Celica Forums General Discussion General 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 or 2005?

Alright, so my 01 celi is totalled. I'm lookin for a new one. I know that 02 (and up i believe) has a lower redline so I dont really want that. I liked my 01, but I think I heard somewhere that the 00 has some kind of problem... i just forget what it was. Any suggestions on what year I should get?

the one you can afford

i think the problem with the 2000 one is the synchros witch the dealer should take care of is it shows up, i read it somewere in here, i got a new trani wen my synchros started to make noise wen i shift, and yeah the 01 02 03 04 05 have lower rev and on the 03 04 05 you cant put power fc on, ur best bet would be 00 or 01 i would say any of them but make sure they dont have a lot of miles, and good luck finding it, because wen i bought my gts it was so hard to find one, i spend one hole months looking, and only found 2 a black one and a blue one ( i got the blue one) but yeah good luck dawg

here ether one of this
https://celicahobby.com/tech/tsb2/TSB_2001_6spd_GTS_Gear_difficulty.pdf
https://celicahobby.com/tech/tsb2/TSB_AUTO_GTS_TRANNY.pdf

IMO - your consideration of the "low redline" as a determining factor in your purchase perhaps suggests you may have some driving issues.

^^^ IMO what is the point of getting a celica if you not going to have fun with it once in awhile??

Actually if I had know about the lower rev limiter on the 2002 models it would have been an issue, any restriction from the manufacture that is not needed is never good, we may not need to go pass 8000 rpm but it's good to know that you can. Luckily I found a 2001 GTS.

^^^ IMO -

Hey - whatever yu get, make sure it's not a manual tranny so you can burn rubber without deploying those pesky neutral-drops

^^make sure its not a manual so you can burn with out doing a neutral drop..that doesnt make sense..or am i crazy

it is only the 2002 with the lower rev limiter on itand also if oyu get the 03 and up you can so a throttle body sway i think and same with the 02 you can do an ECu swap so it would not really matter wich one you get just get a damn Celica

^^^ i think i forgot how to type on this reply

no the lower rev limit was only on one of those years, and they put the rev limit back up the next year. at least that's what bluebomber said in one of the threads.

are you looking for gt of gts? if gt 5speed, check out my link

https://celicahobby.com/ubbthreads/thread.f0_1953275140_0_collapsed_5_93_1.html#1953275140

2002 was the only one with the rev limiter. the 2003+ models regained the normal rev limiter but were screwed when the Drive By Wire was introduced into their mechanisms.

IMO get another 2001 or 2002. You'll eventually get an APEXI PFC, right? then, for now, put up with the low rev on the 2002.

dude get the 2002. its better cz ull know the previous owner couldnt rev it as much as he/she wanted. 02 has upgraded shift synchros i think, you get all the best of all the years, no drive by wire, and you switch the ecu to power FC.

^^^well said

i would do 01, but change the lift bolts first...

There was no synchro problem in 00. The 00 uses the same synchros used in all years, all Matrixes and Corolla XRS', Vibe GTs, and probably even the Elise. The synchro "problem" was with the drivers shifting too hard, grinding up the synchros and gears. You'll also see that engine ratings are slightly lower for 00 than the rest of the years. The "problem" was the drivers misshifting. The engine didn't change until 02, and even then, the changes weren't significant (slightly different intake manifold bolt holes and head bolts), but people going in for warranty claims drove the ratings down.

GTS!!!

i think anything from 03 and up...
cause that's where most of the problems were solved and the interior is black
preferably you could find an 03
and you should buy from Muller, we could do a locate for you! and...um...a good deal?

if you're looking for 03', i may want to sell you mine...

It's pretty simple...

if you plan to upgrade to the PFC, get the 00-02 with the fewest miles you can find. If you plan to keep the stock ECU, get the 03-05 in the best shape you can find.

LOL, the car still has the same problems (lift bolts and belt tensioner), even in 03-05. Besides that, nothing was really solved since 00-02. The new problem that has arisen in the 03s is that the drive by wire system sometimes doesn't work. There was a recall for this. 03s also can't use the Power FC (same with 04-05), so if you're going for performance, you'll be limited in power because of this. Not sure if this happened in 03 or 04, but they might also not be able to use aftermarket headers because of a new air injection system integrated into the stock header, so that's another possible 5-15hp loss.

haha you guys are great. i love EC.

I'm pretty sure I wanna get either an 01 or 00. not sure though...

Someone wanna list the pros and cons for each?

get a gt

There really isn't much of a difference between most 00-01s. If you get an early 00, they do have softer shifter springs. Toyota put stiffer ones in because people don't know how to drive, so they claimed the car was too easy to misshift. Acura and Honda didn't seem to think it was a mechanical problem when people started misshifting the RSX-S and S2000. Some early 00s also have lift kicking in at 6000, vs 6200 for the rest of 00 and all the way to 05.

I believe there's also a recall for the 00s, but it's for a part that hasn't failed yet in anyone's car. Something about a part in the brake system that wasn't washed properly, and could potentially cause a brake fluid leak. Actually, if you get an 00 and it's repaired through the recall (free repair for the life of the car), the braking system will be even better than the 01's because of the new parts.

not to mention that the 00 (and maybe the 01s) didnt come with a grill on the front bumper.

hmmm i think im gunna aim towards the 00

I learned stick on the 01 and didnt misshift... crazy people

whoa shit slow down. how did you total your car tim?


i hate not being on ecelica for 6 days...you miss everything

The grills started in 02, but are compatible with 00-01, so you can just go to a dealership or eBay and pick one up.

well there isn't the sunroof problem
there isn't any TSB on it...
the shift gate was different..
and yes lift and belt would be the same...
but 03 is nice.

haha get with the times jeff
https://celicahobby.com/ubbthreads/thread.f1_1953278292_0_collapsed_5_365_1.html#1953278292

well i have to pay to have the springs changed in my 00? or is it free?

Buying a 2002 with a lower redline is a good thing, at least you know some idiot didn't rev the crap out of it every day.

Actually, I'd think the opposite. They'd have to rev harder and higher more often to keep up and to try to land in lift. If anything, their tranny might have taken a beating, since people think shifting as fast as possible = faster car.

That's one way to look at it, but it's only a couple hundred RPMs. If it was owned by some guy who loved to redline the car at every shift, it won't make that big of difference.

Unless you want to get the PFC, I'd really think of going with an 03. Just go sit in one. The interrior is sooo much cleaner. All the lights like the clock and stereo actually match in color (all orange). It also has the black trim that looks better.

Beyond all that, you're looking at a much easier time finding one with low miles and nice paint, ect...

Think I missed the black interior over here - anyone got pics?

2k3 with the AP is the best year IMO...


looks tight on the outside, redline is at 8300, and the interior is dark

They lowered the rev limiter for a reason, obviously because of reliability issues. Anyone who buys power FC to expand their revs is asking for bad shit to happen to them.

LOL, the only "reliability issues" were the drivers. The limiter was lowered for only one year (02), the same year that Toyota first altered the shift gates, to try to stop idiots from misshifting then blaming Toyota for making the car easy to misshift so they could get warranty repairs. The changes didn't work, since people are still misshifting 02s through 04s. Toyota basically screwed themselves into changing the limiter and the shift gates by actually covering misshifts from 00-01 under warranty. Honda didn't put up with that BS when it happened to their RSX-S and S2000, and most misshifts weren't covered under warranty. So they never felt pressured into dumbing down the car for the masses like Toyota did.

The engine has basically been the same from 00-05, the only difference being different exhaust valves and air injection for the header in the later years (emissions control). The average GTS engine can go up to about 10K before it blows, so the 600 RPM difference in 02 wouldn't be large enough to affect reliability in the least. Most people who have the PFC raise their limiter to 8600-8700 on stock internals and have had no negative effects.

i baught my 00 GTS early this year and it had 35K miles on it. no problems yet

The early 2000's are the best performing 7th gen Celicas. All I can say is I'm glad I still have the original close shift gates and no drive by wire. All the other cosmetics can be overlooked or fixed except the horrible body changes later on.

My Celica is a VERY early 00 GTS. Its was made in Oct of 99. But my car is auto so I cant boast a lot at all.