6G Celicas Forums

Thanks guys but I've got it all sorted!

Didn't bother with Toyota for the seal - just took the old one (and the shaft) to a bearing shop and they sold me a new seal to suit. It's just a standard metric size 10x20x7mm oil seal. Not cheap at AU$20, but better than AU$300 for a new distributor!

I reassembled everything and when got to the keyed coupler I was asking about above, I just decided to try my luck - it was a 50/50 chance of getting it right! And it was! Yay! The pin in it is really tight so I wasn't looking forward to having to press it out again.

I stopped at Toyota on the way home to order a new distributor cover gasket. It will arrive in a couple of days time - at least she's driveable without it (unless it rains). Not a bad price at only $5.20 either. For reference the part number is 1912774050 (although I will confirm if this is the right part when it arrives).

Whilst I had the distributor apart I noticed that some of the internal wires going to the magnetic pickups had some big cracks in their insulation, so I coated them in the same silicone that I used to seal the coil-pack to the distributor body.

So total cost for the rebuild, including replacing the broken rotor has come in at under $45. Much better than $300!

Yeah they should be the same. It should only have four high tension leads connected to it, not 5 like the older version. Cheers!

Hey 6GC! It's been a while since I've hung out here, probably mostly because I've stopped spending unnecessary money on the Celi in saving for my next car, and looking at all the hot Celis here is counter-productive to that goal.

Well I've had a very slight oil leak for a while now coming from the distributor. She's a 1998 model, so it's the version with inbuilt coil-pack. About 8 months ago I replaced the distributor mounting O-ring:



And that seemed to fix the problem for a bit. But then about a month ago I noticed that it was leaking again from the same spot (underneath the distributor mount). I'd say it took a while to notice again because
a) The o-ring I replaced was pretty stuffed, so replacing it would have helped a bit, and
b) After replacing the o-ring I degreased the entire engine bay and had it all sweet. The leak drops straight down onto the driveshaft axle, which flicks it all over the back of the engine. It therefore takes a while for the oil to collect in significant enough amounts to drip.

Anyway I pulled the distributor off again and had a look. The leak seemed to be coming from inside the distributor, as there are two drain holes on the bottom side just next to the mounting flange. You can see one of them in the pic above.

After doing some research it turns out that the 5SFE distributors are notorious for leaking oil in through the internal seal. Most people were saying to just replace the distributor, but there's no way I'm forking out 250 bucks when the problem is simply an oil seal! So apart came the distributor. It was a pretty straightforward process which left me feeling pretty confident.

Upon disassembly I could clearly see where the oil had been coming through - there was still a decent amount pooled inside the metal part of the dist. assembly. I would have taken a picture of it but I had already degreased it all.

So here's a picture of the offending seal (on the right), next to the bearing:



The bearing doesn't have to be removed to replace the seal, but in my case the bearing was pretty stuffed too, so I figured I might as well replace it while I'm here. It looks so chewed up because of the jumbo bearing puller I used on it. I just used some hardwood and a vice to press the new bearing on.

So here's my problem. When I pulled off the piece which connects the distributor to the shaft inside the engine (does it couple directly to the camshaft?), I didn't realise that it was keyed. Now I would just trial and error to get it back (it can only go one of two ways), but it involves mucking around with the pin that holds the keyed part in place, which I'd rather not do more than I have to. So can anybody please have a look at the distributor and tell me which way the coupler mounts, as per the below pics:





I haven't bought the replacement seal yet - my local auto store only had the bearing and rotor (the old one was brittle and broke during disassembly). I'll drop by Toyota on the way to work tomorrow, but I have read on some sites that you can't buy the seals from Toyota. We'll see how I go. I also need the distributor cover gasket as that kind of disintegrated during disassembly too....

If somebody could let me know about the shaft coupler keying it would be much appreciated.

Hey sorry to dig up an old thread but is anybody else not seeing the pics in this how-to? I'm going to have to do something like this so I need to see exactly how it looks.

From what I understand all of the units that are similar to the D2s come out of the same factory in Taiwan. I know my G4 ones did - they just anodise them a different colour! Anyway I heard that very early on in the piece D2 had some quality problems but they sorted that out quick smart and the only horrific pictures I've seen have been from people using them on a racetrack.

I've had a set of the G4s for 4 months now and I love them. I look at it like this: if you're just using them for normal street use then they aren't going to be under anywhere near as much stress as for race use. So if you're going to take your car on a track then def pay more and get the high quality stuff. But if it's just for street use then you'll be fine with the economy stuff.

One other thing to note is that even if a strut does fail, replacement parts for the economy brands seem to be much easier to get. One of the reasons I went with the G4 brand is that the distributor here in Australia keeps a full stock of replacement parts.

Ride quality is how you set it. I accidentally ordered super stiff springs so it's a bit hard but handles like a dream. On a Celica they'll give you as much drop as you could ever want.

OK so seeing as I'll be doing a few upgrades (mainly aesthetic), I figured I'd detail them in this thread rather than make a new one...

I picked up the final two parts today - the replacement collars for the front control arms. If all goes to plan I'll be reassembling her on Friday after printing out the procedures for control arm removal. She will be driveable ok but that's it - I have glued the front bumper back together and banged out the dents in the fender so will have to drive around like that until I get organised with a replacement bumper and a new paint job.

Unfortunately I can't get a replacement wheel because they don't make them in this stud pattern any more! So I'm on the lookout for some secondhand wheels - I really can't afford new ones. I'll take the opportunity to jump up in size to 18" too.

As for the bumper, I'm thinking of getting a cheapo invader style front bar for $400 and modding it by removing the wingy bits along the bottom to make it flow better with the rest of my kit. I understand that the invader front bar comes as two pieces anyway - does anybody have a pic of just the main piece installed without the bottom lip piece?

The wing is off and staying off, and I also picked up one other goodie today. The TOYOTA CELICA words on the left of the hatch will be replaced with this:



Oh and lastly, I'll be selling my TOMs option (magic) front lip. It got damaged in the crash but I'll repair it first and then sell it to anybody in Australia who wants it. It's too hard to ship it overseas.

OK quick update. I called Toyota and ordered the new collars as part number 90389-21003. Cost is AU$12.10 each but I apparently got the last two in the country

Thanks for the suggestion but TBH I'm over the performance bushings idea. I just want to get the replacement collars and get her going again

I'm gonna call Toyota today and give them the collar part number from Wannabe to make sure they can get them...

Fantastic! Massive thanks for the info

I believe you are correct about the performance bushings not being available - the mate who suggested it to me later found out that we would have to get them custom made so I'm over doing that. And I'd say the reason Toyota said they couldn't get the collars is that I was describing them as bushes.

It's interesting that the whole subframe (what I was calling the crossmember) needs to be dropped. I did try to do that at one stage but have up when I realised just how many parts are attached to it (engine mount, steering rack, etc.). Oh well it's not too bad when you have the relevant instructions on how to do it.

Anyway it should all be good now. Thanks again for the help!

Hi everyone,

Well after the accident a few weeks ago the Celi is coming back together very slowly. The only thing stopping me now is replacement of the control arms and this entails two main issues. The first problem is sourcing replacement bushes for the front control arm rear mount - Toyota only sells them with a new control arm for 600 bucks! The second problem is how to actually install the control arms. Please read on:

So what started all of this is the fact that when I slammed sideways into a gutter I mangled the front left control arm (amongst other things). So I sourced a replacement from the local wreckers (who had to get one in from somewhere down south as there are no wrecked ST204s here in Queensland!) which looks good. Removing the control arm is supposed to be easy - just undo the two nuts and bold that fasten it to the steering knuckly ball joint, undo the sway bar link and then unto the two control arm mounts. Everything came off quite nicely until I reached the rear mount. I removed the bolt that goes vertically up into the chassis but the control arm stayed fixed in place because of a metal "inner bush" (for lack of a better term) that protrudes out both ends of the rubber main bush.

