88 Celica GT dash lights

[Magickninja]

Hello everyone, I'm new here because I'm a new owner of a 1988 Celica GT. I bought it for $500 and drove it home. Realized later the entire rear of the car had no lights working.



Fixed the turn signal, license plate light with fuse replacement.


Fixed Tail lights, repaired lamp failure sensor.


Fixed Brake lights, replaced Brake Light Switch (under dash)


Now, all my lights work yay...except my dash. I bought this car from some teenagers, I think they bought it to race around in, found the lights problem, and then sold it to me without saying a word. My own fault for not checking but hey, fixed it with alittle bit of work and a $9 brake light switch. The old brake light switch stick worked...kinda. It was very loose. Now, I think the brake light switch went bad, then the lamp failure sensor got fried, the fuse popped for the rest of the lights, and possibly took out the dash lights too? I find it hard to believe that every bulb in the dash just happens to be bad. I could understand a few but every single one? So, any ideas are welcome. I checked all fuses and relays. Dome light works, door lights work, ignition ring light works, temp unit lights up. Cigarette lighter does not work, light ring does not work (it is plugged in) and dash lights do not work. No radio installed at the moment. Also the taillight, defog, brakes, battery and door ajar lights work fine. I don't mind replacing the bulbs in the dash, just thought I'd ask before I ripped it apart.

Heat doesn't work either, everything moves when you change settings but blower motor isn't kickin in. But I'll tackle that after the dash lights. Thanks for any help.

[Jive13]

still sounds like a fuse. if you cig lighter and dash lights are out. did you check every fuse. even the ones under the hood?
and does the car have a dimmer switch and if so did you check that?

[Magickninja]

I checked all the fuses under the dash, and the box left of the battery. In the box near the battery a fuse was blown, I replaced it and then my dome, clock, ignition ring, door ajar light and ding sound all started working. I remember thinking it was silly to have the dome fuse in the engine compartment.

I'm thinking perhaps when something fried it popped the bulbs, or they slowly died over time and nobody ever bothered to replace them. But yeah, the cigarette lighter and its ring doesn't work.

My brother and I took apart the console and dash to install a cd player but stopped because I realized all the speakers were totally thrashed. We unplugged the cigarette light assembly to do this and made sure to plug it back in. Still didn't work. Neither does my mirror adjustment switch on the console.

Looking at the Haynes manual I see atleast one more box I don't remember checking so I'll check that first thing in the morning. I've never seen a car with so many popped fuses and this has to be the first car I've ever owned or even heard of needing a new brake light switch lol. But I can also say it runs very smooth, shifts nice, is fast and fun to drive!

[klue]

check the dimmer switch to the left of the steering wheel, small round knob

[Magickninja]

messed with dimmer switch, still nothin. turned back and forth, wiggled, checked connection, everything seemed solid. I'm gonna go out during this beautiful day and see what I can find. If nothin else maybe someone else can benefit from my adventure. These all seem to be very common problems for these cars.

[Phinex]

It could be all the dash bulbs you know:)

Undoing the dash to check will only take you like 5-10 mins anyway...
Just flip the steering wheel all the way down and out, and work your way in by unscrewing 15 or so screws and one bolt. Take care not to break any of the plastic panels when you pry them off...
You need to lower the whole underside of the dash as well as remove the fog light and warning light switches. Remove four screws last to free the instrument panel, and then slide the whole thing out...

The bulbs themselves are held by green sockets, four in total. Same ones as those in the parking lights and license plate i think.

I switched mine to blue LED ones. Looks wicked :)

[Magickninja]

It's been a while but thought I'd give an update...


Cigarette lighter works now, but its ring light doesn't. I found the sliders that plug into the back of the lighter were very loose so I fixed that and lighter works. I believe the lighter ring isn't working because the ashtray bulb is blown and these are running on the same circuit.

I removed all the plastic around my steering wheel to replace the speakers and found that I do have a dimmer switch...just nothing plugged into it lol. Some wires hangin there, 4 of them. I believe 2 are for the speaker, other 2 are for the dimmer. Of course you can buy a new dimmer switch but you can't buy the other end that plugs into it, atleast that I could find, so I'm hittin' the junkyard to find one.

