Celica Forums General Discussion Engine and Performance difference in front strut tower orientation 2001 vs 2002 & newer

Hello. New member here!

I bought my 2001 Celica GT new

Had the opportunity to buy locally a TRD front strut tower brace bar - seller said it came off of 2002 Celica (showed me pics) but it would not line up or fit on my celica at all - even by eyeballing it was way off by a couple inches!

Looking at his pics and looking at my car, it looks like the front strut towers on my 2001 GT are canted / angled inward as they go up to the top. The car in the pics showed his 2002's strut towers being more 'flat' at the top, oriented almost perfectly vertical.

I researched as much as I could online but I find no indications that there are any differences front suspension design from 2000 thru 2006.
And also no different part #s or different applications for strut brace bars broken down by year.

What. is. going. on. here.

thanks...

TCB

I have a 2001 GT-S and my front strut bar fits my 01, as well as on any 00 and 02, so I'm not sure why you're experiencing that. I'd say begin by looking up the part number on the strut bar and see what models it was made for. Is there not any way to adjust it?

Hi Connor

thanks for the reply.

I'll try to add some more information to this in hope that it helps:

1.) I did not buy the bar.. so that's good.
2.) The bar has no adjustments. it is a solid mostly straight bar, painted red, with a TRD logo attached (glued?) to the top.
3.) The bar had no numbers that I could find
4.) I did not see the bar actually installed on an actual celica.
5.) I was shown 2 or 3 pictures of (allegedly) this bar installed in a blue celica

6.) what really interested me is that in his pictures (and in pics of MOST celicas I find online) is that my front strut towers appear angled inward and are closer together than others.

7.) not sure if it matters, but my car is an early 2001 model. purchased in March 2001 in California - The manufacture date on the door placard indicates it was made in japan 12/00 - which I take to mean December 2000.

I'm going to try an upload some pics so maybe some of you guys can possibly see what I am seeing

Maybe I am just imagining this or perhaps it's an optical illusion that my strut towers are differently placed?

I have not had my Celica side by side with others very much to look at this specific thing so....

Thanks for the clarification. Based on that, I personally would hold off on purchasing. It would suck to lose out on a genuine TRD part locally for a good price, but it is better to be safe than sorry. I say that because every single genuine Toyota part, down to nuts and bolts, has a part number. If it doesn't appear to fit and if you haven't seen it fitted to another Celica, that's a little questionable.

Like I said, I would hold off. You can get other nice strut bars at a decent price. (Megan Racing, etc.) I had an Ebay strut bar on my old GT and it felt like decent quality and fit great. PS: Your towers should be identical to every other Celica out there. Just my thoughts. Good luck!

Thank Connor - I appreciate your thoughts.

This wouldn't be the first time that I have been fooled by an optical illusion (or my imagination!)

But it is odd - the guy who had the pics actually pointed out the difference in the appearance of the strut towers to me -

The only other thing I can possibly think of is that I recall reading about a certain production run of 'Japan market Only' Celicas being built with something they called a "super strut" - maybe this was one of those cars in the picture - but it seems highly unlikely...

Also, I'm not sure it even pertains to 7th gen Celica - in any event - this thread from newcelica.org discusses it...

https://www.newcelica.org/forums/showthread.php?t=217930

ANYWAY -

Here is a picture of a 2002 Celica GT, found via google search,
(posted by member 'Sultan' of this website).

I posted ithis pic side by side with mine.

As I look at it, the strut tower angles appear different.... Does anyone else see this?

Maybe this is a camera lens optical illusion like a fish-eye sort of thing?

I believe it may be the differing angles of the two photos.

Although it looks different on the surface, if you zoom in on the strut towers of each vehicle, they appear even (to me at least) based on what's around them. Like on the left side, both towers appear to be the same angle in proportion to that tube going into the firewall.

See what I mean?

I understand exactly what you are saying about looking at the reference points of surrounding items for distance -

But now - with that in mind - look at the ANGLE - and then compare the ANGLE of the tops of the struts with the ANGLES of everything surrounding them in both pictures.

My point is, that if the angle was distorted for the tops of the struts, then everything else around them would also be similarly rotated in the pictures. but they are not. The angles of everything ELSE in the backgrounds of both pics appears identical - just - not the tops of the shock mounts.

Anyhoo...

what i REALLY need to do is meet up with some other local Celica owners and put these cars side by side.

Meanwhile, I see that some owners of BMW M3 cars seem to have this issue too -
so now it just makes me more determined to figure this out and settle this once and for all! LOL

--> https://s14net.vbulletin.net/forum/...t-topics/5567-sparco-strut-bar-won-t-fit

-----> The critical passage from that message board quoted below:

"...same thing happened to me. I've heard a lot of other people complain about it too. Sparco only makes one size, so they sent you the right one.

Ireland engineering makes 2 different sized bars, a "correct sized" one and one that is 1" shorter.
They claim that some E30s strut towers are narrower because they were built with different inner fenders.

Here's a quote from their site:
"The factory book says the distance between the strut towers is 1002.2mm +-2mm (39.5").
Measured from center to center (where the shock sticks thru).
We have found many cars that measure about 980mm (38.5").
This leads us to believe BMW made two slightly different unibodies.
Therefore we now make two versions of our brace.
Please specify model and year, and measure your car to specify the "regular" or "short" brace"

There are 2 schools of thought floating around on why this happens and I don't believe either of them:
1) Some E30's were built with different strut tower geometry.
2) On some cars the strut towers sag over time...."



Sooo. Maybe I should do some measuring.....

Actually - I did not consider this -

BUT... one of my front struts is completely blown out - and I am about to replace the struts, shocks, mounts etc this week -
which is why my searches found the strut brace in the first place

Do you suppose that the collapsed strut could be causing the suspension to sag significantly and alter the angle and position of the struts up top??

That might explain a lot...

I've never ever had a strut go completely out before... and I have been driving on it that way for a while... (Because, money...)

I'm no expert on suspension but I do believe that could explain it.

New KYB struts and shocks installed.
Local dealer gave me a decent price on the TRD front strut brace -
I will provide an update when it comes in / attempt install....

Local Toyota dealer? Yours is still offering TRD parts for the Celica today??