Three months in the merde - a £500 Toyota MR2
Discussion
I needed to rent a car for three weeks whilst my regular car was being repaired. Some quick man maths convinced me that rather than rent some nasty hatchback, I should put the money towards buying an old shed of a car, that I could sell on when it became surplus to requirements.
Surprisingly, my wife said that this was not the stupidest idea I had ever had, and it would be nice if we had a convertible to replace her Alfa Spider that I had written off (twice). Another Spider was out of the question, as we are now at the stage in life where we need to transport children. A search on Autotrader for cheap cars not too far away brought up two cars of interest in the sub £1000 price bracket – an Alfa GTV that made a shrieking noise when you pressed the clutch, and a Toyota Celica convertible with a mouldy roof.
Whilst I was dithering over which of the two was the least rubbish, a work colleague announced that he was going to put his MR2 onto eBay, as a mechanic had told him the engine was about to blow up, and the seats gave him backache. He was expecting it to make around £500.
I have learned the hard way, both as a buyer and a seller that you should never trade cars with friends or family. However, this was a work colleague, and we don’t actually like each other that much, so what could possibly go wrong? Sure, the car had no back seat for my children, but it was £500, it had an MOT, and it only had to last three weeks. I handed over £500 and became the proud owner of a 1992 Toyota MR2 in various shades of red.
The 20-mile journey home was absolutely fine, apart from the engine management light on the dashboard, a very rough and rattly engine, and a non-working radio. I also found out that the reversing lights didn’t work, the central locking didn’t work properly and the roof leaked.
The next day I set about fixing the car’s faults. I decided that the radio would be most important thing to fix, as I would need something to listen to whilst waiting for a tow truck when the engine blew up.
The dashboard came apart easily enough, enabling me to remove the chavtastic aftermarket stereo and the rats nest of wiring behind it. There was an adaptor to convert the Toyota connector to an ISO connector, and then another connector to convert the ISO to Pioneer. With judicious use of wire cutters, a soldering iron and some insulating tape, I was able to fashion a new, shorter wiring loom with only minimal burning of my fingers. I put everything back together, and the stupid thing still wouldn’t work.
I took everything apart again and started to check the voltages going into the radio. The 12V feed was 5 volts, and the earth was -7. A better man would have traced the wires back to find out what was going on, but being lazy I just bolted a wire to a metal bracket behind the dashboard and spliced the other end into the earth lead that went into the stereo.
I put it all back together for the second time, and the radio was working. Hurrah. An unexpected side effect was that the engine management light was off, and the previously rough running engine was now sweet as a nut all the way to the end of the rev counter. Double hurrah.
The three weeks have turned into three months, during which time I've put 6000 miles on the car to take it to 157000 miles. I've no intention of selling it.
Surprisingly, my wife said that this was not the stupidest idea I had ever had, and it would be nice if we had a convertible to replace her Alfa Spider that I had written off (twice). Another Spider was out of the question, as we are now at the stage in life where we need to transport children. A search on Autotrader for cheap cars not too far away brought up two cars of interest in the sub £1000 price bracket – an Alfa GTV that made a shrieking noise when you pressed the clutch, and a Toyota Celica convertible with a mouldy roof.
Whilst I was dithering over which of the two was the least rubbish, a work colleague announced that he was going to put his MR2 onto eBay, as a mechanic had told him the engine was about to blow up, and the seats gave him backache. He was expecting it to make around £500.
I have learned the hard way, both as a buyer and a seller that you should never trade cars with friends or family. However, this was a work colleague, and we don’t actually like each other that much, so what could possibly go wrong? Sure, the car had no back seat for my children, but it was £500, it had an MOT, and it only had to last three weeks. I handed over £500 and became the proud owner of a 1992 Toyota MR2 in various shades of red.
