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

Oh... forgot to mention... It looked like the sensor had been replaced before. As 2 of the locating tabs were ground off to fit the connector. The locking tab (south) & the one exact opposite (north) were ok but the (east & west) tabs were ground off.

Not sure what might be the exact issue with the cruise control... but after adjusting the cable, setting cruise it will accelerate 5mph past, then slowly decel & keep a few mph above set speed. And it seems the few times I used the decel on the cruise stalk it wanted to accelerate! I only tried cruise a few times so not sure exactly what's happening. I might try & take a video, will probably make more sense there.



Bison are the coolest!! Especially when they attack people that get to close to them in national parks, LMAO. Definitely will do that next time!

The cable adjustment is probably just donked up.
Service info just says less than 10mm free play, so shoot for 5mm free play on the cable adjustment for that and see how it does. There's a list of symptoms and possible causes but I'm not sure any of those would be helpful.

Yeah I did see some of the service info. Just need more motivation to work on it again, lol.

Kinda a dumb question... Any recommendations for fog light bulbs (H3 style)? I want amber/ yellow color.

So back in October of '24 I put in a new battery Deka brand 800cca (734RMF) to replace the Walmart Neverstart that was in the car since I bought it, yes I killed it a few times but always charged back up. Sounds dumb but it made a difference, no more major dimming of the lights when stepping on the brakes, voltage & when the a/c fans kick on the car feels like it doesn't want to stall now.


It's been a month & a half since I started the car, been in the garage because of MidWest weather & road salt. So while I was out cleaning up the driveway of snow, I let it run for a hour in this lovely 9°F weather. At least it was sunny.


I have some 7th gen wheels that I want powder coated in a stock like color & get some tires too. Hopefully before summer but who knows.


Cool stories I know.

Michelin PS4’s or bust!

If they made them in 7th gen size I might. The only other performance tire I'd consider is the Direzza 3 or whatever. But I don't drive hard enough for a performance tire so I'll probably go with Continental DWS06.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?ti...romCompare1=yes

Those are excellent tires, superb wet performance, impressive dry performance, and surprisingly good tread life, plus I hear they're not super loud and don't ride like ass. Sad to see they discontinued the D3 in 205/50R16. I better not get a ****ing flat tire.

I dunno what I want anymore, LOL.

Website was dieing while I was trying to post, so of course it posted like 8 times.

LOL