Heat works...kinda. I let the old Celica sit for awhile because she needed tires and I was busy with a million other things. Today I replaced the tires and decided to go for a ride. When my buddy plopped into the passenger seat I was messin' with the heater controls cuz I swore I heard it "try" to kick on once. When he plopped it ticked like twice and stopped. I toldem to smack it, he kicked the bottom of the dash where the blower motor is located and the heat came on. It seems to blow very slow and make a ticking noise. After returning I messed with it, couple smacks and it'll start, smack it again and it stops working. My money is on the squirrel cage fan attached to the motor. I know leaves and dirt get in this compartment and jam up the cage, gonna clean it tomorrow. I also already know the ticking is either related to the dirt/leaves or the cage being off-balance which can be adjusted via 2 screws. On highest setting it wasn't blowing much at all, I've heard these cars have weak heat but I doubt its THIS weak. But, it was enough to defrost my windshield in about 4mins.

Next I'm going to tackle my idle issue. She hits 2000rpm on cold start and slowly drops as it gets warmer (normal) but seems to stick around 1100-1200rpm afterwards. I believe this to be an elevation or air issue. I say this because recently I went on a trip and drove up in the mountains, at the higher elevation my car idled around 800rpm like it should. Upon returning to town it went right back up to 1100rpm. This must relate to the thinner air at higher elevations. This car is originally from Virginia. I thought maybe it was setup for that elevation but isn't the computer suppose to adjust all that stuff? Perhaps whatever is suppose to make those adjustments is bad?

Also when I turn my AC on the idle drops like 250-300rpm. Could be related but I've also read threads on how to fix this issue so its on my list.

Brakes have started acting up, you can drive for hours sometimes without issue, then it seems only at higher speeds (55mph+) the brakes go to the floor, still work but go low to the floor and a couple pumps fixes this. Then all will be normal for awhile. I've checked my fluid and its full and over time has not gone down so I know it's not leaking. When brakes work correctly they are tight and strong, so I don't think it's air, air in the line usually results in soggy brakes in all situations.

Hopefully this info will help others and perhaps someone has had this brake issue and/or idle issue and knows what to do! Thanks for your help!

[LWS]

I have an 88 Celica GT as well. The cigarette lighter / socket assembly is all loose, and I am trying to fix it.

I am in the process of removing the plastic trim cover around the radio in the center column (I've removed all the screws and bolt, but it seems to be stuck on the driver's side). By prying the cover from the passenger side (the side where the cigarette lighter is), I can see that the cigarette lighter socket seems to slide into an assembly, and there's a separate metal ring which is now loosely hanging over the wire at the back.

What exactly do I have to do to fix the "sliders" and tighten up the whole cigarette lighter socket assembly?

Any help is much appreciated!!

Thanks,

Leo

P.S. On the idle issue, my GT is behaving the same (and I'm in Toronto, Canada)....On cold start, it idles at around 2000 RPM, and gradually decreases to 1100-1200 RPM as it warms up. I think it's supposed to idle at around 750 - 800 RPM. Not sure if it has anything to do with the Idle Air Control Valve (IACV) or not.

[Magickninja]

Pay close attention around the center console. In my car, the bottom lip of the dash radio/heat console molding goes under the center console molding. You may not be able to remove the plastics because of the phillips screws on the sides of the center console that thread through it and the radio/heat dash piece. As for the socket, if I remember right I just bent the prong on the back of the lighter a bit and this made sliding the plug back on nice and tight.

I've since worked out almost all the bugs in the car. The timing belt went a few weeks ago and I'm getting ready to change that this weekend. I still love this car and can't wait to drive it again...although I'm dieing to get my hands on a MR2 turbo

[LWS]

Thanks for the advice. I'm pretty sure I've removed all the screws and bolts, but I'll double check.

Glad you have worked out most of the bugs. Did you manage to fix the high rpm during idle (i.e. in neutral or park) as well? I read on another forum that the high idle rpm (1200) may be due to a vacuum line.

Toyota 3S-FE engine troubles - YotaTech Forums

Maybe there's still hope for my beloved Celica.

[Magickninja]

It's true, the idle problem can be a vaccum leak. You can check this by starting the car, pop the hood, get a can of Carb Cleaner and start spraying your motor all over the place. The idea is Carb Cleaner will make the car die, if you have a leak somewhere, it'll suck up the cleaner and cause your car to almost stall. Then you know that in the area you were just spraying must have a bad vaccum line somewhere.

However in my situation I think the idle was just set high due to the car being from a different elevation originally. My younger brother is pretty handy around a car and I had the Haynes manual. It describes how to adjust the idle. You have to place a jumper in this one spot to bypass the computer and then turn a screw and drop the idle down. If you remove the jumper and the car returns to the high idle, you have a bad sensor most likely causing the computer to not control the idle correctly. If you remove the jumper and it stays down where you put it, I wouldn't worry about it. My situation was the latter, my brother turned it down to about 800rpm, removed the jumper and everything stayed like it was suppose to be. Then about a week later I was turning around and the car died, I knew almost instantly it was the timing belt. Thank God this isn't an interference engine. I'd cry if my celica was ruined. Although keep in mind that the GTS Turbo models have different dome pistons and I've heard they do bend valves if the timing belt breaks. So if you have the turbo model, get that belt changed every 40k-60k, if you don't and it breaks, the piston slams into the valves and ruins the top end of the car.