We'll take a short break here to look at my fancy pictures:

Here's the right side control arm with eveything labeled. This is for two reasons - firstly in case I have any names wrong and secondly to help anybody who is reading this thread as an educational exercise keep up. Viewed from top.


The next piece of high quality photoshopping shows what the rear mount would look like when installed and viewed from the side. So the inner bush and fastening bolt would go vertically through the rubber bush.


Finally here are the inner bushes. They're just bits of metal tubing with a flared end on the top. Don't mind the really obliterated one - I'll discuss it later:



Anyway back to the removal. I jumped onto my PC and looked at the manuals I had downloaded from Celicatech.com but the diagram of the suspension that featured the control arm mounts had a completely different rear mount. Instead of being bolted on with a vertical bolt, the bolt went horizontally like on the front mount. This was starting to get a bit frustrating.

So I did a bunch of pulling and prying, trying to get the inner bush out. Once it's out, the control arm should just slide out. I ended up having a mate of my Dad's help out and much to my disapproval he got a pry bar and simply wedged apart the crossmember/chassis mounts and pulled the arm out. Actually it wasn't simple - it took him ages and he made a mess of the crossmember parts and the inner bush was a bit mangled. So that's definitely NOT the right way to do it.

So we're halfway there but I need to get a new inner bush. I rang Toyota and the bloke there informed me that I can't get a replacement bush from them without buying a whole new control arm. No thanks! I talked to a mate and he said if I got a polyurethane performance bush it would come with the inner bush too so I jumped at the idea of upgrading and decided to pull the right side control arm off too (because they come as a kit for both the front left and right). This time I decided to just sacrifice the inner bush and bashed it out of shape with a hammer and screwdriver so that I could just pull it out the bottom. That was still a bit of a mission and took me ages but I finally got it out.

It was at this stage that I realised that the flared part on top of these inner bushes was going to prevent any new ones from being pushed up into position - they seem like they would need to be forced down. But if we follow that line of though then that would mean that the whole entire crossmember would have to be dropped down, which isn't a 2-minute job - it has engine mounts and all sorts of things attached! And to add insult to injury I then found out that the performance bushes aren't as easy to get as I expected so I have no idea where to get some.

Sorry for the long post but here we are with the questions:

1. Does anyone have a repair manual that shows the correct control arm mounts and removal procedure? She's a 98 ST204.

2. Can I buy the replacement inner bushes from anywhere?

3. Does anybody know where to get performance bushes from?

I'm off to uni for a couple of weeks tomorrow (borrowing Mum's car) but I'm hoping to come back and get the Celi back driveable again. I'm missing her like crazy! So any help is really appreciated!

Thanks guys,

Zac

Thanks for the offers HaRv3sTeR but as goferris mentioned shipping to Oz would be disgusting

Stallion, insurance companies here obviously work a little different as everyone I tried to get quotes from had it classed as a sports car - in fact many companies would not insure it at all! She was previously insured but I had to cancel the policy after doing the mods I've done as they refused to insure me anymore.

Still no suggestions about removing the control arm? I'm really not having much success trying to work it out. Does anybody have the manual for the suspension on a 96+ model they could get the instructions from?

In other news I've pulled out the other axle shaft as the CV boot had split. there's a lot of grease everywhere from the leaking boots on both sides so I'm going to pressure clean the engine bay tomorrow. The boots are getting replaced today.

Hey Mitchy nice to see another Aussie 6GCer. And another QLDer at that

No hurts and no comprehensive insurance. Sports car + under 25 = massive premiums and rediculous excess, i.e. it will be cheaper to fix myself. No airbags either so that's something else I don't have to deal with.


The lip is def repairable but to be honest I'm thinking of just selling it as is and hacking what's left of the bumper into a piece of custom work. My Dad is pretty handy with fibreglass and I do a lot of making custom scale models of sci fi mecha and stuff so I think it could be a cool exercise

Hi everybody,

I haven't been active here much lately due to too many other things going on but I'm back in dire need of some help!

