Toyota MR-S - Summer Project
Discussion
This is the story of my new Toyota MR-S Roadster. I like to keep a little record of these things, and hopefully somebody will find it interesting.
A bit of background on me: I have owned FOUR MK2 MR2's now. Three of them turbos. Once it became apparent that selling my 535D and saving a bit of money on finance and CC payments so that we can put more money towards our planned wedding was the way we were going to go, I started thinking about what I could buy cheaply to replace it.
I found the car on Gumtree. I didn't realise it was registered as a Cat C until I went and saw it in Glasgow (!!) but it was only £400 and I just thought screw it, I expected there to be SOMETHING majorly wrong at that price. I'm having it.
I wanted a Rev 3 Turbo as a project for this summer but I saw this and thought what a great little car to use as a track day/fast road project, as well as it being a bit different to the four MK2's I have had in the past.
I've always missed the MR2's since breaking my last one. I made a huge mistake doing that. This is kind of a way to have fun while exorcising a few of those demons! I've also realised that, despite the financial burden, I'm never truly happy without a car to work on. The BMW has been a car which I have regarded too good and too valuable to be messing about with, so I couldn't ever really get that fix from that. I've also just finished a partial restoration of a MK1 Audi S3. Need to get that sold now too
I'm still a bit sceptical about putting time and money into this car because of the Cat C in 2008, but on the flip side, if me or the Mrs bins it on track, it won't be the end of the world!
Some facelift alloys have been obtained, and I am currently in the process of removing the pre-cats. I've had much fun and games getting the correct fixtures and fittings from Toyota, and it has cost me a touch over £90 for a set of nuts and bolts plus a couple of gaskets, essentially.
The alloys aren't pristine, and I may try and refurb them myself but I'm tempted to just use them as is for now. We'll see. I need to think that one over.
Hopefully, being on just 53k will mean a lot of the suspension components have enough life left in them to not need changing just yet. It does need a full geo doing.
Here it is:
Nice to find it has a TRD backbox on there. I'm not sure how to sort that cruddy tailpipe out though. Is it removable? Or would it have to be cut off and a replacement welded on? Or alternatively, as there seems to be a screw sticking out of it, is that just a cover part that can be replaced? I don't know, but I aim to find out.
A bunch of service bits to treat it:
Wipers
Osram Nightbreaker Plus bulbs (It has two different types of head light bulbs in currently)
Air Filter
Oil Filter
Oil
Bosch Super 4 Plugs
Long term plan is to either turbocharge it or 2ZZ it. I haven't quite made up my mind yet, but am leaning toward 2ZZ heavily despite my love of turbos. I like the cleaner nature of the engine bay, the purity of a quick, NA roadster and the OEM reliability it should have. I would love the power and delivery of the turbo, but would worry that I'd have to spend at least £3k on it, could encounter random issues that take the car off the road and have a messy, tightly packed engine bay......
I'm sure I will work it out in time. Once my current daily E60 535D sells, I will throw a couple of grand in the budget pot for the Roadster.
This discoloured silver plastic stuck to various bits of the dash will be going!
Also got a stop gap gearknob that will at least screw on properly. The last one it had was forced on by the previous owner with tape wrapped around the shifter to make it sit tightly!
I've got an aerial to go on, as the current one appears to have frozen in time, and I have bought it some uprated fixings for the shifter cage, which hold it far steadier and increase the accuracy and feeling of shifting. Somebody on MR2ROC referred to that mod as the one mod you should do this year.
Oh and it has a Minidisc head unit
A bit of background on me: I have owned FOUR MK2 MR2's now. Three of them turbos. Once it became apparent that selling my 535D and saving a bit of money on finance and CC payments so that we can put more money towards our planned wedding was the way we were going to go, I started thinking about what I could buy cheaply to replace it.
I found the car on Gumtree. I didn't realise it was registered as a Cat C until I went and saw it in Glasgow (!!) but it was only £400 and I just thought screw it, I expected there to be SOMETHING majorly wrong at that price. I'm having it.
