calculate about 33 miles per gallon. SWEET! by far my favorite thing about the car.

[SoDo]

Nice ride. I can't believe that u picked that up for $700!! Lucky. You'll like the car more and more. I would rather have my celi than a neon srt4. Higher quality car and its not a neon. If you complain about speed, invest in a 3sgte, AWD. Roflmao at the pedobear. gg

This post has been edited by SoDo: Jul 24, 2008 - 10:38 PM

[Renegade]

was that car wrecked by any chance?

[windowlicker]

Nice ride. I can't believe that u picked that up for $700!! Lucky. You'll like the car more and more. I would rather have my celi than a neon srt4. Higher quality car and its not a neon. If you complain about speed, invest in a 3sgte, AWD. Roflmao at the pedobear. gg

the quality of the car was pretty similar in my opinion, but i was really attached to the car. if you have never driven a neon srt4, i recommend it. i had a 1990 300zx before the srt and after driving one, i fell in love with it. thing that sucked for me was that i was 3 more payments away from having it paid off when it got totaled. as far as handling, that car was awesome with the limited amount of mods i did. i had hotchkis front and rear sways, front and rear strut tower bars, powerslot front rotors with hawk hps pads, rear toe adjusters with more adjustment length (looked real similar to the ones on the celica, but beefier) and when i was running falken azenis rt 615's, that car took to canyon roads like it was on rails. power wise i just had a k&n typhoon cold air intake, buddy club racing spec condenser (grounding kit), mopar spark plug wires, and a buddy club spec 3 muffler (got rid of the restrictive dual tips). the power was about perfect for the canyons.

i am glad i got the celica, no doubt its a great car. i am sure it will grow more and more on me, but i just can't see investing much on this car. if i wanted a faster celica i would try and find an alltrac, but a big part of me is wanting to get another 300zx twin turbo and build it up. i don't know what it is about the 300zx tt, but i really like the looks and also being able to get 400rwhp with an intake and ecu flash from jim wolfe is very inviting. i'm also considering saving up for an evo 8 since i can get parts from buddy club for super cheap (used to work for them and the guys are really cool still).

[windowlicker]

was that car wrecked by any chance?

the previous owner was a chick, so yes. she replaced the fender and looks like the hood was repainted (not very good at that). she said that someone backed into her. when i did an alignment at our shop's open shop night, i was able to get all the angles in spec and the car drives pretty straight. the bumper doesn't really line up too well with the hood and the hood has some dents as well, but since its just a daily driver car and also the fact that it was only $700, can't beat it. car drives pretty good, gets pretty good gas mileage, and it is the generation of celicas i think looks the best. for me its not a matter of getting the car looking real clean, cause i'm not really concerned with that since i would rather invest my time and money into a quicker car. this car will be nice to hold onto though as it will be nice to have a car to drive while i work on the other.

[windowlicker]

the turning radius in that car is well, sad, but with some sway bars, that car handles actually very well. once i put the sways on i noticed a huge difference. it only got better when i put a rear strut tower bar in and stiffened up the rear, which helped reduce some of the under steer in the front. i would really like to see how the alltrac stacks up so i could make a comparison.


the one thing i do not miss from the srt community is the amount of new owners that turned a really cool collection of vehicle owners into having a reputation of being huge duche bags. seems like after a few years of the car being out and when people started trading them in, the car became more affordable to the typical hondoo kids. when they got the srt, they felt like they had the fastest car in the world, which compared to a hondoo it is drastically faster, but they started acting bad ass and like arrogant assholes. as a person that bought an srt4 brand new back in june of 2004, i was part of the original group of srt owners and it was sad seeing the type of people driving the car change from a group that was cool, chill, and willing to help out another owner out with questions, to a group of guys that resemble mustang owners. that is one of the reasons i will not be looking into getting another srt4, that and the fact that after losing mine, i just don't have the desire to try and replace the one i lost. time to move onto something new to keep me interested in working on my own cars (hard when you work on cars for a living).

[DropTop95]

it sounds like the srt was a pretty kick a$$ ride i got a friend of mine that has one and its fun as hell to drive. the srt that i raced was stock exept for intake and exhuast so i kind had and advantage in the corners having a 2 door................ i wish i had canyons there is almost no where that i can really see what the car is capable of..........and my car is slower than two 90 year olds going at it.

[DropTop95]

lmfao i know exactly what u mean about the mustang thing my favorat thing to do was i had a 2002 hyundai elantra that was (for a hyundai) fast as hell. i would go out every sat night and find every mustang i could and piss them off and then blow there doors off with a hyundai!!!! but it did have 210 to the wheels. plus nitrous.

This post has been edited by DropTop95: Jul 25, 2008 - 12:31 AM

[Random_Stranger]

been on here off and on for the last couple weeks since i recently got the car. its a 96 25th aniversary with the 1.8 liter "torqueless wonder" engine. can't complain too much since i picked up the car from a co worker for $700. got the car because i got in an accident where my srt 4 was totalled and i'm still fighting with the insurance company to get it covered.

i'm not really familiar with the celica, as it is my first, but i had a toyota back in high school and loved it (1980 toyota tercel hatch FTW!!). i look forward to talking with some of you guys and hopefully i can learn a few things about the celica from you guys. as far as the car goes, not really looking onto investing much in the car. maybe a few things like a k&n drop in filter, strut bars and possibly sway bars, new tires, new battery, maybe new spark plug wires, but over all, not much. gonna leave it as a commuter car and take it to a couple rallyx events till i get something nicer. of course since the car is so good on gas, i'll keep it even after i get another quicker car.


the first two pics are the most recent. i painted the wheels black cause before they were all tarnished/rusted and looked like ass. i think the car looks way way better. now i just need to paint the calipers and drums. also need to get the rally lights i have setting in my room put on.















oh yeah, and the string that was holding up the headlight in the last pic has since been fixed.....it now has adjustable zip ties....FTW!

Welcome! Would your Screen name have anything to do with the hit track by mr. Simon Aphex/Aphex Twin?

[windowlicker]

^^^^^
WINAR!!!!! you were the first to pick up on that. plus the fact that it means retard too since i have been legally diagnosed as down syndrome......lol (sarcasm for all that didn't pick up on it). thanks for the warm welcome, it has been nice hearing from a friendly community. i just hope that these forums don't go the way of the srt's forum or even worse, nasioc. its important to have a comfortable setting to share information without making someone feel stupid if they are genuine about wanting to learn. not everyone has had the oppritunity to go to school and work on cars professionally, so some of the knowledge they have may be limited or misguided. even though i work on cars as my day job, i don't know much about the celica quite yet, but i can tell you about partial load hoses on a c230 kompressor and many other things pertaining to mercedes cars.

the reason i say this is cause i get a good vibe from this forum and wanted to let you guys know that its good and not to tamper with the formula. once again to all, thanks for the warm welcome, i look forward to discussing many things in the future with you and possibly meeting some of you off here if we can get a meet started down in orange county, ca.

[presure2]

^^^^^
WINAR!!!!! you were the first to pick up on that. plus the fact that it means retard too since i have been legally diagnosed as down syndrome......lol (sarcasm for all that didn't pick up on it). thanks for the warm welcome, it has been nice hearing from a friendly community. i just hope that these forums don't go the way of the srt's forum or even worse, nasioc. its important to have a comfortable setting to share information without making someone feel stupid if they are genuine about wanting to learn. not everyone has had the oppritunity to go to school and work on cars professionally, so some of the knowledge they have may be limited or misguided. even though i work on cars as my day job, i don't know much about the celica quite yet, but i can tell you about partial load hoses on a c230 kompressor and many other things pertaining to mercedes cars.

the reason i say this is cause i get a good vibe from this forum and wanted to let you guys know that its good and not to tamper with the formula. once again to all, thanks for the warm welcome, i look forward to discussing many things in the future with you and possibly meeting some of you off here if we can get a meet started down in orange county, ca.

welcome to the site.
this forum always has been and will be a family friendly site.
hope you enjoy your stay.

the street racing comments were deleted, anything to do with street racing is not allowed on this board.

[windowlicker]

so i do have a question for you guys, i want to get a cheap strut tower bar for the front and rear or for the rear at the very least, but all the ones i've seen are $100 +. i looked on procarparts and didn't see anything for the 6th gen. where would i be able to pick up a real cheap strut bar?


i've also heard of people taking one for a neon and drilling out new holes to fit the 6th gen, is that correct? i'm looking to stiffen up the rear a bit to promote a little oversteer while i'm driving on the dirt. since i don't have power, might as well try a few little tricks to make it handle a little better in order to be a little more competetive in rallyx.

This post has been edited by windowlicker: Jul 25, 2008 - 9:50 PM

[Renegade]

was that car wrecked by any chance?

the previous owner was a chick, so yes. she replaced the fender and looks like the hood was repainted (not very good at that). she said that someone backed into her. when i did an alignment at our shop's open shop night, i was able to get all the angles in spec and the car drives pretty straight. the bumper doesn't really line up too well with the hood and the hood has some dents as well, but since its just a daily driver car and also the fact that it was only $700, can't beat it. car drives pretty good, gets pretty good gas mileage, and it is the generation of celicas i think looks the best. for me its not a matter of getting the car looking real clean, cause i'm not really concerned with that since i would rather invest my time and money into a quicker car. this car will be nice to hold onto though as it will be nice to have a car to drive while i work on the other.

By all means this was an excellent buy but i was noticing that the front crash bar thing where the hood-prop sits is silver and not black. thats why i thought it may have been in a "bad" wreck