The 20-mile journey home was absolutely fine, apart from the engine management light on the dashboard, a very rough and rattly engine, and a non-working radio. I also found out that the reversing lights didn’t work, the central locking didn’t work properly and the roof leaked.
The next day I set about fixing the car’s faults. I decided that the radio would be most important thing to fix, as I would need something to listen to whilst waiting for a tow truck when the engine blew up.
The dashboard came apart easily enough, enabling me to remove the chavtastic aftermarket stereo and the rats nest of wiring behind it. There was an adaptor to convert the Toyota connector to an ISO connector, and then another connector to convert the ISO to Pioneer. With judicious use of wire cutters, a soldering iron and some insulating tape, I was able to fashion a new, shorter wiring loom with only minimal burning of my fingers. I put everything back together, and the stupid thing still wouldn’t work.
I took everything apart again and started to check the voltages going into the radio. The 12V feed was 5 volts, and the earth was -7. A better man would have traced the wires back to find out what was going on, but being lazy I just bolted a wire to a metal bracket behind the dashboard and spliced the other end into the earth lead that went into the stereo.
I put it all back together for the second time, and the radio was working. Hurrah. An unexpected side effect was that the engine management light was off, and the previously rough running engine was now sweet as a nut all the way to the end of the rev counter. Double hurrah.
The three weeks have turned into three months, during which time I've put 6000 miles on the car to take it to 157000 miles. I've no intention of selling it.
Edited by jamesh764 on Tuesday 9th August 08:12
Yes, a rubbish earth caused the running issues that led a trained and experienced mechanic to pronounce it fit for the scrappy.
I didn't realise that the wheels weren't original when I bought it, but on closer inspection they say "Attitude Metal" on the centre caps, and now I know this, it bothers me. I had bought the car to be disposable, but now I've had it a while I think it is too good for that. For the first time in my motoring career I might make some effort to look after this one.
The children have been enthusiastically T-cutting the car, but they are not very good at it. I did pay some Eastern Europeans to clean the car properly, and now that the dirt has been removed there is evidence of poor paintwork repairs, presumably using a Halfords aerosol can.
I didn't realise that the wheels weren't original when I bought it, but on closer inspection they say "Attitude Metal" on the centre caps, and now I know this, it bothers me. I had bought the car to be disposable, but now I've had it a while I think it is too good for that. For the first time in my motoring career I might make some effort to look after this one.
The children have been enthusiastically T-cutting the car, but they are not very good at it. I did pay some Eastern Europeans to clean the car properly, and now that the dirt has been removed there is evidence of poor paintwork repairs, presumably using a Halfords aerosol can.
I was on the other side of the coin. I had an an ancient Saab 900 that had similarly had the last rights - timing chain rattle than would cost £1800 for the bits, 9 hours labour and the local dealer parts desk had only ever sold one kit of bits.
So I sold it to my ex wife's new bloke for £50, with the fault fully described as he needed a short term car, in the hope it would blow up on him as he deserved it. 18 months later and no such luck.
So I sold it to my ex wife's new bloke for £50, with the fault fully described as he needed a short term car, in the hope it would blow up on him as he deserved it. 18 months later and no such luck.
creationracing said:
You need to leave it idling sweetly next to where he parks....
I've let him drive it, and he regrets selling it to me. I offered to sell it back to him for a grand, but apparently he would never buy a car from someone as incompetent at driving or mechanically inept as I am.jamesh764 said:
I didn't realise that the wheels weren't original when I bought it, but on closer inspection they say "Attitude Metal" on the centre caps, and now I know this, it bothers me. I had bought the car to be disposable, but now I've had it a while I think it is too good for that. For the first time in my motoring career I might make some effort to look after this one.
Stock wheels are easy to come by, can't even give them away most of the time. Check eBay/Gumtree/IMOC.co.uk/MR2OC.co.uk, and if you use Facebook the various parts for sale groups.Bigger problem is the stock rear tyre size of 225/50R15 - not a lot of choice. You've got a s
t Nankang, an average T1R, or a pair or Pirelli's that will cost you almost as much as the whole car did.Many owners go for a 16 or 17inch wheel for that reason.
SonicShadow said:
Stock wheels are easy to come by can't even give them away most of the time. Check eBay/Gumtree/IMOC.co.uk/MR2OC.co.uk, and if you use Facebook the various parts for sale groups.
Thanks - I've just checked locally and a breaker has a complete set with just legal tyres for £89.SonicShadow said:
Bigger problem is the stock rear tyre size of 225/50R15 - not a lot of choice. You've got a st Nankang, an average T1R, or a pair or Pirelli's that will cost you almost as much as the whole car did.
Many owners go for a 16 or 17inch wheel for that reason.
I've just come back from a trip to Devon (200 miles each way) and it was raining heavily on the trip down and the car felt very twitchy at the back. On arrival I noticed that the rear tyres were low on tread so I set about getting them replaced. The local branch of a national fast fit said only Pirelli were available at £304. I thought that was OK, until he said that was per tyre.t Nankang, an average T1R, or a pair or Pirelli's that will cost you almost as much as the whole car did.Many owners go for a 16 or 17inch wheel for that reason.
I ended up buying Toyo Proxes tyres for £73 each, and while the car is much grippier it does not feel as stable on the motorway as I'd like.
jamesh764 said:
I ended up buying Toyo Proxes tyres for £73 each, and while the car is much grippier it does not feel as stable on the motorway as I'd like.
It's an old car, and it's probably still on OE bushes etc. It will benefit from a suspension refresh. Don't know if Toyota still do OE bushes, IIRC they are part of the arms and not available separately. Expensive route to take. Another option is going for polybushes in your current arms. Modern polybushes are a *lot* better than the solid bits of plastic that passed for bushes back in the Max Power days. You can get a complete set of bushes from the US via Amazon US for ~£104 landed, all taxes paid. Amazon US pre-estimates taxes and pays them upfront when it's sold and dispatched by Amazon, so you don't have to pay additional customs fees when they arrive here. As tax has already been paid, it goes through quicker too.Search for the Prothane 18-2009 kit - https://www.amazon.com/Prothane-18-2009-Red-Total-... just check the ARB bush size, there were a few different sizes. Can always sell these ARB bushes if they are incorrect and buy the right ones.
Unless they've been replaced, the ball joints, steering rack ends (inner tie rods) and tie rod ends will all be way past their best. Worth checking and replacing as needed. The rear track rods rarely need replacing outright unless the boot on the spherical bearing has failed, let all the grease out, and been that way for a while. The adjustment does seize up as it's so exposed though. Wire brush, plusgas, heat and patience will have them freed off, and if you copper grease them they'll be easy to adjust in the future.
Worn shocks and top mounts can also cause issues. If the NA shocks have a large nut at the top of the strut body, they are the rebuildable ones, so you can just buy some new inserts.
Some good advice there ^
As a cheaper potential fix, maybe chuck it in somewhere decent for a full four-wheel alignment? My 1989 Mk1 was absolutely transformed just by making sure the wheels were all pointing in the right direction. Plus, while it's up on the ramps you should get a good idea of what may or may not need replacing.
As a cheaper potential fix, maybe chuck it in somewhere decent for a full four-wheel alignment? My 1989 Mk1 was absolutely transformed just by making sure the wheels were all pointing in the right direction. Plus, while it's up on the ramps you should get a good idea of what may or may not need replacing.
