Has anyone lifted their Celica?

Domspun

Member
Just got my car back, it is now at maximum lift. Anything higher and CV axles would pop out and I lift or jump the car. Got a good 10 in clearance. Will put bigger tires next fall, will probably gain another inch.

Now:
dyxXryt.jpg
 

underscore

Well-known member
That looks awesome! What size tires are you running right now? For kicks I tried to stick a 225/65R17 (28.5") tire off of my wifes Rav4 onto the rear, but it didn't fit into the wheel well. So somewhere between those and the 25" tires I have now is the max lol.
 

Domspun

Member
Super smol 185/65r15 cause winter! lol
25.5in tires fits for sure, had 215/50r17 when it was lowered.
I currently have 15mm front spacers and 35mm rear.

I have spare set of 16in wheels, might test with used tires. Would really love to go 205/75r15 because they make the General Grabber AT/X in that size. Need to find a used set of 205/70r16.
 

BabyShark

New member
1996 Celica GT Convertible

2" lift
205/80R16 tires
Daily driver
Weekend adventurer

jEAWPRP.jpg


Larger picture: https://i.imgur.com/01Sf7Rn.jpg

Clearly there are not enough lifted Celicas in this or any other forum. Which is very surprising to me. As gas prices keep rising I replaced my gas guzzler with this. This is the most fun I have had on dirt roads and light trails in a very long time. As far as I know no one else has successfully squeezed 28.5" tires under a Celica and used it as a daily driver.
 

underscore

Well-known member
That looks awesome, what did you use to lift it?

BabyShark":12vr5hex said:
As far as I know no one else has successfully squeezed 28.5" tires under a Celica and used it as a daily driver.

Definitely not on a stock 5th gen, they won't clear the rear fenders without cutting.
 

Roreri

Active member
That 6th Gen is giving off some old school AMC Eagle vibes with that look. Awesome.

If that were mine, I'd be looking to put a rack of lights across the top to go full ham! : )
 

BabyShark

New member
underscore":227k70sb said:
That looks awesome, what did you use to lift it?

Definitely not on a stock 5th gen, they won't clear the rear fenders without cutting.

underscore,

I used 40mm eBay strut top spacers and bigger tires.

And yes there was approximately 2" of fender cutting front and back, hidden by the fender flares to hide the 2" I cut for clearance.

I am surprised that you are aware that 205/80R16s will nor fit in the rear wheel wells without cutting, they do "fit" in the front.
 

BabyShark

New member
Roreri":2mjcuro9 said:
That 6th Gen is giving off some old school AMC Eagle vibes with that look. Awesome.

If that were mine, I'd be looking to put a rack of lights across the top to go full ham! : )

Roreri,

I do have a couple light bars laying around and was very tempted to put one up for the complete experience however there are several factors that deterred me:

1: it's not era appropriate. With the bubbly contours and body lines even a curved light bar would look out of place. A 3 or 4 light pod slapped onto the front bumper would be much more appropriate, however having one on a previous vehicle I find it more of a novelty rather than something practical or useful.

2: I would not put a light bar on top of the windshield, even with black paint the reflection off the hood would be blinding to drive with. Creating a shield or visor under the light bar to hide the glare is not worth the effort.

3: Stock glass headlights and regular bulbs are extremely bright when angled correctly and light up the road and trails better than my other vehicles with LED bulbs. When I find a need for more light output I would start with the LED headlight bulbs and possibly consider LED pods int eh space for OEM fog lights.

4: Other than the lift and ridiculous cartoonish looking tires I really like the minimalist OEM look, so no light bar int he near future.

And yes it absolutely does have that AMC Eagle vibe

 

underscore

Well-known member
BabyShark":2oykzgxy said:
I am surprised that you are aware that 205/80R16s will nor fit in the rear wheel wells without cutting, they do "fit" in the front.

Only because they're the same diameter as the tires on my wifes Rav4, and when I was going to sell her old winters I figured I'd try to stick it on the back on my car. Partly for laughs, partly to see if the second bolt pattern was 5x100 without having to measure it. I couldn't get it in the fender so I had to check it the hard way haha.
 

Domspun

Member
Here is a new picture with my 175/80R15 tires ( Yokohama Geolandar A/T G015 ):

a6oFnYFl.jpg


It does rub a bit up front when I park with certain wheel angles (Bottom of the fender at the front of the wheel). Will need to mod the front fenders a bit. I already removed the plastic trim behind the front wheels. They are just a hair over 26 inches.

There you have it, it's the highest a Celica can get without heavy body modifications or complex subframes lifting.
 

underscore

Well-known member
So I just stumbled across a new idea, lower strut spacers. These guys make them for Subarus: https://www.weareflatamp.com/product/2- ... egory_id=3

s565315957473954819_p3_i1_w2560.jpeg


Another guy made some for his van on Instructables.

FHYJZV9J6WGMUNX.png


Has another heard of this before? It doesn't seem very common but it gives you more tire clearance which is nice, and it would be a lot easier to pop this on and off which I really want to do. I'd like to be able to run the lift for winter and take it out for the summer but fully removing the rear struts to take the spacer off the top is such a hassle I haven't done it yet.
 

underscore

Well-known member
The CVs might be fine but I realized the limitation of that kind of lift, because the lift height is set by the bolt spacing it would be a 2.75" lift in the rear, which is way more than I want.
 

underscore

Well-known member
Hey Domspun what are your hub center to fender lip measurements? I thought my car was sitting uneven due to the weight of the gear for the TSDs (full sized spare + tools + spare parts) but I took everything out and bounced the suspension around a bit on the curb and I'm still not sitting level. The reference measurements I got from a stock 5th gen were 14.25" front and rear. With 1" spacers at both ends and rubber spring helpers added to the rear too I'm sitting at 15.75" front and 14.75" rear. So somehow I'm up 1.5" in the front and only 0.5" in the rear and neither of those numbers makes any sense. It's almost like something is limiting the rear (sway bar?) but then I would expect the ride to be terrible and that still doesn't explain the front.
 

Domspun

Member
underscore":ilb1ztlb said:
Hey Domspun what are your hub center to fender lip measurements? I thought my car was sitting uneven due to the weight of the gear for the TSDs (full sized spare + tools + spare parts) but I took everything out and bounced the suspension around a bit on the curb and I'm still not sitting level. The reference measurements I got from a stock 5th gen were 14.25" front and rear. With 1" spacers at both ends and rubber spring helpers added to the rear too I'm sitting at 15.75" front and 14.75" rear. So somehow I'm up 1.5" in the front and only 0.5" in the rear and neither of those numbers makes any sense. It's almost like something is limiting the rear (sway bar?) but then I would expect the ride to be terrible and that still doesn't explain the front.

I'll try to measure it, but the rear is quite high, I should probably lower it a bit.
 
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