Engine Problems With Celica Ts?

[gramacar]

Hi to all

I live in Greece and I have recently had a visit to my local Toyota dealer to ask for his opinion about the Celica TS (192 bhp). I was surprised when he told me that the models made on 2000 had a serious problem in their gearbox that leads to misshifts. When you try to shift from 5th gear to 4th the gearbox would shift to 2nd instead (especially in high revs), leading to a total destruction of the engine. I have also heard that those models had some problems with the ECU (faulty) too.

Could you please tell me if these are true and if this situation continues to happen in 2001 models too?

I am considering to purchase a second handed Celica TS from April-2001 so I definately need your help.

thanks

john

[spwolf]

up to 2002 model year, Celica's TS were relativly easy to miss-shift... this happened mostly in the USA since ppl there are a bit less experienced with manuals... "problem" was that the gates were not defined so to prevent miss-shifts but for smoother operation...

so it is not that Celica would create an miss-shift but the driver would make an mistake and shift down to second instead of 4th actually... and being on 8,200 RPM, shifting down would hurt the engine... so it is an driver error, made possible by less defined gates... same things happen with Honda s2000 and Acura RSX's which also have high rev engines...

... all of that being said, 2002 celicas had much more definded gates and are harder to shift smoothly now, and a bit slower... now you have a clunky gear change which needs a strong hand..

So it is nothing crazy really, if you know how to shift a manual, you should have no issues at all... I never heard about anything like ECU issues with Celica... i dont think it is an common issue...

Celica TS is a really nice one...

[2000CelicaGTS]

oh boy

you bet that the 2000 6-speed has problems (nothing about the ECU that i know of)

i'm in the USA and actually never heard of the celica TS. i made the mistake of misshifting my GTS into 2 from winding out 3rd. was coming back with a friend from the chicago auto show in 2002 and i was racing around like an idiot trying to impress my friend - his words "go fast"

anyway it's not that i don't know how to drive stick because i've been driving for 4 years at the time. when i misshifted it sounded like a vacuum cleaner with the high revs. asked toyota if they could flash the rpm and tell me what it was at but they couldn't.

so i drove the car home about 30 more miles, died once and jumpy at idle and driving. called toyota the next day and had it towed there. told them what happened (i was merging in with traffic off an on ramp and downshifted because a semi was coming down on me) and they fixed the bent valves on a 'good will' basis. i had to pay $900 for a new clutch (bent supports on the pressure plate and messed up the springs on the clutch disk) and now a year later i'm finally going to get the trans fixed from grinding 2nd and 3 everytime i shift probably $1000.

i went around with toyota, dealerships, corporate, i think it even went across seas with the decision. anyway they say they are not paying to have my car fixed and i got lucky they even did the engine rebuild (new plugs, valves/springs, other little stuff). there are internet sites where people talk about this happening and toyota took care of everything, guess i just went to a hardass dealership.

anyway as far as i was told and know the only cars with this problem were the early 2000 2zzge models and later there was a fix that installed a new shifting gate (which i now have and was part of what they did under good will) which put shift for another gear further away making it harder to misshift but still possible

below is a download picture of my engine showing the engine taken apart and how burnt the pistons were

[exon16m]

I thought most cars had a shear pin to stop you damaging your engine in mis-shifts i guess toyotas dont

[gramacar]

The celica TS in Europe is the same I think with the GTS 190 in USA. Both have the 1.8 (190bhp) engine.

Is it possible for someone to tell if his celica has the right gearbox (the one with the fix installed) or the one with the problems (misshifting)?

john

[spwolf]

The celica TS in Europe is the same I think with the GTS 190 in USA. Both have the 1.8 (190bhp) engine.

Is it possible for someone to tell if his celica has the right gearbox (the one with the fix installed) or the one with the problems (misshifting)?

john

please re-read my post and find your answer.... "fix" was installed on mid 2002 models, not 2000 models... and its not really an fix but...argh, why dont you read it once again so I dont have to repeat myself ten times ;-)

most ppl that have Celica GTS preffer earlier models without "fix" since they are faster and have smoother gear change... and the debate is still on is it an drivers error or transmission error

[Stavros greece]

Hi guys.i ve read all the previous posts and because i also want the same please inform me what should i look and what to avoid.i ve read many topics abouts problems of lift bolts oil pumps and now the gearbox.is it worh it really to by this car?thank u all