Squalled

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.

Interesting, I mean this is probably the longest I have left it since it had been a tad over 6 months since I did the last oil change back in mid May. For the most part, each time I've done a change on time in the past it's usually a golden brown colour. Luckily enough for me I'm in the process of moving house where I'll be able to do oil changes in my garage no matter what the weather is, so happy days!

Finally got around to doing my oil change over the weekend. Have been super busy lately and the weather hasn't helped either since I can only really do it outside. This time I got it all done in relatively quick time since I actually decided to turn the filter the correct way to remove it. It had been just a tad over 6 months since my last oil change and I had not even reached 5000 kms yet mostly due to lockdown but the oil was still quite black but in saying that, it still doesn't burn a huge amount of oil considering it's done over 260000 kms now and runs 5W-30 full synthetic. Not much new coming for remainder of the year at this stage but I'll keep the thread updated.

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.

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.

Yeah I thought I got lucky since it was out in the open during the storm. Sure do, I had the same thought. The colour is silver metallic and has a bit of a gold/champagne mix through it as well so it's a bit of a pain to colour match. I'll see how I go but in all honesty the dents are quite small and there isn't 100s of them either so I think it'll work out fine 🤞

Long time no updates. Honestly not much to really update as of recently. Have had a lot going on with life and work (positive things at least) and haven't had anything major to really add. Gave the car a wash last week only for it to rain ever so lightly about 30 minutes later after I was done even though my local weather said it would only be overcast but, oh well. It did need a good clean after all the rain anyways. During this time I found that my roof was sadly impacted by the hail storm not too long ago and I found roughly 20-30 small - maybe 50 cent sized dents all over the roof and maybe one or two on the bonnet. It must've been the right lighting since I'd never seen it prior and I only notice it at certain angles so I may end up getting a dent paintless dent removal done at some point but would need to look into it a bit more. Suspension maintenance is ony my to-do list and I'm likely going to look at replacing the sway bar endlinks and lower control arms as I've got quite a bit of squeaking going on at the front but I'm also going to look into a coilover rebuild as I've done well over 100000 kms since I've installed them and they're also a bit noisy these days. Stay tuned.

I'd hope they do a similar deal like they did with the Yaris, they sold those first 1000 units or so in no time and for the most part, the owners didn't sell them within the first month.

If the Yaris GR is anything to go by and Toyota give a somewhat similar treatment to the Corolla GR, I think there will definitely be a high demmand for it.

My thoughts exactly Tony! Where I was, we were getting anything from about 20 cent sized to around golf ball size consistently. It was a huge relief not having major damage and having to go through insurance. Another bonus was that my parents house wasn't damaged as well considering the last major hail storm we had back in 2015 caused all sorts of issues.

Update time. With the storm that rolled through this week I was very very fortunate despite the hail and the size of some of the hail stones I spotted while my car was parked at work in the open, that my car didn't get any damage what so ever other than my already broken antenna being knocked out of it's place. After going over the car at least half a dozen times I've found no additional marks or dents from the storm. I count myself pretty lucky because I've seen what damage did happen to other people. After the rain came through again yesterday it was quite a short and dirty storm leaving horrid dirty water marks everywhere. I ended up going for a quick drive last night to get back into the swing of living normally once again and all I can say is missed driving a lot! Despite only going for a quick drive it was so good to finally stretch the Sportivo's legs after only doing such short trips over the last 3-4 months. Thankfully the weather was clear today despite it being windy and it should be clear for a few days at least so I got in a wash and protection top up this morning. I once again used CarPro's HydrO2 finishing foam, this time also using a microfiber sponge to make sure the product was spread evenly over the panels before rinsing off. Once again, I was left with a super slick surface and awesome beading on practically every panel that I applied product to. Waited a few hours for the car to dry a bit before heading out for another short drive to get some photo's because you know, why not! And one last one when the sun came out again. Can really see the hints of champagne/gold through the silver in the sunlight. Anyway not much too new other than that but, stay tuned for more.

It's nothing flash, it's purely functional but I'm not entirely sure how he'd get around a AE102 with a 2ZZ, that would be a first for him 😅 I mean he modified my injen as it was shorter and fit much better, well for the 2 piece intake that is. My current setup is the 3" with the 2.75" reducers at the MAF but I'm thinking of keeping that aside now that I run MAP. The pipe itself is actuall a Injen pipe from a blob eye WRX but it uses the same MAF style so it works for our cars too. As a starting point I'd honestly advise a full 2.75" intake but, I do re-call reading/hearing that the Celica's are bit more sensitive to intake changes compared to Corolla's. I remember reading people running AEM CAI's couldn't run the Injen CAI because it needed a tune to run them, or something along those lines and I always assumed they were the same size from what I found online.

In terms of intakes, a mate of mine makes them in his spare time down Vic and I'm sure he's done a few Celica's in his time. As for exhaust, couldn't have said it better than Ian. Depending on what yor future plans are with the car, a 2.5" system will yield some nice gains albeit, losing a little low end on the stock tune. Another worth while upgrade while you're doing the exhaust is porting the standard headers, it's not overally expensive and does reduce the low/mid range flat spot you may have noticed. I had ported headers on my Sportivo a few years back before upgrading and they're definitely the best bang for buck upgrade in terms of cost vs gain.

Yeah I used to go while it was raining and I did push it a bit too hard once and understeered a bit and it was the last time I went that hard. I usually go in via the Waterfall entrance since the road is a lot nicer from there to Stanwell. I can't imagine going their on a bike, I've seen plenty go through there and they make me look like I'm stopped 😂 I've seen some crazy things happen in there over the years. First time I went there someone crashed their V6 Eunos and basically wrote if off which turned me off driving in there. Craziest thing I saw was once at Stanwell after going through we hear this loud induction noise coming from miles away. We were all guessing and were proved wrong when a basically bog standard looking N15 hatch flew through and came into the car park and stopped in a cloud of smoke from the brake and tyres while being chased by the police. The police came through and literally drove right past him before leaving and going further on. The guy came out pretty scared and nervous and ended up taking off before the police came back. I don't think I've ever seen anyone drive a car that hard there ever since.

Decided to give the beast a wash finally since the weather looked to be pretty good. Of course, it had to rain over night but the coating I applied seemed to repel most if not all the water and I can barely see any water marks on panels. Also decided to give my muffler a polish and it seems to be a lot shinier than before along with repelling the water much better now. Here's the final clean result before the rain hit late last night. Weather looked bad but the radar said otherwise. Got out and about in the evening before the rain eventually came.