Bargain-bucket MR2

[The Arch Bishop]

Nothing done in the last week due to attention being taken by a new rescue puppy arriving in the house. I did however take it for a short run and grab a tank of fuel in readiness for commuting in it tomorrow. Ran well other than the steering following cambers like a pig looking for truffles.

Really impressed by the ride and steering feel of the MR2. When you consider that the MR2 and the MGF are pretty much exactly the same concept, it's amazing how much better resolved the suspension is on the Toyota. Probably as a result of 30 times the budget and not being saddled with the Hydrogas set up.

Let's see if I make it to work!  s:-D :-D s:-D

[The Arch Bishop]

I've done a few trips in the bucket now and it's been pretty good to be honest. But I've started drawing up a fault list;

1. Rear brake is binding evident by a fine dusting of brake dust on the wheel - not the one I've replaced, but the other one. Will see if it's the handbrake that's binding it or if it needs the slider greasing.
2. A slight cough between gear changes occasionally, like the throttle body is sticking slightly or something which may be linked to....
3. Revs flare slightly between gear changes. When you let off the throttle and dip the clutch, the revs rise slightly before dropping down - not sure if it's an issue or one of those cheap emissions functions that cars tended to have back then. Opinions welcomed!
4. Holding back at full throttle - not sure if this is my mind playing tricks, but the acceleration is good but when you go full throttle, it feels like it holds back ever so slightly. Not sure if I'm imagining it or not.

Other than that, it all seems good. I think I'll start with the usual fuel/air stuff - clean MAF, throttle body, air filter that sort of thing and see how I go.

Alignment is booked for Tuesday so at least it should drive in a straight line soon!

[shnazzle]

Sounds more like a slipping clutch from the description.

[jonbill]

A kinked throttle line might be a possibility too

[The Arch Bishop]

Sounds more like a slipping clutch from the description.

The clutch, while a little high, is working well with no slippage - I can see how you'd suggest that from my somewhat poor description though. The revs flare with the clutch depressed - it's slight (about 200rpm) but there.

A kinked throttle line might be a possibility too

Yes, it feels a little like there's some sticking going on along the throttle control stuff. I'll look out for that as well!

[shnazzle]

Check the valves. IACV, TPS, loose throttle cable, vacuum leaks through the little vacuum lines for the evap system,... List goes on doesn't it?  s:) s:)

[The Arch Bishop]

Check the valves. IACV, TPS, loose throttle cable, vacuum leaks through the little vacuum lines for the evap system,... List goes on doesn't it?  s:) s:)

Ha! It does, but that's half the fun isn't it!   s:D s:D  

I love making something better - recommissioning!

[K T M Rider]

double post

[K T M Rider]

2. A slight cough between gear changes occasionally, like the throttle body is sticking slightly or something which may be linked to....
3. Revs flare slightly between gear changes. When you let off the throttle and dip the clutch, the revs rise slightly before dropping down - not sure if it's an issue or one of those cheap emissions functions that cars tended to have back then. Opinions welcomed!
4. Holding back at full throttle - not sure if this is my mind playing tricks, but the acceleration is good but when you go full throttle, it feels like it holds back ever so slightly. Not sure if I'm imagining it or not.

Other than that, it all seems good. I think I'll start with the usual fuel/air stuff - clean MAF, throttle body, air filter that sort of thing and see how I go.

Alignment is booked for Tuesday so at least it should drive in a straight line soon!

Any error codes ?

Could maybe all be MAF related ? (had MAF issues on my first car) but would expect it to throw a CEL or two

(EDIT - on the subject of CEL - I am assuming yours comes on when you turn on the ignition and goes off when you start the car, had an issue with that on my first car too.....)

[The Arch Bishop]

No problems with the CEL. I'll plug in my dongle fnar) later and have a look to see if there's any historic codes showing. If needs be, I'll do a live test and see if the fuel trim is backing off or if the throttle position is mucking about. In general operation, the engine is as smooth as silk though, so there's nothing drastic amiss. Probably a blinking good service would help a great deal.

[The Arch Bishop]

The tracking was done yesterday and has, predictably transformed the car - nice and square on the road and not the twitchy, scary little bag of wriggle it was! The guys at the garage said that the front wasn't far off but that the rear was understandably all over the place, but he enjoyed not having to wrestle with seized bolts! Front track rods were surprisingly obliging and didn't need any tricks to shift.

So the next on my list is the last rear caliper that's dragging slightly and to have a good sort out in the engine bay, but I have to say it's driving soooo much better now! Progress!

[Call the midlife!]

Cleany cleany soap soap! After waving goodbye to the wife and kids today (bye then!), I could move my attentions to the down-at-heel paintwork.

First things first, a good soapy wash;



And scrub out much of the green algae as I could;









After that, I attacked the sand paper-like bodywork with a clay bar. It was pretty gritty, but not the worst I've had. After a pass with that, I decided to have a concerted go with the rough looking bonnet. It would appear it's had some remedial work in the past - backed up with a receipt for a mobile minor bodywork outfit - which has resulted in half the bonnet being sprayed in a pretty amateur effort, skipping the attention to detail and going straight to the invoice it seems. Anyway, it's only me that'll ever notice, so a polish with Super Resin Polish (never seem to buy this but always seem to have loads of it) followed by a few coats of Collinite wax and it's a lot better.



I also did the headlights while I was at it;



While it was clean, I grabbed a few photos you'll be surprised to hear... Please bear my indulgence;





painted caliper actually looking pretty good;







However, as you can tell from the last two pictures, stormy skies were approaching which once again stopped play. I may have to move on to the inside this afternoon instead. Tomorrow looks a little more settled.

Even the dog was less than impressed;



Still, rain is just an excuse for some beading shots;

Automotive porn... lovely!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bossworld]

Number 3 - revs going up slightly on change, mine does the same.  Hasn't ever really troubled me to be honest, car revs happily up to 6k under general driving (haven't ever gone further!).

[The Arch Bishop]

Number 3 - revs going up slightly on change, mine does the same.  Hasn't ever really troubled me to be honest, car revs happily up to 6k under general driving (haven't ever gone further!).

I did wonder whether it was just a characteristic of the engine management. It's not a problem, just wondered if it was an indication of something more amiss!

[The Arch Bishop]

Well a 'belting' good time today replacing the aux belt (see what I did there eh?) and fiddling with a few other odd and ends.

The tensioner was a bit of a stiff devil, but it gave me enough clearance to get the old and rather shabby belt off;



However, replacement ended up with me not having the requisite amount of hands (preferably 5) to accomplish, so my long-suffering neighbour Rob came over to operate the tensioner while I cursed the new belt on to the last pulley (alternator works best).



With that on, it seems to be working as it should. All the roundy-roundy things are going round and there's no evidence of impending doom. The tensioner had no free play at all in the bearing so was fine to reuse.

With that minor achievement out of the way, I thought I'd give the MAF a good clean, because everyone appreciates a clean tidy MAF.

It was a bit mucky to be fair;



But some EFI cleaner and my MAF was nicely buffed once again;



I suspect it'll make naff-all difference but least I know it's been done.

I ran out of time, but I did manage to have a bit of a go at the dirty leather seats. I use Meguiars all purpose cleaner (APC) diluted to 1:10 water mix and a stiff bush for leather seats and it works a treat. It has a foaming and conditioning agents in it meaning that it leaves the seats very clean indeed and also nicely supple. Not easy too photograph the results on a red seat but here's a picture anyway;



You can just about make out that I've done the right-hand of the seat as it's lost its 120k miles of bottom wear-shine from it. The grain of the leather is far cleaner now.

As a sample of how well it works, here's a picture of a (hateful) Volvo seat that I cleaned with it last year. Regular leather cleaner wouldn't touch it;



Once it's all done, I'll give it some leather feed to finish off.

Oh, and the Volvo? It lasted 2 weeks in my ownership before being gratefully unloaded on some other poor devil - V70's are not the paragon of reliability that they are claimed to be!

One other thing I managed to get done was to remove the slightly binding rear caliper. I don't think that the piston indent was lined up properly for the raised bit of the pad so the pad was out of line. I've put it back together and it seems better now. The wheel has been cleaned so I can keep an eye on the amount of dust coming off it. Hopefully should have sorted it.

[smarty72]

That reminds me, been meaning to replace my aux belt since I purchased the car.

Just ordered one from 'carParts4less' for £12.22 [emoji4]

[The Arch Bishop]

Well it's been a while but I've done a bit of mileage and absolutely no tinkering, hence no pictures.

But it's given me a chance to see if the engine's a smoker or not. At 120k, I'm fully expecting it to chew through as much oil as petrol, but checking the oil after 600 miles and it's used exactly nothing - the level still sits exactly half way on the dip stick, just as I filled it. Early days admittedly, but I'll take t as a good sign!

