The Toyota Lite Ace

(Edited Note: The Lite Ace above is the Lite Ace of my family.)

My family owns a 1993 Toyota Lite Ace GXL. Silver green and still running. Similar to the car shown above. And as much as I've been pushing my folks to sell it, part of me still has a great deal of fondness to that car.

I've learned to drive using that car. I brushed the entire right side of the van against our subdivision's gate while driving in from a practice run in FTI. This was because at the driving school I was driving a car with wheels in front of me, while the Lite Ace's wheels sit below me. Hence, I turned too early and the rest is history.

That car has been on plenty of road trips with my folks. We've driven it to Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, for family vacations. And it has dropped me off in Naga, Camarines Sur to finish college.

I haven't driven it in years, the last I can remember is in 2000. I don't count the times I fix it's parking since that just involves first gear, reverse, and some small maneuvers.

It's a great car, but it's age is showing. The engine just isn't as strong as it used to be. It's very slow to accelerate, slower than before. It has difficulty climbing inclined slopes. And it has a tendency to overheat once the A/C is turned on. (Lite Aces are known for overheating but my dad fixed that problem by replacing the radiator hose with a more durable one - end of problem.)

Some switches work only when they feel like it. Like the A/C switch. You have to pray to the gods for the A/C to switch on. Or you have to let the car warm up before even attempting to turn it on or else be prepared to spend the whole trip without A/C. Then there's the hazard light switch - it doesn't work at all.

The headlights are really, really weak. I'm guessing this can be easily fixed by putting stronger bulbs.

The rear seats have no seatbelts - no place to put the child seat in.

But despite all of the faults I just wrote, the Lite Ace is still a great van. Why?

It's spacious. It can seat five comfortably, and if you fold down the rear seats you can seat another three. Or it can carry a huge amount of cargo. We used the Lite Ace when my wife and I moved into our condo before, and we used it to carry our stuff when we left the condo a year later.

It's easy to drive. Believe it or not, it has no power steering but it is very easy to turn the wheel even in slow driving. The only issue I have is that a) it's manual transmission and b) the handbrake is not in the usual sedan position.

It's got excellent ride height. You don't have to worry about shallow flash floods in the Metro. You don't have to worry about some potholes, and you don't have to be concerned about some of the crappy-built speed bumps.

It's just recently that I realized that the Lite Ace we have is a perfect family car. If, and only if, a lot of work goes on it to modernize it. And that's what I'll most likely write about in my next entry - what I plan to do with the Lite Ace (if I had the money).

Out.

Project e30: Entry #2

As I mentioned in the first post, this project car was to be a long-term project, with restoration and modifications coming at a slow, deliberate pace.

Phase one was to get the car in good running order, with OEM and aftermarket upgrades used when applicable if something needed to be replaced. Second part would be a simple resto-mod job - mostly in the form of a respray (perhaps even a color change) and with era-appropriate mods which would make the car unique. The last would be performance upgrades, meant to be done slowly, over a period of time. This was so that I could enjoy each tweak a little at a time, and truly appreciate the effect that each mod had on the overall package. In the meantime, I was doing a lot of treasure-hunting, looking for rare or interesting parts for my project car. Among the parts I've sourced:

- Alcantara 355mm diameter Mtech-2 steering wheel from the e30 M3 Evo

- Recaro N-Joy seats that I've reconditioned and updated with leather surrounds

- OEM M-Tech 2 kit (half of it, anyway)

- e46 ZHP weighted shift knob (to go with my Z3 shifter)

- OEM rearview mirror with maplights

- OEM battery cover

- OEM black leather door panels

- OEM 15" BBS "basketweave" rims

After Ondoy hit, the car spend a couple of months in the shop, getting it back to road-usable status. And it was usable... barely. The car had developed various problems:

1. The driver's side headlamp (my poor HIDs!) and fog lamp are dead. This may be corroded contacts, or at worst, an electrical wiring problem.

2. The central locking and driver's side door lock don't work properly. Same as the lighting, this is more electrical work.

3. When I step on the brakes, some lights on the dashboard come on. So there's definitely a lot of electrical work to be done in my future.

4. The headlights are still fogged up, but a bit of dryer work, and it should be as good as new.

5. The car idles pretty rough - once in a while, idling runs up to 2000rpm. A quick dab of the throttle and it normalizes, but it's still something to look into. It feels like the car has no low-end pull, either. Apparently the fuel tank still had a lot of residue, not from the flood, but buildup over its entire lifespan. Then the flood water loosened it up just enough for it to be sticky and clog up the fuel filter. We later found that the fuel pump was also affected, and i was running very lean. So a cleanup of the fuel tank is in order, and I'll need a new fuel pump.

6. The brakes were also non-responsive, and the ABS check light was on, so that has to be addressed as well. The brake pad wear sensor is also dead. The brakes may need to be bled, and the e30 is known to have long brake pedal travel, so perhaps an adjustment of the linkage will do. The ABS system needs checking, though, and there are

three possible ansers: the ABS sensor, the ABS relay, or the wheel speed sensor.

7. To add a little extra grief, there's a ding on the hood where some debris must have hit.

8. When I gave it a test drive, the car stalled on me. It appears as though a sensor that controls the ICV also needs replacing.

9. The aircon cuts in and out a lot, and I fear the worst - a new compressor may be needed.

10. The steering feel is off, being very loose in the middle and heavy when nearing full lock. Turns our that the power steering pump is leaking, so that has to be replaced.

There are probably more little things (and maybe even big things - but hopefully just little things) that need sorting out. But these alone were already worrying me. It was also very difficult to decide where to begin, since there was so much wrong, but eventually I decided to start with the heart of the e30 - it's M20 motor.

Since the engine was to be overhauled AGAIN, I decided that this time, I would not just do the standard maintenance, but do some real refurbishing, as well. I took the car back to Goodwrench, the shop in Bulacan where the car was flooded in the first place. The owner, Bernard Sy, is a whiz with e30s, and the m20 in particular. We discussed options for the car, many of which are upgrades that we can do while the engine is already opened up. I didn't realize it at the time, but this marked the beginning of a new direction for the car...

On the next chapter of Project e30: how plans can change...

Traffic Tsinelas

Saw this a couple of days ago... not exactly regulation, is it? I'd love to see some appropriate captions in the comments box!