[FINALIZED] Rev 3 turbo - £1,000 - spares or repair

[_Al_]

Some of you who also log into MR2OC may have seen my 58 page project thread about this car.

To cut a very long story short, it has a steering shake which has proven incurable. I've now stripped all my modifications off it and just wish to see the back of it.

Obviously the new owner is welcome to try and fix it, but really I'm selling a rear clip and pile of spares which just happens to be able to carry out demo drives.

I'm fairly sure that the car is safe to drive as I've done 2,500 miles in it myself, but the vibration can become so severe that it unbolts the track rod ends, so if you're going to long haul it I suggest staying below 50mph.


A bit about the car.

It has MOT till December and quite a lot of tax (July 14 I think). It'll probably fail the next MOT on damage and corrosion to the passenger sill, but as above - I'm not really selling it as a car.

The list of things I've tried to fix it is as follows, I'll probably miss loads as this is "top of my head" but here goes.

Geo - 5x
Wheel balance - 10x (2x stud balanced, rest centre bore)
Wheels - 6 sets - 1 wheel failed runout
Tyres - 7 sets
Brakes - 3 sets (all round) - one set failed runout check
Callipers - 2 sets
Hubs (inc wheel bearings) - 2 sets - one hub failed runout
Ball joints - 2 sets
Drop links - 3 sets
Top mounts - 3 sets
Tie rods - 2 sets
Track rod ends (inner and outer, both sides) - 2 sets
Steering rack - 2 off (plus pre-load adjustments)
Braces & strut bars - 3 sets
Shock absorbers - 3 sets
Springs - 3 sets
Driveshafts checked & tightened


Other:

ABS disconnected
PAS disconnected
TRC disconnected
Engine & gearbox mounts checked ok
Chassis inspected 3x garages
Steering damper appears to be freshly fitted (checked against 4x other cars and in far better condition than any of them).
All fixings checked for torque and play
All bushes checked for free play with a pry bar
All captive nuts on subframes etc checked for security
Brakes checked for binding more times than I can count
Tyres marked to check that they aren't rotating on the rim
Steering column & UJs checked against 5 other MR2s with no excess play.

There's probably much more that I'm forgetting.

Symptoms - car drives perfectly at low speed. Above 50 the shake appears and persists to the limiter (tested on track at Silverstone). It comes & goes as I drive along. Type of road, surface, straightness and speed make no real difference, though it does seem more persistent at higher speeds. Sometimes it will disappear for hours on end, other times it will shake without stopping for hours on end. Interval between shakes is seemingly random.

Car drives perfectly even when shaking, tracks fine, brakes fine, steers accurately. The shake does not react to inputs. Sharp accel / brake, throwing it around, changing gear, idling in neutral, revving in neutral, nothing seems to either initiate it or cancel it out. Shake is 100% through the steering. Even when it is so violent that the track rod end unbolts itself the CD plays without skipping and nothing is felt through the seat.

A great many people, amateurs, club members, professionals, race and rally mechanics even specialists like WIM have witnessed it first hand over the last 2 1/2 years and none have seen anything like it and everything they have suggested has been done to no avail.

I'll get some pictures up later - I just wanted to get the ad up as I've been meaning to for days and not managed it!

Cheers
Al

[Race Idiot]

Man I had a simmilar problem with my old car, although the majority of the vibration turned out to be not having any spiggot rings. But even after I got rid of the vibration the cars steering felt horrible like lanechanges at motorway speeds felt dangerous.

Same as you had umpteen parts thrown at it, alignments etc. Was tempted to go for a 3rd steering rack and just ended up breaking the car because it was pretty tatty anyway. My current one doesnt have this problem, which im glad of.

I also live in enfield wierdly enough.

[_Al_]

Which bit? May have seen you around, there are a few '2s in these parts.

Mine has had two sets of stock wheels so it's definitely not spigot rings, though I did get through 5 sets trying to sort this.

Just replied to a PM on this so thought I'd paste the meat of the message here to avoid repeating myself too often..




Hi mate,

The car is a JDM rev 3 GT turbo tin top with 4-way ABS, traction control and 1/2 leather interior.

It is almost 100% standard, the only mods I'm aware of are an MBC (set to stock pressure to aid spool and smooth off the boost), an Apexi induction kit, a set of polybushed shift cables, LED heater control panel, red tinted dash, red tinted clocks, smaller steering wheel and the rev 1 adjustable tie bars on the front.

It still has the catalytic converter so MOT is no problem. The head was rebuilt at Pacific Works a couple of years back when I bought the car and the cat was replaced with a used-good example as it had started to fail. The gearbox is running Redline MT90, it's not 100% perfect but it's the best E153 I've driven. Doesn't crunch even on track unless you're absolutely savage with it. Clutch seems great, far more bite than my other MR2 despite the torque from the turbo.

It's a real shame that nobody can fix it otherwise I'd love to keep it.

Cheers
Al

[_Al_]

Here we go... The white one. The red one is its replacement...











JDM goodness


Traction control...


Rusty sill - tidied up a bit now but probably not going to be MOT-able...



Forgot about this one. Marking found during engine overhaul implying something has let go in a big way at some point... Seems fine now.




Will have to grab more photos, these are just what I have on photobucket. I'll also post a link to the MR2OC thread which has all of this "as it happened".

[Race Idiot]

Which bit? May have seen you around, there are a few '2s in these parts.

The crappy bit Edmonton lol!

Theres a picture of my current one in my garage! edit: oh and me old one

[_Al_]

Nice car! I need to update my garage to show my red one..

[_Al_]

I forgot to mention that the car has four good but used tyres on stock wheels.

I should also have said that it's "first come first served", no dibs. Been burned that way before! Oh and also that the car is advertised elsewhere - to borrow the eBay phrase.

[Feedback Bot]

This Sale has been completed. The Buyer was Non-Member