The Search begins

There had been one model of JDM sports cars that has always been on my mind. As early as 2014, I have written here in this blog, that I was interested in getting a Subaru Impreza WRX STI. I even viewed one unit in 2014 and one more in 2015. Both units were Version 9 and until now I still love this model. At that time, I was not financially able to purchase one even though there were several nice units. That dream is still very much alive and I intend to fulfill it since I currently do not own a sports car. Since the moment I decided to sell my Toyota Altezza, I started talking to my friend who had previously owned 2 STIs. He suggested that instead of looking for Version 9, I should look for Version 8 because it is much more affordable, and besides the cosmetic changes, there is little performance difference. I was searching online and realized that the price difference is indeed too much. So, I changed my direction and started looking up Version 8s that are for sales. I planned to convert it into Version 9 for the exterior and interior, which is possible. Before I sold the Altezza, I found one unit at an Auto City at a reasonable price and decided to take a look. Inside Auto City, there are more than 20 companies located there. When I arrived and took a glance at the STI, I noticed it has a new paint job and nice aftermarket rims. I was told it belongs to a friend of the used car owner, who decided to sell it.

My favorite model is Version 9 but Version 8 has its charm and I could grow to love it. There was not much to comment about the exterior because there is no exterior mod and I asked to see the inside. The interior was stock except for the Apexi turbo timer, Greddy boost controller, and Greddy boost meter. It would have been nice if it had some Defi meters but these are fairly good upgrades too. In my opinion, the most important part that should be converted is the interior. Version 8's interior design is dated even for a fan like me. Luckily, the dashboard design is the same for both Version 8 and 9. The main difference lies in the center console. Just to name a few differences, the cupholders, DCCD (Differential Control) mode button, DCCD level knob, and side mirror adjustment switch are all located differently. In addition, Version 8 has manual knobs for aircond controls while Version 9 has electronic buttons. Although having the same design, the speedometer of Version 8 only goes to 180 km/h but it goes up to 260 km/h for Version 9. In order to convert completely, I would need to replace the whole center console and steering wheel with Version 9 parts. I am starting to worry about the overall cost and time needed for such a conversion and whether it is worth it. 

After looking at the interior, I crank up the engine and listened to the engine sound. I was pleased that the start-up was smooth and the engine was quiet. It idles normally and had no weird sounds. I was a little surprised as the car is already 16 years old. I stepped on the accelerator and heard the loud exhaust note. If I was younger, I would be so into the loud sound but as my readers know, I do have a wife to please and was hoping to get an STI with stock exhaust. I opened the hood and checked on the chassis plate. It shows that it is indeed a genuine Version 8 and the location of the windshield wiper fluid tank confirms this fact. The engine bay was dirty but everything looks fairly stock. The air filter and blow-off valve are not stock parts. Both of these 2 items are HKS products. The radiator is also an aftermarket part. Surprisingly, the car is still using a factory suspension set which in my opinion, is rare because one of the first mod for owners would be an aftermarket Coilover kit. I wonder if the absorbers are still up to the task of harsh driving. By then, I have seen all I needed and after talking to the salesman, I think this unit could be the one for me. However, I need to bring my friend over to take a look and give me his opinion before making a decision.

It Is Time

Everything must come to an end and my time with my Toyota Altezza is no exception. After a little over a month, it felt like it was time to move on to a new experience. The Altezza was never my target and was just a stepping stone to sell my previous Nissan Fairlady Z. Having said this, I am grateful for the short experience with the Altezza. Since my time with a Toyota Celica, I had wanted to try an Altezza and now I could check that off my list. It did live up to my expectations in most area but I did have difficulty with the throttle design and the weight. As usual, I posted my car on my favorite online marketplaces but coming with a proper price was difficult. There was the problem of market value and also the fact that I swapped for the Altezza. The price of the Fairlady Z has to be factored in and in the end, I posted a price of RM 49,000. One of the Altezza owners said I will have a tough time selling at a high price. I received several low offers and felt it was difficult to sell. There was even a guy who came to view the car just for 10 minutes and was never heard from again. So, I gradually reduced the price until RM 45,000 before 2 people came to view the car.

The first was an Indian, who used to be a mechanic that had worked on several Altezzas. He grew to love Altezzas and that spread to his son. He hopes to buy one for both of them. He has always been looking for one online and finally came across my unit. Knowing he was a mechanic, I told him about the car and its issues which was no problem for him to get it fixed. The next day, a young, Chinese engineer came to view. I told him the same thing as I did to the mechanic and he understood the issues. Both prospects love what they saw but pricing was the issue. Both offered me a low price and I told them RM 40,000 was the lowest I could go. It was an exciting moment as the two were negotiating with me simultaneously. It felt like a race with both slowly increasing their offer but in the end, the mechanic accepted my offer first. It was arranged for us to meet at the government office two days later. On that day, after the paperwork, I was inside the Altezza for one last time to count my cash. I said my goodbye and watched as the new owner drove it away.

