Jay's 93 FX GT

Hi All,
I'm a newly registered member and figured I'd say hi. I love what you've all done with your cars and it really spreads the mod-fever.

I was recently gonna give up on my FX GT due to the stress of having shit go wrong due to abuse from previous owners and their lack of attention to maintenance, but truth be told she's just been feeling far worse to me than she really is due to other stresses in my life.

I'm 19 years old, and when I first bought her I was totally stoked, having just moved back from Australia to NZ, and she was a great run-around for the first 3 months, and then the trouble hit.

Hub bearing went in the rear driver wheel, so that had to be replaced. Noticed that the nuts on the wheels were ALL the wrong size for the car, each wheel literally held on by about 2 nuts, with the other 2 just there for decorative/damage purpose, so they all got replaced too.

After that, the gearbox started to crunch on harsh downshifts. Fine. Learnt to heel-toe shift to compensate for the slow synchro's, and also started double-clutching as part of my normal driving routine. Waiting for a fix when I have the funds.

Cam belt will be next to keep it's tired old 20v silvertop running till I get the funds for an engine swap. Believe it or not, the cam belt hasn't been changed in 200k km, so pretty astonishing that she still lives. xD Starting to get urgent there, but recently found myself unemployed, so she's waiting a bit for the loving she needs.

Doesn't stop there, though, warped rotors need to be replaced and oil leak tracked down and repaired. Poor old beasty is still hanging in there waiting till she can be reborn as something great.

All my above complaints aside, I truly still enjoy this car. She's been great to me, and I'm really looking forward to fixing her up. While she's certainly not as pretty as some of the cars I've seen on here, she's still in pretty good condition, and though the girlfriend hates the way she looks I really like it. xD

Will add pics once I hit the 7 day mark. Looking at her again she's actually got a really clean body on her and just needs a new right hand tail light to make the body completely immaculate again. Not a spot of rust on it.

Edit for pics:

Must remember these old girls are getting on now, mine 15 and guessing yours is 20 now (thats older than you)
If you need parts just ask, theres a couple of us that can get genuine parts quite cheep, and aftermarket to.

In that case, I'll be after a cam belt kit in about a month or two. xD And wanting to do a radiator flush and replace the coolant in it too, if you know anything about doing that or have the tools to do so? My biggest problem is I have no tools. I've just moved back from Australia and it's been an absolute ordeal since then, haven't even managed to get steady work yet. xD

And yeah, she's pretty much exactly the same age as me. 20 this year. xD But she can look so very pretty with a little bit of loving. I'll upload pics in a week when I can, from the day I bought her. She still looks the same, just dirtier. xD

It's just a shame the owner before me was an old dude that didn't care about any actual maintenance on it, and the owner before him pulled the ABS and installed lowered suspension but somewhere along the lines one of the bushes got a bit of a shagging (left rear in particular) and the whole car has been treated pretty rough except for the body. But the body itself is totally sound, clean, good paint, not a spot of rust. I'm only just starting to take an interest in cars since I've owned her, so I'm just going to be doing the basic maintenance she's missed out on before taking on bigger and better things.

Would you believe she's got almost 200,000 on the current cam belt? :O And I was such a newb when I bought it I totally believed the last owner when he said the timing belt had been done. xD

haha, oh well we all learn not to be so naive as we progress lol

Hahahaha yeah a bit of a slap on the wrist to remind myself, but hey, it's a learning experience.

true lol.. you are only 19

so what are your plans for it?

I look forward to seeing pics. You can't use IMG tags yet?

So far just very rudimentary plans. Over the course of the next year or so I want to have the body cleaned up - all the very minor dents caused when someone can't park/reverse well cleaned up, and hopefully rebuild it's 20v Silvertop over the next year and put a nicer sound system in, replace the CV joint, upgrade brakes, and replace the suspension bushes. After that I'll be saving towards getting everything I need to do a BT and c56 install. Been toying with the idea of throwing a 1mz-fe in there, but truth be told I quite simply don't have the skill for it.

Hmmmm.... If I uploaded them to this site I could technically since it'll be an internal link.... Now there's an idea....

OP Edited with pics. Thanks for the idea.

Edit: Wow, that takes me back. O.O I've put 12000 ks on it since January when I bought it. O.O

looks like a nice clean model..

1mz-fe.. iv often toyed with this idea lol

Nice, clean looking FX mate.

lovely car man....so rare to see an fx completely standard love it!

nice and clean me liky

Yeah, everything I've read indicates it fits in an AE101 bay, and it should put out as much as a blacktop just at lower revs and have really nice economy and good torque. Plus, being a full alloy engine it only weighs 40kg more than the AGE's so yeah.

Thanks guys! The partner has been pressuring me to sell it due to the trouble I've had with it recently, but as I pointed out to her - it's almost fixed up, and I can finish fixing it back to it's good old reliable state in another couple of months using my tax return for less than getting another decent car that will still have problems. xD

She looks quite tidy from the pics,

Thanks for the pics! I'm glad they worked (I asked because I thought new members should be able to post pics). Looks very clean!!

New members can't post any external links or pics. We have to use the site's hosting function.

Oil and filter done with a Repco filter and 20w 50 Shell oil. It'll do till I get around to rebuilding it, then I'll be nicer to her. xD

New battery fitted and new tyre coz the punctured one was looking very very sad. xD She's up and running and sounding and feeling better than she has since I bought her.

I seem to have a short on one of my left hand indicators too, so I'll need to figure that out and get it sorted some time soon. Just gonna go for a cruise around the forums and see if I can find a how-to. The lower indicator isn't working, but the one sitting beside the park lights is fine.

Edit: Jamie explained what was going on to me. Thanks so much, you're a legend! I never would have guessed. Good Guy Toyota giving you a warning.

No worries. have you got it sorted?

It's all sorted and running like a dream. That's one more off the list - all funny engine noises are now gone, turns out you just don't ever take anything to hometune ever even once no matter how stranded you are. "Check oil regularly, we think you have a leak. By the way, we did a service on your car for you, and did the oil and filter. Cough up." Well, I did for a few weeks after they serviced it. Probably because you didn't tighten the filter properly, Hometune.

"Hear that knocking? That's coz the cam belt needs doing." No, it doesn't yet... It was done at 200k's and I found the sticker under the bonnet to prove it... I burnt out all the fuel in the tank and filled it fresh, did an oil and filter, and revved it out to about 6.5k at which point it spat a cloud of smoke then stopped rattling and has run totally clean not a puff of smoke since. Probably something to do with the oil I drained from it looking like treacle, and being less than a quarter of what it should have been.

Now I just have to do the CV joint on the passenger side and the brake rotors, and a rebuild and she'll be good as gold. Thinking about doing an oil change on the gearbox too, just in case.

Edit: Sometimes I'm a bit casual, so please forgive. I'm editing the curses from my posts as we speak. xD This will be left as a badge of shame.

haha nice work jay

And the best news is that I checked this morning, and no oil under the car! Dip stick reads the same as yesterday too . small victories, but feeling pretty chuffed.

That's what you want mate.

Nice 1 Jay

Thanks everyone. I'm wanting to do a complete rebuild on my 20v ST, but I don't have the tools or know where to source the parts. If anyone wants to help, I'll be looking to do it late june, early july, and would love you long time.

Snacks and beverages will be provided, plus a little extra your way for tool hire.

Parts and a hand are here