Silver 2002 (FL) 1ZZ MK3 MR2

Started by Berger, February 3, 2020, 11:33

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Berger

Hello!

Let me post a copy of my introduction post, I will update the topic later on after the first service is done:

QuoteHello everybody!

Just wanted to give you quick introduction of myself, I'm Phil and I live in Leamington Spa - last Satruday I managed to get an MR-2 - always admired it for being something more quirky and slighlty more exotic when it comes to the driving dynamics, however I was kinda scared off by all the stories about the engines - so so far I owned 5 MX-5s  :))

However this time I came across an interesting late 2002 MK3 (facelift) that was listed on Ebay for £995 - it had ruined roof but I decided to at least check it out - my thinking was that I don't need car for everyday driving and even if the engine goes pop I could have another one fitted relatively hassel-free (to my understanding) - I think I prefer engine problems to mx-engineinwrongplace  rust problems  :))

"Checked" the car, did the test drive, there were some problems of course:

- checked the oil level before test drive, not much on the dipstick! Started up from cold, no problem at all, no smoke or weird smell
- car pulls slightly to the left
- there is quiet"cricket-like" noise when on the throttle (I think it is coming from the manifold or the ehxaust)
- tyres are terrible (old, little thread on them, winter set on the front, summer on the rear and I believe the car was stationary for a longer period of time, there is quite a bit of body shake above 60mph)
- I ran the car for around 30 mins, warmed it up, did some acceleration test, no smoke or hesitation at any revs (it changed few hours later  :))
- headlamps lenses quite foggy of course
- as mentioned, needs new roof, no discussion with that

On the other hand:

- original paint all around, checked with a sensor
- one owner for last 9 years, quite a bit of invoices
- 72,000 miles on the clock so not bad
- good general condition all around apart from few scratches and dents
- tidy interior with signs of use (gear stick, steering wheel, few pieced of trim slighlty scracthed
- electric equipment works perfectly - apart from automatic radio antenna that broke down day after  ;D
- looks like the car was garaged, not much rust on it (of course who knows how it will look when you take off all the covers etc, but I doubt it will be worse than my 2004 MK2 NB which looked like brand new car with 40,000 miles on the clock - chassis rails rusted through completely)
- drives quite sharp, feels very composed
- no knocks or weired sounds during series of aggresive maneuvers

Also, being not an experienced mechanic (I fixed squeaky trunk in my mx-engineinwrongplace  once by spraying some lubricant on it, so there is that) I thought it would be uneconomical for me to try to sort out all of those things at the local shops (also have some trust issues), plus eventual cost of fitting new engine, but my friend offered me kindly some help with that as he services and fixes his cars by himself (die-hard fan of mx-engineinwrongplace ) - thought it is good opportunity to learn something new so decided to go for it.





To sum up I'm super happy with it, seems like it's a bingo when it comes to driving dynamics - I've done around 500 miles so far, not pushing it for now obviously, just driving and observing it.

Biggest problem so far is the engine of course - runs butter smooth, power is ok but above 4,000 RPMs starts to produce a bit of white smoke (not terribly much but its there), aslo today after 3-4 mins of downhill engine breaking when I got back on the accelerator it produced quite a bit more of the smoke for a while - smell of burnt oil was there too. After that it went back to "normal". Haven't figured out the exact oil consumption yet, but its there. My guess the problem lies in piston rings?

I will elaborate more on these points in another topic, but anway happy to have it, we will see what future brings - we will do proper servicing and compresion test on Tuesday, in the meantime 5L of oil at the ready (well now less)!

See you - hopefully - on the roads  ;D

Regards,
Phil

james_ly

Exhaust cricket noise is possibly a cracked flexi joint, if it gets loud then then a new cat will fix it, not too expensive. Good luck with the engine, it might just need to blow out the cobwebs a bit.

Does the handbrake work? ;)
MR2 gone<br />GT86

Berger

@james_ly Thank you, I will keep an eye on it. Handbrake kinda works, although you have make sure it's pulled to its limit, otherwise car will start to roll backwards slighlty, tested in Peak District :D

Plan for tomorrow's service:

  • engine flush - I know it might reveal something I don't really want to see but at the same time I want to know real condition of the engine
  • engine oil - Fuchs Titan Race Pro S 5W-30 Ester Fully Synthetic Engine Oil
  • compression test
  • gearbox oil - Redline MT90 75W90
  • brake fluid - Ferodo DOT5.1
  • oil filter
  • air filter
  • fuel filter
  • spark plugs
  • new PCV valve installation
  • brake system inspection
  • cooling system inspection
  • general body condition inspection

I hope I will be able to drive the car back tomorrow evening  :)

Thanks,
Phil

Chilli Girl

Let us know how you get on tomorrow  ;D
Ex owners of Chilli red facelift 52 reg called Chilli, silver 55 reg called Foxy and blue pfl W reg MR-S called Sapphire. Now 2 less!

Ardent

Some top spec oil there.
Brake fluid 5.1 ?

