Hi, everyone, I am new here and previously posted in Diagnosis section of this forum. I just decided to share my ST162 GT Celica. Before me it had two owners, first one till 1994 and second one is good old man from whom I bought it. I believe the car was taken care of and well maintained, it has 187k miles on it and doesn't have any major problems ( or so I think ) Car has idling problem, especially if anything electric is turned on ( like fan or when I press brake pedal or headlights) even though I have replaced alternator with new OEM one. After changing spark plugs and cleaning throttle body, it is a bit better. Overall car do look like old, but I want to restore it and maybe swap something like 4A-GE 20 valve or 3S-GE from Altezza ( oh dreams ), I do want to maintain mainly OEM car look, but with some enhancements, for now I try to fix body issues and minor mechanical problems.Oh I forgot to mention, my Celica has absolutely stunning red interior with which I'm in love and want to maintain its look. that stupid bra left tracks on the hood, bumper cover and fenders, although I do not care about fenders because they rusted out on the bottom and I want to replace them, overall body is rust free, but has small dents all over the body, the paint is generally in good condition for this age. I wonder if I would need to respray my car or I can restore existing paint.
Hello and welcome again from the UK. Very pleased that you have started a thread for your Celica, looking forward to future postings. The interior is really very special and looks in immaculate condition. If money is no object, a full respray would be the best for it.
Hello, thank you. I don't want to sacrifice quality while repairing/restoring Celica, but my funds are indeed limited, because I am a student, but I will do my best to make everything as close to OEM in terms of quality as possible, I really love this car. Interior looks good in photos, but does have problem areas. For example dash color is fading and shift boot is really in bad condition. I wanna change my boot to rubber pyramid style like those on AE86s but in red color, any ideas where I can get one? Paint have some bad spots but good overall, actually I don't see any point in full respray, however it is a good idea and a better quality solution, so I am not sure what to do about it.
Nice car! I've never seen a red interior is such good condition (I really love the look of it too). Make sure you preserve it!
Thank you! I will make sure interior is going to maintain its original look! I am planing to restore dash because it is faded, and change shift knob and boot. Do you know where I can get OEM ones or at least 80s looking in red that will match the interior? Driver's seat is in bad condition, and I really want to change both seats for something sportier like GT-S ones, but would have to change color of cloth anyways( no chance I will finds red interior gt-s seats ) actually I wanted AE86s JDM red seats, don't know if those are hard to find.
I'm back with some awful news. So I had a bit of free time and decided to take the car to the repair shop for electronics diagnosis, to fix that idle problem. They diagnosed my car and told me that previous owner was messing with ignition system ( I don't know for what but he installed starter button inside the car) now all ignition wires are connected with radio wires or something like that I don't remember correctly, that causes bad ground, so whole ignition wiring is messed up, they told me to get rid of the car, because it doesn't worth it to disassemble dash and replace whole wiring to stock, he also told me that time wise it is easier to swap new engine lol. I don't know what to do, I don't want to get rid of this car, I think I can take it somewhere else and see what others say.
Where are you located at? I see no reason you should have to tear apart the WHOLE dash for a bit of wiring. I'm sure I could diagnose and fix it in just a couple of hours if even that! Please take it to a better shop or find a local member who will be willing to help you out. I can even sell you a complete harness for that area if you need it. I have a spare
A bit more info on the topic so I checked that stupid starter button, it works even without key, so you can basically start the car without keys in the car, crazy!! Why would anyone do that to a car, I understand there could have been some starter problems but to make it like that... So looks like this crappy diy starter system causes problem where it have been attached, I was thinking of finding the wire and disconnecting it, leaving it like a dead wire inside panel, and later then look more closely where it is connected( If I understand correctly it bypasses ignition system, so should be attached straight to the starter, disconnect it from starter and it should be not working?)
Hello there I am in Denver, CO. Now I remeber, the old man from whom I bought the car told me he did like to repair the car himself, he gave me the repair manual and there are plenty of notes here, looks like a lot of going on with the electronics on this car, judging by his notes he definitely touched main relay, did this starter thing and messed with some sensors, also some climate control system repairing ( lol guess why my heater works only from time to time, quality repair heh) I don't know for now but maybe if everything is that bad, I wouldn't mind another harness, instead of repairing this ruined one. Thank you for your response, you made me feel better.
So I disconnected the starter button, nothing changes, discovered that two engine mounts are dead, maybe that's why I feel vibrations when rpms drop under load. 3SFE consuming a lot of oil ( I believe most of oil leaks through valve cover gasket), checked oil level today it was less than needed even though I changed oil about 2,5k miles ago and added some (what's left from oil change) like two weeks ago, ( although I have to mention that I rev engine a lot) also engine is losing power, for example it will not accelerate when going uphill. Driveshafts started to make crunching noise (when turning), I am assuming they need replacement. So I was thinking of doing 4AGE Blacktop swap with trans, instead of fixing issues with this engine. Blacktop seems like a perfect motor for me, NA, high-revving, reliable, makes decent power for 1.6 and inexpensive. So is it hard to do, do I need anything extra except for engine, wiring harness, trans? Just thinking though. Is it justifiable to spend money on repairing 3sfe, or should I not bother and save money for swap? Thanks
If you decide to stick with the 3sfe I have a whole wiring harness for you. I also have the whole dash harness if you need it.
