Bought a celica!, new member, celica owner Options

[chaynes]

Hey guys! I bought a celica today. It is a '95 ST hatchback. $180k miles, loaded with power everything and 5-speed manual. I bought it from a friend of mine who has owned it for the past 10+ years, from when we were in high school, so I have a good idea of the history of the vehicle. It hasn't been meticulously maintined to my standards, but if it survived this far, I can make it survive longer. I'm pretty happy with it, but it needs a few things before it'll be a good daily driver. Here's the short list:

New Tires - Has 2 good tires up front, but I found a set of 14" goodyears for $30 apiece on clearance. Is that a good deal?
New CV shafts - I have never owned a FWD vehicle. Both sides have busted boots, is that a good indication that they need to be replaced?
New Brakes - Shakes pretty bad, and sometimes makes a grinding noise! It has 180k miles, i don't think the rears have ever been changed.
New valve cover gasket - slowly leaking oil.
Fix A/C - the compressor doesn't respond to the switch. I'll check out the electrical, but i fear it may be a bad clutch. Hopefully it is a fuse or relay or something?

Also, there are little things:

Dash lights: only the center illumination is working, making it hard to see the gauges at night.
Struts on the hatchback need to be replaced. I'm using the prop method to hold it open right now. Hope it doesn't fall on me!!!
Antenna was broken off at some point.
Looks like there is a skid plate missing in the front, center.
There is a funny looking exhaust support toward the front of the vehicle that was broken.

Also, i need to look around for the hatchback divider panel. It could use some good seat covers too, or new seats all together.

The stock steel wheels are missing all their hub caps! It came with one, and when i went to pry it off it just fell off, leaving a pile of plastic tabs! Good thing it didn't come off on the interstate!

Checked gas mileage, it took 10.5 gallons after 375 miles. That's about 35.7mpg. WAAAAAAY better than the 14 i was getting in the Jeep I just sold. I didn't use AC of course, but the windows were down and the sun roof open on the interstate, so it probably evens out. I'm impressed! I do tend to be easy on the throttle though, and I use cruise control.

Great site BTW! If anyone has parts for sale (hatchback supports, antenna, skid plates) i'm interested in buying them.

[monkey]

hmm i dont know what size tires are steel wheeels, but i do know that the allos are 15" but yes 30 muchs a tire is usually a good deal.... haha youd actually get better gas milage using a/c than windows and roof, mythbusters proved that, but the road noise is terrible in these little things, so u probably had a better time with the windows down, thats why mine were always down...
well hell ya, welcome to the site and btw hatchbacks are byfar the sexiest of em all! lol

[99Celica]

welcome to the site lets see some pics of it! I would say $30 is a good price for a legitimate tire company, but i'm sure that doesn't include tax/installation. The cheapest tires I can get are $97 a tire. Make sure you give it a good tune-up.

[MercuryFree]

New CV shafts - I have never owned a FWD vehicle. Both sides have busted boots, is that a good indication that they need to be replaced?

As long as nothing's gotten inside of them you should be able to just replace the boots, no need to replace the CV's themselves. Depends how long they've been split and how badly I guess. When one of mine broke I had it fixed within a week of when it happened so all was good. The boots themselves are cheap but labour is a bit of a bitch due to the relatively long time it takes.

[zero07]

Congrats on the Celica!

All the parts your looking for should easily be located on this site.

Post a WTB ad in the buy and sell forums.

[njccmd2002]

i have two celis in the local junkyard that i can get parts from.

[chaynes]

MercuyFree:

The CV boots are pretty bad. No telling how long they have been split. I think i'll try to replace the shafts with new ones and do the brakes at the same time. Looks like the passenger side has a balancer on it. I wonder if the replacement will include all that?

I'm going to post a WTB... right now!