New T-Sport Owner

August 16, 2010

Evening Guys,

Been snooping around the forum for a few weeks, but decided it was time I finally said hello. Bought a 2003 T-Sport about 4 weeks ago as a replacement for the "Evo-Colt" as something more sensible and economical. Been involved with Mitsubishis for nearly 7 years, so new to Toyotas apart from a Supra engine rebuld a few years ago.

Old car was a heavily modified 1994 Mitsubishi Colt GTI, running coilovers, brake upgrades and the all important 4G63T (Mitsubishi Evo) 2 litre turbo engine. All home built apart from the exhaust system. Couple of pics below, but essentially just over a tonne and 270bhp at 0.8bar boost, spec list is pages long, but I won't bore you all! Changing to the T-Sport has been an intresting change! :lol:

Parked here at Japshow in June next to another Colt I was involved in building into its current 400 bhp 4wd spec.

Due to job location, I have a fairly long commute (70 mile round trip) per day, and running a car on super unleaded that does 23mpg (if you drive like a granny), was getting a bit silly with today's petrol prices. Combined with services every 5k it was becoming more and more expensive to run, especially as the list of future upgrades got longer every day! :lol: So I decided to change it in for something a bit more "sensible". After quite a bit of reseach I decided on a T-Sport.

Bought the 03 T-Sport from a Toyota dealership in the Lake District a few weeks ago and have been pretty impressed with it to be honest! Its completely standard with full Toyota service history and 55k on the clock. VVTLI is good when it finally gets there and most importantly its not trying to bankrupt me everyday! :yes:

Not planning many mods, maybe some new wheels or better tyres on the OEM alloys, lowering springs, some better brake pads and an air filter will probably be the extent of it. That and fixing the annoying radio in the dash "gap"!

Hoping to learn more about the T-Sport, pass on a bit of general tech advise and maybe attend the odd track day if anyone organises any? Maybe see some of you at a couple of the remaining shows of this year.

Cheers,

Ben :)

August 16, 2010

Hi mate and welcome,

you will have a lot of fun with the VVTL-i! :yes:

The dash gap is a common factory defect and is solvable, nrgizerbunny sorted it I think.

:thumbsup:

August 16, 2010

nrgizerbunny sorted it by heating the dash with a hair dryer and then cooling it rapidly with ice to shrink the dash and make the unit fit better. be careful not to repeat too many times as you may end up with the air vent/cd player not fitting properly.

in my opinion the car looks better on after market wheels (17 inches at least) with a wider tyre, most people here go with 215/45R17 i think, rather than just changing the oem tyres.

congratulations on your new purchase and please post some pictures :D

August 17, 2010

I have been around t sports since they first appeared in the uk late 2001.

First thing to do is remove the snorkel pipe to the airbox, its so restrictive it borders on the laughable.

I run mine on Shell v power with millers additive. It goes ok on lift but terrible below it, mind thats a comparison to my previous car a leon tdi cupra with 10k in mods 225hp and 400lbft. God I miss that machine!

The corolla is an underated car really, as quick as the civic without the insurance and you get a few more toys with it!

Change the lift bolts which control the 2nd cam, they are about £1.50 for the pair and so easy to do.

If your car has done 50k plus you should notice the lift smother and a little more agressive.

Glynn

August 17, 2010

Cheers for the welcomes guys, and Glynn for the details of the lift bolts. Looks easy enough. Lift seems to come in reasonably well, although I guess I've got nothing to compare it to. For £1.50 a pair its got to be worth doing!

Already spotted the tiny air feed going to the air box, that will be coming out shortly! Will also be changing the front indicators to silver look bulbs to get rid of the orange tint in the headlights. Anyone know if they're opposite or opposed pins on the bulbs?

Just ordered some Heko wind deflectors on a group buy on Coltuk, so those will be arriving shortly! Mods have started already! :lol: