Celica Forums General Discussion General Looking to buy a 200k mile 2000 GTS. What should I look at?

Hello all,

The wife gave me the go ahead to buy a project car, so I decided to get another Celica but in GTS trim. I found one local to me that is in rough shape exterior wise. But from what I see in the pictures the engine looks solid except it is pushing 200k (194k). He mentions that it has a issue with the Driver side rear wheel bearing as its causing "galloping noise". but is "drive-able", and that it has a grind going to 3rd gear, I'm guessing syncros.

I'm hoping to at least take a look at this car this week to take a test drive. When going over the car what should I be looking for specifically? What are the NO-Purchase Flags Should I look for?

Thanks!

Hey, cool to hear you're looking at a Celica for a project! My advice would be:

-Make sure it'll hit lift (if not, expect to replace lift bolts)
-See if 3rd gear will consistently engage
-Make sure it doesn't overheat
-Check for leaks

Lastly, the thing I noticed first was the dents in the rear quarter panels. Happened on my old Celica GT.

-If you're good at body work, it might be feesible
-If you take it to a shop, it won't be a cheap fix
-Realize that the rear quarter panels run from the back, over the door, and to the front fender. Not a simple bolt-on replacement.

Otherwise, looks like fun. Good luck!

I didn't end up with the one above, after running the VIN and seeing the history of the car, plus the damage to the body, I figured it would be to much of a headache to get the car back to OEM performance. So...

Instead I ended up buying a 2001 Celica GTS with 232k~. One owner (Older lady) and all stock parts still on the car, even the stereo was never changed out! Exterior paint is rough and Interior leather is worn through and ripped on the seat, but considering it was this lady's daily driver for 17 years (up until June of this year) I'd say it held up. I guess she never heard of wax... but she was meticulous about maintenance on this car. Oil change every 3k, new tires, radiator replaced.

Anyways I did end up test driving it for about 30 mins, found a empty lot and drove AutoX style around the lights and really drove it hard. I was able to get in lift in 1st and 2nd for a brief moment but had to back it off as I was running out of space around the lot. I really wanted to test it in the street more then I did, but I was a little nervous to do so when she told me the car doesn't currently have insurance active on it...

As far as I can tell the engine, suspension, and trans are fine. CEL does pull codes 0300 and 0302, (misfire and cylinder #3 misfire / to lean). I'm going to replace the sparks with DENSO Iridium IK20 and run a bottle of fuel en-richer to see if that will solve the problem. While I didn't feel any problems with LIFT, i'm going to go ahead and just replace the lift bolts just in case, it will also give me an excuse to take a look at the upper cams and timing chain, also replace gasket.

The hood will need to be replaced and I'm kinda disappointed that the clear bra didn't hold up, it looks like a hot mess. But the hood was dented from a falling fence post which dented the front passenger lip of the hood and smacked a crack on the scoop, plus it put a small dent in the bumper skin on the passenger side. The only other issue that screamed at me was the FOB didn't unlock/lock the driver side door. It worked for the trunk and passenger door, just not driver side.

All in all it's a far cry from my 2002 Celica but now since I don't have to rely on it to be a Daily I can actually have some fun and do what I wanted to do in the first place.

WOW! From your description, thats not bad at all. Can I ask what price range you paid for the red GTS?

Good job on your find!

I paid 1700

Oof! Thats only a few dollars more than a Samsung Galaxy Note9 512GB.

I was expecting you to post something near double that. Good buy

They wanted 2.6k... 3000 to 4000 is what they go for here with less then 200k in fair condition, so it wasn't hard to talk them down. I was able to convince her by the time I have to open the engine up fix any "issues", body work to paint and put in a new clutch it would cost at least another 5k..

Good choice passing on the silver one and decent price on the red one. Can't be surprised about the clear coat peel though, I've never seen a red Celica with original paint that isn't beat in one way or another lol. Is it manual or automatic by the way?

Ohhh noooo I wouldn't have gone through the trouble if it was automatic. Manual all the way. OH Also, the reverse beeper warning actually worked too, that never worked on my '02

Oh good lol. I got my 199k mile GTS project for $1100. It's come so far and I couldn't be happier with it. Have fun!

Hi, I am a new member here and recently got a 2000 celica that had 198k from a old friend as a gift. I know I am very lucky guy, but he told me all calipers pistons needed to service and replace, also some other TLC here and there.

Alright to keep everyone updated. I had a opportunity to work on my Celica this past weekend.. Nothing to crazy but the goal was to remove all the CEL from the car first. I was having issues of the car having Misfire codes and lean codes, so the easiest things for me to do was to replace the Spark plugs, air filter, and clean off the MAF Sensor. The goal of this car is to keep it close to "Stock" as possible as this car will be used for SCCA Solo2 Events in G Street racing.

K&N filter was placed in the airbox to replaced a relatively new paper filter. BTW I forgot how much a pain in the ass the stock airbox is to reassemble as not everything wanted to align correctly due to the rubber on the K&N filter catching on the edges of the box, took me damn near a hour to get it on correctly... Longer then it took me to replace the spark plugs.

