6G Celicas Forums

Aerodymics matter with a vert. Also an automatic isn't a efficient as a manual. City driving is having a stop sign on every other corner, if not every corner. No remedy for that.

Don't worry about it. My previous Celica (an '89) made that sound from about 100K until I sold it at 170K. It won't affect engine performance or anything else. Unless you have a mechanic that will work for cheap and do the job right (both of which are unlikely), just leave it alone. It won't harm the engine any. It's just a minor annoyance. Let it be the least of your worries, and enjoy your Celica.

Mine's a convertible, as was my previous Celica. If it weren't a convertible I wouldn't have bought a Celica. But as convertibles go I didn't want a Solara or a Miata, or a Mitsu Eclipse, or a BMW, or a Saab, etc. So I bought the last model year of Celica that was made topless. No regrets!

LOL! Come drive in NYC if you think city driving in LA is bad.

I typically get about 22 MPG in driving that is entirely in city-like traffic mostly in the lower gears with an A/T. On the hwy it's closer to 30 MPG.

But mine's a 'vert that's driven only in summer, and always with the top down, unless it's raining.

So... since this thread is about aging owners, how old are you?

As a stored car gets older typically you will hear some valve clatter, but only briefly when you first start it up. The noise will abate as soon as the oil starts to circulate. In spring I let it run until warmed up, then do the oil change after it is up to temp.

Buy it! Once you own a Celica convertible you'll never want anything else!

Indoor garaging of it is more than half the battle of preservation and longevity. I have a '99 convertible used only during summer. I do nothing special for mine except for having washed it at some time in the month before storage, (polishing it too, if I have the time to do it) remove the battery (which I then install in my other stored car that is replacing it) cover it with a car cover, and leave it until spring when it goes back into service. Then, in spring I change the oil and tranny fluid and look for any signs of fluid leaks or any other signs of potential problems. Forget about putting it up on jack stands. The rubber tires will eventually fail over time from their age, usually in about ten years or so, no matter what you do. Six or nine months of tires being on a stored, unmoved car doesn't kill them. Time itself is what degrades the rubber of tires.

In my experience gas does not go bad in such a short period of time. I've been driving for 43 years, owned many cars over that time period, and have never needed to change a fuel filter, ever.

Garaging a car daily and keeping it out of the elements, especially in winter, extends its life and that matters a LOT. That's the key to keeping a car as long as possible.

BTW, my winter car that replaces my Celica is an '88 Mitsubishi Galant. After 25 years it still looks and runs like new. Aside from it being a good design with no engineering defects, I must be doing something right.

As the old song goes "you make me feel so young..." (My wife is a few years younger than me and when she mentions growing older I tell her "Honey, you'll always be younger than me".

How many miles on the old gal (meaning your Celica, of course)?

I'm 60. Yeah, I'm old and getting older. (Who's getting younger?) But I still love driving a convertible in summer.

My Celica is a '99 convertible, with about 59K miles. I drive it only in summer, then it goes back in the garage until next year.

It's one of my younger cars. During the rest of the year my daily driver is an '89 Mitsubishi Galant. That one is also garaged. I just took my Celica off the road a few days ago and went back to driving the old Galant. It's another sweet car that I won't part with. It looks and runs like new.

My previous convertible was an '88 Celica which clocked about 160K miles. I sold it after I bought the '99 as a used car in 2003. I didn't want a Solara - too big and heavy and ugly. I had to have another Celica convertible and since they weren't making any more I had to search for one that was "pre-owned'. No regrets!!!

Condition is far more important than age. It applies to people as well as to cars.

Refer to my latest posts in that thread. IMHO the only other possibility might have been from overinflated tire pressures. Not all tires respond well to over-inflation and can demonstrate weird effects under certain circumstances.

No - I was monitoring it carefully and I considered this, but it's not the case.

Read my previous recent post about tire pressures.

The spin balance was done when the 4 new tires were mounted. The tires are Kumho Ecsta 4X 's. They have about 1K miles on them by now, at most.

As I mentioned, the old tires were worn evenly, so it's not the alignment. While I was experiencing the vibration, of course I thought that the wheel balancing might not have been done properly - but that would not account for the vibration disappearing completely with the top down. (I've been driving for more than 40 years and have owned various convertibles throughout my adult life.)

There is only one other possibility that I can think of. My previous convertible was an '89 Celica that I bought used. I had that car checked by a mechanic before I bought it. After I bought it I noticed weird, unstable handling at speeds of over 50 MPH. The tires that came with it were Dunlops; when I checked the tire pressures I found that the previous owner had them inflated to over 40 PSI. I reduced the pressure to about 30 PSI and the unstable handling problem disappeared. I wasn't happy with the Dunlops and when they needed to be replaced I bought Sumitomo's which worked great, even when overinflated.

