Late Intro to My New Car (Mk1.5 Turbo) - Picture Heavy!

[tommundy]

Cheers Pete, yes it flies! It's an absolute weapon on the road and can't wait for my holiday!

I've got loads of other mods to the chassis, brakes etc. If I ever sell it I'd have to make a bible of all the part numbers and different cars that the parts came from, hehe.

Having an electronic boost controller is worth it's weight in gold. Not only can you adjust boost on the fly, but it also builds and holds boost a lot better. The FCD is essential as well.

Anyway, on with tonight's work...

It had been a long day at work as I'd been in work yesterday migrating our company mail server to a virtualised environment. This all went smoothly, but I wanted to be in early just in-case. All went well, and I finished work at 5:30pm and headed over to the MR2 to get cracking.

First up was the rear right hand side tie bar. I lined it up with the old one:



and fitted:



Then on went the brakes:



and I replaced the funky nut and bolt from the rear lower suspension arm on the left hand side with brand new ones from Toyota:



Then I put the hand brake on and tightened the hub nut up to 137 ft/lbs and added the castellated cap and split pin:



Next up was to bolt the brake bells to the new rotors. Here's a quick picture of the cleaned bell surface, ala vinegar and water and scraping:



and here you can see the reason why it has to be so neatly done:



hmm, shiny!:



Next up, I fitted the front left hub from the blue car, but needed to drill out the old split pin from the track rod end:



Bells and rotors bolted up and torqued correctly:



Caliper bracket fitted:



Using a special tool to push out the four pot pistons with the old brake pads as spreader plates:



Done!:



and fitted!:







It was gone eight by this time and I was losing light, plus dinner was on the table, so I packed up and enjoyed a well earn't drink!

I'm heading over again tomorrow and should hopefully have it back on all fours and ready to drive home in an hour or so as all that's left to do is fit the new front right brakes and also refit the exhaust. Woo!

I'm going to order the new tyres in the morning and try and get them delivered on Wednesday ready for fitting to come down to Silverstone.

Wish me luck!

Cheers,
Tom

PS: The jobs list now stands as follows:

• Fix leaky boot (drip from inlet manifold into boot access panel)
• Fix leaky drivers side pillar (not very bad at all, possible just perished pipe connecting onto the sunroof drain hole)
• Change front brake discs (nearly done)
• Fit rear vent and box off air filter in the boot (got to take Gary to my baby!... scary!)
• Get geometry done
• Fit new front wheels (will be done with new tyres, so ten mins work)
• Re-fit passenger seat (five mins work)
• Sand and paint rear arches (just so she looks pretty in the holiday pictures)
• Paint front bumper (same as above)
• Fix rattling sunroof (a 'nice to have', seeing as we're doing 2.5k miles in 3 weeks)
• Fix nearside front wheel catching (just the arch liner slightly catching; hopefully a two min fix)
• Fit car stereo (the girlfriend has requested music, so I have bought a stereo, but have to find somewhere to fit it! - my stereo area is taken up with gauges)
• Fit temperature gauges (optional inlet temperature gauge - not really necessary for the trip; just a job I've had on my list for a while and have all the stuff for)
• Refit exhaust

Few!

[chief44]

More good work there Tom. The CC temp sensor is a good call. What kind of temps are you getting?
Another question I forgot to ask yesterday was about your exhaust. Did you get a company to make it up for you? I'm looking for company reviews for my upcoming system.

Good luck with the rest of the work.

[tommundy]

More good work there Tom. The CC temp sensor is a good call. What kind of temps are you getting?
Another question I forgot to ask yesterday was about your exhaust. Did you get a company to make it up for you? I'm looking for company reviews for my upcoming system.

Good luck with the rest of the work.

Cheers!

Well, with the water temperature, I'm using a gauge that starts at 40 degrees C and it never even registers. Even on a hot day, the charge cooler is cool to touch. I'm going to swap the current gauge with a digital one so that I can see exactly what it's at.

The only time I do see temperatures over 40 degrees are if you've been driving and then stop the car and go back to it a little later, you get some heatsoak from the engine. However, the temperature drops within 30 seconds to a minute back below 40 once you start driving again.

As for my exhaust, I got it done by a company in Sheffield called Exhausts UK. I was happy with the work and it comes with a 20 or 25 year guarantee. It was £440 for a decat back system. You can choose single or twin pipes and/or exits in different designs and can tailor the system to your requirements. I went for 2.5" all the way through and am glad I didn't go for 3"!

Cheers,
Tom

[tommundy]

Slight change on the tyres. I was concerned about the size on the front in the smallest 16" size of the AD08's, so I've got for some Falken FK-452's, which are available in more friendly sizes.

They'll be 205/50/16 on the front and 225/45/16 on the rear.

I've got it booked in for laser wheel alignment at lunchtime tomorrow and the new tyres are getting fitted after work, woo! It'll give me a definite target to get it back on all fours tonight!

[pistol pete]

yeah i want to get up to 225 on the rear of mine, only got 205 at teh mo.. won't take long to get through them i am sure

is this going to be there at the weekend?

what brakes are they, they look expensive..

been quoted 360 for a decat back exhaust with them picking up the car and dropping it off.. but depends if my car is finished and ready before chiefs exhaust becomes spare...

[chief44]

Pete, I'm hoping to get booked in at torqueflow sometime next week, so my current system will be available then if you need it.

Sorry for the for the thread hijack there Tom. Back to you.

[Jawa411]

225/45's...big bastards!! Once your geo is done it'll stick to the road like shit to a blanket!! When was the last time you drove it?

[tommundy]

I'm just sitting down to tea before heading out to play badminton after working through the rain, but look!



@Pete - Yes, it'll be there this weekend!

@chief44 - No worries

@Jawa411 - It sure will. I drove it a couple of weeks ago to get it here, but the last time I drove it properly was nearly 2 months ago

[coverco]

Blimey Tom all four wheels on

Great news you have got it sorted, can't wait for the weekend now I bet?

[pistol pete]

Pete, I'm hoping to get booked in at torqueflow sometime next week, so my current system will be available then if you need it.

Sorry for the for the thread hijack there Tom. Back to you.

of topic.. fantastic matethe second its ready ill be on my way to collect

awesome tom look forward to seeing it