Anybody have experience with 97-99 eclipse gs-t or gsx?

[Tony01Gts]

Well the day is coming up soon I have to decide whether or not to keep my Celica when I lemon law. I've been looking at 97-99 eclipse turbos lately and I can pick one up cheap (a 99 for 13 grand). With the 8 grand left from my Celica I could deck it out nicely. There is much more of an aftermarket and there is a lot more power potential in the Eclipse. I also want a car that is turbo. If I get a new GT-S it will be a long while before I can turbo it (if a kit is ever released!)

Anyways, I've never owned a Mitsubishi. How is the quality of the car? Reliability? Anyone know of common problems with the late model GS-Ts? What do you guys think of them? I know Larry is happy with his...

[MarkyMark]

sorry not to answer the question, but where the f*** are all these people finding them for less than $23,000??? I swear, I have not seen one yet and I look every week....and I'm talking about cars that have 40k + miles on them....maybe it's just my state???

[Tony01Gts]

http://auto.consumerguide.com/auto/used/reviews/summ/index.cfm/id/2209.htm

I have seen 99s as low as 13000 with about 40k miles.

[vodox]

My housemate drives one, 99 gsx.... go read up about crankwalk b4 u get it...

[Tony01Gts]

Or you could explain a bit ;)

[jotan82]

visit this website...

www.iwannabelikelarry.com

[Tony01Gts]

hahaha actually I could give a flying f@ck what larry drives or what he does (no offense to him of course)...
I am trying to find out what kind of car I want to replace my Celica or whether or not I want to keep it.

I don't know if you're trying to be funny or what but if you click on your little link on your sig "how to make NC.org the best online community" you stated that in order to make this a better place:
"[simply put]

you want NC.org to be a harmonious tuner community?
-show consideration
-show respect
-show your OPINIONS in a respectable way
-submit ideas someone else can build upon

you want NC.org to be ClubSi.com 2?
-disrespect
-bashing
-being immature
-calling people gay about everything

opinions are welcome, but for more people to enjoy the site... isn't it a little bit better when the people there show respect to one another and show their feelings in a semi-grown up way?

this crap will be the downfall of NC.org
[/simply put]"

So maybe you should swallow your own words or become a member of http://www.iamahypocrite.com

No hard feelings though, I'm not trying to flame you... just putting things in perspective. There has been a lot of needless bashing around here, and it's getting really old.

[GulfCoastGTS]

Yeah I had a GST. Ummm...insanely fast for little money, only thing is, in my experience anyways, you will actually be able to drive it 1/2 the time, the other 1/2 it will be in the shop getting repairs. Thats how mine was. I had all kinds of things, actually ran a 12.8 at the track, and it was great fun. The turbo spooling and BOV are like nothing else, but I wouldnt buy this kind of car again unless it had less than say 25k miles or is relatively new. Once they hit 75-80k, they go to all hell. Now if you plan to do serious engine work, sway in a built engine from a 1990-1994 DSM, no crankwalk. Mine crankwalked. You DO NOT wanna go through that. With 8k you could get alot, and if you get a GSX you could possibly hit high high 11s. Anyone wanna confirm this? Oh yeah, and if you get an Eclipse, make sure its a GSX. GST= No traction and spending money to get traction rather than to go faster. Its your decision.

[Tony01Gts]

That's why I posted this... I had heard that there were lots of problems with Eclipses. If I get a GSX I definitely won't have 8 grand cause they are a bit pricier and that is IF I can find one. So far, looking online, I found one highly modified GSX with 47000 for 21000. This includes: 18 in rims, full coilovers, sway bars, timer, boost times, BOV, intake, exhaust, S-AFC, some kinda ECU, and the list goes on and on, but I would never spend 21k on a car with no warranty.
I don't want a car with an 80k mile life span... so basically I shouldn't get one eh?

[Tikked Again]

"21k with no warranty"
LOL...that's funny man...what do you expect to happen to the car's "warranty" after it's pushing 350 hp to the ground. I'm sorry but that's just rather amusing. I say buy the already modified car, it'll cost you less in the long run and it's already fast. But you'll probly want to go through the whole purchase/install thing yourself....if it floats your goat.

Tik

[Tony01Gts]

Yeah I was thinking it had almost everything I would do to it done performance wise... I would spend my money on a diff kit and paint...
It's nice to mod the car yourself though....
I wouldn't give a sh*t about warranty but if I didn't have a warranty on my Celica I would be about 12000 dollars in debt right now on a 2001 with 25k miles. And thats a TOYOTA... a MITSUBISHI with problems really scares me!

[kabal57]

Originally posted by Tony01Gts
It's nice to mod the car yourself though....
I wouldn't give a sh*t about warranty but if I didn't have a warranty on my Celica I would be about 12000 dollars in debt right now on a 2001 with 25k miles. And thats a TOYOTA... a MITSUBISHI with problems really scares me! [/B]

didnt you misshft your car? I find the above statement to be quite ironic considering the situation. If you didnt, I apologize, but if you did, half the problem with the car is gonna be you, whether its mitsubishi or toyota.

[Tony01Gts]

Yeah I misshifted so about 4000 of it is MY fault. The other things: blemishing paint, fading discoloring interior, ecu, injectors, ac, headlight, tranny, is not my fault.
Now look at it like this and you may not think it's my fault at all:
I took the car in about a month before my misshift cause it was grinding or not going at all into 2nd gear. They told me "You just gotta push the clutch all the way down on these things." I asked them to do the tranny TSB. They never did it. I misshifted. My gears grinding got even worse about 1 1/2 months after the misshift. I took it back and they replicated the problem in their test drive. They agreed to take my tranny apart do the tsb and find every little problem in there. What do they find 4 (FOUR!!!) bad synchros and teeth missing off three gears. Read up on how many other people have had tranny problems with these cars and you'll see why Toyota is paying for misshifts. My car has been in the shop for 2 weeks today. Hopefully, I am getting it back tomorrow.
Before I misshifted, I felt like you "it's all driver error". But seriously, these cars (00-01) have some serious tranny issues, and I'm sure that besides the shift gates being so narrow, these have some play in the amount and frequency of misshifts.

[kabal57]

All things considered tho, The # of misshifts on this board vs the # of owners is pretty small. I'd agree that there is always gonna be some problem cars, no matter how good the makers reputation is, or how much the car is babied. But, at the same time, people in this country just dont know how to drive. I personally might think the synchros may be a bit weak, but weak synchros do not make people misshift while theyre trying to show off and race. I have read up on alot of the posts dealing with misshfts, but think about this: The overwhelming majority of misshifts came while people were racing . How is this the fault of a weak transmission? anything that is overreved past its design is gonna break.

[Tony01Gts]

Yeah I agree with you there. I was ragging the hell out of my car when I misshifted, but I have misshifted into gears during normal driving. I just wasn't going fast enough to do any damage. It is definitely driver error to a certain degree, but I think that a lot of it has to do with the narrow gearing. Why do you think they changed it for the new models? Besides, you have an 02... have you driven a 00 or 01?

[kabal57]

ya i have, and the gearing is alot closer than the 02, when I shift from 1-2 in a 00, compared to the 1-2 in a 02, 3rd in the 00 is where the middle gate is in my 02. In fact, I end up hitting the gate between 1st and 3rd quite a bit in my car after I drive one of the older cars.
I think they changed it because they figured out people weren't ready to have a high revving car with gears that close. While the number of actual misshfts may be fairly small, each one cost what, 5-6k to toyota on average? If we say 3% of the 100k celicas that are out there were misshfted, at 6k apiece to repair, youre looking at almost $200k in lost revenue. And thats with a fairly conservative estimate also. If I were losing that kind of money to error, I'd do something about it. However, I dont feel we can fault toyota for at least trying to incorporate an advanced design in their cars. People in this country need to be held accountable for something, Not everything is "the other guys fault" (toyota in this case)
Thats like saying its a knife manufacturers fault for making a sharp knife that kills someone. It doesn't make much sense to me.

[larryd]

for information

www.dsm.org
www.dsmtuners.com
www.dsmtalk.com

read up, lots of info.. if your lookin for something dependable get a volvo, if your lookin to go fast buy a Supra.. the rest of us fall in between

[nyoneway]

You lemoned a Celica and you want to get Eclipse Turbo to heavily modify?

If you can't handle things like a "fading exterior", I don't know how you are going to handle all the problems you are going to have with a high powered turbo car. Crankwalk won't be your only major problem.

[jotan82]

joke haha?

was that disrespectful to you or larry? i didn't think so...

it wasn't meant to be a disrespectful comment, just a lil joke...

[Tony01Gts]

Larry...thanks a lot.

Jotan...Yeah I figured so I made my own joke just in case...

Originally posted by nyoneway
You lemoned a Celica and you want to get Eclipse Turbo to heavily modify?

If you can't handle things like a "fading exterior", I don't know how you are going to handle all the problems you are going to have with a high powered turbo car. Crankwalk won't be your only major problem.

Why do you think I started this post? Wouldn't you say something if the interior in your 2001 rotted away? It's not like I'm picky, I just want something that's gonna take years to pay off to maintain it's value.

[Mistrimeat]

Originally posted by jotan82
joke haha?

was that disrespectful to you or larry? i didn't think so...

it wasn't meant to be a disrespectful comment, just a lil joke...

That could have been further implied easily by the use of "smilies"...

Kinda hard to tell someones intent on a message board - you cant hear their tone of voice...:wtf:

[ToyoGT]

go for the GSX. don't waste your time with a GST you will regret it later. No disrespect to anyone, sh!t i drive a GT, i'm just saying AWD rules for stoplight racing :)

[dfess1]

I'd say whatever you get, get an automatic. At least half of your problems will go away. Might I suggest a nice Crown Victoria?

[MarkyMark]

my friend has a 99 GSX. He never drove a manual when he got it - he pretty much learned how to do it on the GSX, never had a problem wtih the car ever. Nobody I know ever really has, besides the guys who really push the cars hard at the track...

[AkUmA]

what ever you do, try not to get a already mod'd gs-x or gs-t, asking for trouble 90% of the time. if you can find an old lady that got the car, and never knew there was a turbo under the hood, and it was awd, i would get it, of course for a decent price. just listen close to the engine when you drive, if there a loud tapping noise anywhere near the block... crankwalk, its weird sound, friend had 2 gs-x's and 1 with crankwalk(parts car) and the other we try'd building up, but the wiring got out-of-hand... good luck man.

[Willis5050]

Will Toyota even grant lemon law knowing you misshifted? I am not sure, I never asked them. You can probably get it by them. They gave me flack about my aftermarket alarm though, kinda made me laugh.

Anyways, if you are looking for a reliable car get the celica and treat it nicely from the start. I think the GSX and GST are fun cars, but everyone i know with them ends up spending major cash on repairs and upkeep, and it takes over their bank account. Will you get hit for mileage if you get a refund? Good luck.

[Pikon]

Tony, I leased a GST back in 98 and lemon lawed it. I had it for a year and spent half of the time in the shop (no exaggeration). Don't know what crankwalk is but I've had problems from stalling at highway speeds, replaced trannys, cels, rattles, etc. I don't race but torque steer was definitely a pain. I'm happy with my GT now, anyway, good luck with your choice.

[zcs626]

if you go with the GSX....please please learn how to drive an AWD vehicle. my buddy w/ an 02 WRX learned the hard way....wrapped his car around a telephone pole only going about 50 b/c it didnt know how to drive an AWD vehicle....now he has a 2000 eclipse GT.

[Tony01Gts]

Well, after all thats been said I think I'm gonna stick with the Celica. My son was born 3 weeks ago, and I think that I want a reliable car with warranty and good service (I can at least get 2 of those with the Celica). Besides, I already have Celica mods and it's gonna be much easier to get a new Celica out of Toyota then a cash refund. Thanks for all the input guys. Oh, and besides, I don't have time to be a member of this forum and a dsm forum.... nc.org for life baby!!!

[MarkyMark]

it's sad that you were dissuaded from getting a GSX because most people here have a disillusion that it requires alot of upkeep and is full of problems. It really is too bad.

[jotan82]

well, good luck... and good luck with your new baby

[Tony01Gts]

Both of em, huh? lol

[GulfCoastGTS]

Originally posted by zcs626
if you go with the GSX....please please learn how to drive an AWD vehicle. my buddy w/ an 02 WRX learned the hard way....wrapped his car around a telephone pole only going about 50 b/c it didnt know how to drive an AWD vehicle....now he has a 2000 eclipse GT.

What do you mean "learn how to drive an AWD" ??? Its just like any other car until you push it. Then its better. I drove a GSX a couple of times and they are great, you can stick to the road and drive in the rain like normal people drive when its dry. My friend and I actually beat this Viper this guy in town owns when it was wet one day, we took off like normal, no slipping or anything, and the viper guy just sat spinning his tires. Classic.

But yeah, if you get an eclipse, go GSX. They look great, handle pretty good, great in all weather conditions, and modded can take almost anything on the road. I ran a 12.8 w/ my GST, could have been running low 12s with the same mods and a GSX. Read up on the links larry gave and find out what to look for, take it to a trusted mechanic and have him look it over. Especially crank play and the transfer case (AWD only).

It really is a fun car and you will fall in love from the first time you punch it on the highway. Some get lucky and dont have any problems and some (myself included) end up spending $7000+ in repairs. Just driving a 12 second car was almost worth all the money and repair time. Almost. Its your decision.