2002 Toyota Celica problems
The 2002 Toyota Celica has 37 complaints on file with NHTSA. The largest share (35%) concerns air bags. Next are engine (11%) and fuel system (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 37 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 35% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 21 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 8 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 65,000 miles 25 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 6 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 5 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 0 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 2 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 6 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 4 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 2 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 25 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 65,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 21 complaints mention a crash; 8 injuries reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 99% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2002 ranks 3rd most-complained-about out of 6 model years of the Toyota Celica with enough data (25 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 1 safety recall campaign.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Car was traveling @ 50 MPH ( posted speed for the road). He sneezed, when he looked up the cars suddenly stopped in front of him. He rear ended the car in front of him going 50 MPH. No airbags deployed. The entire front end was crushed. The engine was shoved in. The car is totaled. But not 1 airbag went off. Both are bruised from the seat belts & both driver and passenger have whiplash. I am thankful they were wearing seat belts but very concerned the airbags didn't perform as expected.
While driving at 40 MPH another vehicle made a "u" turn in front of consumer's vehicle and caused a collision. Consumer was wearing seat belts, but none of the frontal air bags deployed. Police that arrived on the scene confirmed that the air bags did not deploy.
While driving at 25 MPH consumer's vehicle was cut off by another vehicle. The other vehicle merged over to the left lane and realized that it was a turning lane. Then, other vehicle detoured back in to the lane in front of consumer's vehicle. Consumer's vehicle, at that time, collided into the rear of the other vehicle. The seat belts were worn, but,the air bags did not deploy. Consumer sustained rib and chest injuries.
Consumer complained about engine check light coming on and staying on. Consumer had a diagnostic test done. Took vehicle back to dealership. They just looked at it and charged consumer $55.00.
Twice when coming to a stop at a stop light, my toyota celica continued to idle at about 4000 RPM. I tried pulling the car mat toward the seat to be sure it wasn't interfering with the accelerator pedal. I also tried jiggling the accelerator pedal to be sure nothing was stuck. Neither of these stopped the high RPM idle. Each time the only thing that would reduce the RPM was to turn off the engine and restart it. The toyota has a manual transmission and the clutch was depressed each time during the high RPM idle.