I really wouldn't recommend cheap bushes, as to why it's easier to just watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z6OEohnPKw
If you're going to through the effort it takes to change the bushes, it's really not worth 'saving' a few hundred quid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z6OEohnPKw
If you're going to through the effort it takes to change the bushes, it's really not worth 'saving' a few hundred quid
Richyvrlimited said:
I really wouldn't recommend cheap bushes, as to why it's easier to just watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z6OEohnPKw
If you're going to through the effort it takes to change the bushes, it's really not worth 'saving' a few hundred quid
Prothane are actually good quality. They have the textured inner part (unlike the Powerflex ones shown in your video), and the design is similar to the SuperPro ones. They are also tapered and fit properly, so won't have any of the issues described in that video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_z6OEohnPKw
If you're going to through the effort it takes to change the bushes, it's really not worth 'saving' a few hundred quid
creationracing said:
jamesh764 said:
I've let him drive it, and he regrets selling it to me. I offered to sell it back to him for a grand, but apparently he would never buy a car from someone as incompetent at driving or mechanically inept as I am.
I'd rather be electrically jammy and mechanically inept, than a .Even though it was a temporary car, intended to be kept for a few weeks, I've grown quite attached to the MR2. Not attached enough to get the suspension sorted, or buy the OEM wheels that a local breaker has for £80, but attached enough to not bother getting my regular car repaired.
Since August the car has done another 5000 miles, bringing the mileage up to 161000. In that time it has almost been trouble free. A faulty brake light was traced to a blown bulb (skilled diagnosis by me there) but more serious trouble was on its way.
A few weeks ago, a 40 tonne lorry was driven over a bridge with a 3 tonne weight limit (not by me) and the resulting diversion due to the bridge being shut meant that the Toyota and I spent over an hour in very slow moving traffic. I was less than five miles from home when I noticed clouds of steam in the rear view mirror, and the temperature gauge was creeping closer to the red bit.
I've had enough rubbish cars in the past to know that turning the heater up can help cool the engine, but when I did, only cool air came out. I stopped to do some shopping and mull over what the correct thing to do would be.
When I got back to the car, the temperature had gone down and the heater was working again, so I decided to risk the 10 minute drive home.
The next day I set about investigating and found the car was low on coolant, and the seal on the radiator cap was split. I topped up the coolant and decided I must get a new radiator cap.
Whilst buying the radiator cap (£5) I also took the opportunity to spend £9 on a new reverse light switch because the internet said that was the most likely reason the reversing lights didn't work.
I used to own a Bertone (Fiat) X1/9 so I am well aware of the difficulty in accessing bits when a powertrain originally designed for a front engined front wheel drive car is put into a mid engine rear wheel drive car, so both parts festered in the boot of the car for a while until this weekend, when I decided to fit them.
I couldn't see the reverse light switch, or even the gearbox for that matter so I removed a few bits to improve access:
I had to undo a coolant hose to get the socket onto the old switch, and as I had already removed the knackered radiator cap there was no pressure in the system and not too much leaked out.
Whilst removing all the air piping, I discovered that the air cleaner had seen better days a 2008 date code on the air filter, which could go some way to explaining why the fuel economy has got worse lately.
As no amount of hammering would get my 26mm socket onto the 27mm reverse light switch, I went to the local motor factors to get the right socket, and also treat the car to a new air filter (another £5).
Somehow everything went back together and the reversing lights now work. More importantly the car still works. There is apparently a complicated bleeding procedure for the cooling system, but I took the lazy way out and drove the car for a bit with no radiator cap hoping any air would evaporate out of the system. It seems to have worked OK, but only time will tell.
Just in case anyone ever needs to replace the reverse light switch on an MR2, and because I have learned how to do yellow circles on my computer, here is a photo of the switch with a yellow circle around it:
The MOT expires in a couple of months so I either need to sort my regular car out, or hope the MR2 doesn't need too much doing to pass. I want to keep it.
Since August the car has done another 5000 miles, bringing the mileage up to 161000. In that time it has almost been trouble free. A faulty brake light was traced to a blown bulb (skilled diagnosis by me there) but more serious trouble was on its way.