So a week and a half ago the weather turned wet overnight and on Friday week ago I was headed to work pretty early in the morning. Now I'll admit that I'm a relatively aggressive driver but if I'm not concentrating I will drive pretty normally. Anyway that fateful Friday morning I was about 2km from home and going round a roundabout (I don't know what you guys in the US call them - it's a donut shaped piece of road instead of traffic lights) when I lost traction and slid sideways into the gutter and a railing

The damage list is as follows:
- Front bar smashed up on left side
- Front lip broken
- Front side panel dinged (repairable)
- Front left low beam headlight mounting brackets broken off (can be glued back on)
- Front left control arm mangled badly
- Front left wheel shattered and tyre damaged (irrepairable)
- Front left steering arm bent

It was low speed but the angle at which the wheel hit the gutter (side on) is what caused the damage. It was the stupid guard rail that did all of the cosmetic damage (and I didn't even leave a scratch on it! ). Anyway here's a pic of the cosmetic damage:


This next one shows how badly bent up the control arm is:



Anyway I've got everything under control - the new control arm should be arriving early next week. I spent today disassembling the whole front left drive/suspension system. The inner CV boots on both sides have split so I'm replacing them at the same time as all of this other stuff.

Edit: Control arm replacement was discussed further and the solution provided by wannabeGT4 here: http://www.6gc.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=60620

On a side note this isn't all bad news - because I'll be getting these few panels resprayed I'm likely going to just drive around with primed panels for a little while whilst I save up to get the whole car resprayed (the same colour though). There's a bunch of small dings and scratches that drive me insane so I'd love to get it all fresh paint. I pulled off the wing while stuffing around today and think I'll definitely be joining the wingless club

Thanks! Zac

She's looking sweet David! Can't wait to see her after the drop!

Before you do anything else give your engine bay a clean!

Yeah really cool. And you know what I like the best - the fact that it's still really practical (I.e. the boot isn't overflowing with subs and can still be used for luggage!). Fantastic work.

That Shark Celi is the sex! I agree that the front bumper looks really stylish and the "gills" on the fender work well.

Please post some more pics!

Great stuff. I'm picking up some strut bars soon and this makes me think about painting them. And painting anything else in the engine bay that will come off easily!

Oh BTW, those parts you wired with the LEDs are resistors, not transistors. But I'm sure you knew that

Oh wow a frankenstein job! I take it for granted that I have the equipment to make my own PCBs but am still really impressed when people manage to get the same effect by just hacking up other bits!

Looks good. did you mount the LEDs on a PCB or what?

Well funny enough I've since driven Grandma round quite a bit and she hasn't been at all concerned! Granted for long trips she sits on a big pillow anyway.

I had a clunking noise coming from one of the fronts yesterday and after pulling the wheel off it turned out that the nut which holds the strut to the camber plate had loosened off a little. Tightened back up and all is well.

I'm still of two minds about the ride quality. Don't get me wrong - I love the handling the way it is. I can take corners so hard! Even when I do slide out in a corner it's still surprisingly controllable. The problem is that it's kind of embarrassing when you have to drive other people (especially ladies) who aren't all that appreciative of my super handling - I usually don't drive the car hard when there are other people in it.

At this stage I'm a bit low on funds anyway to change to softer springs so will just have to leave it for now. I'd say I'll change it in the future though...

I just got a set of G4 Coilovers which are identical and come out of the same factory except are blue. So far so good. There's lots of new noises that I was worried about at first but a mechanic checked it and it's all good. Refrain from the temptation to get springs that are too stiff

That price seems about the going rate. Although they say that they are track spec, I wouldn't be keen on using them on a track even semi-regularly - I've seen a few horror pictures of people bending/snapping them.....

Dude that looks really amazing. Indeed it sucks that the paint is fading - I'd be living in fear of anything ever happening to it!

Love the interior also!

As in the engine or cabin side of the firewall? Sounds very much like a coolant leak to me. I assume you've checked that your coolant level is ok?

When I got my front lip, sides and rears quoted by a pretty prestige smash repairer they wanted AU$700 (US$600) (and that was with a mates' discount). I got a dodgy job done for $350 and it's now all chipping off the front.
Get a decent job done because the front lip is in a spot where it will take a bit of abuse