[Mk2] [NA] MR2 TDI

[lozzzzzz]

Thanks Folks



Well I've done well over 500 miles in Mr Two now and I'm falling in love with it. It really is exactly right! Fast, economical, loads of fun, and really quite tolerable on a long run. I love it (did I mention that).

I can now confidently say that I have accurately measured the MPG and compared it to the read out on the dial. Unfortunately the dials are a little optimistic, by 10% in fact. I was a little disappointed, however a 10% error means it was still able to do 80mpg on a long run behind a lorry. Still impressive I feel. The average for that tank of fuel was 70mpg, that's mostly motorway driving (slowly) but perhaps 1/3 of it was A roads. I've since tried driving it like a tool to see if the 10% error still stands in the region of 50mpg. I'll fill the car up again soon to test this.

The gauge suggests that the car can do 63mpg at a steady 70mph and this drops to 54mpg at 80mph (as I said I'll confirm these figures soon), this really makes me want to fit the 6 speed box. I don't know for sure if it'll bolt up to this engine and whether or not I would need new driveshafts again.

I think I can fairly safely confirm that its not as good as I previously suggested on MPG, but is certainly no worse a golf TDI.

Anyway, thats enough about MPG, at 30 to 35p/l fuel is cheap therefore motoring is very cheap!

In other news, I've now fitted a very lame stereo, soon to fit some speakers, nothing fancy, just normal stuff. I've messed about with and shortened the little gear lever on top of the gearbox (this has made a very small difference, it still needs a little adjustment) and I've cleaned up and "stone chipped" the rear arches and underside of the car. I feel happy that its weatherproof now



I can't get my head round how solid this car is underneath

To sum up, its friggin brilliant!! and I love it! oh and the front brake is binding a bit

More to come

[SonicSW20]

RE: brakes, I assume you're on the stock Toyota brakes? You can get rebuild kits from Bigg Red - http://www.biggred.co.uk/

Go for the full piston and seal kit all round, they'll feel like brand new brakes again. Just do all four, you need to do them in axle pairs anyway and if one of them is binding then the others won't be far behind anyway. Get the proper Toyota brake grease direct from Toyota - it's much better than the generic stuff.

[2mad]

RE: brakes, I assume you're on the stock Toyota brakes? You can get rebuild kits from Bigg Red - http://www.biggred.co.uk/

Go for the full piston and seal kit all round, they'll feel like brand new brakes again. Just do all four, you need to do them in axle pairs anyway and if one of them is binding then the others won't be far behind anyway. Get the proper Toyota brake grease direct from Toyota - it's much better than the generic stuff.

Yep listen to gazza .. epic thread .. love to see what it can do against a petrol 2

[synXero]

So then... Bigger turbos and a remap?

[2mad]

So then... Bigger turbos and a remap?

Haha ........ yes ..... please ......

[lozzzzzz]

Patients! Hopfully, I'll be looking into tuning it a bit in a while.

The rear calipers are pretty much new, both changed before I bought the car. I will however be getting the rebuild kit for the front on your advice.

I assume this is the stuff you're talking about (it doesn't specifically say for brakes, but it does say rubber to metal):
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Toyot ... 4aebd6094e

And would this be the row from bigred that I need?

2000
01/12/1989
To
01/12/1991
Front
AISIN
2
25
342076
342077
BRK203617
£24.75
Add to cart
Piston
BRP233617
£15.75
Add to cart

Are the pistons and sliders usually ok after a clean up?

Thanks folks

[SonicSW20]

It's the brake caliper grease you want, part number 08887-80609

I'd change the pistons and sliders as well. Corroded pistons are one of the reasons they seize, and the sliders are cheap so you may as well replace them while you're there.

They do a full kit for the front, you'll just need to get the sliders separately: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Toyota-MR2-SW ... 1687862245

[lozzzzzz]

Brakes all working!

I thought it might be sensible to take them apart and see what was needed before wording bits in.

One caliper had a sticky piston and the other had one sticky slider. Upon taking them all apart it seems all the pistons were in great shape after a thorough cleaning, no corrosion under the chrome surface, all the seals were perfectly intact and the sliders were also corrosion free. The "stickyness" in the slider was caused by corrosion in the bore, so I removed all the rust dust. The "stickyness" in the caliper seems to caused by a build up of "crud"??? Which is all now removed. It didn't seem to be corrosion on piston as this cleaned up perfectly as did the bore? hmmm, you know what.... perhaps the flexi lines are on their way out. Time will tell.

I took the decision to not buy any new parts as the parts I would get in the kit were all in perfectly serviceable condition. I greased it all up correctly, refitted and bled the brakes and its working a treat, no hot brakes after a cruise, and it pulls up nice and straight.

More to come

[SonicSW20]

If you're getting a build up of crud that usually means at least one of the seals is not working very well, or the boots on the pistons are split or otherwise not protecting the piston. For the price of the kits the best solution is to just rebuild the whole thing, then it will be good for many years with regular maintenance.

[2mad]

My favorite thread .. great stuff bud

[dawesy]

excellent stuff buddy. great to see someone thinking outside the box.
this is something ive thought about for a while as a daily. i was looking at using the 2.2Dcat toyota engine.180hp and 400Nm torque as std and 225Hp chipped.
sticking brakes make a huge difference to MPG as well so you may see a large improvment in those too.
looking forward to more updates

[2mad]

Whats your next project lozzzzzz post a link .. im in

[lozzzzzz]

Gazza, you make a good point. It's all back together now and in regular use, but if I get any more problems, I'll go ahead and renew the lot.

Dawesy, I'll measure MPG again soon and see if how much it has improved. That would be an awesome swap, all that torque would feel amazing, when are you starting?

