My 1990 SW20 MR2 GT, DIY/Build/Repairs

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Hi all, this is my third MR2, however previously I had owned a 1986 NZ NEW AW11 MR2 in silver, this was back in 1999, I was young at the time and an idiot.
So this is what happened. (tried to take a 35k corner at some silly speed, which i'd managed to do previously).



It was written off by the insurance company, interestingly according to CarJam it was repaired and put back on the road after this event, surprising considering it had 200,000k on it back then and a smokey engine, but being NZ new might have made it more desirable. (No AC, wind up windows, sunroof instead of T-tops) but 240k dash

Some years later, in around 2008 I purchased this 1989 AW11 S/C MR2.



I didn't have this car long, as at the time I was living in a dodgy area with no garage to keep the car in, it was mint and it seemed a shame to have it out in the weather and in endanger of being stolen. I sold it to a collector, that car was in amazing condition, it had about 10-12k of receipts with it from Miles Toyota.

SO... fast forward now to .. August 2016... I now have a mortgage, but have a garage and some room. I had been looking for a cheapish car to mess around with and this came up for a good price 10 mins drive away.

I didn't have an MR2 in mind as such, but the deal was good and I remembered how much I enjoyed the previous cars.
I am a bit of a DIY person when it comes to cars and did a lot of work on previous cars, such as Turbo Honda CRX, various E30 BMW's etc, have been to plenty of track days in the last 10 years.

In cars like:


I went through a euro phase for about 10 years, but have headed back to favoring Japanese cars again and no longer own a euro car at all.

The Day I picked it up.





I took a risk and purchased the car sight unseen on trademe, mostly because the asking pricing was low and it was likely that by the time I got there to look at the car that someone would have clicked the buy now and i'd have missed out.

Thinks I have noticed wrong with it so far:

1. Plastic strip missing from drivers door.
2. Engine bay has to be kept open with a piece of wood as the proper part is missing.
3. Power Steering seems a bit intermittent, never have a warning light, but sometimes when turning corners at low speed or driving into a car park it feels heavy like there is no power assist.
4. Clutch pedal is slow to fully return, I suspect the slave cylinder is to blame, something I will check out soon.
5. Factory headunit dead, just made static sounds and didn't seem to be able to find any radio stations.
6. Some of the lights in the speedo cluster are dead, (easy to fix).
7. Intermittent central locking, passenger door always locks fine from the drivers door but often won't unlock.
8. Engine bay dirty, seems to have original distributor cap, leads etc from new, valve cover gasket leaking.
9. No cambelt history or any kind of service history, the owner that is had it for the last 8 years only did 6000K's in that time (last 4 years in storage).
10. Gold painted factory 14 inch wheels are mismatched, 3x of them are 14x7 and one of them is 14x6.

The last owner was told that it had just had $2000 spent on it before he bought it, which included new clutch and some power steering issue and something else but he couldn't remember what it was.

What I have done so far:

Removed the factory headunit, in preparation for the new one I ordered (Nakamichi Double Din with dual 5V Pre Outs) this was about the most cost effective head unit I could find that had the higher voltage pre-outs, which are better in regards to less noise among other things.

This car has the factory amp, so I have this Autoleads PC9-406 Car Audio Active Adaptor Lead coming from over seas to allow me to connect up the new headunit while using the factory amp etc.
I do have a decent amp to install eventually and will install some DLS component speakers in the doors (5.25inch) which offer good sound quality for what they are.

Ordered some tune up parts, spark plugs, new HT Leads, valve cover gasket, distributor cap and rotor and once they all arrive I will post some pictures of replacing the valve cover gasket etc.
I ordered these parts from rockauto.com as where else can you buy a new set of champion HT leads for $8 USD, Platinum Plugs, $3 USD each etc. I have been buying parts from that place for years for my euro cars.

Replaced Oil, Filter, Coolant the day I got the car. as all of these fluids would have been in the car since being put into storage 4 years ago.

[mickeyduck]

Power steering intermittent no go is common in SW's it seems. In mine it was the electronic box tucked in behind everything else in the rear of the passenger side of the frunk. Kinda behind aircon tubes etc. Use Advanced Search to suss it out in my Rides thread if you want better info and pics.

Failure to unlock can be as simple as the plastic door lock thing getting jammed on the plastic cup widget. Hell I dunno what you call the thing but if you look closely at the locking gizmo on the inside of the door and remove the cup thing you'll likely see what I mean. Pull the cup gizmo off and shave a little off the edge that jams things.

