ClanFever's ME VS U Project

[ClanFever]

The car is now Woffed and Regoed, about time!

The flat tyre (the valve was the culprit for the flat, however I ran it on flat for too long and wore it through to the wire internally)

The very kind AA guy, Mike was his name. I apologised for my incompetence with no tools, and he wouldn't allow me to do it myself with his tools (I offered, and he said it was all good! Might be H & S related too, it was good they carry a torque wrench too)

The car now has ME VS U on it as planned, as shown below. Took it for a good blat around the roads in Levin. It's awesome to go sight seeing in an MR2 - no sun though, couldn't de-targa top. It feels better than it did, however the 17s would benefit from some hub-centric spacers.

[ClanFever]

Flawless work at Nats, even if it's water leak got worse, and I found the burning smell under heavy load is an oil leak on the exhaust, and the final gear was being funny... win

Investigating the water leak first, the front left pipe off the radiator has basically degraded. Half the pipe is still left. In the process of changing the clamp, getting the hose off cut my hand in 4 places, and trying to get it back on with a new clamp cut my hand in 3 places, and it's still not on! Going to remove the AC condenser (system is empty anyway) so I can pull the radiator forward and try again.

[ClanFever]

Removing the condensor worked, had to snap the drivers side pipe and cut it off from the condensor with a hack saw before it came out, in 1 billion pieces, all over my driveway

Got the hose nicely on, and bled the system. Will take it for a test drive tomorrow to make sure it's not leaking. Then I can look for the oil leak (photo is of hose when it seated on pipe, it is fully on with clamp on btw, didn't get that photo)

This car is rough asf...

[GDII]

I wouldn't be surprised if the oil leak is the oil pump. Cam belt job anyone? Or at least just dealing with the oil pump and putting everything back on it.

[ClanFever]

I'd bother with the whole kit if I was going to... bother

Winging it!

[ClanFever]

I had a part left over from my years with Pajeros...

[ClanFever]

Just photos about things - tranny guide is from a Carina book but I imagine this is exactly what the regular, MANU and PWR modes do in the mr2 too

[mknz]

PWR is more inclined to drop down a gear and will shift higher up the range, but is pretty much normal automatic behaviour.

MANU will not go higher than the gear you're in (L 1, 2, D O/D off 3, OD on 4) so you can go to the rev limit and it will kick down the same as PWR.

It's smart enough to know if you're going to fast and want to downshift (it's electronically controlled hence the name ECT). You can use this to "queue" a downshift. I.e hit the lever and get both hands back on the wheel (manual steering memes) before the corner.

You can also rev match down a gear. There's a tiny period between using the gear lever (or getting below speed if you've "queued" a gear change) and it downshifting that you can blip the throttle to get it perfectly smooth, but if you come back on the gas too quickly it gets confused or slams it in. It's about as fast as a regular manual with a rev matching driver.

Idk about SWs gearing, but I found that the shift points in the AWs are different so you just have to do your own thing and figure out what speeds are most optimal since you don't really want it changing gear on you mid-corner (there isn't really a reason to have OD on).

Source: driving an auto SC AW11

Sorry about the long rant and if you knew this. I didn't and couldn't find much useful information when I got mine.

[ClanFever]

Fixed the radiator leak today by replacing the radiator, kindly donated by Mo out of his project car! Thanks Mo! You can see why it was leaking from the pipe...

Wasn't too hard to get the radiator out, fans off, then could drop the radiator down. Changed the Thermostat with one from my Gen 2 Turbo that was basically new, it looks like the old one was actually seized shut not open, not sure how the car wasn't overheating like that, or possibly it was opening during travel and not closing again, something like that. Found a weird looking horn as well, I have the two factory ones that work well so removed it, also removed the Manifold heat shield as it was in the way and it was ugly + some more stone guards because this car is just ratty anyway... hehehe

Still in the process of bleeding it, actually ran out of Petrol while doing so - and will paint the strut bar while it's out

[lasersooby]

Oh hell, did not realize that your radiator was rusted out that bad mate, I thought it might have been leaking from one of the fins. When you explained to me on Saturday, I was wondering how bad it could have been and after seeing the pictures, it is pretty munted alright.
Happy to help mate and hope it gets the car back on the road

[ClanFever]

It sure was bad! It hasn't leaked since which is, in some ways, very ideal!

Car made it safely to Hardpark

[ClanFever]

Nothing new to report with it, it has done me well all summer, and with it having glass roofs, it is making the most of the leftover sun we are having, by cooking the cabin and allowing us to drive with the roofs off. Taking it to the AGM tomorrow, so it'll be it's first very long trip. Before we even serviced it, it drove approx 2 hours on no Alternator, so I suspect it'll do the 5 hour drive to Taupo no problem

[ClanFever]

600KM's, 300 per day, of relatively long and hard running on 2 very hot, sunny days (it's actually sort of hard to keep this thing moving at 100km/h), especially on those long up hill passing lanes. It got a little bit smelly, but it used no water and although it did leak oil onto the exhaust, it's still at the full line... so it's not leaking a lot

[ClanFever]

Have posted some of this over in the Self Isolation Car Mods thread, thought I'd do a little tidy with some of the highlights

Not a whole lot done over the break with this one, the WoF does expire in 3 days, so will get it back in as soon as we're back from Lockdown. Although there will be more lee-way then normal from both police and insurance around expired WoFs, I do have a road legal Carib, and so there's no point to drive this around until I can sort that WoF

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Did get the seats out to give everything a good clean, while also taking the "better" (more ripped but has all controls and moves easier) cloth drivers seat from APEXED. They are covered with seat covers so who's gonna know. The other two seats are going to go to a mate with an MR-S (trying to get him onto the forum!) for his home arcade - they aren't that great and are better in that environment

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Missed opportunity of a 4 seater MR2?

And the auto - I am at most times when driving spiritually, missing a manual transmission for sure. But normal road/highway use, especially the hour and a half drive I make into Wellington most weekends (not under lockdown) it is great, especially on a hot day with the roof off. And putting it into power mode and just putting your foot down is fine for overtaking, it's not overly sluggish, and will get you well into license losing territory very quickly if you don't get your foot off that throttle after your overtake

[ClanFever]

Brake charm, anyone? It'll go flying forward when I brake...

The Joystick makes a return. How viable is this as a shifter solution? It's brittle as so I imagine not very...