A few weeks ago, a 40 tonne lorry was driven over a bridge with a 3 tonne weight limit (not by me) and the resulting diversion due to the bridge being shut meant that the Toyota and I spent over an hour in very slow moving traffic. I was less than five miles from home when I noticed clouds of steam in the rear view mirror, and the temperature gauge was creeping closer to the red bit.
I've had enough rubbish cars in the past to know that turning the heater up can help cool the engine, but when I did, only cool air came out. I stopped to do some shopping and mull over what the correct thing to do would be.
When I got back to the car, the temperature had gone down and the heater was working again, so I decided to risk the 10 minute drive home.
The next day I set about investigating and found the car was low on coolant, and the seal on the radiator cap was split. I topped up the coolant and decided I must get a new radiator cap.
Whilst buying the radiator cap (£5) I also took the opportunity to spend £9 on a new reverse light switch because the internet said that was the most likely reason the reversing lights didn't work.
I used to own a Bertone (Fiat) X1/9 so I am well aware of the difficulty in accessing bits when a powertrain originally designed for a front engined front wheel drive car is put into a mid engine rear wheel drive car, so both parts festered in the boot of the car for a while until this weekend, when I decided to fit them.
I couldn't see the reverse light switch, or even the gearbox for that matter so I removed a few bits to improve access:
I had to undo a coolant hose to get the socket onto the old switch, and as I had already removed the knackered radiator cap there was no pressure in the system and not too much leaked out.
Whilst removing all the air piping, I discovered that the air cleaner had seen better days a 2008 date code on the air filter, which could go some way to explaining why the fuel economy has got worse lately.
As no amount of hammering would get my 26mm socket onto the 27mm reverse light switch, I went to the local motor factors to get the right socket, and also treat the car to a new air filter (another £5).
Somehow everything went back together and the reversing lights now work. More importantly the car still works. There is apparently a complicated bleeding procedure for the cooling system, but I took the lazy way out and drove the car for a bit with no radiator cap hoping any air would evaporate out of the system. It seems to have worked OK, but only time will tell.
Just in case anyone ever needs to replace the reverse light switch on an MR2, and because I have learned how to do yellow circles on my computer, here is a photo of the switch with a yellow circle around it:
The MOT expires in a couple of months so I either need to sort my regular car out, or hope the MR2 doesn't need too much doing to pass. I want to keep it.
jamesh764 said:
Even though it was a temporary car, intended to be kept for a few weeks, I've grown quite attached to the MR2. Not attached enough to get the suspension sorted, or buy the OEM wheels that a local breaker has for £80, but attached enough to not bother getting my regular car repaired.
They do get under your skin a bit! jamesh764 said:
I've had enough rubbish cars in the past to know that turning the heater up can help cool the engine, but when I did, only cool air came out. I stopped to do some shopping and mull over what the correct thing to do would be.
When I got back to the car, the temperature had gone down and the heater was working again, so I decided to risk the 10 minute drive home.
The next day I set about investigating and found the car was low on coolant, and the seal on the radiator cap was split. I topped up the coolant and decided I must get a new radiator cap.
Have you bled the system yet? It can take a while. I've got most of the workshop manuals in PDF form here - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-dpUpxzr96YblRt... - feel free to download / save etc. Squeezing the pipes to encourage the air to move helps a lot.When I got back to the car, the temperature had gone down and the heater was working again, so I decided to risk the 10 minute drive home.
The next day I set about investigating and found the car was low on coolant, and the seal on the radiator cap was split. I topped up the coolant and decided I must get a new radiator cap.
jamesh764 said:
As no amount of hammering would get my 26mm socket onto the 27mm reverse light switch, I went to the local motor factors to get the right socket, and also treat the car to a new air filter (another £5).
Well, it was worth a go! 
jamesh764 said:
The MOT expires in a couple of months so I either need to sort my regular car out, or hope the MR2 doesn't need too much doing to pass. I want to keep it.
Good luck! If corrosion is checked you probably won't have much to worry about.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff