Found a diamond in the rough

[Tooljst8]

Hey all. New to the mr2 here.

My name is Chris, i live on Long island in New york (aka rustville).

I have owned many a car, but prefer small 2 seat imports.

I just purchased my first MR2 mk1, found in a junkyard not more than 1 mile away from my house. When i had gone to look at it after doing a bit of research i had found it to be a whole unmodded all original 85k mile car.

Just a hint of rust on the rear quarters but other than that it is a perfect 88 NA t-top 5 speeder.

After getting it home i did a complete tune up (car sat for almost a decade). Changed out the timing belt/ water pump/ alternator and brakes all around. I am now using it for my daily driver and have plans on fixing up the body over the summer.

I love the way these little cars handle, excuse the interwebz abbreviation but OMG WTF <3 On Rails!

Anyhow just figured i would say hello to fellow enthusiasts. I got a bunch of info off this site to make my decision and i couldn't be any happier.

Hi my name is Tooljst8, and i'm a MR2aholic.

[como]

Welcome.

[Denz]

Sounds like a lucky find, hopfully you changed the fluids after it being unused that long? lol
That just doesn't really happen here

[Tooljst8]

Originally Posted by Denz

Sounds like a lucky find, hopfully you changed the fluids after it being unused that long? lol
That just doesn't really happen here

I ended up having to swap out the radiator (had a crack in the top corner), also changed the thermostat. When i pulled the thermostat out of the housing it was locked up and came out in two pieces. I flushed out the entire cooling system from the front and the back about 4 times until water was coming out clear again the topped off with Toyota red stuff.

I also changed the oil twice in about 500 miles to try and get most of the gunk out of the motor and flushed and filled the trans with some fresh semi synthetic gear oil. I really didn't want to take any chances honestly seeing as it did sit for so long.

New battery installed, water pump, timing belt and alternator. Also broke one of the lil vsv's near the air flow thingy and had to junkyard search to find another (friend actually broke it off as we searched for a vacuum leak ).

I also just swapped out the pads and rotors all around about two days ago. Someone who had it prior to me decided to airgun all the lugs on before it sat for so long soo.... warped rotors.

The suspension itself seems quiet and feels solid so it shouldn't reallly require much more now than a new set of tires and a fresh alignment.

Pretty happy overall, she is doing well after about 1k miles on it since i bought her. Now to deal with the rust on the rear wells

And i actually met another owner while driving around about a week ago, we bothe pulled up side by side at a red light. Was like looking into a mirror, the had the same color t-topped NA i have. We both smiled, rolled down the windows, said "nice ride!" and went along our merry way. However i have not seen anymore of them around before or since.

[randomxzero]

wow good find!
the MKI's handle amazingly.
mine has been sitting in my driveway for months, but im not giving up on her because its the best handling car i've ever driven!

[lsgheero]

Welcome, if your ever interested in selling the sawblade factory rims pm me lol, mine have recently sprung leaks.

[Denz]

Damn, thats a lot of miles already, thats about what id do in 6months haha

[traintech86]

Originally Posted by Tooljst8

I also changed the oil twice in about 500 miles to try and get most of the gunk out of the motor and flushed and filled the trans with some fresh semi synthetic gear oil. I really didn't want to take any chances honestly seeing as it did sit for so long.

i have an 89 i just bought and it was sitting around for 2-3 years. i wanted to know how to go about this gear oil. can you explain so i can possibly do it? shouldn't be to much dif for mine. thank you

[Tooljst8]

Originally Posted by traintech86

i have an 89 i just bought and it was sitting around for 2-3 years. i wanted to know how to go about this gear oil. can you explain so i can possibly do it? shouldn't be to much dif for mine. thank you

After basically getting the car up and running healthy (engine wise) i basically drained out the manual trans to see what would come out of it, and the fluid didn't look that bad. I then topped off the tranny with new regular recommended gear oil up to the lip of the filler hole on the front side of the trans and drove it around til hot on and off for like two days, then drained that stuff out too. It seemed to be fine and remained fairly clear of any metal shavings etc etc. I then went back to the auto store and bought some decent (but not great) semi synthetic gear oil and refilled once more.

I figure i'll drive around on the semi for a month or two and the try and source some of the redline MT90 i have been hearing about here on the site.

As for draining and refilling, simply undo the plug on the bottom of the trans to drain it (into a pan, catch container), then around the front of the car side of the trans is a filler hole to top it off up to. I needed a small hose and funnel to fill it from the top of the engine bay down into that hole. Also had to remove the battery and the tray it sits on for a bit more room. Once liquid started coming out of the top filler hole i knew it was topped off and closed it all up again.

[Tooljst8]

Originally Posted by Denz

Damn, thats a lot of miles already, thats about what id do in 6months haha

I rounded up a bit there, i have had the car three weeks and have been driving around a ton working out the bugs.
I should be using it just to go back and forth to work and just around town soon.
I spend a lot of the time driving it getting parts. Well besides the alternator which i had to take my uncles car.
The 21 year old alternator worked for about 4 days, then decided it didn't want to live again.
On most of my other cars i averaged about 2500 miles every three months.

[Kerry Phillips]

What, U mean a MR2 sat for a decade and the fuel pump did NOT go bad???

Pulled the fuel tank from my 86 partout, the "gas" came out brown and stunk Extremely bad. I suspect the car sat for about two-three years. Of course the fuel pump was bad.

Goodluck with your MR2 and welcome aboard
kerry

[Tooljst8]

Originally Posted by kerry Phillips

What, U mean a MR2 sat for a decade and the fuel pump did NOT go bad?

Surprisingly enough the guy who had it ran it every few months but only to move the car around the yard it was in for all that time. It did also have a horrible loping idle when i got it home, but the standard tune up stuff and idle adjust fixed that problem.

I do have to say that it had almost no gas in it when i bought it and it did smell horribly from the tail pipe. But so far the whole fuel system seems to be holding up well. Only thing i have changed on it so far was the fuel filter. It does however seem to be drinking a bit rich. i was thinking o2 sensor but i'm not totally sure yet.

Also as a side note: I am crossing all my fingers and now knocking on wood that the pump doesn't randomly go bad like the alternator did. *gasp*

[randomxzero]

Hopefully it doesnt!..
I heard its a Bit** changing the fuel pump...