The Toyota Altezza was my shortest car ownership and in total, only lasted for 2 months. It was fun while it lasted but I was not too sad about it. It led me to a new experience and met new friends in the Altezza club. I hope that the new owner would treat it well. I started the Altezza's journey to recovery and I am sure the mechanic can finish the job. I hope to see you again on the road. As for me, it is time for me to chase my dream and get the car that I have been aiming for a long time.

Altezza Diary 5 - D.I.Y.

There was one incident where while I was driving, all of a sudden, I noticed my Toyota Altezza was starting to drive weird. When I step on the accelerator, there was a wild shaking and close to no response. It felt like my car lost 180 out of the original 200 horsepower. When the car was not moving, the exhaust sounds like a boxer engine with the bubble sound. I quickly explained the symptoms to a friend of mine who had an Altezza for 8 years. Straightaway, he was able to point out that the problem was caused by the ignition coil. I was relieved to know the cause of the problem and began to source for the ignition coils. I found a few sellers but they were either only selling in a set of fours or rather expensive. Then, the same friend helped me by selling me one of his spare ignition coils and he taught me how to swap and test which coil to replace. The steps to remove the coils were easy. First, I opened the car hood and removed the engine cover by removing 5 screws. Then, the ignition coil can be easily removed because it is held on with just one screw and connected to a socket. Next, the troublesome part is to remove the 4 ignition coils, one by one to test and see which one needs to be replaced. The testing needs the engine to be running to see the effect of the removal of the coils. I only found the faulty coil by the third try. When I removed it, the car sounds like someone having an asthma attack. So, I turned off the engine and swapped the coil with the one I bought. After that, I started the engine and the effect was immediate. The previous symptoms were gone and the Altezza sounded like how it would before this.

 

Left: The coil with OK written is the replacement. Right: Replacement on right.

I thought of cleaning the engine bay after working on the ignition coil. While wiping the engine bay and all of the plastic cover, the curiosity in me came out and I decided to study the area. One of the things that I did not check previously was the air filter. The engine bay looks stock with the original airbox and makes me wonder what is inside the box. Is it a factory paper filter or an aftermarket one? I tried to open the box and as expected, the clips were a little rusty, making it difficult to remove. When I successfully removed it, I was greeted by a K&N drop-in filter. Having a K&N filter meant a few things to me. It meant that the Altezza has one more mod and the filter is better and washable. Looking at the dirt and stones inside the air box roughly tells me the box was never opened since the K&N was bought. So, I remove the filter and took an air gun to try and remove the stones inside the box. After cleaning the box, I cleaned the filter with the air gun. Although the right way is to use the cleaning oil made by K&N since I do not want to spend extra money, I just use the air gun to clean. Then, I put everything else back to the way it was.

While on the subject of D.I.Y., I also changed the leather, handbrake cover. The Altezzas were made in the late 90s and handbrake covers were not the basic requirement nor the need. Usually, owners would go to a car accessory shop and buy an aftermarket cover to decorate their car. Only in the recent 5 to 10 years did car manufacturers start to include covers for handbrakes. The surface on my Altezza's cover is flaky due to old and there were visible holes on the cover. When I removed the cover to remove the center console, I found out that the clips were broken. It is weird to me that the previous owner can ignore that and drive normally. I went to buy a used cover that is in good condition and decided to change it myself. It was an easy job because the cover comes off easily with a gentle pull. One broken piece of the clip was stuck to the center console. The cover I bought fit perfectly and all the clips were fastened. It looks much better but I noticed something. The cover is nicely made with stitching and it looks sporty but the color of the stitching was not the same. The original cover had black stitching, while the one I bought had a golden, brown color stitching. I can only assume that when the Altezza went through a facelift, the interior had some changes where the stitching color changed. The important thing for me is that it looks newer.

Before (Left) and After (Right)

Before (Left) and After (Right)

Old

Replacement

Broken Clip

Altezza Diary 4 - Tyre Shop

After some time driving my Toyota Altezza, I still had the problem of my rim scraping the anti-roll bar. It is really inconvenient for me as I have to make u-turns every day on my way back from work. Since it was not caused by the suspension, the only other factor I could think of was the wheels department. So, I drove to a nearby tyre shop that I frequently go to check on my Altezza. While removing my wheels, they noticed that the tyres were not in good shape. I asked for the cheapest tyres available because I do not plan to own the Altezza for the long term. They recommended a Vietnam brand called Jinyu which according to them, is cheap and good. Even their BMW customer uses this brand. In the process, balancing and alignment will be done as well. I told them about the problem with u-turns and hope that they could do something about it. They found out that the steering wheel had been removed before but was not aligned when re-installed. When the front tyres are straight, it is possible to turn 2.5 times to the left but only 1.5 times to the right. It should be the same amount on both sides and because the left is turning more than it should, it is scrapping. The remedy is to realign the steering wheel. Now the turning is around 1.75 times on both side and immediately solved my problem.