2mad, thanks again for your encouraging comments. I've still got a few things to do on Mr Two before starting anything else, like:

add the nessesary switches to the interior (MFA and cruise),
tidy up a few rough looking interior parts,
get the cruise control working,
fit a naughty ECU that a friend at work has been "fiddling with"
fit a grill mesh to protect the radiator,
maybe fit a better head unit, and new speakers.

Then..... I think I'll sort a few little issues on my crazy Scimitar. Cracked discs from a track-day and poor idling etc....

Then..... I'm going to try and make a burner/garage heater for burning the waste product from bio diesel production (I have lots). I'll faff around with these for a bit.

Then..... Take out the 3L Omega engine from the Scimitar and fit the 3.2 with forged crank and supercharge it, then perhaps fir jaguar IRS and lose the heavy unsprung beam axle.

But this is years and years away. so I'm afraid there is nothing as cool as this project in the pipeline for a long time. If that changes I will be sure to post it up here with link

I'll keep going with the MR2 updates in the mean time

More to come

[2mad]

To be honest lozzzzzz id give you a tv show .. i love out-side the box thinking when it comes to custom work .. looking forward to future projects

Good luck with mr. two

[lozzzzzz]

Thanks 2Mad




I've not written an update for a while and I've done a few bits over the weeks.

I've been driving in a much more normal way now (not lorry chasing). Like fury early on Sunday mornings and at least matching motorway traffic speeds on my long daily commute. The average figure over a few thousand miles has been 54.2mpg. I guess I was hoping for a little more but that has included a lot of of revving and "pressing on" so not too bad.

I've got a list of very small niggles that I've been working through and have recently tackled the one I considered to be the trickiest. The heater light was flashing on the dash board which suggests a the brake pedal switch problem and would not allow the cruise control to work. After much forum reading and head scratching I've finally stopped it and cleared the fault by connecting the MR2 brake lights through the TDI pedal switch. This means when the pedal is not pushed the ECU detects earth via the brake light bulbs and is now happy.

This means THE CRUISE CONTROL WORKS Very pleased I've yet to mount the switch properly but the tricky bit is done

I've fitted some speakers and a crappy radio for now, so it's been nice having the radio for the daily commute.

I've mounted some mini push switches for the MFA to work, it turns out it's still over estimating the MPG by 10% but all the other function are great.

I've had a play with the "tuning box" and found it's a 2K resistor (which expains why it didn't do much), this is way to much! so I've been messing about with a 69p 1k variable resistor and it seems to work all the way down to 500 ohms. It transforms the performance, in fact I would go as far as to say it makes the 110hp engine in the MR2 at least match the performance of the Fabia VRS which was my target for this car. I'd still like to drag race it and find out the difference with and without the resistor and it would be very interesting to get it on a rolling road and find out the numbers too.

I've "adjusted" the leverage ratio of the throttle pedal to accommodate the TDI throttle pot more suitably. The pedal required quite a bit of force to push and had very little travel. It's funny how much this has transformed the driving experience, I'm very pleased I pursued it and will be trying various things to improve the gear shift next



I've now driven the car several thousand miles and I'm still besotted with it! Its a joy to drive. With current fuel prices at around 1.10p locally and my fuel being 28.5p, the car is doing a cost equivalent of 209mpg. Can't complain really

More to come

[2mad]

V8 twin turbo in an rx 7 next please bud .. this has gone so well .. got me hooked

[androo007]

You're a very clever chap..... Well done...! Amazing can't wait to see it progress further

[lozzzzzz]

Thanks Folks



After a frustrating morning (set about fixing the missus brakes only to find the locking wheel nut key was missing), I went and fetched Mr Two and had a go at improving the gear shift. On the way back in the MR2 something went wrong for the first time One of the gear change cables broke (at my weld). So I repaired and reinforced that then set about improving the gear shift feel.

I've just moved the point at which the gear change cable attached to the gear stick, and it has improved the feel infinitely, I had sort of resigned myself to the fact it would not be a particularly nice shift feel as it was a 'mish-mash' of two different OEMs parts and as the gearbox lever had a big counter-weight mounted on it (that's now gone). But it's lovely, sideways movement is ok, still a little tricky to find 1st and 2nd for a new driver, but forwards and backwards movement is fantastic! A really nice click into gear!


It seems to take a long time cranking over before starting when the engine is up to temperature, from reading about a bit it seems others have had similar problems on the 110hp engines. I had thought that this might be something to do with the EGR and intake throttle solenoids being disconnected (it shows a fault in VAGCom). I connected them up again and they are now sat on the passenger seat clicking away I cleared the fault codes and warmed the car up with a spirited drive. I've only started it hot a few times, but 'fingers crossed' I think it is starting normally now. I might get a couple of resistors to replace the redundant solenoids and keep the ECU happy.

More to come

[lozzzzzz]

After spending several hours fixing the bio machine I finally got round to making some more adjustments to Mr Two. This one is to make the car a little more "get in and drive" when someone else uses it, rather than spending 10 minutes explaining the little nuances of the car.

I wanted the gearshift to work a little like the BMW I used to own. Push left for 1st and 2nd, push hard left for reverse. As it is, it can be difficult to decern between 1st and reverse. So I made this.


And welded it on to the base plate by the gear lever (note that when the gear lever is moved left or right, the lever in the left of the photo moves forwards and backwards).


Then finally got round to reducing the diameter of the Toledo gear stick top, and gluing it into the MR2 gear nob.


The finaly test was to lend the car to the missus and see if she could find all the gears with no issues, and...... she can Although "it is a bit hard to get reverse"..... I can't b****y win!!!

More to come

[2mad]

Looks very clever .. cant wait for more