My AE93 SX SECA

[Cee-Lo]

Hey all,

I'm Chris from the south eastern burbs' of melb. The story of how i came to own this car, is that i was getting bored of the auto trans in my other car, so i wanted to pick up a manual car, and needed a 2nd car so i can take my other car off the road for an extended period of time if need be. Set my sights on small 4cyl manual cars, and corolla's just happened to be of the cars that met my criteria.

It's an stock standard White 89' Series 1 Corolla SX Seca, aside from an aftermarket CD player, and replaced rear muffler with a single chrome tip. Goes well for a stock 1.6L car from the late 80's, It will probably keep up with my commodore

Noticed most people here have hatches so i'm probably the odd one out

It's a 21 year old car so it's not cosmetically immaculate, got a few minor dents here and there, some paint chips, some which were touched up poorly, and has the common AE92/3/4/6 brittle interior plastics. Other than that seems tidy for its age. Drives pretty well so previous owners probably did look after it reasonably.

Onto pics... I been slack and haven't got many, borrowed some off another member of this forum, whose car features in some of these pics too, some of you may recognize that car :P

Got some plans for this car in the future, I'd like to get it to handle better, look a bit nicer, get a bit more power out of the old 4a-GE, and maybe improve the ICE a bit... Nothing over the top, it will probably become a daily one day so dont want it catching too much attention. I am open to ideas of things to do to the car, so yell out if you got any...

[dorifto]

Tidy! Nice to see you have both the Series 1 and Series 2 models. As for upgrades, definitely do suspension/brakes first - make the most of the handling before going for power upgrades.

[Blind Kid Seeks]

seca's are girls cars..... :P

[eviltwin]

Secas are so wicked! love it mate! rep

[Cee-Lo]

Tidy! Nice to see you have both the Series 1 and Series 2 models. As for upgrades, definitely do suspension/brakes first - make the most of the handling before going for power upgrades.

Thanks! Only the white series 1 is mine, the gunmetal grey series 2 belongs to another forum member, if you been to the vic meets you may have met him, he's a short bald guy :P. Good idea with upgrades, My series one somehow has series 2 front rotors and calipers, so the next step may be GTi front brake hardware. Suspension is something i want to do when i have the funds, it already handles pretty well stock (compared to my commodore)

seca's are girls cars..... :P

All the better for building a sleeper I thought all seca's were slugs until i went for a ride in a mates SX Seca, which indirectly led to me buying a toyota :D.

Secas are so wicked! love it mate! rep

Cheers! Rear end isn't the prettiest thing, but it's slowly grown on me, and it gives me peace of mind knowing I have ample boot space if needed. :D

[dorifto]

Thanks! Only the white series 1 is mine, the gunmetal grey series 2 belongs to another forum member, if you been to the vic meets you may have met him, he's a short bald guy :P. Good idea with upgrades, My series one somehow has series 2 front rotors and calipers, so the next step may be GTi front brake hardware. Suspension is something i want to do when i have the funds, it already handles pretty well stock (compared to my commodore)

GTi brakes are the same as Series 2 brakes: 258mm x 22mm vented fronts so you're already onto a good thing. If you think it handles sweet stock, wait until you get a rear sway bar and some good shocks/springs

[juvenile]

Nice, lower it, black wheels and black roof seeing as all the pillars are black it should look sleek :)

[Cee-Lo]

Not much to report, except I've swapped out the dead central locking switch with a working one, now I can safely drive through bad parts of town

Going to book the car in for a timing belt change in the next few weeks, seeing as the car came with no service history, may as well do it and ensure the belt will last another 100,000km. And it needs the timing adjusted as it blows black smoke at WOT+ high revs

GTi brakes are the same as Series 2 brakes: 258mm x 22mm vented fronts so you're already onto a good thing. If you think it handles sweet stock, wait until you get a rear sway bar and some good shocks/springs

Ah I thought GTi's got slightly bigger brakes again, I'm happy with the way it pulls up, and should pull up even better when the brakes are properly bled.

Nice, lower it, black wheels and black roof seeing as all the pillars are black it should look sleek :)

Cheers, I'm definitely going to do black rims now. Black roof is an idea, not something i'd thought of myself, but if i want the car to stand out i may give it a go :)

[Cee-Lo]

Thought I'd snap a few pics after giving the car a wash... A bit overdue considering the car is now the daily driver.

Nothing new for the moment, aside from a new timing belt and fresh brake fluid, pulls up nicely, and i've never had to utilise the cars full braking potential :D

[Tash]

G'day and welcome :) +1 on the manual, only way to be! :D Definitely very tidy looking and a lot of potential like you mentioned, so all the very best with your plans ;)

[Cee-Lo]

Thanks Tash. Manual cars are certainly more fun to drive!

[wtf.16v]

extractors exhaust cai check out my secas and for that guy and u could say its a gurls car but its a proven fact that a sx hatch is a hairdressers car :P haha anyway check out my secas :) ive had 3 of em lol

[dorifto]

lol you just join and you tell this member to go check out your car(s).. why? 'cause it's full Leb-Spec Ay brew or something? As to Andy referencing the Seca to a chicks car; If you've seen the original 1989 TV commercial, you would know that the lady in that commercial drives the Seca and the Man, drives the hatch.

[wtf.16v]

ok captain dorifto to be honest i think your car looks like ******en ***** but i dont go around talkin about it being OZ spec hmm the commercial seeing a corolla on 2 wheels is bull**** so same as the woman drive seca dont try to make me cut by saying leb spec cause one i aint leb 2 ur makin a fool out of urself and to be honest i thought this was a good forum but i guess dickheads do fly aye captain dorifto

[dorifto]

lol keyboard warrior is mad. This is a good, no great forum but it's guys like you with no modesty that ruins it.