I hope you know that pre 92 the SW had a tendency to snap if pushed hard. AW's are a lot less inclined to snap, a lot more manageable and progressive in my experience. An E30 (like an 86) will drift whereas an SW will go backwards. Maybe score yourself a post 92 rear crossmember and trailing arms etc to make it less likely. And I can't over emphasise the importance of good grippy rubber on an MR2. Potenza work well as do Toyo T1R. But hopefully your first AW taught you that? You can normally put an AW through a 35 corner at 70 or more if the tyres are good and your understanding of throttle control is too...

I hope you have a lot of fun with that car. Be sure to run good sticky feet eh.

One last thing. Using a computer you can just drag-drop pics onto the edit box when you're posting to upload them to here direct. That way your posts will always make sense in years to come even if you abandon your Photobucket account one day. (It happens all too often and when it does people's posts no longer make sense).

Keep it coming mate. And have a blast! SWeet.

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Have found some wheels I want, I just need to win the trademe auction.

17x8 +35 Front
17x9 +38 Rear

[GDII]

Mmmmm nice. Keiichi Tsuchiya wheels. They should have a very good fitment with some 215 and 235 tires.

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Today I tackled the valve cover gasket, replaced the sparkplugs and HT leads.
I'm still waiting for my new dizzy cap and rotor, but I can easily change those another day.

Stock Engine bay with dirt and oil galore.

Close up of oil leak causing an issue, as it was dripping onto the exhaust and smoking out the engine bay aftet a hard run.

Valve Cover removed, was a lot of cleaning up to do and spent a lot of time removing old RTV sealant, cleaned the mating surfaces, replaced gaskets, re-assembled, once I clean the engine bay properly I'll post an after Pic, picture is obviously before cleaning, I didn't bother taking one of it clean, as I didn't want to touch my phone at that stage.

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I took the car for a drive today, it seemed to run better, boost came on earlier and in general nicer to drive, but a lot of that was from tightening the boost pipes up, as they were not done up tight at all, so suspect I had a nice boost leak.

However, its getting oil on that pipe from the intercooler to the throttle body again, the inter cooler itself looks to have oil on it (can see it on the end tank), the turbo charger compressor housing does too. but the valve cover gasket isn't leaking anymore at least .

So after a good drive, you can smell the oil burning off various parts of the engine.
I don't think this is from existing oil around the engine, as I cleaned that intercooler pipe after doing my valve cover gasket.

I did notice oil inside the intercooler pipes, not loads, but have seen this before on other turbocharged cars i've owned and its usually from the PCV.

So the next step is to degrease the entire engine, make it clean enough to eat off and then drive it again and see where oil shows up.

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So it turns out one of the hose clamps had broken on the inter cooler pipe, which isn't surprising given the age.

I cleaned the engine a bit, just to get rid of the oil around the turbo and intercooler pipes etc, installed a new hose clamp, drove it hard on some back country roads.. came home, no oil smoke or any oil leaks to be seen

You can see the new close clamp in this pic, sure enough I could feel oil residue around that pipe.

However, I did spot a small coolant leak.

Strangely the clutch seems to have come right, pedal is now returning like it should and there's no longer a squishing noise heard when depressing and releasing the clutch pedal.

I had a phone call from the old owner last night, advising me that he found the missing strip from the drivers door, which already has double sided tape on it ready for me to install.
However first I need to clean the area I am sticking it to to ensure it stays on.

Last pic of the day, considering the MR2 is 17 years older than my Skyline, its looks quite modern really.

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Today was a good day, my new Headunit arrived.

Ok, a picture of the box, since the Cat won't leave it alone.

Now to wait for the special wiring adapter to arrive from Amazon UK, (one that fits the 1990 JDM MR2 with amp etc), which has an eta of the 23rd of August, will be interesting to see if the factory amp etc still works, the original headunit was ruined, none of the buttons worked, could hear static and thats about it.

mr2pc9_package.jpg (31.33 KiB) Viewed 3449 times

[GDII]

Nice buy. That will be better than the factory unit or some old JDM aftermarket one.

I'd be curious to know how it sounds running the 50W outputs through the standard wires, amps and speakers. I've been thinking about hooking mine back up through the factory wiring to keep it more standard. One thing to note is that the signal wires from the head unit to the amps are very very small. This may impact on it but the factory amps may do that too. Upgrading the factory speakers is probably a good idea, at least the main ones in the door. If your sub woofer works and has not collapsed then that's OK to keep. Mine works quite well for it's size.