MAF sensor cleaned with good old MAF spray cleaner which I used a "generous" amount.

I also glad I replaced the spark plugs and I do beleive these where the root of the CEL issues. I cannot remember what brand they were but when I pulled them from the engine they where some platinum plugs which didn't meet .4 Gap needed for the engine.. They looked OK but you could tell it's been over 60-100k since they have been replaced. Denso IK20 iridium went back into the engine.

With a quick restart of the ECU and start of the engine I am no longer throwing the 3 codes of engine misfire and going to lean. Car idles at 1300RPM cold and settles at 1000-800 when warm.

Since I had some extra time I gone ahead and replaced the rear hatch struts as they where done. 18 years of metal vs socket wrench... required a power grinder, but the job is done, and the hatch does require a bit of Umph to close now. NOTE: if you are replacing the rear lift struts, BOLT the bottom of the struts to the car first before you connect the top portion to the hatch... Doing the other way will cause a lot of swearing and considerable more scratches on the paint inside the creases.

I've since put 300+ miles on the car and couple observations I can make is, this is not a daily driver! lol. Well it can be but my real car is a 2017 Outback which virtually has no cabin noise and does transition speeds very smoothly. The Celica on the other hand... You feel everything. EVERYTHING on the road, super loud cabin noise from the engine but when your outside the car it sounds fine. I guess I'm so used to have a dead quite car it was very noticeable going down 100+ miles interstate going home. Also when you let off the throttle there is no graceful reduction in speed, it just starts slowing down so it makes a bit of a rough ride during traffic.

I've ordered Koni yellows fronts and KYB adjustable rear struts that will be replacing the aging system. I'm still debating if I should use the springs that are already on the car or buy a new set of OEM springs (They must be OEM springs) before I replace them in the car. But I think while I wait for those to get here my next project will be pulling the driver side door panels and see if I can fix the wireless lock control. Passenger door and rear hatch works but for some odd reason the driver side doesn't, but I can use the key to lock and unlock all the doors in the vehicle if I do it from the drivers side.. Anyone have any ideas before I tear into it?

Also now i'm in the hunt to find a new hood and possibly a new passenger front panel to replace the dented units. I think I can repair the front panel but If I can get it cheap I'm not going to bother, hopefully I can find it in Toyota absolute Red.. The car will be resprayed sometime next year so I'm not worried about that.

I will take pics and load them up here to this "kinda" dead forum I figured it at least be a good Journal of what not to do.

Hey man!

Good to hear all the progress, glad it is going well. I just got a CEL today for cylinder 1 misfire and it appears to be the coil pack. Once you get going on the cosmetics, I'd love to see pics!


I laughed at the accuracy at this. I'm on my second daily-driven Celica and it all sounds familiar.

Anyway, keep it up!

-Connor

First and needed appearance upgrade... The GTS leather shifter was worn through, I had actually rip the rest of the leathe off just so I could get a decent grip. I had this one laying around when I had my 2002 GT.

BTW the difference in cabin noise between the 2017 Outback and the 2001 Celica GTS after 5 minute engine warm up...

A little slow on getting parts but I did redo my shift knob to add modest amount of color and got new floor mats from Costco!

Cool to see someone keeping the forum alive.
My Celica is also a daily and I also think it is too loud. I end up not wanting to drive long distances because of it.

I'm border line on deciding if I'm going to lay sound dampening material inside the cabin. That should help out with with the interior vibration also.

In mine most of the noise comes from the engine. Switching to 0W20 oil helped reduce NVH but it's still not good.
Adding sound deadening material to the firewall and hood would probably yield the biggest improvements.

No pics to update as the weather has been pretty cold as of late, but i'm still waiting for several parts to come in as well as savaging the local salvage yards. I hoping the weather will be warm enough for me to work on the car this weekend. I'm just looking to replace the breaks and repaint the calibers, but I'll also be putting the car on the lift and we'll be able to take a look at the underbody to see if there is any damage. I'll take some pics.

I haven't had much time to do anything with the Celica since purchasing it a few months ago aside putting in a new head unit with BT and Android auto. But with that said I finally received my new OEM springs, AGX shocks/struts and my ST sway bar. I was also able to go to the local junk yard and pick up a few things that the Celica needed, such as a new hood and a couple of internal pieces such as a new wireless lock replacement and sunvisors. I also scored a glass sunroof from a '03 and custom made black headliner. Picture attached with a black Celica hood.

Glad to see its coming together!

Nice find on the glass sunroof and black headliner. I'm still looking locally for a glass sunroof and am planning on redoing my own headliner myself in black. Please post pics when you've got that headliner in. I am interested to see how it looks with the grey plastics.

Good stuff!

Well that was a short lived project... Hit a patch of black ice, sending her into the median...

Ouch.
My condolences - that must suck the big one.
So very sorry to read that - I'm about to jump into a 117k 2002 GTS myself, and was picking up a great deal of useful knowledge from you.
Did you just dispose of this car?

Damn, that's a shame man. Sorry to hear. Please don't let it discourage you from this hobby!