KarlBs 10th Anniversary Edition Toyota MR2! RUST BE GONE!

[Karlb1]

So the Mango Sax has gone now and i've wept enough, it's time to move on!

I've always loved MR2s (MK1 and MK2, not the spyders!) so the search began for a decent one.

I saw a few white oens and red ones, but this one caught my eye when i was on the MR2 owners club site, and i fell in love. It's a 2.0 (N/A before anyone asks if it's turbo) 10th Anniversary edition in Caribbean Blue, completely standard with full service history. Number 196 of 250


Picked it up for a decent price for what i thought i was getting, but i was slightly wrong, and after this experience i won't be buying a car that's been decared SORN for 5 months.

Basically the guy said it was perfect condition apart from 1 scratch which he had pictured for me. However when i got there i found a slight bit of rust on the rear sills on both sides, got a quote before i went to pick it up and thought it was still worth it, so i paid my cash and drove it home with no problems at all, pulled very very well and no overheating or worrying noises, Winning!

Got it home and the first thing i did was give it a decent clean, not too bad for a 16 year old car tbh-

[Baz]

so whats wrong with it?

[Karlb1]

After having the car a week i noticed it started to look like it was overheating slightly on the temp guage, then i heard the coolant running thropugh the system and the temp guage went back to normal. Instant reaction was get the coolant flushed and bled properly.

After driving around for another couple of days the problem persisted, btu this time it didnt go back down.
Went back to the garage and my worst fears were confirmed. Headgasket.

Pissed off to say the least. Also needs a new caliper as one has siezed on and rear discs and pads, and calipers aren't cheap.

[GazWatson]

That's rubbish to hear mate, ye going to just get it fixed or what

[Karlb1]

Yeah its going into the garage on tuesday to get the head stripped down and sent off to be skimmed etc. Should hopefully have it back by the end of the week but its setting me back near to £800last thing you expect when you buy a car is to spend half the value on repairing it.

[Karlb1]

On the plus side, it does have all the extras (apart from air con as only imports had that) leather seats, electric window and mirrors, t-bar roof which is brilliant and it also has the 'active' sound system. So it has 2 small subs behind each seat as standard, tweeters and 4 other speakers which in such a small cabin is fucking brilliant for a standard system!

[Karlb1]

So tomorrow morning the car's being dropped off at the garage to get the head done. Hoping to have it back by the end of the week as I need the car to go to and from work and see the girlfriend, walking 50 minutes each way isn't fun!

[Cam]

£800 for a headgasket they are taking you for a ride dude... Get prices eleswhere.
For the caliper you can get re-build kits for about £30 which replaces all the seals etc.. Its a common problem and easy to do , clean them up and 9/10 jobs a gooden!

[Karlb1]

I've had 6 different quotes, 800 being the cheapest..main dealer want near on 1k, 4 garages want over 900 and my friends dad does head skimming himself and says that 800 is a fair price if it's including the head being skimmed, crack tested and basically rebuilt.

Yeah i've seen the refurb kits, but i've found a couple of reciepts in the history, this one caliper's been stuck twice before..it's beyond a refurb i think as there's one invoice for freeing it after a service and it totals £160 just for the refurb and has a side note saying 'likely to be stuck in future'.

Tbf, it's not ideal having to fork out money already, but if it's gonna sort it then fuck it, it'll be sorted for a while.

[Gandi699]

Refurb it yourself and save some skrilla!

[Karlb1]

Originally Posted by Gandi699

Refurb it yourself and save some skrilla!

Like i said dude, this one's been stuck twice before and refurbed both time, might aswell replace the fucker.

[Gandi699]

I was on about the head too

[Karlb1]

Ah i see..well i'd love to..but i have no idea where to start lol.

[Cam]

Imoc have got guide's i'am sure, even a guy on youtube does step by step guides.. Just seems real pricey dude try working on the Turbo loads of space...

[johnlambert]

Nice MR2 mate,
Sucks about the headgasket though.

Why not do it yourself though?

[Karlb1]

Originally Posted by johnlambert

Nice MR2 mate,
Sucks about the headgasket though.

Why not do it yourself though?

Well i'm not exactly the most mechanical minded person in the world, plus i needed a few other bits doing.


However, got the car back yesterday afternoon, covered in dust as it had been sat in the workshop for a week

Head gasket, spark plugs, all the filters, oil and coolant and HT leads been changed, new bigger discs on the back from the turbo, new pads and bigger calipers.

AND with all the sun we've got atm, it's lovely driving around with the T-bar roof off

I'll put up some cleaning pics later, when the sun's moved and i get some shade i'll be washing, claying, polishing etc, definitely needs it after being in a workshop for over a week with dust and sand everywhere!

[saxo-dude-16v]

looks a nice car mate, and i know how your feeling, i went and got a car and after a few weeks of having it been haveing problems.
ill keep an eye on this thread.

[Karlb1]

Cheers buddy. Yeah it's a ballache, if i'd known this was gonna happen i could have got a much better example, considering when i bought it i thought it only needed a little rust work doing, couple of hundred quid and its sorted. But no lol.

Ah well, live and learn is all i can say, i've learnt my lesson now and next time it won't be happening. Simple as that, everybody has a bit of bad luck at some point..jsut turns out mine was an expensive bit if bad luck :L

[saxo-dude-16v]

Originally Posted by Karlb1

Cheers buddy. Yeah it's a ballache, if i'd known this was gonna happen i could have got a much better example, considering when i bought it i thought it only needed a little rust work doing, couple of hundred quid and its sorted. But no lol.

Ah well, live and learn is all i can say, i've learnt my lesson now and next time it won't be happening. Simple as that, everybody has a bit of bad luck at some point..jsut turns out mine was an expensive bit if bad luck :L

lol same as me, got my and thought it only needed a little rust doing, turned out after seeing a bit of water in the car took the windscreen trims off and it was rusted big big time so now im paying much much more for a car then i should have done.

[saxo-dude-16v]

any major plans for it?