Carolyn

I have just posted an item on adjusting the handbrake in our 'How To' section.  You may find it useful.
Perry Byrnes Memorial Award 2016, 2018.  Love this club. 
https://www.mr2roc.org/forum/index.php?topic=63866.0

Berger

Just a quick update; the car seems to be working fine after the service (but done only 60 miles since then). I will post a detailed description tomorrow, I will just leave these pictures here for now, in some way this MR-2 was quite neglected  :-\ :







Thanks,
Phil

Newbie57

Good luck with the car. Although mine had a good service history you'd never guess it from the state of the consumables when I serviced it.
Rings were gummed up on mine. Replaced the engine finally

Berger

#8
All right, time to summarize yesterday's service:

Things done to the car:

  • engine flush
  • engine oil change
  • gearbox oil change
  • brake and clutch fluid change
  • new spark plugs
  • new PCV valve
  • compression test
  • general inspection (mainly brake system)

We didn't manage to get fuel and air filters changed - new air filter didn't fit (it was way too wide, luckily the one that came with the car is in a decent shape), no problems with fuel filter but we simply ran out of the daylight.

ENGINE FLUSH

Nothing to report here, it didn't reveal anything irregular (so far I guess?).

OIL CHANGE

No problems here either, although the old oil was simply disgusting (nothing in it though)and there was a bit of brown residue near the engine oil fill hole. See the picture:



HD PICTURE

GEARBOX OIL CHANGE

No problems, apart from a fluid transfer pump breaking down, so we spent extra time fiddling with a funnel etc. There were few little metal flakes in the old oil.

BRAKE AND CLUTCH FLUID CHANGE

Again no problems here. The fluid from the clutch was a bit "dirty" but it wasn't terrible. Same goes for the brake fluid.

NEW SPARK PLUGS

No problems getting them out or back in, they looked fine to me although there was a fair bit of "ash-like" residue on them? See the picture:



HD PICTURE

NEW PCV VALVE

This one is interesting, old one looked really tired and dirty, there was actual oil leaking from it as we were removing it, you can still see a bit of it on the picture:



HD PICTURE

After we fitted the new valve we let the car run for a while, on first start-up it idled a bit higher (around 500 rpms above the usual 1500 rpms, if I'm correct), after around 3 minutes there was a weird "popping" like sound (very similar to pop boat sound  ;D )coming from the left side of the engine - on the next start-up it disappeared and everything went back to normal.

COMPRESSION TEST

I don't know what to think about this one. These are the results starting with cylinder number 1 (the one closest to the timing chain or the right side of the car I guess?):

  • C1:160 psi
  • C2:175 psi
  • C3:180 psi
  • C4:185 psi

On the second run we got exactly the same results. Obviously the cylinder number 1 looks suspicious to me.

GENERAL INSPECTION

Main focus was on the braking system, in general everything looks ok:

  • no leaks
  • plenty of brake pads left
  • disc are ok-ish, look overheated in few areas
  • brake pipes are ok
  • all of the seals are starting to crack slightly
  • bleed nipple on the right front caliper needs to be changed
  • we checked all the main bolts, cleaned them out of rust etc
  • I have to keep an eye on the brakes for now, would be nice to refurbish all of them eventually

When it comes to a rust, I'll let the pictures do the talking - I think it's "not great, not terrible", it seems like the suspension elements are the ones that corroded the most. Then we have areas at the back of the side sills and braces of course. Nothing seems to have any excessive play though:

LEFT FRONT SUSPENSION



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RIGHT FRONT SUSPENSION



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LEFT REAR SUSPENSION



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RIGHT REAR SUSPENSION



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REAR SUBFRAME:



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RIGHT SILL:



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LEFT SILL:



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So far 60 miles done since the service, I'm going to check the oil level today after work to see if some of it went "missing". Then I'll do more driving during the weekend (to get it to something like 500 miles) and more checks afterwards. Also, have to sort out new tyres asap.

Many thanks to my "mx-engineinwrongplace  friend" for helping me out with all of that! (or actually getting most of those things done!)

In general the car seems to operate more "smoothly", still have to check if it's smoking when accelerating hard.

Also, I'm going to post hi-resolutions copies of the pictures in the evening.

@Ardent Thanks, was thinking about DOT5.1 as I would like to take it for a spin on a track day at some point - but ended up with DOT4.1 for now - track day in this car seems like a rather distant thing  ;D

@Carolyn Thank you for that, unfortunately we run out of time yesterday but I'll add this to my "to-do" list.

Regards,
Phil

Berger

#9
So for now I did around 250-300 miles since the service. Yesterday I drove more aggressively - unfortunately the car is still smoking quite a bit when accelerating hard above 4k rpm - the smoke and the burnt oil smell seem to be appearing every time I floor my MR2 after driving calmly at certain speed. With each acceleration it smokes a little bit less and a little bit less until the smoke dissappears completely - but drive it for 10 minutes at 50 mph, floor it again - you get the smoke again. Driving in this manner gave me oil consumption of around 0,4-0,5l per 100 miles. Driving it without flooring it every now and then gives me around 0,1l-0,2l per 100 miles.

Also a check engine light came up yesterday - got 2 codes, P0150 and P0153 - both relate to O2 sensors to my understanding.

As mentioned earlier, I'm not a specialist when it comes to the engines but is seems to me that the oil must be accumulating somewhere? Does it make any sense to investigate this engine more or should I start looking for something else?

Much appreciated!
Phil

Carolyn

I'm afraid it sounds like an engine in need of a rebuild.

Perry Byrnes Memorial Award 2016, 2018.  Love this club. 
https://www.mr2roc.org/forum/index.php?topic=63866.0

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