Forum rules
This section of the forum is a great resource if you're looking for ideas, and it's a cool way of obtaining technical information that may otherwise not have been posted. (Members can use the Search functionality at top right of the forum to speed up finding things) Please respect others' contributions and don't diss anyone - keep comments helpful, factual, positive and polite. One thread per vehicle or owner please - don't start lots of threads about just one car. And if you need assistance with your car and want to host a spanner day, please use the appropriate section of the forum: http://mr2.org.nz/phpbb3/viewforum.php?f=35 Thank you.
GDII wrote:Yeah it's meant to be one piece. Best put it back together. You only need to remove 2 bolts, the wires from the stud and the spade connector to get it off the car.
You could stand on it to hold in in place. You'll know if this not enough if it gets away on you.
The red wire appears to be your ground strap however that is not the factory wire. It might be too long and too thin.
This image shows it encased in the plastic loom tube and runs from top right to bottom left. It seems to be the right location on your car.
8409a_Engine_Ground.jpg
If the starter bench tests then reinstall it and see what else might be stopping it working. You do need good earths as the whole engine and gearbox are part of the engines electrical system.
The starter works, I took it to my parents house and used an old battery to make sure it pops out and spins (it span slowly but that was because the battery was old and dead). I have also cleaned up the engine ground so hopefully that should be working as per normal, I will also look at getting a thicker wire to eventually replace it.
Today's plan will be to reinstall the starter, buy new battery and hope for the best.
Regarding buying a battery, is there any advantage to buying one from the Toyota dealership, there is one local to me and quoted me $195 for the battery but didn't give any detail as to what it was.
The ticking noise is definitely a low voltage situation to the starter. A new battery will possibly help this as a bad battery can cause many issues.
The battery needs to the positive in the left rear and negative in the right rear like what your current one should have. I have been running a 440CAA for 9 years now and it's worked fine. I probably wouldn't go much lower.
$195 is a good price for new but you can go anywhere to get one. Just buy a new one rather than a refurbished seconds.
mknz knows a lot more about batteries than I do. Maybe he can help out with some advice.
If you intend to install more electronic goodies I would recommend the largest battery which will fit. I tend to go with Exides as can get a decent discount through my work account ($165 for battery listed below). Bit of an overkill for an MR2 but has never let me down.
Large XN50ZZMF Exide Extreme battery (810cca and 95ahr)
BTW check if your battery leads will reach position of one shown. I tend to like the positive on the front LHS and neg on RHS. Certainly makes it easier to throw a charger on or connect up jumper cables.
Jim Benck
90 rev 1 parts car
98 rev 5 GT- all the mods
Thank you both for the advice, I don't plan on running any additional electrics but still would prefer to have a large battery, certainly one that fits in the slot provided so I can remove the wood holding the current battery in place. I will keep the brand you recommended in mind.
I will go out an grab something on my lunch break and see if I can install everything back into position!
The car started! Thank you so much for all the help!!!
Now I can get started on the few new problems.
1. The battery I got doesn't fit and doesn't go around the terminals properly. But still well enough to get it started. Will have to go replace it tomorrow.
2. When the car is running the battery (with half connected terminals) is at 12.18v should it be 14?
3. Car sounds funny, it's not idling the same, maybe due to not being run for such a long time. I also am due soon to change the spark plug so that could be it, any other thoughts on what I could do to fix this?
4. After a short drive up to temperature and back home I found a leak of coolant on the floor. I suspect I failed to reinstall everything properly. It was a small puddle so I'm hoping no harm was done to the engine.
5. Brakes sounded a bit funny, I assume its from the rust and build up from not using it, is there anything I should do to fix this up or will it go away with more driving?
1. You can get lead adapters to make the terminals bigger if needed.
2. Probably needs a good drive to burn out all the crap from sitting for a while. What does it sound like vs what is should sound like?
3. What have you done to the coolant system lately? I can't find anything posted about it for a while. If you over fill the overflow bottle it will pour out there when you turn the car off.
4. Brakes will sound a bit odd after sitting for a while. Just keep driving it and that will go away.
Hopefully I can just switch out the battery, will see how we go.
