1989 Toyota Celica 4th Gen ST160 Auto
Spares or repairs
I’m having to cut my losses on a car I really always wanted, purchased last year from the 2nd owner, who’d dailyed it for 14yrs, before buying a Nissan 300z and laying it up in late 2024.
I bought it, got it mot’d again and started to potter about in it, before starting to notice a noisy transmission. So I too laid it up until I finally sourced a replacement gearbox for it just recently.
It has been regularly started up, had a brand new alternator, oil and filter and spark plugs and honestly drives like an absolute dream.
HOWEVER, whilst it was left ticking over, I failed to notice the temperature gauge go up and inadvertently cook the headgasket! I’m so annoyed… there’s now water in the oil and it’s going to want a head skim and gasket! I’ve literally had to give up with the car accordingly. I’m assuming the auto fan switch had failed, causing the engine to overheat.
So that said, I’m going to focus on the positives briefly here:
EXTERIOR:
It’s a very original and straight car… it has rust areas around all 4 wheel arches and sills, but wasn’t structurally a mot failure, just surface that could be sanded and filled.
Paint needs a polish, but again, is seemingly all original and not been painted before. All the lights work, sunroof works, a very honest example and far too good to part out. Tyres good, front ones flagged as an advisory but all legal. Boot struts need replacing, so a pole holds the bootlid up.
INTERIOR:
The inside is truly timewarped!! Really clean and tidy, no wearing at all really. All the buttons work, mirrors/windows/tilt slide roof, great heater, VERY comfortable car to sit in and drive. Can’t really fault the interior of a nearly 40yr old car!
MECHANICS:
Well, aside from the obvious that I mentioned (headgasket, noisy gearbox bearing) the car fires up first turn of the key and sounds truly lovely.
Has a stainless exhaust system, new radiator, new alternator, mot until August, the engine had a top half rebuild in 2023 but will need a new headgasket again after my own stupidity.
It comes with a SPARE gearbox from a 63k mile car, which according to the guy I got it from, is about a 3hr swap over if you have a proper car hoist.
It starts and drives but will overheat, so will need trailoring away.
SUMMARY:
It’s too good to part out… a savy person will swap the gearbox out, pop the head off and sort the gasket, fix and repaint the rust and have a car worth £6k plus at the end.
I have to let it go now cause I’m not that person…
It still has its mot, it’s had 2 very long term owners who used it daily, it’s low mileage and is set up to be an easy fix for someone.
As I say, I vouch for how amazing it does drive… no knocks or bangs from the suspension, a very genuine car that needs recommissioning.
I’m not able to sell parts off it, you’ll need to buy the whole car and do that yourself if you’re after a donor! The parts alone on this car are worth a lot!
On 12-May-26 at 20:34:03 BST, seller added the following information:There’s no buy it now or “best price?” because I’m not around to sell it before the auction ends, so can’t release the car early.