 

While I was happy driving for a few weeks, another issue rose up and I was annoyed. I started hearing a vibrating, knocking sound whenever I shift hard. What I meant by shifting hard is when I release the clutch pedal and press the accelerator at the same time. However, It does not happen when I release the clutch first and press the accelerator a few seconds later. The sound was coming from under the center console near the handbrake. At first I thought it could be something loose under the console and I removed the center console but there was nothing. I drove a distance without the console to see if the sound is still present. It was still there and I brought the Altezza back to the nearby tyre shop because they also have a mechanic division. The mechanic raised my car up and found out that the screw to the clasp of the driveshaft was missing. The driveshaft is located in between the exhaust mid-pipe and chassis, and without the clasp, the driveshaft will bounce and hit either the exhaust or chassis. It is causing the knocking sound and is very dangerous. The driveshaft could be damaged or bent and cause the car to be unable to drive. If this happened while I was driving, the car could spin and cause an accident. I do not know how the screw could be missing but I am glad it was not a big problem. They just screw the clasp and did not cost me anything. Very good of the shop to not charge me. 

My last trip to the same tyre shop was when my aircon stop working. I was driving one day and suddenly hot air was coming out of the vent. It was super unbearable because of the hot weather in Malaysia. At first, the shop checked on the pressure of aircon gas inside the aircon circulation. The result was low gas content and luckily not something major. So, my Altezza was hooked up to an aircon gas machine and it started to pump gas into the circulation. It took around 15 minutes and it was done. I was told to drive for a few days to see if any part was leaking and also that the compressor might fail soon. After a few days, the aircon was still cold and I was relieved but I was still worried about the compressor. As I mentioned before, the price of Altezza parts are cheap and I quickly found someone selling a used unit. I bought the used unit, just in case my compressor fails. If it does not fail, I could give the new owner when I sell the Altezza. Overall, I am happy with what this shop can do and it helped me a lot. Although the main business is tyres, they have a mechanic, an aircon and also a car spa department. I do recommend this place to my friends. 

Altezza Diary 3 - Exhaust

The exhaust was a big concern to me from the first time I saw my Toyota Altezza. When purchasing used JDM sports cars, it is common to find loud exhaust systems on these cars. Although loud sounds do give the impression that the car is fast, I do not think I could not live with one. My first experience with loud exhaust was when my Toyota Celica was sent for repairs and was loaned a Celica with straight pipe exhaust. I always envied other Celicas' loud mufflers as mine was silent but soon, I changed my mind. That loud Celica gave me constant headaches unless I shift gears under 3000 rpm. The Altezza's muffler was loud during engine start but when driving inside, the sound was not that loud. Surprisingly, the Altezza's soundproofing is very good and I was able to notice that the current exhaust note is not only loud but also sounded weird. During the previous check-up, I learned that the muffler's inner filter was most probably, disintegrated and that was what caused the weird note. I decided to purchase a used muffler that is loud as a replacement. I found a used, FGK muffler, made for Altezzas that was famous for releasing some power but not loud. Just what I needed for me and my wife who does not like loud cars.

FGK Muffler

As this is just a simple exhaust muffler change, I brought my Altezza to an exhaust shop nearby. I was excited and expected a quick job when I arrived but something was wrong. At the shop, I realized that the previous owner could have altered the exhaust system and made it into a Frankenstein system. There are 4 pieces in the Altezza exhaust system which are the exhaust manifold, downpipe, mid-pipe, and muffler. The problem lies with in between the mid pipe and the muffler. Toyota uses a male and female design flange on its exhaust system but the exhaust shop noticed the flange of my car was the general, flat kind. It is safe to say that the previous owner modified the flange to fit a muffler that was not made for Altezzas. This made the muffler I bought, useless because it had a female flange and now needs modification to fit. I also realized that the position of the flange has been altered so it is now further away from the muffler. The only way for the FGK muffler to fit is to cut the Toyota flange and weld it with the current flange. Thanks to the previous owner's brilliant mod, a simple, 15 minutes job became a 45 minutes job. When it was finally done, I had another surprise. The weird noise was replaced with a nicer, bassy sound, which I like but the volume is the same as before.

Old Muffler

Installed FGK Muffler, the ugly way

It did not make sense why my Altezza's exhaust is still loud when FGK mufflers are supposed to be quiet. I looked at the exhaust system again and then it strikes me. The mid-pipe was also part of the previous owner's Frankenstein system. Original Altezza mid-pipe has 2 catalytic converters but now it is a straight pipe instead. That increases the sound but decreases torque and so, I knew what had to be done. I sourced for a used, original mid-pipe and since no one wants original parts, I got it for a cheap price. I went to the same exhaust shop and again, it requires some modification to fit the mid-pipe. The flange connecting to the downpipe can join the mid-pipe as both are original parts but the flange connecting to the muffler needs to be replaced with a flat flange. The mod was a success because the car is very quiet as expected. I kept the flange and decided to give it to the new owner when I sell the Altezza. The new owner could use the original flange if he/she decides to change mufflers that is made for Altezzas. I was exhausted with all these works, just to get a quieter ride. This made me hate car owners who would do bad mods, to save a little money. Exhaust mods are a nightmare for me now. I am happy I now, have a quieter ride and could enjoy the car more. 

Original Mid-Pipe

Frankenstein Mid-Pipe