What to Do with your New SW20-STICKY?

[scarylilrambo]

Wow - Just read all of the this! That's a great help to me! Thanks

[Benckj]

Glad it helped you.

[madaboutv8s427]

We all have our pet hates with car problems and will pick on the one which caught us out. I liked the article because it gave new owners something to think about before they splashed out on new wheels and head deck. While changing some suspension bushes or ball joints is not the most exciting mod it may be the most practicle. I posted the thread for a disscussion point on something we could assemble or add to and place as a stcicky so new owners have a good starting point.

thanks mate i will be doing those thimg it will b my list to work on what do u think is most important to do

[Benckj]

Really depends on the car and how well or lack of maintenance done. If you address the common most important problems I'd say brakes and suspension first. Re-build rear cylinders and flush new fluid through. Get rotors tuirned and install decent pads. Suspension is checking all components for wear and then replacing bushes. Then comes trans and motor fluids (oil, coolant, etc).

[Wayne]

So much work in a new car , Just getting it back up to spec maintenance wise .
I really hate buying new cars lololol

[Swampy]

I recommend that any SW that has done over 160k has the big end bearings changed, no one worries about these till she starts rattling and by then its all over rover.
This is based on tearing down a number of 3s engines.

I would agree, but only for your "Typical MR2" and by that I mean typically piss poor maintained running shit oil with infrequent changes and forgetting to top it up so it suffers from oil starvation to boot. I will be gutted if mine doesn't see twice that milage. It has been impecibly maintained since 64,000km and fed the best oil always at the full mark, but time will tell.

Big end bearings?

I definitely think my suspension and brakes are a priority, 20+ year old parts in there. Ride is very stiff IMO, I think I went over some cobble-stone street in town last night around Atrium On Elliot/High Street area and was holding onto the steering wheel for dear life not that it bothers me but want to keep it well maintained. But then again, I've only ever driven cars with gentle suspension set ups.

[JasonFriday13]

MR2's are supposed to have stiffer suspension than normal cars. Generally putting new suspension parts in will make it a bit stiffer too.

Doing brakes is a good idea, if you know what your doing you can do them yourself. Otherwise get a shop to do them or a club member that's done them before.

When it comes to engine internals, it's better to drive it until it breaks, then fix it. Think of it this way, if the engine is still running (ie not broken) and you did big-end bearings, and 10,000km later you spin a main bearing, it's a waste of money because you have to take more of the engine apart to fix it, and that money could have gone into an engine rebuild or an engine swap instead.