In the last post about the Celica, we had started making repairs. In that process of course we found more places where there were issues.
I attempted to order this round of parts from Baxter Toyota locally, but found out they were pretty worthless. I gave them quite a few days to respond to my email, but in the end Adams Toyota was the one that got me the parts just by ordering off the site. I still have a few questions, so I will test them out and shoot over an email and see what the response time is to see if they are my new go to. They were certainly cheaper than the local options.
Most of that pile is centered around the oil leak I found when the exhaust manifold came off. I cleaned some of the mess off, but I didn’t want to lose too much of the natural “rust prevention”. While we were in here, both coolant hoses were replaced to avoid needing to access this area again anytime soon.
Speaking of the exhaust manifold… The crack was rather large making me question the best solution to get it fixed. We hit the local U-Pull-It yard where we tried finding a suitable replacement. We didn’t find a manifold, but we scored a few other parts we were looking for.
Time for the test drive! Or not. We had the car at the door bleeding the coolant. Everything was fine until we ran out of juice the minute I tried to drive it. Yep that POS auto parts store alternator gave up. Back to U-Pull-It to grab an alternator out of a RAV4 with only 200k on the clock. A fairly easy swap on this one at least.
Okay on to the fun stuff. I mentioned in the last post that the Celica had new wheels, but that I wasn’t going to show them off on jack stands. Well, we are no longer on jack stands so here they are. While we were at Tommy’s getting the 4Runner and Sequoia taken care of, we also got the Celica’s new shoes ready to go. The Wedsport SA90’s are a 17×7.5 with a 45mm offset. Not the most aggressive set up, but a good compromise of proper fitment and good looks. They’ve been introduced to a few curbs by the previous owner, but if they make it through winter, there’s a good chance they’ll get a new lease on life.
As a result of everything, the car is better. It leaks less oil, it leaks less exhaust, it looks better, it drives better. It’s just not perfect. Which is probably a good thing. If we had this one perfect I would be shopping for another one to drive through winter!