My brake issue was the E-brake was tightened too tight. Some kids had the car before me and first thing I thought of was drifiting in Fast & Furious. What was happening was, I live in a town over a mountain. If I drove over the mountain to Boise, everything would be fine. But if I was leaving Boise and heading over the mountain I would lose my brakes coming down the other side of the mountain. I guess leaving my house wasn't enough to warm them up and cause them to not work, but coming home from boise by the time I hit the mountain they would be warm, and then doing 70 up the mountain made them heat up fast. So my back brakes were too tight and rubbing, after 20-30mins of driving they would go to the floor. This is definately one of thos weird things that could have you changing brake parts and spending hours trying to figure out. Luckily my brother and his friend ran into this issue before and knew what it was.

Hope this helps! I haven't driven the ol Celica in a while and I'm gettin itchy. I'll never doubt Toyota ever again. I bought this car for $550 from some kid, and the original owner must've been an older couple or something because the motor has 265,000 miles on it and runs like a top. Not to mention is very clean except some road dirt. Has power for days, the mountain I was refering too is very steep and most cars, even newer ones have trouble maintaining the speed limit. My mother has a 91 Dodge Dakota with a 3.9V6 and it will barely do 55 up the mountain, my celica with my buddy josh and my gf in the car with me, I can do 70 in 4th gear with more to go. If I'm alone in the car, I can cruise the mountain at 65 in 5th.

Changing the timing belt won't be too bad. And just a heads up I bought my parts at rockauto.com and saved a bundle. Autozone wanted $130 just for the belt and tensioners/idlers. I got the same kit from a reputable company for $80 at rockauto.com $50 is nothing to sneeze at, I was pleasantly surprised. Also, just another quick note, when changing the timing belt it is recommended to change the water pump as well. It is powered by the belt and more times than not if you don't replace the pump, it can't handle the new belt and tension and causes the pump to seize. You don't want to have to tear everything apart 3 weeks after you put it all together do ya? I bought a new pump haha...not risking it!

[Magickninja]

I just realized that your car is an automatic. Mine is a manual. I know it doesn't make sense but that does make a difference in idle. I believe an automatic does have a lower idle than manuals, like 500rpm instead of 800rpm. And I also know that their are more to the automatics, it has to adjust idle for park/neutral/and Drive. My car is the same RPM whether in neutral or in gear obviously since it's a manual. You might have a bad sensor, you could always have autozone check to see if anything is bad. Buy the Haynes manual, it tells you just about everything about the car you'd want to know.

[Magickninja]

I just realized that your car is an automatic. Mine is a manual. I know it doesn't make sense but that does make a difference in idle. I believe an automatic does have a lower idle than manuals, like 500rpm instead of 800rpm. And I also know that their are more to the automatics, it has to adjust idle for park/neutral/and Drive. My car is the same RPM whether in neutral or in gear obviously since it's a manual. You might have a bad sensor, you could always have autozone check to see if anything is bad. Buy the Haynes manual, it tells you just about everything about the car you'd want to know.

[LWS]

Thanks for the detailed response; lots of good information in your reply.

I don't know much about cars and am not really "hands-on", but I have played around with the screw that adjusts the idle speed before. I didn't know about the jumper that bypasses the computer though. I do have a copy of the Hayes manual, and will read up on it.

My Celica is an automatic GT, and 1200rpm is idling high for an automatic. I have driven other automatics (Honda Accord, Gen 7 Celica, etc.) and noticed that the delta in rpm between park/neutral and drive is very small...maybe about 100 to 150 rpm, but certainly not 400+ rpm. I will try the jumper/idle speed screw and look into the vacuum line leaks to see if I can lower the idle rpm.

[Magickninja]

Not that it pertains to your question I thought I should point out I fixed the dash lights as well. Instead of replacing the dimmer I just hooked the wires up so its at its brightest all the time when the headlights are on. saved me the BS of going through junkyards.

Yeah the jumper has to do with the system that controls the air/fuel. If you try to make adjustments without jumping it, the computer will simply compensate for any turning you do. Have to bypass the computer first, set it, then pull the jumper and it'll adjust itself.