2006 Standard MR2 ‘’ Body Roll ‘’ . Advice please

[carspath]

Hi everyone ,

Please could I have some advice .

I bought my 2006MR2 about 2 months ago and have done about 1500 miles in it .

It is absolutely standard , with no modifications , and as been serviced by a Toyota main dealer all it's
I've.

As soon as I got it,I felt that it needed it's suspension geometry sorted out and so booked it in at Wheels on Motion in Chesham , which is a good 3 hours each way from where I live, but I felt it was worth the time and effort taking it there.

Joe at WIM was pretty happy with the cars suspension hardware and didn't find anything wrong , but he did alter the geometry and the car is much , much better as a consequence .

NOW THE ONLY THING THAT I DOT LIKE is that when you drive into a corner hard and at speed , the car tracks around the corner very well indeed , but I feel as if the top part of the car , the body of the car that I am sitting in , is rolling relative to the bottom bit of the car , the chassis .

This is only when cornering hard , but is equally evident at low speeds as it is at higher speeds .

The car is running on Bridgestone Turanza tyres which are 3 years old and have plenty of thread on them .
I am running them at 26 and 32 psi

Is there a cheap way of minimising this '' Body Roll '' ? , without having to go through the expense of lowering springs and new shocks?

Both the MOT tester and Joe at WIM were happy with the shocks and springs so it would be a shame to junk them .

1) Do you think altering the tyre pressures would make a difference ?

2) Also when I had my Mk 1. MX5 ,adding a simple rear bracing bar transformed the handling.
It cost about £60 , and I was delighted by the difference that it made .
Are there any such simple and cheap mods that might help ?

Thanks for your thoughts , and Take care

Carspath

[cptspaulding]

How many miles on your shocks and springs?

[Carolyn]

Here are my thoughts, though others may differ:

You canexperiment with tyre pressures.  I've found with the Tyres I run (Nankang NS20) that the car is much better at 32 rear and 28 front.

On my car, there was nothing obviously wrong with the springs and dampers but, at around 85,000 miles, I knew they had to be a little 'tired'. I put all new OEM spec springs and shocks on and it transformed the car. It made me realise how well set-up these cars were when new. Springs do loose tension over time and dampers do get less responsive.

A little extra bracing also gives very noticeable results. The main ones to go for are a good front strut brace of welded (not bolt-together) construction and a good mid underbrace.  The rear of these cars is already pretty stiff.  I do run a rear strut brace, nut I'm not convinced it does much.

Lowering springs (and this might be contentious) have more to do with looks than on-street performance.  Especially in the real  world of speed bumps and potholes.

[pauls0212]

can only reitterate what Carolyn has said about bracing ... a mid brace did the most for me but i have since added the front strut brace and this also helps.

[Beachbum957]

Another agree on the mid brace or breastplate.  It adds a lot of torsional rigidity. With OEM springs, this may be the only brace you need. Search this forum for "LMR Corky's Breastplate Reproductions" for a very nice one.

A slightly higher front tire pressure like 28 psi does help turn in.  We run 28 front, 34 rear.

Lowering springs will add add roll stiffness, but do have downsides, such as lowered ground clearance and geometry changes, but you can also go to stiffer sway bars like Whiteline to get more roll stiffness without hurting the ride very much.  If the dampers (struts) need replaced, consider Koni inserts.  More expensive, but they work very well with OEM springs.

The nice part about the breastplate and the sway bars is you don't need to do anything to alignment after they are installed.  Shocks and springs would require a full alignment.

We have a 2003 with a breastplate, stock springs, and Koni's and it works very well on twisty roads and still handles bumps very well.

[Iain]

Nothing wrong with a bit of body roll.

[Gaz mr-s]

Taking what you've said literally, you're needing more anti-roll control. Either mountings or a Whiteline as suggested above.
Re shocks.....how many miles has the car done?

[1979scotte]

Never used those tyres do the have soft side walls? Never a goid thing for a sports car.
All mr2s should have some sort of mid brace and a front strut really helps too.
I've always been an advocate of suspension refresh.
What's your mileage?
Super pro poly bushes are good too.

