Hi Guys ! Newbie to the MR2 world here! Always wanted one but always ended up going for the comfy diesels.. Bit the bullet and sold my comfy passat :)Just collected my 94 GT that i bought from england. Done something ive never done before and bought blind sighted from photographs ! I know not a wise thing to do but it was a quick decision i had to make. Was a MAJOR gamble but the car was for handy money ( which made me ask even more questions) but to be honest it is really not in bad nick at all. Full service history bar one year with receipts for alot of work that has been done to it over the years. Starts perfect first time even from cold , electrics all work perfect spotless interior and no issues with overheating or anything from what i can tell from the last 5 hours lol !
I knew from asking the owner of the car what problems it had that it would need a new strut top mount and handbrake cable, and true to his word thats all it needs. So i received the car today and whoa... not a bit wonder it needs a strut top mount, it has completely perished and the strut has just , well , dropped down through the hole ! I have the mount but just wondering before i start to replace it, anyone ever changed one where this has happened? I know usually when the strut is got out, compress the spring and then undo the bolt at the top and remove the mount, but just wondering now what is going to happen as the top mount is not attached anymore or putting as much pressure on the spring?? Just wondering if anyone has ever had experience of this or any tips?

Hey, welcome to the forum and congrats on the car. Sounds like you did well.

Cant tell ya much about struts myself, but someone on here will be able to, just give it a little while.

No problem at all Swagger cheers !

Yeah i was a bit worried about buying something i havnt had a good chance to look over but it hasnt turned out too bad at all. Was a gamble but it seems to have paid off, so far, touch wood !!! Just need to get it on the road now. There is a border bodykit on it but has not been fitted well at all, so once i get it on the road its going to the bodyshop to get a bit of the old cosmetic surgey done !
Just noticed one more thing wrong with it, are there stability bars under the engine at the corners do you know? just i have seen two of them, one at each side of the bottom of the engine that seem to bolt from the bulkhead to the side?? One has corroded and broken in two, but the other one is perfectly fine. Any idea what these are so i can get one ordered? You guys seem to know your stuff in regards to MR2's so ive a feeling im in good hands :L !!

Yeah there are stability bars under there alright. Typical of UK cars to have some corrosion, due to the salt they use on the roads. Is the chassis ok in general? If so, thats fine and its prob only corroded in certain areas, like struts and stuff, which you can replace no prob.

Best thing to do is get second hand parts from a breaker. We have recently found a specialist MR2 breaker in Wales. His forum name is GT_Breaker. There is also a guy in Co. Down breaking an MR2 called Gav525. Either of these should have the parts you need. Have a good look over the car, compile a list and get in touch with them either on this thread, by PM or start a new thread, PARTS NEEDED for example. You can go into the categories section and create a thread under WTB (want to buy)

Hopefully you will get all you need and at a good price and if you need advice etc, someone here will be able to help. Im more electrical than mechanical myself, but there are many skillsets on here mate. Good luck with the parts hunt, but keep an eye on here, usually someone breaking a 2 somewhere. Maybe also look at your usual Auto Trader, done deal, carzone etc for breaking MR2's. Dont forget Traynors Breakers too, they are in Belfast, Armagh & Tyrone:
traynors.biz/content/view/12/26/

Hi mate, welcome to the site and congrats on your new car

OK I haven't done MR2 struts, but they are McPherson so let me tell you my opinion based on my old Celica and WRX which I did the struts in:

That must make quite a racket if the strut is no longer attached? be cautious going over any big bumps as you might find that the strut could pop up and dent your bonnet from the underside. I would do that strut top swap red light urgent.

You possibly might have to put the spring compressors on before taking the strut out of the car (if it will fit). Normally you have to loosen off the top nut when the strut is under the weight of the car but you won't be able to do that. So you're going to have to use vice grips on the stut or possibly a vice. The problem you might get there is that if you mark the chrome of the strut, it can then create a seal leak in the shock when it runs up and down, so basically grip it as far up the strut as you can (right at the very top if possible). If you just can't get the nut off, try and heat it up. Introducing heat is very good for loosening things up. Absolute worse case scenario you are in for a set of new front struts (always replace in pairs) but I reckon it could be done without.

For the bars underneath the car, it's very common for them to be gone. They're made of very lightweight steel, I picked up a set from GTS Chris (www.gtschris.com) but they would be easily available from any other MR2 breaker or you can buy them new from Toyota. They cost a fair bit from Toyota which is a shame. I think if the parts were more reasonable in cost more people would buy new and genuine parts.

@ Swagger - Yeah i had a good check underneath the car and the rest of the chassis seems to be in pretty good nick underneath ! Yeah im gonna give it good going over and see what it needs, but from what i can tell everything else seems to be fine. Just needs new handbrake cable and pads and brake fluid level is really low ( which im assuming is caused by the pads being so worn down) hopefully anyway, but going to change discs and everything while im at it. Cheers for the advice , appreciate it.

@ Quandry - Yeah i only drove it 3 mile from where the transport lorry was, to my house, was a very slow and careful drive. Yeah it was knocking away with any slight bump in the road. its not being driven now untill its fixed and sorted. Dont want to do any damage .Yeah i think it is going to be a bit of a tight squeeze to get the spring clamps on under there, but i'll give it a shot. If that fails, only other option im thinking is to support the end of the strut on a jack, undo the bolts from the hub, then SLOWLY and Carefully lower the jack to release the rest of the pressure off the spring and lower the whole strut down?? Only thing i can think of to avoid the whole thing shooting down and doing damage, to both it AND me lol. Yeah i had a look at the nut on top of the shock and its pretty corroded looking, dont think its going to be easy removed but cheers for the advice much appreciated ! Going to take me a while to get my way round an MR2 but its all an interesting learning curve !!

Welcome along buddy. Hopefully you get the probs sorted out fairly quickly.

If you get your strut issue sorted in the next few weeks we are heading up the the north coast for a BBQ then back towards Belfast via the coast road. If no done in time for this then will hopefully see you and your 2 at a meet soon.

Cheers Spanky !! Yeah well im hoping to get it sorted fairly quickly as ive no car till i do! Sold my last car so im needing to get it MOT'd fairly sharpish as its going to be my daily driver !! Yeah definately.. would be good to join yas for a drive definitely. I was originally going for a 98 Turbo, was fairly clean and decent enough miles. But then i sort of put on my logical safety head and opted for the one i bought.
Reason being that im used to driving 90-100bhp front wheel drive diesels so i went the stepladder way and bought this rev3 N/A to get me used to the power/handling and Rear wheel drive aspect of them. Then when i get to grips with it i'll change to a turbo. Thought it was a more sensible approach to take to build myself up in power rather than one big jump lol !

Quandry wrote:
Hi mate, welcome to the site and congrats on your new car

OK I haven't done MR2 struts, but they are McPherson so let me tell you my opinion based on my old Celica and WRX which I did the struts in:

That must make quite a racket if the strut is no longer attached? be cautious going over any big bumps as you might find that the strut could pop up and dent your bonnet from the underside. I would do that strut top swap red light urgent.

You possibly might have to put the spring compressors on before taking the strut out of the car (if it will fit). Normally you have to loosen off the top nut when the strut is under the weight of the car but you won't be able to do that. So you're going to have to use vice grips on the stut or possibly a vice. The problem you might get there is that if you mark the chrome of the strut, it can then create a seal leak in the shock when it runs up and down, so basically grip it as far up the strut as you can (right at the very top if possible). If you just can't get the nut off, try and heat it up. Introducing heat is very good for loosening things up. Absolute worse case scenario you are in for a set of new front struts (always replace in pairs) but I reckon it could be done without.
When you jack the car up there will be very little compression in the spring but be carefull when you slacken the bottom bolts on the shock.
welcome to the club

ricky2 wrote:

When you jack the car up there will be very little compression in the spring but be carefull when you slacken the bottom bolts on the shock.
welcome to the club

No problem cheers Ricky ! Yeah i was thinking there wouldnt be as much compression with the top mount not connected but wasn't sure ! I'll use the jack to take the pressure off the bottom of the strut and hub and then gently lower it. Cheers for the advice ricky. Might try and get tackled at this in the morning ! Timewise i could be doing with leaving the car to a garage to get the work done because my spare time is limited with work, but at the same time i like doing work to my cars to learn a bit more about the workings of them and this would be a good start. Get the top mount changed and then i have to figure out the new brakes. Pads are nearly gone, handbrake lifts straight up without locking any of the wheels and brake fluid is at the minimum mark. Hopefully its not leaking anywhere, but will soon find out.

I don't want to put you off here but it sounds like the car has been neglected. Whoever the seller is should be f*#cking ashamed of themselves selling it on in that state. MR2's are good cars though so with some TLC you will hopefully get it back to good condition.

Yeah they dont seem to have taken too much care with it. Like leaving a child with an unfit parent ! Cant understand how someone could let their car go so bad that the top mount actually perishes completely the way it has !! Surely he should have known long ago that it was on its way out ! Well its not too bad all the same. Once i get this strut sorted out handbrake done and stability bars under the engine replaced theres nothin else it really needs. Engine runs like a dream and cant seem to see anyhting else wrong with it. Yeah im trying to bring it back to some of its former glory ! I think the poor wee thing just needs a bitta love care and attention !! Im working on getting the strut off as we speak. I have the brake line out of the bracket and a spring clamp on just incase. Just about to tackle the drop link nut and then the two bottom strut to hub bolts ( tried turning them to see how tight they are... and oh boy.. you would think they were welded on they are that tight ) !! Alot of swear words so far and still no movement. !

