Cee-Lo

Not sure if it is faulty. As the coolant is rust colour, I'm thinking it may be a good idea to replace the thermostat as well. Car has never overheated, gets up to slightly under 1/2 way on the temp gauge at most. But it can take a while to get up to operating temp on colder days. Car does run a bit rich also.

I will be replacing the coolant in my AE93 Corolla with the redtop 4age motor. Going to replace the thermostat as well. Just wondering, what temp rating thermostat do I need, and is there a specific part number for it, or are all thermostats the same size, with only the temp they open up being the difference between them?

Hard to tell with the 'disguise' on, but looks a bit like a Honda S2000 from the front. Might be one of those cars whose appearance grows on you over time.

Can't really form an opinion until I see the car without a disguise on.

Looks nice! Should get a proper front bar on it though, front end looks a bit slim compared to the rest of the car.

Must go quite well with 208kw at the wheels :D

DRL's look nice, seems to work well with your car.

Nice work with the nightshades, the tint level looks spot on, nice and dark, but not too dark :D And leaving the untinted parts makes it look more like that it belongs on the car.

Nice heat shield, looks like it was made really well, and should be quite functional as well!

How did you go about making it if you don't mind sharing?

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 :)

Looks good with the new wheels, sporty and luxury looking at the same time, just like the car itself :D

OT: What are the features of the Mongoose alarm, I've got to get one sorted out in the coming months, and want something decent.

Car sits really nice, looks mint! But you must get nervous around rough roads and speedbumps

Jaycar do some decent audio on the cheap, but you have to put up with plain looking speakers+subs.

Well the thing is, i think the previous owners might have used 95 since when i turned on the engine quite a bit of smoke came out of the exhaust pipe and since i have used only 98, smoke doesnt come out anymore. 55l is what the book says but i don't know the actual tank size since i never am empty. i poured 37l last night which got me a bit over 3/4.

What colour was the smoke? Only black smoke is related to fuel (running rich) if I'm not mistaken. If the smoke was a different colour then it is probably an unrelated matter.

55L is the actual tank size if that's the figure stated in the owners handbook. How many km did you get out of that 37L?

Also, did you get around to inspecting/replacing items as others in this topic have suggested? A car which is overdue for a service may suffer poor fuel economy.

If you want power, first things first give the car a good service if it hasn't been done recently, so you get the most out of the car in standard form, and any bolt ons will be a bit more effective as well. You can do minor things like a cold air intake, and swap out the mufflers for high flow 'straight through' design ones (if they aren't the straight through' type from factory)You won't see a huge gain in power, but if you do a few things that gains you a couple kw here and there, that may amount to 5-10kw over standard which will make a minor noticeable difference.

P plate laws, as far as I know, place no restrictions on suspension mods as long as they comply with ADR's, so if you plan to keep the car for a while, spend most of your money there, and on brakes. The fun in 4 cylinders is mostly had in the corners ;).

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

Cheers, reckon the strut brace will make much of a difference handling wise?

It should help to some extent. From what I've hear, strut braces are to reduce/prevent chassis flex on cornering, so I guess it should transfer the forces that would flex the chassis to some other point, which may help the car corner better.

Best to ask an expert on this matter for their opinion, only thing im sure about is it will reduce chassis flex.

Stock...

Because the car is stock, bar a couple minor things

You can try 95 unleaded if the handbook does not say you must use 98 octane, but keep your ears open for signs of detonation/pinging. High compression engines need high octane fuel to run well, some will get away with 95 , which is still considered premium fuel, but others must use 98 or they experience pinging/detonation.

But if you can afford to run 98, stay with it, going to 95 may reduce power by a tiny bit, and if you been running 98 for ages, the ECU is used to that fuel and adjusts the air/fuel ratios to suit.

And you say a full tank is 55L, is that the actual tank size or what you fill into the tank at the petrol station? If its the actual tank size, you want to see how much fuel you actually get into the tank when you fill up, then use that figure to calculate your economy.

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...

Looks nice, sounds like you got some good plans, make it a bit nicer to drive and look nicer :D

That is one sexy sportivo

Love the look of the angel eyes, looks like it should have been there from factory!

Nice Levin!

Colour combo looks mint and the dual exhausts are a nice touch.

Hey everyone,

I currently drive a 93' VR commodore and a 89' AE93 Seca SX.

The SX was a recent purchase, and thought i'd join up with a toyota community to learn a few things about mine and other toyotas. :)

I'll be putting up topics of my rides eventually, so stay tuned...