MR2 - Bargain basement

[The Arch Bishop]

Spares are not a problem in fact - I heavily researched it before I bought the car. You can still buy the cross member from your local Toyota garage. It's north of £300 but in reality, that's not so bad.

As for it appearing in 1000 miles, I suspect it's been pretty bad for the last 3 years looking at it, but it's quite hard to spot when it's on the car as it's covered by the cat' that hangs below it. Also worth considering that they rust from the inside out (bit like Puma rear arches) so the metal was probably sound-ish looking from the outside but paper-thin. Glad I wasn't driving it around like that!!

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Still cracking along! I managed to get three of the four arms off of the scrap subframe - bushes all in fine fettle. The fourth ripped the centre out of the bush before the bolt would come free, so a quick chat to Dick Sloan (fab name) and a replacement arm was dispatched. All arms now painted up ready for refitting.

Also ordered was some fully synth oil and a filter as well as a new sump. Found that mine was weeping oil and had rusted through on one wall. Pretty naff quality. Luckily, a (probably equally naff quality) replacement was £35.

And then it was the big spend - this arrived today!

An early Birthday injection of cash from the bank of Mum and Dad made up my mind to buy a new subframe rather than mucking about. New Camber bolts and some exhaust gaskets also in the package.

Slow progress but getting there!

 

[tuonokid]

Hi Lee
I thought Dick Sloan was an American comic book detective???? :grin:
Barry

 

[The Arch Bishop]

[post]363923[/post] Hi Lee
I thought Dick Sloan was an American comic book detective???? :grin:
Barry

I think his real name is more mundane judging by the PayPal name, but he seems to respond to Dick. :grin:

 

[XAF]

Think it was best to bite the bullet. You going to fill it full of something that protects it more than chocolate would?

More importantly, where do you host your images!!!

 

[The Arch Bishop]

Important things first - Flickr!

Secondary - Yep, going to fill the inside with Dynax and then the outside I'm going to cover with heat-reflective tape where the exhaust crossed below it. THe rest of the old subframe was fine so I'm not going to worry about painting the outside. My theory is that moisture gets trapped inside the thing and then the catalytic converter super-heats it in that area and so it rusts from the inside out.

 

[The Arch Bishop]

MR2 day today. This morning, I cracked on with the sump change. The old one was leaking quite impressively as it was rotten.

First I drained the oil.... what little there was of it.... It's been leaking a while I guess! Then I spun a new oil filter on.

Sump came off with some puffing and panting - the sealant was super-strong!

I cleaned up the mating surface with an old Stanley knife blade and got all of the old goop off. Took a while but better than to rush it.

Then I ran a bead of RTV around the new sump facing (badly - I am hopeless with sealant of any type - think it's OK) then managed to smoothly put it into place and whack some bolts on the corners to hold it. Stuck the rest of the bolts on and torqued them up to 9nm.

Was really chuffed to get this done as I'd been dreading it and I'm hoping it doesn't spew oil when I first start it up. Time will tell!

Last thing was to put some oil in (a full 2 litres more than came out).

That's the morning done. Off to do some de-rusting this arvo....

 

[The Arch Bishop]

And de-rust I did!

The rear of the sills looked worryingly rough and I'd been putting off attacking it with a screwdriver. The picture actually flatters the area...

However, I needn't have worried, a wire brush and a hefty screwdriver found no holes, and both rear sill areas were reassuringly solid.

Cleaned it off and applied two coats of Hydrate 80 to each side. Half way through;

Next step will be some zinc primer then probably some POR underseal followed by Hammerite silver. Should keep the rot away from this area for a while at least.

Oh, and here's a picture of the repainted rear suspension arms and a random heat-shield that I've (very) quickly painted up.

Still plenty to do before I can get an MOT sorted but least it's moving forwards I guess!

 

[The Arch Bishop]

There's been quite a bit of work going on with the cheapy MR2, but keeping two threads going for the same car on two forums is getting a bit dull.

The whole thing with new progress is now here - http://www.mr2roc.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=88&t=63117 if you have any interest! :-D

I think you can access that part of the forum without a login, but let me know if not.

 

[evilrob]

All viewable and entertaining as always! k:

 

[The Arch Bishop]

[post]364311[/post] All viewable and entertaining as always! k:

Awwww you!!!! Cheers for letting me know! :thumbs: