Today I.......................................... Options

[Box]

I've heard good things about the GE Nighthawks. May look into them as it's about time I replaced mine, low beams especially. I think HIR lows and highs would be quite epic, I'm surprised more people don't go that route.

[travisxcore]

I had the $55 Silverstar bulbs They were bright, especially when I first got them. Only issue I had was the huge power draw they had. They'd dim all the time from my subs.

Also I just realized something..our low beams are 9006 and I got 9005 for my lows...whoops. Oh well.

Also this is what my lights look like-






I never really did look into HIRs but I saw they consume a lotta power (55w low / 65w high) and I really just got HIDs to remedy my diming whist having bright lights. I live out in BFE so I don't have to worry about blinding people, I just gotta be able to look for deer cause they love to cross the roads here.

This post has been edited by travisxcore: Aug 10, 2013 - 11:06 PM

[Box]

Being it's aftermarket HID I don't see what difference it'd make anyhow, so I wouldn't worry about it. The cheapest Sylvania bulbs were 55W/65W as well, at least with HIRs they're about twice as bright. Also like 4x as much. Looking around Amazon now at the moment, really need low beams... I've noticed something peculiar about my car though, at least I've only noticed it on the Celica, but having the lights on raises the idle by 150 or so.

[Box]

Eco-Vision are 47W/59W, but 25% brighter and save fuel. Or so they say.

This post has been edited by Box: Aug 10, 2013 - 11:29 PM

[Box]

Hmmm, GE Nighthawks or Philips VisionPlus... Highest grade bulbs without any kind of tint on them. Even the Nighthawk Platinum and Philips XtremeVision have a small blue ring at the top... I have the SilverStars at the moment, definitely need unfiltered light with using my yellow lenses. Will have to see what I have for high beams, I don't think they're SilverStars though.

[JoshuaM]

found these online.... ewies

[rentaspace]

Replacing my crappy eBay brand HID kit with a 5000k Phillips HID bulb and some local brand ballasts...

Bought them on Friday, hoping these wont flash and flicker or have a broken metal piece like the eBay kit...

[JoshuaM]

To TRD front strut brace, or not to TRD front strut brace... that is the question...

It is cheap, but has a few paint chips where there is now surface rust (no biggy) but it would need painting which would make it less TRD

3 point makes a huge difference. Just saying.

Yeah... but stiffening up the front means more understeer doesn't it? I'm not very fond of understeer I have been thinking about a Whiteline rear sway bar, but my friends have been trying to turn me off the idea and have been telling me not to mess with my chassis because its the best they've ever driven

Rust is a fairly common issue on them. I say grab it. A flat black paint job with a subtle TRD logo would look great.

Yeah, that might be a plan I told the guy I was taking it this morning, so just waiting on his bank details.

If you don't want it i'll take it. TRD 3 points are hard to find aren't they? That should be reason enough to snatch it up and give it some TLC.

Yeah, I suppose they are.... I see them fairly often though, just not always cheap And too late, I already bought it

[Box]

The strut brace reduces chassis flex and ties the two suspension towers together so they work closer in harmony, or so I've been told. Generally when it comes to FWD you want the suspension itself to be softer in the front, and stiffer in the rear. You can also run higher tire pressure up front versus the rear to help. Of course the real solution to under-steer is to buy a right wheel drive car.

Hmm... Michelin says lower pressure up front, and higher out back versus the opposite that Tire Rack said...

This post has been edited by Box: Aug 11, 2013 - 5:47 AM

[SwissFerdi]

Yeah... but stiffening up the front means more understeer doesn't it?

The handling improvement negates the extra tendency for understeer. I can feel the improved solidity in the way the steering wheel behaves over bumps and responds to quick input; in a car with this much weight over the front wheels, it helps massively. Combined with the rear strut bar, the car lends itself slightly more to understeer at first, but now also oversteers when approaching 10/10, which mine never did from factory.

Don't listen to your friends.

This post has been edited by SwissFerdi: Aug 11, 2013 - 6:40 AM

[JoshuaM]

Sounds good - I shall look forward to its arrival then

I don't want to do the rear strut brace though - as much as it would help with handling it would defeat one of the main reasons I started looking at Celicas which was the massive versatile storage space that the liftback design offered, including being able to just chuck my mountain bike straight in. I had thought about doing one of VincentDoggy's boot braces though (the one that goes on the floor at the back, over the spare tyre).

Rear swaybar still undecided (financially, not handling)... I really need to make a call of whether I will be Beams swapping or moving to st205 or 86 in the next 2 years, so I can decided how much money to waste on it

[Box]

You definitely want a ST205.

[The_enD]

What's the millage on the 3s-gte, anyone knows?

[Box]

What's the millage on the 3s-gte, anyone knows?

On the ST185 it was 19/24 new, so I imagine the ST205 would be around that.

[travisxcore]

Matt gets pretty good mpg in his 4th gen.

Also dat teamwork in the electrical thread. haha.

Sadly today will be the last day driving my car for a week. I'm flying up to IL to go see a bud for a lil bit. He wants me to take his M-Series 330i and see if I can top his max of 145...I said no thanks, not my car.

[Box]

Matt gets pretty good mpg in his 4th gen.

Also dat teamwork in the electrical thread. haha.

Sadly today will be the last day driving my car for a week. I'm flying up to IL to go see a bud for a lil bit. He wants me to take his M-Series 330i and see if I can top his max of 145...I said no thanks, not my car.

I was going to ask if it had the selector to go from AWD to FWD, but I think that was only on '86 models which we didn't get. I'm with you on that, I hate driving people's cars within legal limits much less like a crazy person....

This post has been edited by Box: Aug 11, 2013 - 2:35 PM

[travisxcore]

4th gen 3s* Hes got a ST swapped Matt is easternpro.

And yea he was like dude youre the only person I'd ever let do it. I was like I'll do a 3rd gear pull all day, but I'm not gonna have a rod blow through the block and have that on my conscious when he LOVES that car. hahaha.

[Box]

Ah ok. Speaking of the ST165 I'd love to have one, that or the ST185 but it seems they're impossible to find. Maybe he's just wanting an excuse to get a M3.

[travisxcore]

Nah Jareds dumped so much money into that BMW, hes never gonna get rid of it. Especially since it was totaled and in the hole something like 15k in parts and labor

From (it was a lot worse then it looks) -



To -



It wasn't value that totaled it, I think it had minor frame damage, plus the airbags deploying. Hes still got another good couple thousand bucks to completely fix it as the oil pan leaks, it burns a tiny bit of oil, a CEL code is on that can only be reset by BMW, and the AB light is on which can also only be reset by BMW.

And to keep it Celica related, I just washed mine. So shiny.

This post has been edited by travisxcore: Aug 11, 2013 - 4:08 PM

[Box]

That's M3 money.

I checked the bulbs on mine. Silverstars on low beams, and plain Sylvanias on the high beams. Now to find low beam replacements. What's funny is during the day you can barely see the Silverstars being on, but you can see the plain Sylvanias fine. I can't imagine how great it'll be with non-tinted bulbs.