Apologies for the length of this post.
After stories on the hassles of fitting a decat to the MR2, I decided to have a garage do the work
(which I rarely do). I also had a small bit of welding needed on a pipe leading to the backbox.I went to Olbermotive on recommendation, and due to the fact that there is, unfortunately, a distinct lack of MR2 Specialists in Scotland.
There are plenty of local garages in Edinburgh, but I decided to travel ~40 miles for the sake of a place that knows their way around the SW20.I drove through, left the car at the garage, and was given a lift to the station to spend the day in town, which I thought was very nice.
On receiving a phone call telling me that the car was ready, I was again picked up from the station and brought back to the garage, again very nice gesture.I drove the car home along the motorway; once I came off the motorway, nearing home, I noticed the temperature gauge rising past normal operating temperature at quite an alarming rate.
I pulled over, looked underneath and was greeted by a stream of boiling water pouring out from under the car.After letting it cool, and filling it back up, I nursed it home.
The next morning I jacked the car up to see if I could spot where it was coming from, and there was my mid section undertray flapping around missing bolts.
There was also no rear undertray on the car at all.The leak was indeed up beside the new decat
(the oil cooler section of the oil filter housing). I attempted to tighten the loose bolt up, but it just kept spinning. I then removed the stud to find it had the thread stripped. After replacing the stud with a nut and bolt, I tightened it up. Strangely it was still dripping, just not as much. I then managed to fill the car back up with water and as I was doing so I noticed something different about the engine bay. Couldn't quite put my finger on it though. Maybe it was nothing.I called Olie, and suggested I bring it through, as the gasket was perhaps not sealing as it should.
He said that it was indeed a part he would have had to move to fit the decat, and something must be wrong. I turned the boost controller right down to run only actuator pressure as a safety precaution, reset the peak boost reading, and nursed the car to work with a boot full of water bottles so that I could then drive it the ~40 miles to Olbermotive without it overheating.In the afternoon I went to fill it back up with water, and again I was sure there was something not quite right about the engine bay layout.
Then it struck me, there was no cross-bar strut brace. And indeed, the two rear struts were being held to the car with one solitary bolt. Dodgy.I then called Olie up to ask him about the brace and the undertray, and he told me they were both through there at his garage.
I drove the car back through, slightly hacked off to say the least, cooling it down and topping it up as needed.The next afternoon Ollie told me that the car was finished, and that he would bring it through for me at night
(which was a very nice gesture). When he did (an hour earlier than he said - again very nice) I quickly checked it over, strut brace was back as it should be, and so was the undertray. I let it run on idle for a while, and thankfully no leaks were to be seen.Ok, I was happy.
He said that the gasket at the point of the leak was missing, so can only assume he hadnt put it back in. He mentioned that one of the drop links may be away due to a knocking over bumps, which I had heard before and was planning to get done at some point. He also said that he thought it sounded as if it had a boost leak somewhere though, which was news to me, but again something I may have missed, I am not the MR2 specialist.The next day I finally got a chance to drive the car, with the boost still set to actuator pressure, checking my peak boost
(reset on switching back to actuator pressure when the water leak was found) it read 0.52bar - which is healthy as it should be.After driving the car to operating temperature I opened it up a little, and checked my Boost Gauge
- 0.4 bar. I then switched my boost controller to current boost reading to double check this figure, and wound it up again - 0.41 bar. I switched back to peak to make sure I wasn't seeing things; there it was, stored from the day I took it back through to Olbermotive at 0.52 bar. So, I have now developed a boost leak of 0.11bar.Oh, and a nice big score across my nice new TRD gear knob.
and this from an MR2 Specialist.Not impressed.