Mark B

Had a pretty horrible end of year 2021 due to both my beautiful 14 year old Cocker Spaniel dogs reaching the end of their life. 10 days apart. It seems the second one couldn't survive without her sister. Had them since they were 8 weeks old. Lots of great memories. Winter and general coldness and wetness put me off doing things on the Celica and I couldn't be bothered moving another car out the way to get it out. Did one job during the winter though. Noticed the rear wiper motor stopped working. Check power supply to it. All fine. Got a replacement wiper motor from Ebay. Working fine now. Anyway, things are improving. Gradually getting used to not having my dogs around and nice warm weather starting to come through now and then. Had a fantastic day at the Anglesey Vintage Rally last weekend. Steam engines and classic cars galore. Lovely warm sunny weather. Had a great time. There was a stunning yellow Celica ST Gen 1 there. I didn't see anyone around it to chat to though unfortunately.

I don't mind having a go at some jobs on the Celica but there are limits. It has been holding back and a bit jerky when driving (perfect on idle) since I got it 7 years ago but generally tolerable. A few years back I replaced spark plugs, HT leads, adjusted timing slightly, cleaned out throttle body, EGR etc but no improvement. Suspected fuel injectors.  Tried fuel injector cleaner.  No difference. I have always used premium 97-99 RON fuel but I don't think the previous owners did. So I decided I needed to replace the fuel injectors. No new genuine OEM injectors available anywhere. Managed to get the part number off the old injectors without dismantling bits of engine to get to them (nuisance). Part number: 23250-74160. Phoned Toyota main dealer expecting "computer says no" kind of response. Yep, that was more or less the response however they did tell me they had a different part number: 23209-74160 mmm oh well I thought I would stick with the part number from the ones in the car as I have a lot of service records from the previous and first owner and there's no mention of the injectors being replaced. So, TCB to the rescue. Phoned them up. Used (known good ones) in stock and a new set of seals. I've had the new injectors sitting in a box for a while now never actually managing to get a anywhere near the engine bay. Couple of weeks ago... took the Celica out of the garage. Spotted a small damp patch on the floor. mmm translucent, oily (not rain water), about where the middle of the car would have been in the garage between the back wheels. Yep you've guessed it... brake fluid. Checked the reservoir. Yes indeed, it has lost some fluid. Probably a rusted pipe. A job I wouldn't get into. So booked it in to my mechanic to fix / replace the brake pipe and decided to get him to do the fuel injectors while he's at it. Rocker cover leaking engine oil into one of the spark plug tubes too so he replaced the rocker cover gasket at the same time. He also mentioned the cam belt has a groove on it otherwise the belt looks OK so he recommended replacing that soon although not urgently. Cam belt was replaced probably getting on for 10 years ago, about 14k miles ago. So will get the cam belt kit done when it goes for its MoT in a couple of months time.  Not sure whether or not to do the water pump as I've recently replaced the coolant with the Super Long Life stuff.

So, back to the fuel injectors... took it for a drive after collecting it from my mechanic the other day... any better? Oh yes. Massive difference.  Much smoother when driving now. I only went a few miles so need to take it out for a few more drives and maybe some longer drives. Next job? I have a new rear number plate to fit before the next MoT. The current plate is the original and the orange reflective layer is fading. Thinking of getting a black mounting backing plate for the new number plate though. I'll keep the original number plate for future enthusiasm. Get the wheels refurbished I think, or maybe change the stereo. It have the original Toyota stereo in it at the moment (which I'll also keep for future enthusiasm) but unfortunately that stopped working at some point during the past year. Been driving about with my phone sitting on the centre console playing music / BBC Sounds or probably more typically no music at all, just the pure sounds of the car and engine doing their thing. Really must give it a wash soon too.  Not particularly dirty, just looking a bit dull. A good wash and chamois and probably some polish coming soon.