I just couldn't resist. It's regrettably not a 6th gen. It's a black 2000 GT-S, auto. And Jordan, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and change your sig... I assure you, my GT-S is slower. It can only go as fast as the truck pulling it. Time to bust out dad's camouflaged Silverado again! :embarrassed: However, this makes Celica #6 for me.

Here's the story. One of my friends saw me go through a few Celicas and slowly fell in love with them. He eventually picked this car up a few years ago. The only mod he has on it is a CAI, which I put on. Anyway, he bumped into a deer a few months back which dented the hood. (Deer hate Celicas. Fact. They loathe these cars.) So the deer gets pissed and Spartan kicks the giy's front bumper. No lie. Shoved his hoof right through the bumper. So the body isn't in great shape, but it's acceptable. Then he hit something else, I can't remember what, which ripped his fender liner off and exposed his cold air intake filter. Then in September, we had quite a bit of rain. He hit a puddle of water. Not too deep, but it splashed everywhere. The car sputtered and died. After a few minutes, he got it started again. Drove it to McDonald's and got a McChicken, car ran beautifully, came back outside, and the car wouldn't start.

This is where I come in. I've looked the car over for him, checked all the fuses and relays, did my research, and looked at the car some more. The oil is black and filthy. Not good looking oil at all, but there's not a drop of water in it. When we try to start the car, we get one loud pop from the starter and that's it. I did more research and found out Toyota starters are prone to dying when being covered in water... Just like I told him. Based on what I've seen from this car, the fact that there's no water in the oil, the starter is killed, and the 2ZZ would have a bent rod if he sucked water in the motor. I'm fairly certain he didn't hydrolock it. Just killed the motor with the water either from water on the plugs or the sudden temperature change, and killed the starter by splashing water on it. He drove it after going through the water and it ran fine, indicative of no bent rods. He told this story to a mechanic, who didn't even look at the car. He just told him that the motor is ruined.

Quinten told me he was going to scrap the car. I'm not going to let it happen that easily. I've seen the car, the mechanic hasn't. I got the car for a very good price, but I'm giving him extra to help him out. Down payment for a new car. If nothing else, we've got new wheels, seats, and steering wheel for the BEAMS. I really think I can get it running again for the price of rebuilding the starter though, and have myself a cheap car for work. No more driving the Lexus to work mine construction! What do you guys think? Is it screwed or do I have a reasonable shot?

I have pictures of the car, pre-collision, at my house. I'll post them later. Picking the car up tomorrow or Monday.

This post has been edited by richee3: Dec 31, 2011 - 3:50 PM

Id rebuild the starter an see what happens

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Yeah, definitely. The starter rebuild is only $50 and I'm pretty certain it will put the car back on the road. I'm just curious if I'm missing some important factor. The starter is definitely dead, and he had the car running shortly after he splashed through the water. It seems to me that the car is fine, apart from the body. Black 7th gen Celica, I'll be able to find replacement parts in a junkyard pretty easily. It's no BEAMS or 1MZ swapped Celica, but it beats daily driving my IS 300.

Maybe check the fuses too might have just got the wires wet an popped a fuse too
Original was running fine after the fact it should run fine if you get it to start
Might check inside the dizzy cap too might have gotten inside
I don't know slot about the 7th gen but I had the same problem in my 5th Gen
It ended up being there was water in the dist an the ignitor module got wet an fryed

Fuses, relays, and fusible links were the first things I checked. The 2ZZ uses coil on plugs, so no dizzy. I'm fairly certain it's just the starter. I'll be able to find out this week. First thing I'm doing is taking the starter off to get rebuilt. Hopefully getting to pick the car up today or tomorrow and post some pictures up.

Not the greatest pictures, but here are the few that I have. I'll get more accurate, up-to-date, daylight pictures later.

Sweet Moses, nice. Didn't realize you had a 2ZZ in there - do me a favor and supercharge that. Congratulations though Daniel.

sell me the rims LOL. nice pick up. hope u can get it running. would be a fun DD.

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If I can get it running again, and that's a big if, supercharging has crossed my mind. I've got other priorities though.


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Lol the first day this guy had the car, he had it maybe 15 minutes, and that's the very first thing I told him. When I told him I'd buy the car from him, he told me he'd sell me everything but the rims because he knew I wanted them

Anyhoo, pictures. As you can see, it looks quite literally 100% the same as every other 7th gen- a cheap, plasticky, beat-up excuse for transportation. Seems like maybe 1 in 30 of these are actually in good condition.




Huge scratch at the bottom of the passenger door is from when the guy loaded it up on the trailer to take it to the mechanic that I picked it up from Then the other scratch above the rear tire was from the previous owner.





The reason he thinks it's hydrolocked:





Low on oil, fantastic.



