1986 Toyota MR2 - We’ve got a damn great hump...

All Toyota need is the chassis number or key number, I've had keys from them before for a mk1 and I honestly thought they'd cut the wrong pattern etc my old one was that worn but, it worked first time, in fact the old one was so worn I sometimes had to wiggle it in the lock and barrel to get it to work.

This was about 7 years ago but two keys cost £18 this was with a club discount (10%) at Toyota in Kiddlington.

Toyota isn't allways expensive, same goes for filters etc, you'll pay the same or more at halfords,

Hi Andrew,

Glad you've enjoyed it, welcome along!
I don't really know where it's going next, I've often wondered about that. It's going to be a cross between getting it to drive better, getting rid of the rattles, and tidying it up. Just at the moment I seem to have started tinkering with it. But it's strangely satisfying sorting out a few silly niggles. Not to worry, a plan is forming slowly in my mind...

James

Sobered up now.
Tell you one thing though, it's quite hard work writing as if you are rat arsed.

Two more locks. The boot and ignition. No, don't worry, this won't be like the last post.
The boot lock cover is crimped on all the way round rather than in just two places. It wouldn't be too hard to get into but I just cleaned it out with WD40 and relubed it. It's much better now.




You see the little pipe thing coming off the the left of that picture? When it's on the car that points down and hooks onto a pipe that goes through the boot floor. So any water that gets through the boot lock drains out of the car. Now that's attention to detail.
The boot lock can be turned 90 degrees the other way which disconnects the handle in the car. Nobody ever did this so that part of the barrel is not worn by the feel of it. It's by far the worst one to open with my knackered key. If I do file a new key I'll file it on that lock. But I'm going to try Toyota first.

On the subject of key numbers there were a couple of ideas that it could be on the various locks. There are numbers on part of the door locks and it's the same number on each side so that's possible. Or it could be a part number… There is also something stamped on the ignition barrel but it's too faint to read,

I swilled out the ignition lock in the same way.




I couldn't work out how to get into it.
The plug comes out of the front which means this brass doofer has to come off of the back.




But that means there must be a way of pushing the plug further back in the barrel to clear the brass doofer from the edge of the barrel. Well I can't work out how. And since the lock responded well to being flushed out I'm not going to worry about it.

Lastly for today, when the car was MOTd the left handbrake was a bit pathetic. Actually I spotted it an hour before the test but couldn't fix it (or even bodge it into working). I assumed I needed a caliper rebuild to free the handbrake but I thought I'd better check it out a little and find out for sure.

Well, when I took the clevis pin out of the end of the cable the arm on the caliper dropped back to it's normal position. And is nicely free.




And when you take the pads out and press the brake pedal the adjuster works too. And you can screw the piston back in. So the caliper looks fine then.

But the cable isn't letting out. I don't think it's stuck, I think it's over adjusted. I need to get under the car to confirm that.
So my current theory is that the over tight cable is stopping the adjuster from working. Maybe? To be honest both rear cables need replacing because the boots are split and they've got crud in them. But I don't think that's what's stopping it from releasing.

To be honest this is the first time I've had a car with this 'handbrake through the back of the caliper' system so I don't really know it very well yet.

To be continued…

James

My dear chap, please feel free to be bold! I'm not familiar with these brakes and I'm more than happy to listen to advice.
The reason I thought it was over adjusted is that when you pull the free end of the cable it's loose and then comes to a sudden stop. If it was full of crud I'd expect to feel it tighten first. But until I get the under tray off I won't know for sure.
The boots are split anyway so I need new cables.
I'm seeing some evidence that 1A cables are different from 1B? I guess they are a different length?

James

Read the thread whole way through but will chime in now I think I can help you with something. Having dealt with an old toyota (Glanza)I agree with Overdrive, the rear calipers were awful even after new cables,pads disks rebuild the lot. I imagine the MR2s suffered with a similar issue. With the cables, sounds to me like they have seized again from experience. Replaced on the Glanza, but with the rarer Charade I hung them up and dropped diesel down them and left to soak. Fully working handbrake still 6months later.

Bumhats! Hoist by one's own petard.

That's Shakespeare by the way. The "hoist by ones own petard" bit is Shakespeare. I'm not sure he ever said 'bumhats'. Unless it was when Romeo found Juliet apparently dead and said -
"A grave? Oh, no. A lantern, slaughtered youth, for here lies Juliet. Bumhats!"

Anyway, yes, you are quite right. I hadn't even considered fixing them. I don't know what I can say...
I suppose one of the fortunate things about making the rules is that I can ignore them without having to explain myself!

ollieh17 , darrenh , stop encouraging me! I'm quite bad enough as it is.

Anyway, on the subject of repairing it... Apart from not being able to get the boots, you couldn't get them over the clevis on the end of the cable. To make matters worse, the end of the outer cable runs through an aluminium end piece that clamps onto the caliper. Well it's broken in two on mine. I guess you could turn up a new one but then you couldn't get it over the clevis...

But you might just get your way for a short while because I wouldn't mind getting it all working just so I can prove the auto adjusters are ok.

ollieh17 , I hadn't come across a Glanza and had to look it up on t'interweb. I was a bit nervous about doing so as there is another, similar sounding word that means something quite different. The photos would have been quite embarrassing.
Now I wish I hadn't used the phrase 'I hadn't come across...'

