How Many Is Too Many Kilometers?

[Wozza78]

Hi all, although I am not new to Toyotas. I currently have a Turbo Diesel 100 Series and before that a Diesel 80 Series. Brother has a Hilux, Mum has a Corolla, Sister has a Camry.

I am looking at getting a Celica ST184 or maybe even a ST185 (if budget allows). Which I have new owned before and no one I know has one.

I am trying to find out how long the motors in these models will go for, is 250000kms alot. Considering the cars are at least 18yrs old is that too many?

As there are a few cars out there for sale with around the 150000km mark should I be looking at one of those?

I know it is hard to comment on individual cars because it all comes down to how well they were looked after with servicing etc... But in your experience when, on average, are these engines getting tired?

As you could probably tell, I like the Toyotas. Mainly because they just never seem to give up and will usually keep going when other cars would have stopped long ago.

I have done the maintence of my cars previously, including changing autos to manuals, replacing top ends, entire motors etc. So I have some experience with cars but nothing this small and quite as tight in the bay. So would doing the maintence myself be a problem? Also what specific things to look at on a test drive?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated..

[Blind Kid Seeks]

its probably pointless info but my corolla did 283000 before it did a head gasket.

i'd do things like get it checked out by the RACV or any other independant car assesors in your area.

look at noisy big ends, tappents, service intervals, Air con, timing belts, Power steering leaks, damaged synchros on 1st and 2nd, rust in the doors and around windscreens.

as around on Ozcelica.org good guys who are happy to help

[Keisari]

ST184 with something around 200,000 should be perfectly fine, just make sure all the usuals have been done like timing belt, CV joints, etc. 300,000 is getting towards a rebuild. I've not seen anything with 400,000 on the clock.

ST185 is obviously sportier, so expect it to have been driven as such. As these get older, they get HELLA expensive to maintain (as I'm sure people will testify to soon). I personally wouldn't expect to get 300,000 out of a 3sgte.

[bthology]

Sometimes its not how many KM the cars done but how its kept, driven, serviced etc...

I've seen some cars shat themselves at 30,000k's cos of the driver

[ST165]

Go the 185. I have a 3sgte in my 165 and so far it has been as reliable, and no more costly than the 3sge that I had in my old 162.