More details I've learned about the car. I was previously under the impression that after he drove through the water, he got it started and it drove fine. Now he tells me that it was down on power after he got it started. The mechanic told me today that he cannot turn the motor over by hand. If that's the case, then that's why we hear a loud pop from the starter but nothing else happens. Nonetheless, I can take what the mechanic told me and still try. I'm not giving this car a huge time window. If I can't make any progress or find a 2ZZ for dirt cheap, then the car goes. I'm moving out January 29th and I need all my spare motors/car parts gone before then, and that includes whole cars. My dad tends to throw things away if I'm not here to guard them. I'm just curious why the mechanic couldn't turn the motor over by hand... If the car had a bent rod, that would explain why the car was down on power, but at the same time, water won't compress so I seriously doubt if he could have gotten it started again. I'll drain the oil later and see if there's water in the oil pan and pull the plugs (again) and check (again) for water in the cylinders.

Until I find a glimmer of hope for this car, and I have less now than I did when I started this thread, then it looks like the BEAMS just scored new seats, rims, and steering wheel. I just need to play around with this car- take the starter off and test it, see what it would take to turn the motor over, check the cost of replacement 2ZZ's (pretty sure they're around $2k from Ebay and I will not spend that much on this car), etc. It'll be Sunday before I can look at the car again though.

I personally doubt if the motor is hydrolocked. Locked up for different reasons could be a different story though... Cold water on a hot motor is never good. It's asking a lot for water to go through the air filter then travel all the way up the intake pipe and into the motor. I don't doubt that he might have sucked some water up, but I don't know if it would be enough to lock the motor up. Eh, we'll see. Thoughts and input are appreciated. I'm so unfamiliar with hydrolocking and the 7th gen in general.

By the way, really funny story about trying to pick the car up... I always thought it was kind of impossible to get locked inside a car, right? Well I found a way. The trailer I borrow to get cars like this, you can't open the car doors once it's on the trailer because of the trailer rails. The doors are too low and they open a couple of inches and hit the trailer. So today I had my phone in my truck to listen to my music, and I needed to turn the wheels on the car to straighten it up. Of course, I can't open the doors, so my normal solution is to roll down the windows. Dead battery, so I can't roll those down. My solution today was to crawl through the trunk. Well, the 7th gen doesn't have a trunk pop lever inside the cab like the 6th gen. It has a handle on the trunk and that's the only way to open it. So I popped the trunk and immediately noticed the struts were blown and wouldn't hold the trunk lid open. I remedied this by using the trunk shelf as a block to keep the lid from latching while I was inside the car. It would have worked, except when I finally got to the front of the car and sat down in the driver seat, my weight shifted the car forwards and then I hear the inevitable click from behind me. I turn around to see the shelf slid back inside the car, allowing the trunk to latch. No trunk lever inside the car, no way to open the doors, no way to roll the windows down, and my phone was inside the truck... I was literally stuck inside this car for 15-20 minutes with traffic going by, school buses going by, people walking by the truck, and nobody even looking. Those who did look assumed I was in the car and could get out. Finally, one guy walked by and I could get the door open enough to ask for his help. Talk about the most embarrassing moment of my life

This post has been edited by richee3: Jan 3, 2012 - 7:28 PM

WOW! laughed out loud.... literally

LOL I could tell where that story was going almost immediately, the same thing happened to a friend of mine.

LOL , man, that sucks. at least one guy helped you out. that's better than none

Yeah, I felt pretty dumb. The best part was having to ask a complete stranger to let me out of the car. Then as he was driving away, having to climb right back in the car to turn the wheels some more.

Pulled the plugs out earlier. No water in any of the cylinders, but it's been a while since this happened. If water got into one of the cylinders and bent a rod, hypothetically the water could have drained out of the cylinder and into the oil , where it would now be separated from the oil and in the bottom of the oil pan. I need to drain the oil and find out. The spark plugs look... stupid, to be honest. The gap is way off on each of them and one plug had the tip covered in oil. Crappy iPhone pic:

ew

Lmao turn the lights back off next time you're going to take a pic of the 7th gen. It looked better that way

I could see you locking yourself in... laughed through out reading that. Really funny lmao.

It could have been an episode of "I Shouldn't Be Alive." Being locked in a 7gn is seriously scary business. I thought this would be my fate:


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Hmm... Wait... Is that my 7th gen...? I can't tell... They're all wrecked here....

But not mine for long! My work situation could be changing soon, causing me to drive 130 miles a day. Suddenly this Celica looks real good... I think the motor is locked up for sure. Not hydrolocked, but locked somehow. I'll be able to get a good look at it tomorrow. If it is locked, I might just keep it and pick up another 2ZZ in a couple of months. I'm looking forward to getting a day with this car tomorrow.

IF that had a 6spd, I'd offer to come take the trans and ECU off your hands.

have you checked if the COP's are fried?

EDIT: just read again because I did a 2longdidnotread...

My car would click but not crank because the timing belt wrapped itself around and tightened itself

This post has been edited by Neon90424: Jan 7, 2012 - 11:49 PM

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Unfortunately it's an autotragic Probably staying that way too. I don't really want to deal with the conversion for a car that I don't absolutely love.


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The 2ZZ uses a timing chain, not a belt. I doubt if that's the issue since the car was running again for a short time. I'm going to get a good look at the car today and see if I can find anything.

My goal for the day is simply to not get locked in the car.

Have you tried turning the engine over by hand yet

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LOL!!! that's what I thought when I saw the pics too.

Get the engine to turn over, check compression, if compression is good it should run. Might need to clean the VVT system filters out.

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Hey! Be nice! Dead Celicas have feelings too!! Those original pictures I posted were taken last year at some point, when the car still looked as good at a 7th gen possibly can. Before any animal collisions. The guy just wanted some pictures so I turned on all the lights I could and handed him a camera and those are what he came up with. Now you see how the car looks today.

Seriously though, lights off.


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Yeah.... she's locked up tight as a drum. On the plus side, I got the starter to do more than just one loud click. Downside is I'm pretty sure either the starter or the flex plate just got some teeth ground off. Turning it over by hand didn't work either.

So I drained the oil to see if there was any water. It was all black and water free, fortunately. Downside is it's locked up for a different reason. I just can't figure out why right now. Although I'm sure this can't help...




Let's see here... Subtract 119,760 from 136,643.... Add 3,000 to it for the useful life of the oil... Yeah, it was definitely at 19,883 miles on this oil change. Whoops.

I had initially bought this car with every intention of getting rid of it at this point, knowing this motor cannot be turned over. However... I'm moving at the end of the month and I was intending to change job sites, but I'm now being bribed to stay where I am. If they can get me the money, I'll be driving 130 miles a day. 130 miles a day in the IS 300 isn't exactly my idea of fun, nor is it anyone's idea of cheap. Suddenly, this car is looking more tempting to me. I've gotten oddly good at removing S series engines, unfortunately. The 2ZZ looks more complicated to me but according to Smaay, is easier. I know he knows his stuff so what have I got to lose by trying? This car is screwed anyway. It won't hurt me to try pulling the motor out. I've already got the hoist in my garage, after all, not put away from the last BEAMS swap. I might pull the car into the garage tomorrow and tear into it.

Just drop in a beams you got like what 10 of them now

Well, the 2ZZ auto isn't the best highway miler either honestly. I think I get in the low 30's...mid to low 20's around town. Though I do have a heavy foot in the Celica.

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I'd love to feel a 7th gen with BEAMS power. Because the 2ZZ revs so high, it has very little low end torque like the BEAMS, which has 17 hp and 20-ish lb ft of torque more. Except for the fact that the BEAMS is heavier, I'd love to feel the 7th gen with that in the bay. According to Puretone, it would be "straight up gangster to hang a BEAMS in the bay." Nonetheless, the 2ZZ is much easier to find, info us readily available, and I doubt if I'll even swap in a 6 speed.

if ur gonna get a beams in there u might as well 3sgte it too.. newcelica has writeups for it I believe

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Nah, no BEAMS for me. I'd love to get this car running again but even after I spend $2k to get a new 2ZZ, I'll need to buy a new hood and bumper and I'd buy new headlights and taillights as well. It's a money pit for sure, and I'm not even that fond of 7th gens. I'd gladly spend the money for a 6th gen (though anyone who has read my progress thread knows that I had pretty much exactly the same car in a 6th gen and never did anything with it.) But a 7th gen just doesn't have the same appeal to me. I just really prefer the feel of a 6th gen. So I may never get this car running again. It'd be cool if I do but if I do, I definitely won't do anything custom. I won't even fix it up so a $1k 1ZZ will get it running. Even that takes too much effort. If I get it running again, it will be as simply as possible.

Side note, the car doesn't like going into park. Apparently it was stuck in park when Quinten went to load it up and get it to the mechanic, so he pulled on the shifter as hard as possible until it broke free. Now I can grab the shifter and pull it into any gear, any time, without the brake. Normally, I wouldn't care. The issue is that since the car won't fully go into park and stay there, I can't turn the key all the way off. It's stuck on accessory. I'm not familiar enough with auto transmissions, nor do I care to be, but I kinda need to figure out if that's a broken pin inside the transmission or if that's something inside the car. I just need to figure out a way to turn the key off.

check the shifter linkage that goes on the outside of the gearbox that selects gears. There is a bushing there *usually* that might be made of plastic. This is really starting to look like it sucks though man......

He didn't push on the shifter release? What a noob. You probably have a broken linkage at the tranny end. Does it even feel attached, or does it float to any gear really easy? If it's easy to move, and wont go into park, that's because the cable is smacking the broken end at the tranny that is still in park. Go to the front of the tranny and look for a L shaped lever with a cable running off of it and examine the cable. Also see if the lever moves by hand (maybe it's seized, since this guy was such a doof when it came to maintenance.)