I just had a look at the adapter and how it works for the MR2. Quite interesting how it uses the pre-outs for signal which means you must use the factory amps to get any decent sound just like how the factory system works. This adapter will only work for the 14 pin plug in the 89-93 SW20. The 94+ has a 15 pin connector.

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Nice buy. That will be better than the factory unit or some old JDM aftermarket one.

I'd be curious to know how it sounds running the 50W outputs through the standard wires, amps and speakers. I've been thinking about hooking mine back up through the factory wiring to keep it more standard. One thing to note is that the signal wires from the head unit to the amps are very very small. This may impact on it but the factory amps may do that too. Upgrading the factory speakers is probably a good idea, at least the main ones in the door. If your sub woofer works and has not collapsed then that's OK to keep. Mine works quite well for it's size.

I just had a look at the adapter and how it works for the MR2. Quite interesting how it uses the pre-outs for signal which means you must use the factory amps to get any decent sound just like how the factory system works. This adapter will only work for the 14 pin plug in the 89-93 SW20. The 94+ has a 15 pin connector.

I'll let you know how it goes, of course I have no way of comparing it to the sound of the original system.
I spent a bit of time researching to ensure that I ordered the correct adapter for my car, the 14 pin one was a lot harder to find, amazon was the cheapest source from what I could tell.

If it works, I have some spare DLS MS5A speakers, 5.25inch component set, which will do the job nicely (for the Doors).

Really the only requirement was a headunit with dual front and rear pre-outs, the headunit I purchased also uses the standard iso connector, meaning I can connect the iso lead on that adapter directly to the headunit for Power wires and then connect the RCA cables included straight into the headunit, so basically a 2 minute installation if it works.

If not, well I have a good Class D 4 channel Amp kicking around, but was trying to avoid that for now, as at that point i'd be looking at doing a full re-wire job.

I could do the install without that adapter, however I was keen to leave the factory wiring alone for the most part, it would get messy soldering on RCA connectors to the factory signal wires etc.

This shows the pin out of that adapter.
http://www.stephenmason.com/cars/mr2pc9 ... onnections

[Benckj]

Interested to know if your HD and adapter to factory amp works. I've never heard the OEM premium system before as every MR2 has had faulty components. If it does work speakers will be high on priority list as most stock ones have turned to dust by now. Wiring like GDII stated is also undersized and often faulty in door space.

On the oil issue Id have a good look and clean of the IC and internal pipe work. Gen 2's didn't have catch cans do oil vapour gets piped right back into intake but condenses before it gets into engine.

[GDII]

The wiring from the amps to the head unit is the weak link. After the amps the wires are actually quite large but can break in the door loom like what Jim said.

Definitely put the the 5.25" speakers in, they will make the sound far better if it's the only thing you do. I desoldered the plug from the factory speakers and soldered them to the new speakers for that OEM plug and play setup. No cutting of the loom that way. I also moved the factory door speakers into the tweeter location behind the doors using the same soldering technique.

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Well, the wiring harness adapter arrived today, but it doesn't work. (head unit didn't power up).

At first I noticed that the constant +12V wire was on the wrong part of the ISO connector, (Yellow wire) so I fixed that.

Again, no go, got the multi Meter out, the earth was no good, wasn't getting any power from the wire that was meant to be earth in the factory connector, found one that did work as an earth, but still no go.
Meter was only showing 11.2v or so, I suspect the factory wiring is too crappy to power the headunit, or at least I hope thats the issue.

Another thing I noticed is that the +12v ACC and Constant +12v are both constant and was getting voltage from both with the key out of the ignition hehe.
So tomorrow I'll re-wire all the power wires and only use the harness adapter for the RCA connections.

[Benckj]

If I remember correctly the power plus ground comes from amp. GDII or BGB can confirm wiring diagram but I'd have a good poke around in amp/sub box for clues.

[GDII]

All the wires come from the factory AMP and are very small. Even the power wire is too small so trying to run a larger unit like that may not work.

You seem to know what you are doing with the re-wire so I can't be much more help. However, my car still has all it's factory components, just not used. My speakers are spliced into the factory speaker harness AFTER the amps behind the door and it's unplugged. New wires are run from the head unit to the speaker loom. To get power it comes from the cigarette lighter wires like what most people do. This was all done before I got the car.

Another thing to look at is how to make the power antenna run now that you aren't using the factory wiring. If you want to know how to hook that up I can assist with that as I've done it to my car.