2001, 2004 Toyota Celica GT(-S) | Frankenstein.

Posting updates about my 2001 Celica GT-S & 2004 GT.



However, I will be posting lots about this car. Including KnOwLeDgE, wOrKiNg On iT, accumulating cReDIt CaRd DeBt (jk), and EmPtYiNg My BaNk AcCoUnT.

I'm also aware it is an automatic and slower than a manual. Please no hate.

__________________________

Running Titles:
| "Not-A-Teenager" Build | Title Pending
| "Not-A-Teenager" Build | "It just needs some LOVE."
| Resto Build | "It just needs some LOVE."
| Resto Build | Test Drive Time?
| Resto Build | Post Test Drive
| Resto Build | Rear Brakes and other f-ups.
| Rusto Build | Rust makes me want to commit 'turtle'.
| The Great Fixening
| Bondo Woes & Noob Body Work
| Interior Clean, Kilmat
| And I oop...
| Frankenstein
_______________________________



Disclaimer
This thread will be full of stuff I've heard and read and may not entirely be accurate, or accurate at all. Take everything with a grain of salt.

 

Bookmarks

About the Car:
The Original Listing
Anticipated Problems & Buying the Car
Driving it Home & First Day
Toyota Celica Marketing / Ads

Working on the Car:
Lift Bolts, Valve Cover, Plugs
Intake System
Discovering 'Bigger' Problems
Bondo Woes & Body Work | How to Fix a Cracked Plastic Bumper Like An Idiot

 

The Original Listing

This car was originally listed on Craigslist with only the first three exterior images.
Price: $2,600
Description: "Runs well, great student car."
Mileage: 203,000

I texted the seller and asked for pictures of the interior. After seeing the interior, I drove 4 hours with my girlfriend to look at this car, she made an offer that wasn't accepted. The seller said he had others coming to look later in the week. So, I did however give the seller some pointers & called his attention to some issues, and drove the 4 hours back home.

The seller later listed the car on Facebook with all the images (found below).
Price: $2,200
Description: "Runs well, great student car. Few dings and scratches."
Mileage: 202,000


Link to Imgur Album


If you are the seller, I'm sorry. No hard feelings. If you are not the seller, please respect the seller's privacy.

 

Anticipated Problems & Buying the Car

So a week after we had driven to look at the car, we noticed it was listed on Facebook as previously mentioned. Two weeks after looking at it, the seller messaged me:


The first time we went to look at it, we were able to test drive it. Since then, I hadn't stopped thinking or talking about this Celica -- "it just needs some love!"

That Saturday, we drove 4 more hours to look at this Celica again (seller came down on price a bit).

This time I was a bit more serious, so we took it for a much longer drive, and also took it on the interstate. As soon as we got on the interstate, the check engine light came on. We headed back & got the code checked on the way: P1693


I google mechanic'd the issue and determined it wasn't a deal-breaker. So I used it as leverage when negotiating.

I structured my offer on these:

Anticipated & Known Problems:
- Brakes. The brake pedal was SQUISHY. On the first test drive I nearly hit the curb when reversing because they brakes didn't grab. They got better after the car warmed up.
- Body Damage. Wear, dings & scratches are expected. But there were a few items that would require work. The quarter panel on the driver-side was side-swiped. A couple deep scratches & dings in the paint were improperly touched up. The rear bumper cover was cracked on the same side & needed a proper repair. The hatch had a bend in the corner & bad touch-up paint over it. A small spot of rust on the passenger door sill. A section of rust on the passenger rear fender, but it wasn't bad when looking at it. The front bumper's paint was cracked everywhere.
- Engine. Leaking valve cover. Leaking timing cover. Leaks from other locations I didn't know the names of. VVL, "Lift" did not work at all. Check engine light. However-- the engine still sounded very good and ran decent for what was on it.
- Bad Wheel Bearing or Bad Tires. I wasn't educated enough at the time to tell if the loud humming from the back-end was a wheel bearing, or a bad tire. But it was loud!
- Cold Air Intake. This thing had an Injen Short-Ram intake on it, that was corroded & had a cheapo Vatozone filter over it that had seen better days. This thing hissed loudly.
- Interior Panels. The previous owner before them had a dog or something that put lots of scratches in the soft plastics in the rear passenger side.
- Radio. The radio didn't turn on. Suspected fuse was blown.
- Carpet. A couple bad holes in the carpet on the driver's side (seen in listing pictures).
- Mileage. Every other regular maintenance item that's expected on a vehicle with 203,000 miles.

Positives:
- Newish tires on the front.
- Engine had good acceleration & felt strong.
- Suspension & steering handled excellently.
- Transmission shifted good & sport-shift worked flawlessly.
- Overdrive button worked.
- Attractive 7th Gen Celica.
- GT-S Celica.
- No crazy or cringe modifications most teenagers make to their cars.
- Previous owners had used seat covers.
- Leather interior.
- Sunroof.

At that point I made my offer, and seller accepted. Yay!

 

Driving it Home & First Day

When getting the title handled, I learned the previous owners had only put 18k miles on this Celica over the past four years. Is that good or bad? Time will tell!

It was getting dark when leaving seller's house. I had considered towing it home, but we made this trip in the mom-mobile. So I decided to take a risk and just drive it. Didn't check the tires, didn't check the oil, didn't check the headlights, didn't check the wipers, didn't check anything. It moved and all the turn signals worked, that was enough for me!

And once we needed the headlights, I think we found out why it wasn't driven much. Besides the gauge cluster & clock, the entire dash was black. No A/C lights, no shifter lights, no radio lights. The headlights turned on, but put 0% of the light where it was supposed to go. Then it started raining bad, and the windshield was sheeting water and the wipers didn't do jack shit. Had to use the brights & fog lights the whole way home, with the wheel bearing whirring loudly away.

It was only a 160 mile drive, no biggie.

Pros: The sunroof didn't leak.

Cons: "Everything else" - Bae

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The Morning After

Took my first-day of ownership photos and did some things.

Imgur Album (6 images)





First things first, removing all those stickers! Cleaned up very nicely with Turtle Wax, Label & Sticker Remover + a heat gun. I love the 'short' & 'wide' styling on these.



Also got the shift light bulb (size 74) replaced. The radio came on after replacing the blown fuse, as expected. However this created a new problem which I will document when I get around to fixing it.

The inside of this car is pretty nasty. Everything is gunky & sticky to the touch besides the seats. Ew!

This is a closeup of the current air filter. Hmm... Who knows what this will mean?

 

HVAC Bulbs | Headlight Brackets

Went to replace the HVAC climate bulbs, both were blown out so I suspected a circuit board issue or bad circuit elsewhere as commonly found online. The HVAC circuit boards are also known for snapping in half on the Celicas because of the construction & how they mount.

The bulbs screw out and are a Type T4 Neo Wedge or whatever.

Because Toyota is so amazing, they don't list these in parts diagrams or sell them for the Celica ("if you want to fix your HVAC lights, you need to replace the whole board!").

Tangent, supposedly Toyota shipped out the 7th gen Celicas without cabin air filters. The blower motor / filter housing is the same part as used in the Solara, which DID ship out with cabin air filters.
No cabin air filter was found in mine. I did check a few salvage yard Celicas, finding a filter in it is like a 50/50 chance. Cabin-air filter ordered.


I looked into finding cross-compatability between toyota A/C bulbs. The Camry bulbs from around the same year have the same shape but the base is different. Then I found someone's post on here about their HVAC bulbs.

So I got 1st gen Tacoma HVAC bulbs ordered, 90010-05120.

Base was the same shape, different color & markings. But alas, twisted right into the board with a little force, and lit right up! Some day I'll order new bulb condoms to put over them.

At $7 a bulb, more than I could have spent (or I could have gotten LEDs), but now I have a OEM bulb that will hopefully last another 20 years. Tacoma bulb on the left and old bulb on the right.


Getting the board back in without it breaking was very difficult!


Did some more inspecting, and noticed one headlight tab was broken (also a common occurrence), and the turn signal wiring for the bumper had been cut off by the tire. So maybe an accident happened up front or something else, we'll see when the front bumper gets taken off.


After Toyota discovered (or people complained enough) the headlight tabs break so easily, they released 4 different headlight fastener kits (top & bottom kit each L/R headlight). They ship with a replacement tab (shaped for the appropriate location & more flexible plastic) and two metal screws. Which oddly enough, screw into previously-unused screw holes. So the engineers may have made the provisions, expecting these tabs might break and have to release a fix later (or it was all a scheme to sell $9 kits every time someone removed their headlight). Will have pictures later with my headlight 'fixed' with the "Headlight Fastener Clip (Right, Upper) (81193-20020)".

This is the only case I know of where Toyota has released a band-aid part to fix something (nicely) that isn't supposed to break. But I'm sure there are others...

Also cleaned up the steering wheel, dashboard, & center console plastics.


PM me for pictures of cup-holder, hair, grease, coin & soda stew. These coins were basically glued to the rubber. Yuck.

I also found like 10 different receipts to COOK OUT

 

Following! Always thought the Celica was so cool when I was young, can't wait to see the progress

 

The 2ZZ is a rev happy engine but beware they are time bombs. Make sure the oil and coolant are topped up before you go near redline.

 

Now that I had the interior lights working, it was time to move on to more important things before I deemed it reliable transportation. Mainly, the low beams that put out no light and much needed engine maintenance (or at least fixing that CEL).

I finally checked the tire pressure (I noticed it was leaning) and had 8psi in the front left tire, lol. Filled them all up to 32.

The passenger side headlight was missing the retaining spring that presses against in the bulb socket/adapter, and I couldn't find a source or replacement for it online or locally. That side's bulb wasn't held in place, thus no light output. The dust cover was also ripped and the headlight was filled with glass. More on this later.


Preparing for Engine Work
For working on the engine, I did lots of searching on the VVi & VVL systems and common issues with the 2ZZ. For the P1693 code, it is most common for the solenoid to not receive enough oil from the engine to actuate lift. I decided to start there. I placed two orders on the following items between my local Toyota dealer & RockAuto:

90915YZZF1 Oil Filter (2)
9043012031 Toyota Oil Drain Plug Washers (2)
9010506293 Lift Bolts (4, 2 extra)
1121388600 Valve Cover Gasket (1)
1533822010 VVL Solenoid / Oil Control Housing Gasket (1)
9043014009 Gasket for the VVi Filter bolt (1)
1567821010 VVi Filter (2, 1 extra )
1567832010 VVL Filter (1)

Others:
My headlight fastener clip (8119320020 x1) & HVAC bulbs (9001005120 x2) as previously mentioned.

From RockAuto:
4 Denso Spark Plugs
1 Denso Air Filter
1 Denso Cabin Air Filter
3 Bosch Wiper Blades (20" FL, 12" FR, 16" Rear)

Besides the leaky valve cover gasket, I didn't inspect any of the parts on the engine before these orders, shotgun approach. The timing cover is also leaking, but for the amount I'm driving it currently, I don't have the will or time to fix it yet. It costs $100-200 in Toyota Parts to do it correctly.

Intake - Before I bought the Celica, I decided it had to go. I sourced and placed two more orders on eBay for a used (OEM) filter housing assembly and intake tube.
Important to note, between the 1ZZ & 2ZZ engine, the housing is the same, but the intake tube is slightly different: GT-S, 2ZZ (1788122020), 2000-2003 only. GT, 1ZZ (1788122030) '00-05
The 1ZZ has a different (plastic?) intake manifold & throttle body at different angles. (I'm not sure if it is the throttle diameter or the angle that differentiates the tubes)

Before doing all this work, I took a video so I can make a before/after comparison later.

Volume warning. When my fat ass sat in the vehicle it squatted against the tripod and caused a horrible wubbing into the mic, so I cut that part out and that's why the video jumps.


As I mentioned earlier, the intake hisses (I found the connections were loose and tightened them, but it only got it as quiet as in the video). On startup, the intake cam gear is causing the chattering noise. It is a "common issue", and Toyota went through several revisions of this gear across multiple models. But from my research I concluded it was not an important fix. If I still have the car in the future, I will be replacing it and will document more then.

I meant to take pictures of the interior lights for this post & other things, but the car battery is dead.
A later post on the engine will include many images and cool finds.

 

Lift Bolts, Valve Cover, Plugs

Imgur Album

My shipment from Toyota arrived and I could start working on the filters and valve cover.

Removed the valve cover for the first time. I didn't see anything immediately concerning and there wasn't any black carbon buildup on the engine. Good.
However, the camshaft lobes did have lots of horizontal wear lines on them, but none that I could catch with my fingernail. The worst was seeing the lift bolts.

Toyota released a TSB in 2003 that acknowledged & suggested the proper repair for the lift bolt issue on these motors. 2000-2002 Celicas shipped out with a style that was more susceptible to wear than the improved bolt in 2003+. Good Toyota owners got this repair done. I found these to be the original lift bolts, and expected the worst since I had the CEL for lift not working (they like to snap off in the cam insert).

The intake lift bolt receives more wear and usually breaks before the exhaust bolt. Alas, mine came out (very carefully):

Original Exhaust-Side Lift Bolt, Revised Flange Bolt, Original Intake-side Lift Bolt

And a closeup of where they wear:

Visible wear occurred on both bolts, here on the intake bolt, the lip is clearly visible and definitely caught by a fingernail. Full-res images can be found in the Imgur Album.

And here is there relative location in the 2ZZ.


I got the new lift bolts installed (5.5ft/ibs), and moved on to bigger and better things. Since the lift bolts were fine, the next item of interest is the solenoid housing. If there isn't a problem found there, fixing my CEL and 'Lift' will get much more expensive to fix.

Remove the battery. This housing is on the driver's side of the engine and holds the oil valve solenoid and oil filter:

Re-installing the VVL / OCV housing.

Six or seven small bolts to get it unbuttoned, and a light tap with a rubber mallet to get it loose. The filter inside was the original-style metal filter, which I had to use pliers to remove. It was completely gummed up with carbon/deposits. CEL problem found!


Removed the solenoid (seen pictured above), and sprayed all the ports out really good with some brake cleaner. I couldn't get the metal screen cleaned, so I used my plastic Toyota filter replacement. Applied a few drops of new motor oil to the parts before putting them back together, and torque'd the assembly to the head (7 ft/ibs).

I hit one speed bump while working on this - I did not order a replacement gasket for the vacuum port on the left side of the engine. So this connection has been temporarily fixed with copper spray-on gasket and the old gasket after I cleaned it up a little (had corrosion):

The correct part number for this connection is 12255-88600 and is called the "Gasket, Ventilation".

I also installed the 4 new Denso (3297) Long Life Iridiums, to replace the Bosch plugs I found in there. They didn't look bad, but I need my OE[M] parts.


Two other items on the valve cover I will be replacing later when I do the timing cover include the o-ring for the oil tube, and the 4 spark plug seals.

While doing this work, I removed the passenger-side running board / panel to take a better look at the spot of rust at the bottom of the door. It crumbled away:


And also a better look at the rear passenger fender after poking at it a little bit. It doesn't look too bad yet so I'm not worried:





I will cover the air intake & throttle body in a later post.

 

I always wanted one of those celica gts’ it was one of the first-ish affordable cars with a 6 speed manual if I remember correctly

 

Air Intake, Other Goodies

Imgur Album

Now to tackle the air box. The day the eBay air box I ordered arrived, I conveniently made my first trip to LKQ to find some parts. I picked up a second intake box from a GT there, so I could pick and choose the best parts to put in this car. Almost all of the intake boxes I've seen online & at yards have broken clips or the plastic edges that hold the lid down have broken.

I also scored some other goodies:
- A new antenna base to replace mine (broken antenna stuck inside).
- Engine plastics / radiator cover.
- A few brackets for the engine bay.
- The retaining spring & socket I needed for my headlight.
- A hatch seal better than the one I've got.

The intake system had seen no love since it was installed, it looks like.

Lots of corrosion on the inside & contaminants. Filter is soaked through with oils/dirt.

Mass airflow sensor:

Yuck! Absolutely caked MAF.

Throttle Body:

Not too bad. Dirty throttle body butterfly valve.

I didn't like what I saw, so I took the time to unbolt the throttle body & clean it as much as I could without removing the coolant lines. The bolts had corroded and were an absolute pain to get out, so I made a trip to the store to get replacements. Then I found out the gasket was also junked, so another order was placed with Toyota. And waited a week for them to get here...

Got it clean enough for me, and applied a little bit of Toyota gasket maker to the scratches I made on the machined surface.

Gasket maker applied to some scratches on the upper left corner of throttle body.

Then I went on to selecting the best parts from my air boxes. The piece I received from eBay had rust on the rod for the 'butterfly plate' and would not articulate smoothly. This plate restricts, and changes the flow of air through the air box, as well as dampening noise. It is controlled by the vacuum system. Most people remove these (or switch to an aftermarket intake) to be louder & get more air. But I'm aiming for quietness.

Butterfly valve thing on the air intake assembly.

And since I had two boxes, I also got to pick the best valves & sensors to replace my rusty ones. There are three different ones:

New (used) Vacuum sensor/valve! Not rusty! Yay!

I also got to pick & choose the best looking vacuum lines. No more red! Just needed to cut my own piece to route air from the throttle body to the thing in the image (shiny black). This was from my silicone intakes engine dress up kit that I had bought for my Tacoma but never used -- handy. If I hadn't pulled the box from the GT at LKQ, I wouldn't have known how to route any of the lines.

Installed the retaining spring & bulb socket into my headlights and got them seated properly.

Now my work to get the car back to stock is done, the ECU's been reset, sensors cleaned, check engine light fixed (hopefully), new spark plugs, fresh oil, some new gaskets, and we're ready for a test drive!

It needs a detail! And I couldn't get the LKQ paint off the plastic.

 

When waiting for parts to arrive to complete the valve cover job, I had also ordered two Toyota key blanks and got them cut. I was also able to source replacement remotes for the VIPER security alarm system that the previous owners said never worked. I think this is also why my battery drains so fast.

Spent a couple hours identifying the system that was installed, and finding the button or switch underneath the dash.

Aftermarket alarm. Ew.

Ordered cheap china replacement remotes, which arrived a week later:

New remote on bottom. Old on top. In the meantime, I had cracked open the original fob and put a battery in it.

It was easy to program after I found the correct set of instructions online. However, I wasn't impressed with the functionality. I'm not sure having the annoying siren installed in the car is worth the other electrical demons. Also found out both power door lock actuators are broken in the doors. So something else to fix later! I think now I just want to find a Toyota fob & module and take out this system.

More details in this thread (click the quote arrow). I've modified the quote:

Now I had freshly cut Toyota keys and new fobs, and the engine work done on the car.

I took it out on a test drive around the block, and the check engine light went away! Yay! It also hit lift; the RPMs rise much faster from 6.8k-redline and there's a little G-force. It wasn't as impressive as my friends (he had a 6-speed manual), but I'm more than happy to have a driving car.

For the two days it was running, I took both my parents and my girlfriend on an individual "test drive" around the city, now that everything was working and I got my plate.

...except the wheel bearings, the brakes, and the annoying radio hum. My driving definitely adjusted for the brakes and it wasn't as big of a problem as before. But the wheel bearing was LOUD still. Louder than I could think while driving.

So I pulled it back into the garage and parked it, jacked it up for the first time and was going to test the other wheel bearings for play, and take off the wheels & check the brake pad wear.

... until I couldn't:


Previous owner or mechanic destroyed the locking lug key. Bruh.

Now to wait for Monday to contact McGARD.

 

Contacted McGARD about my wheel locks. They had me send their customer support email pictures of my locks & broken key. Tuesday, support got back to me with a lock # & customer # to use on their site to order 'replacement locks'.

So while waiting on them I made several errands around town trying lug remover tools/sockets & things to no success. Went to Toyota and picked up some transmission fluid, brake fluid & power steering fluid and also flushed the power steering while I waited for my key in the mail. Also shelled out the $$$ for a pair of wheel bearings & hubs with ABS sensors on the rear.

Key arrived and was a perfect match, finally able to get the back wheels off. Removed the caliper & after close examination I decided my rotors were trashed.

Rear right rotor.


Sandblasted a section to remove surface rust & expose extent of pitting. Front side.


Rear side. Not as bad.

Darn shame! Rotors weren't warped, but the pitting explains why it felt like braking on a gravel road. The front rotors are still nice & smooth as expected, so I'm just replacing the rears for now. Ordered new rotors & pads.

The next day my wheel bearings showed up, I got underneath the car and realized I f'd up immediately. This Celica does not have ABS.

Spent a lot of time hammering & hammering to separate the back of the hub thing from the backing plate.

Wheel bearings with a side of rust flake. Mmmm. I didn't exactly know what I was doing, so after hitting it with a sledge for 20 minutes I drilled into the back cover & then hit it on the side with a chisel... Popped right out a few hits later -- after I realized I needed a solid surface behind it to make enough force lol.


Rear e-brake hardware. Not too bad!

Returned the ABS hubs & ordered the non-ABS version for significantly less $$. Yay, more waiting on parts!

 

Always thought these were fun looking cars. Glad you are putting the time into fixing it up!

 

Also following along. Really enjoying this. Thanks

 

Toyota Celica Marketing / Ads

"It's a natural selection."

"Looks like you're the one, who's all revved up."

"Thrills for Grown-ups!"

"Looks Fast."

I was barely alive when all this was made so I found it worthwhile to post. Only focusing on 7th Gen. If I find anything else interesting I'll add it here.

While I was waiting for things to get delivered, I ordered myself an 'adult' picture-book off of eBay. This went in my binder for this car.

Imgur Album


Print




Toyota Celica, Sales 'Brochure', 2001. 22 pages of Celica . I definitely like that it's the silver GT-S in most of the pictures.

You can also find the Toyota Celica sales pamphlet online in PDF format, which is this document:

Toyota Celica, Sales 'Pamphlet', 2001. Four pages covering the options.

This 4-page PDF can be found here (along with many other Toyota models): https://www.auto-brochures.com/toyota.html
The images and options are different across years.

I couldn't find the PDF of the book I bought online, partly because most of the sites I went too were too sketchy.


Toyota Website

Curious minds can navigate & explore using the Wayback Machine. Tacoma stuff is also on there, too. Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20010607082505/http://toyota.com/shop/vehicles/celica/index.html

Toyota's landing page for the Celica. Wayback didn't capture everything. TiMeS hAvE cHaNgEd!


YouTube (TV Commercials)

"Thrills for Grown-ups!" This is my favorite one:


Then there is this compilation someone put together. The "Looks Fast" Action Package commercials are in the middle, hilarious.

 

I remember those red celica looks fast commercials, they used to play them in the movie theater before the movie started

 

I was wondering if they actually aired on TV like that. So the movie theater explanation makes a lot more sense, I think.

Busy w/ skewlz but I will continue posting when I'm done. Actual progress is further ahead than I've posted.


pls enjoy my 5 min photoshop

 

Subbed. This is what I had before I bought my Tacoma 2 years ago. Same year even. Even with a Turbo, it wasn't real fast, but I loved the fact that it handled so well that once you got it up to speed, you never had to slow down Fun little car. Handles and rides like a go-cart for sure.