I wanted a Rev 3 Turbo as a project for this summer but I saw this and thought what a great little car to use as a track day/fast road project, as well as it being a bit different to the four MK2's I have had in the past.
I've always missed the MR2's since breaking my last one. I made a huge mistake doing that. This is kind of a way to have fun while exorcising a few of those demons! I've also realised that, despite the financial burden, I'm never truly happy without a car to work on. The BMW has been a car which I have regarded too good and too valuable to be messing about with, so I couldn't ever really get that fix from that. I've also just finished a partial restoration of a MK1 Audi S3. Need to get that sold now too
I'm still a bit sceptical about putting time and money into this car because of the Cat C in 2008, but on the flip side, if me or the Mrs bins it on track, it won't be the end of the world!
Some facelift alloys have been obtained, and I am currently in the process of removing the pre-cats. I've had much fun and games getting the correct fixtures and fittings from Toyota, and it has cost me a touch over £90 for a set of nuts and bolts plus a couple of gaskets, essentially.
The alloys aren't pristine, and I may try and refurb them myself but I'm tempted to just use them as is for now. We'll see. I need to think that one over.
Hopefully, being on just 53k will mean a lot of the suspension components have enough life left in them to not need changing just yet. It does need a full geo doing.
Here it is:
Nice to find it has a TRD backbox on there. I'm not sure how to sort that cruddy tailpipe out though. Is it removable? Or would it have to be cut off and a replacement welded on? Or alternatively, as there seems to be a screw sticking out of it, is that just a cover part that can be replaced? I don't know, but I aim to find out.
A bunch of service bits to treat it:
Wipers
Osram Nightbreaker Plus bulbs (It has two different types of head light bulbs in currently
)Air Filter
Oil Filter
Oil
Bosch Super 4 Plugs
Long term plan is to either turbocharge it or 2ZZ it. I haven't quite made up my mind yet, but am leaning toward 2ZZ heavily despite my love of turbos. I like the cleaner nature of the engine bay, the purity of a quick, NA roadster and the OEM reliability it should have. I would love the power and delivery of the turbo, but would worry that I'd have to spend at least £3k on it, could encounter random issues that take the car off the road and have a messy, tightly packed engine bay......
I'm sure I will work it out in time. Once my current daily E60 535D sells, I will throw a couple of grand in the budget pot for the Roadster.
This discoloured silver plastic stuck to various bits of the dash will be going!
Also got a stop gap gearknob that will at least screw on properly. The last one it had was forced on by the previous owner with tape wrapped around the shifter to make it sit tightly!
I've got an aerial to go on, as the current one appears to have frozen in time, and I have bought it some uprated fixings for the shifter cage, which hold it far steadier and increase the accuracy and feeling of shifting. Somebody on MR2ROC referred to that mod as the one mod you should do this year.
Oh and it has a Minidisc head unit
So.... my plans have changed a bit. I now have TWO of these!
I bought a silver car (not the colour I wanted really, the blue looks loads better) for £475 with a knackered engine, but it's not a Cat C so will be worth more in the long run. More importantly though, there were loads of bits I was finding on the blue one that were just not right. Bits of trim missing, body panels that needed replacing, and so on.
As a result I now have the silver one and the engines will be swapped over, the blue one sold for bits on eBay and the silver one turned into a half decent car hopefully.
So far I have swapped the speakers from the blue one into the silver one and removed the silver one's seats and centre console. I have fitted some alloy shifter cage mounts which raise it up slightly but also remove the flex the stock rubber mountings give, and makes the throw sharper and more positive.
I will post a few photos later. I can't access photo hosting at work
I also now have an engine crane and hope to start the swap process tomorrow.....
I bought a silver car (not the colour I wanted really, the blue looks loads better) for £475 with a knackered engine, but it's not a Cat C so will be worth more in the long run. More importantly though, there were loads of bits I was finding on the blue one that were just not right. Bits of trim missing, body panels that needed replacing, and so on.
As a result I now have the silver one and the engines will be swapped over, the blue one sold for bits on eBay and the silver one turned into a half decent car hopefully.
