sportivo mileage

[Daz Amiri]

Hello everyone, 

I really really really want a sportivo as my first car. I'm hopfully buying one by the end of the year but I just had a few questions. How long do the sportivo's run for before they start facing major issues and is there any common i should look out for when buying. 

Cheers

[Squalled]

All depends on how they've been driven and maintained. Over the years I've seen a number of ZZT Celica's with well over 350000 kms and 1 or 2 well over 400000 kms and they didn't present any major issues seeing as the engines were well truly over engineered.

I've owned my Sportivo for over 6 years now and have basically experienced all of the common issues that arise over time. The most common things to look for are.

- Timing case leaks (generally this is the timing case seal that causes the issue but it's well worth doing the other seals while you're there since it's quite an expensive job due to the confined space next to the timing case)

- Valve cover leaks (pretty common on most cars of this vintage really. Just make sure to use some gasket sealant with a quality gasket)

- Engine ticking - This is fairly normal and shouldn't really put you off buying one. There would be more concern if it was more of a knock noise.

- Failed engine mounts - I and many others have found the factory rubber engine mounts to be awful. They cause a lot of movement and wear out fairly easily but there are solid poly engine mounts available now to stop this.

- Drivetrain issues - This one is probably the most common fault to occur with Sportivos. There's a wide range of issues which are usually worn down synchro's causing gear crunching, gear block outs, differentials failing, snapped or damaged CV joints etc. A lot of the gearbox issues you see today are honestly 99% of the time caused by drive error. There are a number of fixes all over the net and on here to solve issues (extended pushrod, clutch master cylinder adjustment etc) so fixing those problems isn't all to hard but it can be costly.

- Interior - You will likely find a Sportivo with a broken or missing center console flap as the left side hinge had a design flaw which saw most of them break over time. Another common issues is ripped drivers seats and this issue is becoming a lot more common these days just with age in all honesty.

- Cluster swapping - It's quite common finding examples with swapped clusters. If it's cheap and has lower than average kms it's probably too good to be true. I mean the car will still serve you well despite the kms but it's still meaning you'd like pay more for a car that's had a $200 "detail" and a $150 cluster swap.

Anything else is really just basic used car checks really and there's plenty of that on the net already.

These cars only need to be maintained as regularly as possible depending how you drive and driving them with mechanical sympathy will make them last. 

[Hiro]

3 hours ago, Squalled said:

The most common things to look for are.

 

Don't forget lift bolts

[Squalled]

16 hours ago, Hiro said:

Don't forget lift bolts

Ah yes the infamous lift bolts. I've got a set in case I need to replace them but I've not had any issues with mine to be honest. I think by the time the Sportivo, let alone the face lift model was released they'd addressed the fast wearing issues from the Celica.

[Hiro]

5 hours ago, Squalled said:

Ah yes the infamous lift bolts. I've got a set in case I need to replace them but I've not had any issues with mine to be honest. I think by the time the Sportivo, let alone the face lift model was released they'd addressed the fast wearing issues from the Celica.

There were a couple of revisions, pretty sure the last of them was after the Sportivo went on sale but the last change or two were pretty minor.

[Squalled]

On 12/2/2021 at 3:29 PM, Hiro said:

There were a couple of revisions, pretty sure the last of them was after the Sportivo went on sale but the last change or two were pretty minor.

Pretty sure I have a brand new set somewhere that I got about 3 years ago but have never had to replace them. I think I am due to replace the valve cover seal at some point so I might do it then while I'm there at least.

[Hiro]

I've got a set stashed for when I build my 2ZZ, don't think there's anything wrong with the ones in there at the moment but I like a clean slate

[Daz Amiri]

On 12/1/2021 at 1:56 PM, Squalled said:

All depends on how they've been driven and maintained. Over the years I've seen a number of ZZT Celica's with well over 350000 kms and 1 or 2 well over 400000 kms and they didn't present any major issues seeing as the engines were well truly over engineered.

I've owned my Sportivo for over 6 years now and have basically experienced all of the common issues that arise over time. The most common things to look for are.

- Timing case leaks (generally this is the timing case seal that causes the issue but it's well worth doing the other seals while you're there since it's quite an expensive job due to the confined space next to the timing case)

- Valve cover leaks (pretty common on most cars of this vintage really. Just make sure to use some gasket sealant with a quality gasket)

- Engine ticking - This is fairly normal and shouldn't really put you off buying one. There would be more concern if it was more of a knock noise.

- Failed engine mounts - I and many others have found the factory rubber engine mounts to be awful. They cause a lot of movement and wear out fairly easily but there are solid poly engine mounts available now to stop this.

- Drivetrain issues - This one is probably the most common fault to occur with Sportivos. There's a wide range of issues which are usually worn down synchro's causing gear crunching, gear block outs, differentials failing, snapped or damaged CV joints etc. A lot of the gearbox issues you see today are honestly 99% of the time caused by drive error. There are a number of fixes all over the net and on here to solve issues (extended pushrod, clutch master cylinder adjustment etc) so fixing those problems isn't all to hard but it can be costly.

- Interior - You will likely find a Sportivo with a broken or missing center console flap as the left side hinge had a design flaw which saw most of them break over time. Another common issues is ripped drivers seats and this issue is becoming a lot more common these days just with age in all honesty.

- Cluster swapping - It's quite common finding examples with swapped clusters. If it's cheap and has lower than average kms it's probably too good to be true. I mean the car will still serve you well despite the kms but it's still meaning you'd like pay more for a car that's had a $200 "detail" and a $150 cluster swap.

Anything else is really just basic used car checks really and there's plenty of that on the net already.

These cars only need to be maintained as regularly as possible depending how you drive and driving them with mechanical sympathy will make them last. 

cheers bro, appreciate it. I'll go with my mechanic cousin to check it out before buying.