2. It has a bit of an inconsistent pop to it, it drives close to normal from what I remember.
3. About 2 or 3 months ago I flushed the system and after that it was fine no leaks. I may have overfilled the bottle but if I recall correctly it was leaking in the centre and the coolant overflow poor out to the corner? I will double check, I do hope it is just that.
I have ordered in a new air filter which I will try install tomorrow or Wednesday, when I do that I will undo everything and have a look to make sure everything is bolted on tightly/tubes tightened.
I unbolted the circled in the diagram as I thought the starter was connected to it (Even though I was told otherwise ) I placed the bolt back in but could this be the cause of the leak by any chance?
Yes the overflow is in the left rear. Anything in the centre is something else.
Maybe take the rear under tray off below the fuel tank. This can hold coolant from leaking heater pipes or the drain plugs in the stainless steel lines. Makes it easier to see.
knuckles61 wrote:I unbolted the circled in the diagram as I thought the starter was connected to it (Even though I was told otherwise ) I placed the bolt back in but could this be the cause of the leak by any chance?
I never had a rear tray so it was easy to see from the get go!
I took out the air intake again (getting faster at it now) and had a look around and made sure I tightened everything as well as I possibly could. I reinstalled along with a fresh air filter and went for a drive, at the start of the drive there was a a fair amount of noise from what I think is the heater core sloshing around water? It went away quickly. When driving I stopped to see if I had a leak which there wasn't. Once I got home and parked up the leak was back, I checked the coolant overflow pipe and it was dry. Then had a look around the engine bay and found it may have been coming from behind and slightly above the starter motor.
Excuse the bad photo, it was night and the engine was hot and I was facing disappointment that I still have problems to fix. That hose looked wet and below it on the engine/gearbox there was a bit of a puddle. Is it possible that I knocked it loose while getting the starter out?
The location of the photo is behind/above the starter.
I really hope it's not this but going from my experience the steel pipes going into the aluminium coolant tree can rust out and then fall out. So I'd be very careful around that area and try to confirm this is not the case. See the link for when mine did this. The current engine I have in my car also came with severely rusted pipes. I was lucky that my brother could rebuild them with stainless steel.
Perhaps a silly question but if I end up removing the hose and trying to replace it will I need to drain the coolant system first? Or I can I take out the hose with minimal coolant loss?
Quite a bit of coolant will come out if you remove that hose. Unfortunately there isn't a way to drain coolant from that area without removing the thermostat. Just be prepared for all the coolant from the head to drain out there.
If you try to remove the hose the metal pipe might collapse or come out. This will put the car out of action until a fix can be made.
I could be over exaggerating the problem. This is all based on my previous experience and 1 photo.
If you want to capture as much coolant as possible the drain ports on the block or on the stainless pipe leading to radiator can be used. This will allow the level to be reduce below where you are doing the work while still maintaining most of the coolant in system. This then makes it easier to refill without introducing large amounts of air.
As others have said be prepared to replace coolant T if it is corroded beyond repair. Being cast alloy with pressed steel inserts its not exactly an easy part to work on.
Jim Benck
90 rev 1 parts car
98 rev 5 GT- all the mods
Benckj wrote:If you want to capture as much coolant as possible the drain ports on the block or on the stainless pipe leading to radiator can be used. This will allow the level to be reduce below where you are doing the work while still maintaining most of the coolant in system. This then makes it easier to refill without introducing large amounts of air.
As others have said be prepared to replace coolant T if it is corroded beyond repair. Being cast alloy with pressed steel inserts its not exactly an easy part to work on.
I had a look at how the coolant drains form this area. If you drain the pipe to the radiator you won't get much out of the head as the draining section is above the coolant tree and this hose point.
The 3SGE doesn't have a block drain as such and as far as I know. However the hose on the back right of the block connecting to the recirculating pipe to the water pump can be removed and all the coolant from the block comes out there.
Saying this, this is the low point in the block and it can fill up with rusty particles. I needed a screw driver to clear mine out in both engines. Clearly these engines were not taken care of.
) I placed the bolt back in but could this be the cause of the leak by any chance?