So far I have swapped the speakers from the blue one into the silver one and removed the silver one's seats and centre console. I have fitted some alloy shifter cage mounts which raise it up slightly but also remove the flex the stock rubber mountings give, and makes the throw sharper and more positive.
I will post a few photos later. I can't access photo hosting at work
I also now have an engine crane and hope to start the swap process tomorrow.....
Well this fell by the wayside didn't it?
I've been very busy recently with these cars. The good news is, the silver car now has the running engine in it!
The bad news is there are a number of issues to sort out yet before I can put it back on the road.
I have done so much work on the car, you wouldn't believe it. Had many issues along the way, like always with these sorts of projects, and not out of the woods yet. I did however, drive the car off of the drive, turn it round and drive it back on two nights ago, just to give it its first taste of moving under its own steam.
I'm really pleased with how it is coming along and although I have likely missed all of this summer now, I won't give up until it is back on the road.
I have found many issues with the original blue car I bought. I am really glad I decided not to proceed with it. The amount of rust underneath is unbelievable. I think it sat in a salvage yard somewhere for at least three years, with the car itself being very exposed to the elements.
I won't say too much more until later tonight when I can post pictures to the thread to show some of the progress and the problems encountered. Stay tuned for more updates!
I've been very busy recently with these cars. The good news is, the silver car now has the running engine in it!
The bad news is there are a number of issues to sort out yet before I can put it back on the road.
I have done so much work on the car, you wouldn't believe it. Had many issues along the way, like always with these sorts of projects, and not out of the woods yet. I did however, drive the car off of the drive, turn it round and drive it back on two nights ago, just to give it its first taste of moving under its own steam.
I'm really pleased with how it is coming along and although I have likely missed all of this summer now, I won't give up until it is back on the road.
I have found many issues with the original blue car I bought. I am really glad I decided not to proceed with it. The amount of rust underneath is unbelievable. I think it sat in a salvage yard somewhere for at least three years, with the car itself being very exposed to the elements.
I won't say too much more until later tonight when I can post pictures to the thread to show some of the progress and the problems encountered. Stay tuned for more updates!
Bit late but here we are again
Here's blue, assuming the position and ready for stripping
Silver also ready:
Getting underway:
Found a nice bonus, a TRD panel filter!:
Terribly rusty crossmember:
The destruction of Silver begins:
Space is super tight!:
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Unfortunately, I had to move the engine from one pallet to another, and with them having wheels on the bottom, one of them slipped. The engine hit the deck, and the corner of the sump was dented. This gave me some nice extra work, swapping the sump over!:
Rear brakes were in great condition!:
Swapped both rear calipers over. Tidied the ones from the other car up a bit more than how this one appears in the photo. They do both need new slider rubbers though:
Replaced the aerial. Old one was stuck in the extended position permanently:
Started putting things back together after a couple of weeks' work!:
Plugs out:
New ones in:
Looking like a car again, with facelift rear lights bodged in:
First time moved under its own steam off the drive:
I have unfortunately discovered, since removing all the front underbonnet plastics, that the car has had a shunt at some point up front. It's not on the hit list but it's definitely happened. I am going to rectify this and replace both rads. I will have the bumper off on Sunday and check the crash bar etc.
Aircon will need regassing as I managed to snap one of the pipes during the engine swap. That was a bit gruelling. I learned a lot of lessons there, and had trouble getting the car to drop low enough onto the trolley the engine sat on. I couldn't get the right and left mounts reattached and had a heck of a time getting this bit right. It was pretty plain sailing after that though.
I am hoping to find time this weekend to fit the new TTE springs I have, bleed the brakes all round and set the handbrake, and put the new 16" Rota GT3 wheels onto it to replace the 17" Wolfraces currently adorning it.
I'm not quite happy with the way one of the bulbs sits in the modified tail lights, so will rectify this in the near future. I also haven't got the interior in properly just yet. I did have it in, but then had to remove it again so that I can access certain things.