Anyway, it's a rapid Starlet so that's ok! And quite interesting. I do love that Japanese manufacturers stuck silly motors is ordinary little cars.

James

You can make one that will fit any cable for less than 10p in plastic bag and insulation tape

They can be bought new, but remember, they are a weak point and just like mine will soon end up split and jammed again.

I will be sat here with popcorn awaiting some inspiration before I buy another set...

A short break from Project Portia tonight .
I found a couple of photos in the loft today. They are a few of our families' old cars and thought you'd like to take a look.

When I was a little kid dad always had Fords. I just remember his MK1 Escort. I remember him tapping a rust spot on the inner wing by the suspension top and the screwdriver went straight through. I think that might have been the end of that car. It was replaced by a MK2 Escort 1.1 Pop. It was a bit basic. And, to be honest, rubbish. It was always really low at the back because of the massive box of tools he had in the boot to try and get it home.

So, by rights, I should be a Ford man. But then we moved house, mum started work and the cheapest reasonable car we could buy was a little red Toyota. I was disgusted.




There it is on the right. A KE30 Corolla. The thing is, for the time, it was brilliant. Well equipped, quiet, unbelievably reliable. It actually started in the mornings, every morning, winter or summer. The Escort never did that. It's only problem, like many 70s cars, was that it dissolved in the rain.

You can see from the photo that the old Corolla worked for a living. It looked a bit scruffy for much of its life. Dad would potter around looking in the fields - "By 'ek lad, it's lambing season again". But mum drove hard and fast. I remember that old Corolla topping 80MPH on the road between Northallerton and Darlington.

I learned to drive in that car, passed my test in it, and eventually, It became my first car. I can assure you it was hard work to top 80 on a motorway let alone a country road. (Much respect to my mum!) I've always had at least one Toyota or Lexus ever since. I had the car for 18 months and added 20,000 miles to it's already serious milage. By then too much of it had dissolved and fallen off to keep it going. I really really wish I still had it though.

After the Escort Pop dad bought a neighbours Dolomite. It was a lovely car and dad was very fond of it. Unfortunately a bus driver, distracted by his load of kids, wiped it out. The green Corolla in the photo was the the replacement. That trundled around the North Yorkshire lanes for 4 or 5 years giving faultless service. (Actually the red one only came home on a trailer once in it's life. The exhaust broke off at the manifold and it sounded like a WW1 biplane. Absolutely deafening.)

When the KE30 finally went to car heaven I bought this.




A 1.3 Corolla Liftback. It had a 2A 8 valve engine - the baby brother of the one in my MR2. It was quite a nice car. Nothing special but I ragged it up and down the A1 between London and Northallerton for years without a hiccup. Dad had it after me until eventually with 130,000 hard miles on the clock the head gasket failed. Water got in the bores and glazed them. Another Corolla went to heaven.

Behind it, in the garage, dad had quick flirtation with a Metro. It didn't last long. Even after both sills were replaced you couldn't jack a wheel off the road and open the doors. The car twisted so much the doors jammed. Thank God we never had an accident in that car.




The green car got replaced by a leased Escort. Dad went back to Ford. It was the last time he did that! The Escort was bloody horrid. Like driving a heavy rubber numb thing. If a bird crapped on it you had to clean it as soon as possible or it'd take the paint off. Well I say paint. I never realised you could get blue oranges. And if you opened the hatch in the rain it tipped water into the rear speakers. God forbid that you should dare to unleash the full 75 horsepower 'cos it'd do its best to torque steer you off the road.
I know Toyota have had a lot of slagging over the years but, compared against that Escort, they didn't deserve it. Dad refused to ever have another Ford after that.

The bus in the background is where dad worked. It was an old Bristol Lodekka. The first double deck bus with flat floors and standard seating to get under 13ft 6. (If I remember that rightly. Which I probably don't.) Fascinating price of engineering though. It had the seats removed and desks and cupboards installed. It was used as a training centre for mentally handicapped adults in rural Yorkshire. It was painted in the colours of one of the long dead local bus companies from years before. I never got to drive it. Shame 'cos I suspect it'd have been very entertaining.

The green Corolla went to my Aunt and Uncle. They had it for years before replacing it with another Corolla and eventually a Yaris. That was an odd car as it had a manual gearbox but no clutch pedal. It had a normal dry plate clutch under automatic control. When you wanted to change gear you just backed off the throttle and moved the gear stick. The car did the rest. Really odd to drive. My uncle died some years ago but Aunty Joan is still around and still drives a Yaris.

Lastly, in the background of this picture…




…is the car that mum got as a replacement for the red KE30. When Toyota launched the front wheel drive Corolla I think they wanted to use multivalve engines but didn't have it ready. After about 18 months they swapped the 2A engines for the 12 valve 2E engines. That's what was in this car. A few months later they did a face lift and most people thought that's when the 2E motor went in. Ours was a proper crossover model. The body of the early car with the mechanics of the later one.
When mum retired I had that car. It was a hoot to drive. I kept it for years and then gave it to my sister.

The thing in the foreground is a Lister D type stationary engine. One horse power (or maybe one and a half) and a hernia if you tried to move it.

Lastly… Er…




I'm told this is me… I still have the table I'm apparently sitting on. But God, what a hair style!?