Cai's Dream AW11

[Cai]

I finally got to drive home my dream car! I'm so incredibly happy.

1987 AW11 4AGZE with < 73,000 km on the chassis/engine!

I only drove it home tonight so haven't had the chance to take decent pictures, but here's a couple of it parked up in the shed I spent the last week renovating into somewhat decent carport:

Good things:
Koni (Yellow) Sport Adjustable shock absorbers
Eibach Pro-Kit Dual Rate Springs
Suspension Techniques Anti-Roll Bar Kit
Full Urethane Bushes
War Motorsport 12 psi supercharger pulley
Broward clutch
TRD short-throw shifter

The current tyres on the car aren't the greatest and I've never driven a rear wheel drive car, let alone one with a mid engine. It'll take me a while before I'm comfortable driving it for events, but one of these days you should see me out there with this beauty!


These are some photos from the Trade Me listing:

Unfortunately it didn't come with the BBS wheels pictured here :(

[Cai]

Grrr, rear tie rods are bent and I don't know where to buy one from as Toyota doesn't make them anymore.

The left is not so bad, but less straight than I'd like.

[Cai]

Decided to figure out why my radio doesn't work yesterday. Took it out, and immediately saw the problem... It wasn't plugged in! Easy fix, right? Except that it probably wasn't plugged in because a few of the wires to the original connector were cut. They're cut so close to the connector that there's no way for me to easily solder them back up to the harness :(

The white tape on the wires hid further problems:

Someone had decided to splice onto the speaker outputs by stripping the existing wires and twirling their new wires onto them. I ended up cutting out the current plug completely so that I can reinstall it properly and cleanly. I'll have to sort out some new wires and crimps to re-use the plug, but that shouldn't be too hard to source.

Unfortunately the head unit that's in there appears not to be as stock as I had thought. It's almost correct, but not quite. There's only one socket for the main plug, meaning the rear speakers will not be driven. Now I have to be on the lookout for a stock head unit to replace this one so I can have the full aural experience!

I also had a look into why my mirror controller wasn't working. Thought it also might not be plugged in, but it was. I'll have to do some voltage tests at the mirrors to see if the signal is making it there. Depending on the fault I'll have to weigh up the cost/effort of fixing it against the ease of just not caring! It's nice to be able to point them down when trying not to scratch the wheels while parking, but at the same time having them unable to be easily adjusted means if anyone else drives the car there's probably less I'll have to adjust when I get back in the driver's seat.

In the late afternoon I decided I'd had enough tinkering and took it out for a "quick" drive, which ended up being 2 hours up SH16. Managed to get to a nice rest stop in time for a couple of snaps before heading back home.

I'm now realising I need a better camera though. The one on my phone doesn't do the car justice!

[rocco26]

Merry Xmas,
Don't even think about an oem head unit they are crap. Treat yourself to a new Bluetooth unit ,with quality sounds .
That's my 6 cents worth . Enjoy playing with your new toy .They are so much fun.
Cheers

[Cai]

I just like that my interior looks really stock and kinda want to keep it that way. I have a nice head unit in my daily. I'll probably not even use the radio in the AW much, but I'd like the option!

[Cai]

Took apart the dash yesterday to see if I could rule out the water temp gauge being faulty, but it turns out the resistance is lower than it should be for a couple of the pins. Not sure if that means it's stuffed, or if it still could be the sender/wiring.

After removing dash bits I tried the mirrors again. Turns out unplugging and plugging back in the mirror controller plug fixed them, which is great! Unfortunately the left mirror only moves in and out, not up and down. I'll have to figure out why, but at least for now I have some control over them.

Spent some of today fixing up the shoddy wiring for the head unit. Now it has nicely soldered and heat shrink wrapped wires! And that's all it needed to get working, so now I have radio. Only the front speakers work due to the head unit not having a socket for the other plug, but it's good enough for now.

Worked out a bunch more things I want to look at/do these holidays, such as change all the fluids. Exciting!

[GDII]

The mirror could be a broken wire in the driver's door loom that controls the up and down movement. Normally in the join of the body and door as it gets old it can break. Test the wires for that circuit.

[Cai]

The mirror could be a broken wire in the driver's door loom that controls the up and down movement. Normally in the join of the body and door as it gets old it can break. Test the wires for that circuit.

Thanks, I'll try that. I'll also take the mirror off tomorrow and see if I can get it moving up and down connecting it up to the battery directly. Should help diagnose the problem.

[Cai]

Replaced/bled all the fluids over the past couple of days. The engine oil wasn't too bad, neither was the brake fluid, but the clutch and transmission fluids were pretty awful.

The clutch reservoir had black, ink-like fluid in it and it took most of a 500 mL bottle of brake fluid to clear out all the gunk from the lines.

Transmission fluid was almost a dark green colour, which can't have been good. Since changing it I haven't had a chance to drive the car (damn weather, it's supposed to be summer!), but sitting still the gearbox feels a lot smoother in first and second, which I was having issues with. Hopefully that's all the transmission needed to get working well, as the next step might be taking it somewhere to be reconditioned as I think the synchros might be buggered for first and second.