One thing that does stick in the mind for me is that there's still something amiss with the handling. It tracks perfectly but still follows cambers at times. Also, it still doesn't feel....'right'.... Can't put my finger on it but the steering has a floaty vagueness about it and it heals over the front suspension on tight bends - something you don't get usually with a middy. It's just not quite fun to drive.

Initial thoughts are shocks even though they don't exhibit any signs of being tired. Either that or tyres (Khum'os on the front, Avon's on the rear).

Any other ideas are gratefully received as always.

I've been clearing out the garage ready for Winter hibernation, like a shiny Hedgehog. Once tucked in there, I'll get it lifted ready for more chassis de-rusting. You know, the fun stuff.

[m1tch]

Well it's been a while but I've done a bit of mileage and absolutely no tinkering, hence no pictures.

But it's given me a chance to see if the engine's a smoker or not. At 120k, I'm fully expecting it to chew through as much oil as petrol, but checking the oil after 600 miles and it's used exactly nothing - the level still sits exactly half way on the dip stick, just as I filled it. Early days admittedly, but I'll take t as a good sign!

One thing that does stick in the mind for me is that there's still something amiss with the handling. It tracks perfectly but still follows cambers at times. Also, it still doesn't feel....'right'.... Can't put my finger on it but the steering has a floaty vagueness about it and it heals over the front suspension on tight bends - something you don't get usually with a middy. It's just not quite fun to drive.

Initial thoughts are shocks even though they don't exhibit any signs of being tired. Either that or tyres (Khum'os on the front, Avon's on the rear).

Any other ideas are gratefully received as always.

I've been clearing out the garage ready for Winter hibernation, like a shiny Hedgehog. Once tucked in there, I'll get it lifted ready for more chassis de-rusting. You know, the fun stuff.

Check the steering U joint in the frunk, they usually wear and start to go due to being exposed to the elements - could be the cause of the slightly less precise steering.

[The Arch Bishop]

I will certainly check it out, but there's no slack at all between the road and steering wheels. Having said that, I'm not sure how a tired U joint manifests itself, so I'll have a look.

[JoeCool]

One thing that does stick in the mind for me is that there's still something amiss with the handling. It tracks perfectly but still follows cambers at times. Also, it still doesn't feel....'right'.... Can't put my finger on it but the steering has a floaty vagueness about it and it heals over the front suspension on tight bends - something you don't get usually with a middy. It's just not quite fun to drive.

Sounds distinctly like the UJ to me. Here's mine which was hooped:

[youtube:3v5roxq3]oMRLynFf_Nw[/youtube:3v5roxq3]

I think TCB has a deal on at the moment, worth taking advantage of. I wouldn't trust one of these now - it's a catastrophic failure waiting to happen.

If you're confident it's not that though, then you're back to the normal process of suspension trouble shooting: Buy bits one by one until everything is new, but the problem remains.

[The Arch Bishop]

If you're confident it's not that though, then you're back to the normal process of suspension trouble shooting: Buy bits one by one until everything is new, but the problem remains.

s:D s:D   Oh I've been there many times!   s:P s:P  
This week, I've been using the bucket as a daily in all weathers to try and 'bond' with it. Beats trying to bond with my kids...

I have to say that I'm really (really) impressed with it as decent everyday transport! It's mostly been wet as an otter's pocket but the MR2 has felt sure footed and never once scary in the rain. It's also been comfortable, easy to drive and basically brill.

Today I decided to do a monsoon-weathered school run, which was basically a hell with rain, traffic lights and prosaic'd, Range Rover-equipped yummy mummies, it did a sterling job nipping into gaps and parking where behemoth 4WDs could not. It also displayed a rare attribute 'round our way - its surprised froggy face seemingly able to charm even the most aggressive commuters into letting it out of junctions. Valuable trait that is!

[The Arch Bishop]

It's catching...

Earlier this week, my Dad went and bought this shy, retiring, low mileage beauty from Wales;





Very jealous of the TTE exhaust and the yellowness of it. Even the seats have yellow inserts. It's about as yellow as you can get. Basically it's very yellow. Yellow.

He's tucking it away in the garage for the Winter so he can sort a few small issues and generally clean it all up.

By God it's yellow.

[Essex2Visuvesi]

So you bought it???
My son called about this one and it had been sold!

[The Arch Bishop]

Not me sadly - but me old man did. Quite surprised as he's quite conservative with his car colours!

It's very clean as I don't think it's seen a Winter outside. Needs an O2 sensor and a decent set of tyres but other than that, it's pretty spot on.

[1979scotte]

Very smart.
I have a set of those seats in storage awaiting funds for refurb.