Today I did something to my car (volume 2)

dgt wrote: »

Badger lovers avoid this post!

A badger ran out infront of my 406 one night.... There was an unholy bang and a huge thud as I ran over it.... Stone dead! Got out, not a mark on the bumper or car :cool:

front of that must be strong, badgers are know to **** up many a car and live to tell the tail.

Today I had a go at my car because my brakes started to squeak !

So onto a ramp I whipped off all the wheels , front brake pads and discs could do with a change over the next few weeks, rear pads about 40% and discs perfect. Used a brake cleaner all round to help for the moment but probably wont do a lot to help it tbh.

All 4 wheels were stripped down from all weights cos there were fecking loads of them ! So I balanced all 4 wheels myself and rotated them to put more thread at front. Torqued all nuts correctly too !

But I want to burn through these tyres quickly so I can replace them all with the same tyre rather than 4 odds.

Yes I did all this myself with no help

Busy today, finally getting through my list of bits - today is mechanical stuff, got to the gearbox oil (and changed engine oil while I was at it). The history is a bit patchy on the MR2 - I doubt the gearbox oil has ever been done and many are on the fence whether it needs to be done at all, but it cost €80 for some top shelf US gearbox oil (this stuff comes highly recommended for the MR2)

Overall, not sure if its the placebo effect but I found the changes are smoother especially between second and third, it was always a nice and tight gearbox but no harm done in changing it, it wont be done again while I own it anyway

...a few uninteresting pics, my hands were destroyed so I took very few pics. Thats all my mechanical list of serviceable bits sorted now.

Todays bag of Tricks:

Redline MT90





Castrol 10w40 & Genuine Toyota Filter




Next changed the gearbox Oil:

Bolts came off surprisgly easy -



Warmed up the oil and it came out nice and easy



I ordered 2 washers for the gearbox plugs, could have gotten away without them I reckon - they are only 1.10 each anyway:



old one was a bit battered but usable



one of these yokes is fierce handy to get the new stuff in the gearbox.





....while the car was jacked up I decided to change the oil, the oil that came out was good for another couple
of thousand (6000mls since last change but for the price of an oil change you'd be mad not too, 3rd Oil chnage since getting her.

..next change 120,000 mls (or 1 year) whichevers first




......the aftermath:

You in Dunboyne rizzee? Where'd ya order the plates?

eringobragh- nice MR2. No harm in the gearbox oil. I had a change done in my z recently I doubt it was ever done either.

challengemaster wrote: »

Some bastard of a bird flew out of a hedge earlier, destroyed my n/s headlight. Externally all is ok, internally cosmetically the chrome bit has fallen off, but worse mechanically a part of the levelling system (as far as I can tell) snapped... can't take them apart without baking either...

Bollix.

So... this had to get fixed ASAP. Obviously driving with one arseholed light is a no-no, and I've the NCT at the end of the week too...

So... first a look at the cosmetic damage visible...





Unfortunately that wasn't the only problem, you can see the droop in the photo if you look close.... also as they're a sealed unit....

Off to MicksGarage, and after relieving yourself of €230 you get this:







Fantastic... everything looks perfect so far!

So out with the old one



transfer all the bulbs... grand... here's where the fun started. The new depo light came with a new mounting bracket, so I obviously swapped that over first. Tried fitting the light.... nope

Out again, refit the old bracket, try again... nope.. rinse/repeat for about 1 hour trying to figure out what was out of place/catching. Finally after some minor modification to the part for clearance and using the old bracket, it's in! Might not be 100% perfect in terms of every nut and bolt as intended, but it's in the perfect position and 100% secured





Aaaaand... breathe

Now, onto another little niggle. For some reason my N/S rear anti-rattle clip tends to go walk-a-bye every now and again. Was replaced recently when I noticed it gone, that one disappeared too after a few weeks. Wasn't me that put it on either before someone suggests it wasn't on right! Dgt was kind enough to find one for me from his local breakers yard. Quick 5 minute job, jack up the car, wheel off, rattle clip on, wheel on and sorted



Not bad over all Old headlight strip down will be done for the craic when I get a chance.

Got one of these:



And the Dashcommand app for the iphone:



Then reset any error codes from the blocked cat I replaced and had a play with all the features. It basically displays anything it can pick up from the ECU in any OBD II compliant car (revs/speed/mpg/maf/map/g-forces/0-60/AFR's etc.). I was amazed by it to be honest.

One negative is that it confirmed that the car is getting 20mpg on average, mostly won't be looking at that function then.

toastedpickles wrote: »

Care to elaborate a bit on the first picture? I'm half asleep so I'm guessing it's a wifi thingymabob?

I could use one of those

It's an OBD2 connector with wifi transmission. Usually the ELM327 devices are bluetooth, and rather cheap because of that. Unfortunately apple handicapped the iPhone with restricted bluetooth that doesn't work with these bluetooth OBD2 devices, so it's a wifi capable one to be able to work with the iPhone.

Basically you connect it to your cars OBD2 port (if it has one), power on, it creates its own wifi hotspot which you connect the phone to. It then streams all available OBD data via that wifi connection.

Bluetooth version is fine for android!

Quick question folks, I've currently 205/45/17s on the car at the moment and theres a bigger gap between the wheel and the arch than there was when I had 15s on it! My question is, instead of getting the car on lowering springs would it be possible to change to a different tyre height/width to make it look lower than it is now?