I won't bother with replies, it's clear you're too much of an egotistical knobjock to comprehend criticism. UMAD?

[Cee-Lo]

@ wtf.16v: There's no need for that negativity, if you don't like someone's car, then simply keep it to yourself if you have nothing constructive to contribute.

Anyway, back on topic... Nothing has happened yet modwise Haven't found that elusive money tree Just an oil+filter, and coolant change.

Something which does concern me though, is the car's fuel consumption, It does about 7.5-8L/100km, or 450km to roughly 36L, which seems a bit high for these cars. Driving style is a mix of city/highway, mostly sedate driving with a good amount of stick a couple times a week.

Before the timing belt change it would blow black smoke at WOT, not sure if it still does this, but then again fuel economy hasn't really improved since then, so i assume that problem still persists.

Something to note is that leads, plugs, and fuel filter still haven't been changed, and the car is missing the foremost intake resonator/baffle, so it is pulling air from the engine bay.

[Hiro]

@ wtf.16v: There's no need for that negativity, if you don't like someone's car, then simply keep it to yourself if you have nothing constructive to contribute.

Anyway, back on topic... Nothing has happened yet modwise Haven't found that elusive money tree Just an oil+filter, and coolant change.

Something which does concern me though, is the car's fuel consumption, It does about 7.5-8L/100km, or 450km to roughly 36L, which seems a bit high for these cars. Driving style is a mix of city/highway, mostly sedate driving with a good amount of stick a couple times a week.

Before the timing belt change it would blow black smoke at WOT, not sure if it still does this, but then again fuel economy hasn't really improved since then, so i assume that problem still persists.

Something to note is that leads, plugs, and fuel filter still haven't been changed, and the car is missing the foremost intake resonator/baffle, so it is pulling air from the engine bay.

7-8L/100km sounds normal for city driving for a car of that age. The black smoke on WOT will most likely be fuel though, A-series engines (well, most Toyota engines actually) will run quite rich at high revs and large throttle openings. Check that it isn't chewing through oil though, which is another trait of these engines as they get old. A full service to replace things like leads, plugs, filters etc will most likely do a world of good.

When you say resonator, is it the one before or after the airbox? If it is drawing in extra air before the airbox it isn't that big of a deal (will be slightly warmer though), but if it is after the airbox then the air will be unfiltered and you have the possibility of drawing nasty things into your engine and doing damage.

[Cee-Lo]

Check that it isn't chewing through oil though, which is another trait of these engines as they get old.

When you say resonator, is it the one before or after the airbox? If it is drawing in extra air before the airbox it isn't that big of a deal (will be slightly warmer though), but if it is after the airbox then the air will be unfiltered and you have the possibility of drawing nasty things into your engine and doing damage.

It seems to be blowing some amount of oil from the rocker/cam cover into the throttlebody via the adjoining tube, as I did notice some oil in the Throttlebody.

The resonator before the airbox is the one that is missing, I'll be putting a CAI in its place eventually.

[dorifto]

Before you service it next, take off the intake piping and give the throttle body/intake manifold a good cleaning. That should kill off some of the soot that ends up in the exhaust. Just to note, my car too blows some black smoke in the high rev ranges. The ECU runs on 2 types of settings: open-loop and closed loop. At partial throttle the ECU will adjust the amount of fuel required to mix in the with the air. At full throttle, it has a pre-determined setting that it switches to so it essentially just dumps petrol. In saying that, if you have mods, the car will essentially learn to adapt with the mods at open-loop mode (given its basic mods).

Another way to reduce the black smoke is by fitting an oil catch can between the cam covers and intake manifold.

[Cee-Lo]

Generic Throttle body cleaner should do the job? And that's an interesting fact about the ecu, never knew it just goes full rich if you flatfoot it.

[dorifto]

It will also load up on fuel if it receives no signal/input from the O2 sensor as well, precautionary measure to ensure you burn petrol rather than detonate/ping

Edit: Yeh any generic throttle body will do. I use the Nulon stuff and it works a treat :)

Edited July 25, 2011 by dorifto

[Cee-Lo]

Minor update: I have pretty much everything I need now to do a cheapo CAI, but won't be installing that until I've taken care of plugs, leads and flushed the clutch fluid as the clutch pedal is a bit on the soft side.

Those of you who have seen my car in person may or may not have noticed that the front lip has a crack in it. I've decided to ignore it up until now, and I'm thinking of having it repaired, or simply replace the lip. I've come across a front lip to suit my car, which is in good condition, except it is in red.

How much would I be looking at to:

A: get my current front lip repaired and painted

B: get the red lip, prep it for paint and send it off to be painted

C: get the red lip, then send it off to be prepped and painted.

I'm not sure if I'm game enough to paint it myself XD

I can get a photo of the crack in the front lip on request.

[-alister]

I think it will cost around $100 to paint and prep, and pretty much the same if you prep it as well. Not too sure about being repaired. By the way, I've got a cressida lip for you if you want it :D

[Cee-Lo]

Contrary to my last post, the CAI was the first thing to be done, DIY stealth style(with the help of a few mates)

But while we were installing the CAI, we noticed the diff/gearbox leaking. How bad does it look?

[Cee-Lo]

I didn't actually sell this LOL.

I didn't bring it to the meet today as I am in the middle of fixing the below...