| Author | Topic |
|---|
Location:
Townsville, QLD, Australia
Registered:
June 2005
|
|
|
Location:
Melbourne
Registered:
March 2004
|
|
Re: Looking at buying a 89 celica need some info
|
Wed, 15 June 2005 13:50
 
|
 |
Hey, howareya? Welcome!
Which model Celica were you looking at? There were two versions around in 1989 - the square 4th generation (ST162) and the rounder 5th generation (ST184)?
Also try a quick search of the forums, there's a stack of good info floating around in here.
|
|
|
Location:
South Australia
Registered:
July 2002
|
|
Re: Looking at buying a 89 celica need some info
|
Thu, 16 June 2005 01:07
|
|
Hey I had huge list of stuff but then my server went 'boom'.
Basically - I've always found that the number of kays a car has done is mostly irrelevant to whether it's in good nick. Some engines are crapped after 70,000km simply because they weren't looked after properly (rings seized in, bearings/crank stuffed etc). Heck, my GT4 (ST165) blew up and it had only done 130,000km and it wasn't to do with the fact that it was turbo or the engine was unduly stressed - simply starved of oil due to me not topping the oil up (it was consuming oil at a prodigious rate though so I'm only 95% to blame).
So in effect - you should look at the condition of the engine rather than the number of k's. 3S-GEs can do around about 200,000 to 250,000km before they probably need some amount of rebuilding (valve seats, piston rings and sometimes big end bearings just for safety's sake, checking bores etc for out-of-round).
One thing you should definitely look for is whether it has the 3S-GE engine, or the 3S-FE engine. If it has the latter - then don't bother, the car is probably boring 
As for what they should look like? Just make sure they are straight and the paint is in good nick and you can't spot any rust (check rear boot hatch, the spare wheel well, and the front windscreen pillars).
Easy mods? You can do little things like new springs, shocks, maybe stick a decent exhaust on it. But after that it gets either mechanically tricky to do, or expensive to do (to be worth it).
Overall the only downfall of these cars is the fact that it's E-W lay-out, which means servicing things like timing belts can be annoying (if you haven't done it a few times before) and I've had mechanics do some shit work when I've had to return a car to them repeatedly (mainly because they CBFed doing the same things over and over again, so they decided that they might as well just leave the bolts out that are holding stuff on).
But on the plus side there's plenty of boot space (thanks to simple rear suspension layour), the rear seats are bit of a squeeze - the cars are nice and light-weight and good to get around in, quite fuel economical when driven reasonably and even from stock they have *excellent* turn in and response (I wouldn't particularly recommend lowering the car to improve the cornering, the drop in centre of gravity doesn't really make up for the change in roll centre of the suspension etc).
|
|
|
Location:
Sydney
Registered:
May 2004
|
|
Re: Looking at buying a 89 celica need some info
|
Thu, 16 June 2005 02:42
|
|
|
I so much like the interior on the series 2 st162s as opposed to the series 1.
|
|
|
Location:
QLD, Gold Coast
Registered:
February 2004
|
|
Re: Looking at buying a 89 celica need some info
|
Fri, 17 June 2005 01:46
|
|
| Celica_John wrote on Thu, 16 June 2005 12:42 |
I so much like the interior on the series 2 st162s as opposed to the series 1.
|
what are the differences from the series 1 and 2 interiors?
|
|
|
Location:
Gold Coast, QLD
Registered:
April 2004
|
|
Re: Looking at buying a 89 celica need some info
|
Fri, 17 June 2005 05:17
|
|
|
The only differences I am aware of are the steering wheel, door handles and power window buttons, otherwise they are identical AFAIK.
|
|
|
Location:
Melbourne
Registered:
March 2004
|
|
Re: Looking at buying a 89 celica need some info
|
Fri, 17 June 2005 12:41
|
|
Dont forget the silver panel in the console! Although those are coming back into fashion.  Nah, I think the fact that light blue, grey and brown were taken off the colour palette makes the difference. The black interior is the nicest IMO.
|
|
|
