6G Celicas Forums

I'm back B%$#@s!

I just couldn't help myself, I needed to be able row through gears again; needed a project, something to do, something to cruise with w/ friends in the summer.

Somebody had posted a car on here it was a clean southern car that sale didn't happen & it just got me hooked, I needed to get back in another Celica.

I had been searching the car sales sites & found this on Jan. 18 on Craigslist in Denver, CO (had only been on there for a few days). Contacted the seller, blah, blah, blah. Flew out Feb. 3rd to pick it up. It's mine. BIG thanks to richee3 (a.k.a. Daniel) otherwise I would still be without a 6th gen.

Had an absolute blast. Beat the crap out of the car the first few hours of ownership, drove to Colorado Springs, up Pikes Peak (it's a must for any automotive enthusiast). Car rides well, even a 100mph (Denver area Colorado drivers are the worst).

So the cooling issue... Bought the car on Saturday no problems at all, really nice outside about 57degrees. Drove down to Colorado Springs then up & down Pikes Peak no issues. You can hear the fans come on when the car is at operating temp. I mean NO issues at all, we beat the piss out of the car (is smooth at 100mph). I leave Sunday morning, about 30min outside of Denver the car overheats! WTF! I pull over & check, see that the only place coolant is coming out of is the overflow tank, but the fans aren't running, weird. Check fuses, good, swap some relays, nothing. Eventually Daniel tells me unplug the radiator temp sensor, all is good, fans work, so relays are ok. Put some coolant in (not very much was lost) & on my way. I notice that the car is running a little warm but I keep going. Fill up w/ gas at Julesburg, CO get back on the road & the car seems to run a little warmer even than before, WTF. So I'm messing w/ the heater trying different things to get the temp down, I notice that when heat is turned to full cold that the temp gauge spikes, it didn't do that before. I suspect the thermostat. I get to North Platte, NE. Pull into an O'Reillys, pop over the hood and look, no leaks, but the lower radiator hose is cold! Put a new thermostat in bleed the system. Plug the fans back in & they turn on correctly, lower radiator hose gets hot. Ok cool, I get on my way temp gauge is good going down there the road. A while down the road I pull into a rest stop to check... no leaks, temp is good, but the lower radiator hose is still cold! WTF! I'm like well car hasn't blow up yet, I continue with my journey. I get home park in the garage, pop the hood lower hose still cold. I let the car run for a few minutes & the hose gets warm & the fans kick on. [Copied from our PM cheela, lol]

The car hasn't overheated yet so I'm believing the thermostat was the fix but...

Now the clutch is toasted, go figure. I've been baby-ing it when driving cause especially after 3k rpms you could feel it. But I was driving it to work 2 weeks ago on a Wednesday morning in lovely traffic, go to give it some throttle (maybe a 1/2, I dunno) in 5th & she shoots to 5k rpms & really goes no where, lol, sorry traffic. That smell is really nasty, haha.

Here is the Flickr album ... I'll try and embed photos w/ captions and/ or details later.

This post has been edited by navseal345: May 24, 2020 - 10:54 AM