Front lip definitely needed to go with the skirts.
I hope that's been a decent update for now. I've had to be concise and miss a lot of detail, but you get the gist.
Apologies for any speeling. It's late and I am very tired. Bed time now!
Here's blue, assuming the position and ready for stripping
Silver also ready:
Getting underway:
Found a nice bonus, a TRD panel filter!:
Terribly rusty crossmember:
The destruction of Silver begins:
Space is super tight!:
Unfortunately, I had to move the engine from one pallet to another, and with them having wheels on the bottom, one of them slipped. The engine hit the deck, and the corner of the sump was dented. This gave me some nice extra work, swapping the sump over!:
Rear brakes were in great condition!
:Swapped both rear calipers over. Tidied the ones from the other car up a bit more than how this one appears in the photo. They do both need new slider rubbers though:
Replaced the aerial. Old one was stuck in the extended position permanently:
Started putting things back together after a couple of weeks' work!:
Plugs out:
New ones in:
Looking like a car again, with facelift rear lights bodged in:
First time moved under its own steam off the drive:
I have unfortunately discovered, since removing all the front underbonnet plastics, that the car has had a shunt at some point up front. It's not on the hit list but it's definitely happened. I am going to rectify this and replace both rads. I will have the bumper off on Sunday and check the crash bar etc.
Aircon will need regassing as I managed to snap one of the pipes during the engine swap. That was a bit gruelling. I learned a lot of lessons there, and had trouble getting the car to drop low enough onto the trolley the engine sat on. I couldn't get the right and left mounts reattached and had a heck of a time getting this bit right. It was pretty plain sailing after that though.
I am hoping to find time this weekend to fit the new TTE springs I have, bleed the brakes all round and set the handbrake, and put the new 16" Rota GT3 wheels onto it to replace the 17" Wolfraces currently adorning it.
I'm not quite happy with the way one of the bulbs sits in the modified tail lights, so will rectify this in the near future. I also haven't got the interior in properly just yet. I did have it in, but then had to remove it again so that I can access certain things.
Front lip definitely needed to go with the skirts.
I hope that's been a decent update for now. I've had to be concise and miss a lot of detail, but you get the gist.
Apologies for any speeling. It's late and I am very tired. Bed time now!
Nice work!
Quite the change from 535D to MR-S...
As the chappies over at MR2ROC will tell you - sort the ears on the hood. This is obv more important than minor issues with engines, transmission and trim.
Someone recently reversed into my MR2 and split the front bumper - when the garage removed it the hangers needed replacement too, even though the impact was only walking pace (but a 3t van).
I also happen to have a spare blue front bumper from a previous misdemeanor (facelift) if you are interested (PM me).
Quite the change from 535D to MR-S...
As the chappies over at MR2ROC will tell you - sort the ears on the hood. This is obv more important than minor issues with engines, transmission and trim.
Someone recently reversed into my MR2 and split the front bumper - when the garage removed it the hangers needed replacement too, even though the impact was only walking pace (but a 3t van).
I also happen to have a spare blue front bumper from a previous misdemeanor (facelift) if you are interested (PM me).
Had a fun weekend in the rain..... Fitted the new TTE lowering springs and the Rota GT3's (they need a refurb but that will be later), but it would appear the shocks on the car could really do with being replaced.
Looks like that will be done sooner rather than later!
Ordered new drop links today as I had to butcher the rear ones as the allen key holes in the backs of them rounded when the nuts became a bit stubborn!
I managed to bleed the brakes and they seem to be working really well now. I also set the handbrake and although I wasn't fully convinced it held the car well enough, it seems to be doing its job and kept the car in position throughout a night on the sloped part of our drive
Looks like that will be done sooner rather than later!
Ordered new drop links today as I had to butcher the rear ones as the allen key holes in the backs of them rounded when the nuts became a bit stubborn!
I managed to bleed the brakes and they seem to be working really well now. I also set the handbrake and although I wasn't fully convinced it held the car well enough, it seems to be doing its job and kept the car in position throughout a night on the sloped part of our drive
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