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

[snoball]

i didn't realise you'd had it that long - sorry. things do wrong - but reading this it just seems to be one thing after another so enjoy your trip cos you've definitely earnt it

loved reading this thread though - so much practical info that can be used by other members thankyou - i for one will be doing more at home than i currently do

[tommundy]

I've had many smiles in between the jobs and I've done all of the big jobs that should see it good for many years to come now.

Cheers for the comments. I've taken a lot of useful information from Internet forums during my ownership of MR2's and am always thoughtful to include part numbers and hints and tips where possible. I'm pretty much self taught, so, so long as you have some common sense and a mechanical mind, there should be nothing stopping you!

I should have another update after tomorrow night; hoping to do front discs and a few other jobs also while I'm waiting for the bearing and ball joint to arrive.

Cheers,
Tom

[tommundy]

Right, well Wednesday night was a mixed bag. I checked the front hubs and only the nearside front had some very slight play with a dry-ish sounding bearing, but I thought, I've changed everything else, so what's one more bearing, so whipped that hub off. I also split the bells from the rotors, but found that the bells were quite badly oxidised. Anyway, on with the pics!

Worn disc ready to be stripped:



New vs old (notice the change in design from a ring to tabbed design - this also meant that the tolerances for the lip of the bell were much tighter):



Oxidisation on the bell - this is meant to be a clean 90 degree lip! (This was the one that had been worked on first as well...)



Anodised, but in need of some love:



Bungee cords to the rescue:



After doing some reading up on how to shift the very stubborn oxidisation, I though I'd give the "boil in 1 part vinegar to two parts water for 30 minutes" method a shot! (Yes, I'll be using that stew pot at Silverstone next weekend! )



It did a great job (pic to follow), and only took about 10 mins with a gasket scraper after I'd rinsed the bells clean with water to neutralise them to get them ready for the new rotors. Speaking of which, some brake comparisons against standard Mk1b discs (These were off my blue Mk1; reason to follow! ):







So, that was Wednesday and a bit of Friday night taken care of. More to follow...

[tommundy]

So, as I mentioned, the nearside front hub had some play and a slightly dry sound bearing, so I bought a new bearing and left it with a local garage on Friday. They were mad busy on Friday, so I picked it up yesterday morning after receiving a call saying "we can't do it"... great, I thought. I'd also left them the rear right hand hub with a new bearing to do, which they did do as requested. So, off I went in the blue car to pick up the hubs. Well, it turns out that it wasn't through any sort of lack of tools or ability that the bearing couldn't be changed in the front left hub, but the fact that 16 tonnes of pressing power weren't enough to budge the old bearing!... hmm, I thought.

That's when the blue car came to mind... I was (and have since) taking it off the road this weekend, so took up the great idea of swapping the front left hub assembly from it onto my black car. It was mostly a joy to do as the blue car has done <70k miles, but I did run into a couple of issues. One being that the track rod end was so hard to get out that the nut that I was using to protect the thread from the hammering had gripped itself hard onto the thread. This meant some very very careful grinding to remove the nut and leave the thread intact as I had to drive the blue car home to Beverley today to lay it up until next year. The other element I'd discounted was the fact that standard Mk1's have dust shields for the front brakes... hmm, and I've had experience of those pesky torx headed bolts before. They nearly always round, but alas, a miracle, all 3 came out with ease! The dust shield was in great condition (see pics), and so it felt a slight shame to (sympathetically) grind it off, but besides from removing the stub axle from the hub, you can't get them off any other way.

Other jobs done on Saturday were the fitting of the new rear outer cv joint and hub assembly, all except for the new twos'r'us tie bar.

Anyway, more pics:

Blue car wheel arch (very clean!):



Dust shield:







New CV joint fitted, all greased and with new a new boot and clips:



New lower ball joint fitted:



Funky nut and bolt from Toyota from the lower suspension arm to replace the one that had rounded off!:









All tidied away just in the nick of time to enjoy my girlfriends' brothers birthday celebrations!



I'm very aware that my 1.5 will be doing 2.5k miles around Europe in just over 2 weeks time, but I reckon I only have another 3-4 hours work to get her on all fours. Then, it's a case of four wheel laser alignment, new tyres and some more jobs!

Cheers,
Tom

[tommundy]

Jobs to do:

• 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!)
• Fit new rear tie bars (half done)
• 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)
• Finish rebuilding rear right hand side
• Refit front left hand hub etc.
• Refit exhaust

Parts to order/buy:

• Ducting and clamps for air filter extension (not too painful on my wallet)
• Aluminium sheet for air box in the boot (not too painful on my wallet)
• 4 x tyres (Yokohama AD08 225/45/16 and 195/45/16 or 205/55/16) (very painful on my wallet)

This is the list as of tonight...!

Cheers,
Tom

[pistol pete]

Good work Tom
Like me being self taught picking bits up where I can
Nicely list of bits to do there
I need to make a list like hat but once it's running, I have another coil so fingers crossed


I do like the mk1 in black and I bet it's gonna be great fun

Reminde me is yours rev1 ? Charge cooler? Standard / modified?

[tommundy]

Hi Pete,

Cheers for the comments.

Mine is currently the below engine spec:

• Rev 2 turbo engine
• Hybrid CT26 Turbo (possibly stage 2)
• Blitz electronic boost controller
• HKS FCD
• Apexi RSM (to remove the speed limiter)
• Celica ST205 Chargecooler
• Decatted
• Custom stainless exhaust
• LSD Gearbox
• Rev 3+ metal head gasket
• K&N air filter

Also, when I get chance, I have all the items to do the Rev3 conversion on it.

Yup, it's a great car to drive and hopefully after all this work, it'll be better than ever. I'm going to get some more work done on it tonight; fingers crossed the weather stays good and I get a good 3-4 hours on it after work.

Cheers,
Tom

[chief44]

I've been meaning to ask, have you wired up your chargecooler level sensor?

[tommundy]

I've been meaning to ask, have you wired up your chargecooler level sensor?

Hi there,

Nope, I haven't. I have got a water temperature sensor on it though to check for pump failure. It's never lost any coolant in the time that I've had it.

Cheers,
Tom

[pistol pete]

Hi Pete,

Cheers for the comments.

Mine is currently the below engine spec:

• Rev 2 turbo engine
• Hybrid CT26 Turbo (possibly stage 2)
• Blitz electronic boost controller
• HKS FCD
• Apexi RSM (to remove the speed limiter)
• Celica ST205 Chargecooler
• Decatted
• Custom stainless exhaust
• LSD Gearbox
• Rev 3+ metal head gasket
• K&N air filter

Also, when I get chance, I have all the items to do the Rev3 conversion on it.

Yup, it's a great car to drive and hopefully after all this work, it'll be better than ever. I'm going to get some more work done on it tonight; fingers crossed the weather stays good and I get a good 3-4 hours on it after work.

Cheers,
Tom

thats a good list... i take it that it does go well.. i have only ever been in 1 1.5 and that was a long time ago now...
can't wait to try mine out..
ill have rev2 engine rev3 metal head gasket, de-cat, induction and exhaust,,, WMS front brakes

i will soon want boost controller and FCD

but first i wand rear ARB, Poly bushe, and maybe coilovers..