Now back to my current '99...

When I put the car on the road in May and installed the new tires, I inflated them to 40 PSI. Over-inflation gives a harder ride, but good MPG, as expected. Considering my previous experience with the Dunlops, this is the only other possibility I can think of that might be the cause. In this case it's not quirky handling, but rather vibration. Some tires have no issues with over-inflation, but some tires (as in the case of the Dunlops) apparently DO. (My wife's car has a cheap set of Kumho tires and shows no handling or vibration issues with their being over-inflated at 40 PSI.)

This link seems to affirm it: click here


After my trip I checked the tire pressures when cold and found them to be at 37 PSI. I have now reduced the pressures to 32 PSI. Unfortunately, since I live in a citified area, I can't drive much faster than 65 anywhere around here - so I won't be able to replicate the conditions of having top up and going 75-80.

It still doesn't explain why the condition disappears when the top is down though. (Which is why I started this thread...)

If the alignment were off (or if it were a suspension problem) there would be vibration present whether the top were down or not.

My previous tires were worn evenly for their duration of life, from start to finish. This is obviously not an alignment problem, nor a wheel balancing problem. This only occurs at high speed, and only with the top up. At the same high speeds with the top down there is no vibration present, whatsoever.

Those are the facts, strange as they may seem.

Do you ever drive it at 75-80 with the top up?

I don't recall ever feeling vibration at speeds below 65.

I recently experienced a bizarre situation with my Celica convertible and I would like to hear comments and experiences from other convertible owners.

I have a ’99 Celica convertible that I only drive in summer and it is garaged the rest of the year: It has 57K miles, with brand new tires that were recently spin balanced. I live in suburbia and most of my driving is local, with occasional highway speeds of 65 MPH at most. If it isn’t raining, the top is always down, so I rarely drive with the top up.

I recently drove 200 miles on a trip into the rural countryside. Due to a thunderstorm my car was all wet so I had to drive back with the top up, as the weather was unsettled. The rain had stopped, it was merely cloudy and there was no wind. While driving on an interstate highway at speeds of 75-80 MPH I noticed an unusual vibration in the steering wheel and throughout the entire car. It seemed worse on a downgrade and somewhat better when turning or on level ground. This was very disturbing, as considering the excellent condition of the car and having practically new tires, there was nothing to account for it. The vibration condition continued for 50 miles, during which the sky cleared and the top became dry. I stopped at a rest area and put the top down. I continued my trip, purposely driving at the same relatively high speed – and the vibration disappeared entirely. With the top down, there was NO further vibration whatsoever!

There is only one conclusion I can draw: The convertible top on a ’99 Celica plays havoc with the aerodynamics of the car when driven at higher speeds. My previous convertible, a ’89 Celica didn’t do this – but that car had a much narrower track width and a smaller convertible top.

Comments? Has anyone else noticed this?

Apparently there is no correlation between the ASC number and the VIN number.

The VIN number on my '99 convertible ends in 2709. The ASC number is 0355, and the conversion was done in November 1998.

Now that I recently had time to examine it, I understand you fully and appreciate the advice. By listening and feeling it click I know which relay powers the parking lights (one on one board) and which relay powers the fog lights (one on a different board). You can call me lazy - but I'd like to know by color code which wire it is that sends power from the parking light switch when it is turned on. If I can locate that and use the parking light feed instead of the headlight feed, that's the way I want to do the change. Taking both those under-dash panels down to locate the one correct wire is a real PITA, and short of that it's tough, as there must be at least a hundred wires there. I can pick probe the wires to verify the switched hot wire feed coming from the parking light switch. Does anyone have a wiring diagram that will tell which wire it is?

Oh, and it would also help to know which wire is the headlight switch feed that is currently powering that fog relay.

I’m new to this list. I know I'm bringing this topic back from the dead but I hope you'll understand why. I have a ’99 Celica and would like my fog lights to be powered up with the parking lights, not in the headlight circuit as Toyota designed it.

I tried to utilize the information and the photos in this thread to modify it. Unfortunately, the directions are not applicable to the 1999 model year. The blue relay shown in the photo looks the same as the one on my car, but on mine it is a starter relay. (It says so right on the relay and the car won’t start without it.)

Here’s a photo of what my fuse & relay box looks like: http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab316/t...k/99FuseBox.jpg


There are several other relays but I haven’t a clue as to which relay might be for the fog lights. If anyone knows how to do this, I’d appreciate the help.