[Dev]

Never used those tyres do the have soft side walls? Never a goid thing for a sports car.
All mr2s should have some sort of mid brace and a front strut really helps too.
I've always been an advocate of suspension refresh.
What's your mileage?
Super pro poly bushes are good too.

I currently have a version of the Turanza tires for my luxury car and they have soft sidewalls. They are premium touring tires that are very good for my heavy luxury car compared to previous sporty all season which had stiff sidewalls and were noisy. 

For our roadster it is a poor choice. I am surprised that it hasn't lost traction early and allowed the car to roll.

OP I know you had a an experienced shop drive the car but I think it's worth your time to have a member that lives close by to allow them to drive your car and compare it to theirs. You will know for sure that its either normal or parts need to be refreshed. 





 

[carspath]

Original Poster here -- I just wanted to say Thank-you to all of you while I continue to investigate further what so many of you have suggested that i do ..... which is to look into a ''breast-plate / mid-brace ''

The car has done 57,000 miles since it was born in 2006 , and is still on its original shocks and springs .

My investigations thus far on the breast-plate has thrown up a bit of a mystery :- 

Is it true that you CANNOT fit a breast-plate to a Face-lift MR2 Mk3 ?
At least one article I have read suggests that breast-plates do not fit the Facelift cars because the underbody of the car was altered during the facelift process .
What the article did not make clear was whether they we referring to a specific type of breast-plate or whether they were saying that ALL currently available breast-plates would not fit a Facelift car

So has anyone fitted a breastplate to their Facelift MR2 , and if so what make was it , and is it still available to buy ?

To the member who asked about why I dont like roll :

The reason I dont like excessive roll is because i feel that the car is about to do something that I dont want it to do , and I then attempt to correct what I perceive to be a problem by either coming off the throttle or by executing a compensatory steering input , neither of which were truly needed , and either of which then upsets the balance of the car .
I find that disconcerting .
My very first car was a Fiat Uno 70S , and that rolled around a lot , but I got used to that over 10 years and 110,000 miles , so I might get used to my MR2's body roll in time as well , but it is the one remaining thing that bugs me about the car at present .
I fully accept that some degree of roll is necessary , and indeed desirable , to inform the driver of how the car is reacting to the cornering forces acting upon it .

Thank-you also to the member who commented upon the fact that my current tyres have soft sidewalls .
When the time comes to change tyres i will definitely look to change to tyres with stiffer side walls .

As I said , I am still looking into the breast-plate option , but didnt want to delay thanking all of you in the meantime .

Take care and Best wishes

PS : I am just writing a book on the Diablo and in the process was looking through some old car magazines .
The November 1997 issue of CAR magazine has a wonderful piece on Toyota City , and the work culture and dedication of Toyota's employees - many of whom joined the company as teenagers , lived on-site , married within factory , got given heavily subsidised married accommodation ,sent their children to Toyota sponsored schools , and had their health needs met by clinics set-up by Toyota .
I hadn't realised how many different factories Toyota had .
Do any of you know which factory the MR2 Mk 3 was built in ?       

[1979scotte]

All car will accept a mid brace or a breast plate some have even manged to fit both at once.
See if you can get one of @Carolyn braces best I've tried.

[carspath]

Thanks for clearing that up so promptly 1979Scotte

[Iain]

A breast plate may help with the feeling you decribed above which you dont really care for so thats all good, but i doubt it'll do much for body roll.

Cheapest way to deal with some of the roll is lowering springs. Does sharpen it up a tad aswell 👍

[Gaz mr-s]

O/P, at 57k miles your shocks will definitely be past their best. I have an '06 on 55k miles & mine are soggy. I've already bought replacements.

[Dev]

 As I mentioned on previous threads. The OEM dampers seem to wear out prematurely starting at around 40k miles. They will be fine for day to day driving but for performance driving they are shot and give you an floaty feeling where you cant feel what the car is doing.

[Zspeed]

Definitely try someone else's car first if you can. Lots of friendly folk on here.

I would start with tyres and pressures first.