Hi guys im eventually getting back on ! Work been busy ! Got the MR's strut sorted. New strut and top mount discs and pads all sorted now ! Had to leave it to mechanics as my efforst of getting that strut off were no use, it just did not want to budge for me. Got car back and damn clutch has just gone now ! My good buy isn't looking so good afterall lol ! I had a feeling it was on its way out as the clutch had to be released about 90% of its movement before it bit and it just got confirmed today as it now wont go into gear . Pedal is vibrating a bit when its pushed in and slight faint squeal from gearbox but goes quiet when pushed in. Release bearing has taken its retirement i doubt. New clutch kit is my first phonecall in morning now ! Ah well, at least when its changed i know it has been changed and will be one less thing to contemplate going wrong in the near future ! Just really stuck for transport now. Im assuming a clutch change wont be as straight forward as a front engined car?? I have a feeling when im going to have to find a different mechanic though as the one i used for the strut gave me the impression that he wouldnt want to take on anything more than generic mechanical work on it as he has never worked on one before. The hunt for an eager mechanical wizz begins lol !!

Sorry to hear that but at least bit by bit you know whats new and sorted. Thats the way it is, you dont know the history or past but you know yourself now whats 100%. Going forward, the car will just be better and better.

Did you try SOAKING the nuts/bolts in WD40 or similar penetrating oil? I recently was trying to take something apart, NO movement. Soaked in WD 40 and left for 15 mins. Its worked right in and boom, came off EASY. That and an impact driver with a socket head will do the job. Anyway, hope you get your clutch sorted and its just all fun from here on in!

Yeah Swagger im gutted because i havent even had a chance to properly drive it yet But im really looking forward to getting it on the road. Yeah i super dosed all the bolts in WD40 for over an hour altogether but still no joy , the strut to hub bolts were as if they had been welded on so i unfortunately had to admit defeat !
Have any of you guys ever had problems getting mechanics to do work on yours?
I dont think i'll even contemplating going to Toyota because i couldnt afford taking out a mortgage to pay them !!

Ya know what? Thinking about how corroded your strut mounts where, it was obviously in the UK a good while and the salt may have worked well in the bolts too, so they probably welded themselves with corrosion and likely had to be drilled out. I have heard of guys cutting the heads off bolts with a plasma torch, to remove the attached fitting and expose the bolt shaft so that they can get better access to drill it out. Then you simply re-tap the hole and use a new bolt. Easy when you have a ramp and all the right tools and a massive vocabulary of 4 letter words!

Re mechanics, MR2's are notoriously tricky to work on. The engine bay is compact enough and a little awkward. You have to lean in over the boot/wings etc. A lot of guys dont like to work on them. For certain jobs you need to drop the block. You have to drop the whole fuel tank which runs right up the centre tunnel just to get to the fuel pump and so on. You need to dig around and you will find someone, but dont go with some monkey because he is cheap, because he could be a chancer and do more harm (MR2 Gal can tell you about that). I wouldnt go to Toyota myself, but I happen to know several good mechanics, so I am lucky. One is letting me steal a whole day of his time and his garage to work on mine next week AND he is letting me get involved in the whole thing. I want to see it all done and get my hands dirty / learn along the way and suss out whats standard and whats aftermarket right in the guts.

Keep the faith!

KC+ for you for the effort your putting in.
Good luck with getting a mechanic, I will put a word out and see if I can locate a good one you. I assume your in Tyrone from the username. Do you work and live there.

Yeah Swagger they were pretty bad.. dont think they may ever have been taken off before Yeah i think i even managed to invent a few more words while trying to get them off and i dont think they would be dictionary worthy lol ! He was supposed to sort out handbrke also but that still the same. Seems as if a cable is broke because there is no tension on the handbrake cable at all, so i'll get that sorted too along with clutch. And then hopefully that will be it for a while. Funds are stretched as it is since if got it but i would rather put the money into it and get it back to some of its former glory at least !
Must add a few pics up to show yas ! How do i go about adding them on here?

Yeah Slipsliderg i live between Castlederg and Omagh in Tyrone. Yeah i work in Strabane too so all tyrone lol !! Where you from yourself? And cheers for the KC+ by the way !! Hopefully all my efforts wont be in vain !!

I am in Meath, but will have a word with some Toyota mates to see if they can recommend anybody.