This weather is making me feel like I did a couple of months ago when I hadn't picked up the car so couldn't drive it! I'm itching to take it out.

[Cai]

Oh, and I took the car for an alignment a couple of days ago. Took the guys at TyreTech a good hour to get the alignment done because of a seized tie rod adjuster on the rear. They ended up getting it moving, but not without holding a flame to it for a couple of minutes and practically swinging off the vice grips. Tie rod is a little more bent now that it was before, which leads me to believe that's how they got bent in the first place! Soon I'll have replacements so that won't be an issue.

The car came with a rear sway bar but it was detached due to it spinning upside down every time the previous owner jacked the rear up. I wanted to install it again to see if it handled differently, but unfortunately there are two spacers missing on one of the end linkages! So I'll need to figure out a way to source those spacers if I want to install it.

Has both spacers and washers

Missing the spacers, but has both washers

[Cai]

Borrowed my friend's wheels for today. I think they look much better than my current wheels! Might end up buying them...

Friend goofing off + over exposed but you get the picture :D

[Cai]

Went for a hoon over Scenic Drive on the Waitakares this evening to properly test out the new wheels. They're sooooo much better in every way than the wheels/tyres I had on previously. I probably would have been on the verge of being in trouble a few times during the run if I was on the old ones.

I'm still getting used to having to put my foot down more when I would normally let off in my Prelude. But man, this car can handle some serious corners pretty well if I do, like the 270 degree curve onto the motorway at Te Atatu Peninsula. Sticks to the road like no car I've owned before! Unfortunately Scenic Drive isn't the greatest road to have fun on, seeing as the road surface is pretty crap in most corners, the visibility is bad, the corners all seem to tighten much more than expected, and the drive there is lots of boring suburban roads. But it was a pretty decent run regardless.

My flatmate came out in his Integra too. Managed to take a few nice photos, which as always look much better on my phone screen than on the computer.

[Cai]

Took some photos of my car with a nice camera at the RCR car meet. Gonna post them here so I can see all my photos in one thread :D

[Cai]

A day of successes and failures, with failures winning out in the end :(

A couple of weeks ago I finally shelled out for the new rear tie rods from TwosRUs. They arrived on Thursday, along with a couple of sway bar end link spacers that the very generous *84vvt manufactured up for me. I thought I was in for a wonderful Saturday of installations and a new wheel alignment followed by fun driving in this great weather.

balls

So I started by installing the sway bar. Cleaned everything up (they were all dirty, see first of next images), then installed. The spacers for the end links were perfect! After installing the bar backwards (the bend in it meant it was touching the floor pan) and my flatmate pointing out the mistake, I managed to get it all installed and it seems to sit well with the suspension compressed.

Though, unfortunately, the bar touches the resonator which may mean it's gonna be quite noisy until I find a solution. The exhaust system is really quite solidly attached so if I want to move the resonator down out of the way a bit it might be a mission.

and they fit too!

perfect!

hmm, that's not right

ahh, much better

At least the tie rod installation was a total success! They fit really well, are so easy to adjust, and the look great IMO. It was quite easy installing them too, especially given one of my flatmates has a tool to get the ball joint's bolt to come unstuck really easily. No need to hammer the shit out of the castle nut.

they look so good!

much nicer than the old, rusty ones

But, that success was short live. I thought, "hey, why don't I install the polyurethane engine mount inserts into the front engine mount" (the previous owner had done the rear, but left the inserts for the front in the box of parts I got with the car). Sounds like a good idea, right?

WRONG. BAD IDEA. Well, good idea probably, as it meant I found the gaping hole where one of the mount's bolts is supposed to go, but damn did it put me in a grumpy mood! It's [Expletive Deleted]. Super [Expletive Deleted]. That mount is not supposed to be oval, and it supposed to be secured to the body by two bolts, not just one as it is now. And the one bolt that is in there is not gonna last; the metal it's nut is held in by has rusted and cracked, and is about to become another hole.

f*ck

shit

exciting!

I'll have to shell out for someone else to fix this problem, as well as buy a new/used mount. I don't know how to weld, and I don't want to learn to weld on this car. If I didn't pay so much for it, I'd be more inclined to try, but I feel it needs to be done by a professional given the investment I've put into it already. I will probably try to get the same people to fix the rust in the seam under the rear window. My wallet will not be happy, but the sooner I get both of those problems fixed the better.

Looks like I won't be driving this car for at least a couple of weeks. :(

[mickeyduck]

Hi Cai. Good you've spotted it anyway mate (the gone bolt and need for chassis repair). Better that than to have bad go to worse. Cos most things mechanical that go bad have a flow-on effect if not sorted and things just get more and more difficult to sort. And more expensive...

As for "oval" if you mean the elongated hole in this picture it is supposed to be that way so you can lock the bolt up when the engine is sitting where it decides it wants to be. It's the last bolt you tighten when fitting engine mounts on an AW.

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This hole on the other hand certainly does need fixing. Like I said, it's a good thing you found it.

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