1991 MR2 Track/Road Car

So like I said, did the front brakes. It was a pretty ghetto job, we did it in the school parking garage, we used a tripod and some random boxes to hold up the calipers, and people were staring at us as I hammered the hell away at the rotors to pop them off. Whatever I'm a student, and you gotta make due with what you have. I felt like a boss too cool shades on

The only mounting bolt for the right rear caliper snapped off, so car is sitting there until I can get a new caliper and bracket - my friend might have on from his parts car.

Big thanks to my friends for helping me out

Pretty upset, but hey got the front brakes on and an oil change done. Getting a few steps closer to start Auto-X!

Friend helping me out

Old ones. Got this off with a sledgehammer lol

New & Old

New one on. So prettttyyyyy

Hope to get this done tomorrow. Want to go to summit point next weekend

Engine mods consist only of a CAI.

Cold start http://s1098.photobucket.com/user/skazmi93/media/DSCN7503_zpsf17e8514.mp4.html

Warmed up http://s1098.photobucket.com/user/skazmi93/media/DSCN7504_zps3d88afb0.mp4.html

Picked up an X-brace for the engine compartment and a glovebox for $20. Got an NA shift cable and 6 rotors for free; 4 front, 2 rear. Surface rust on 4 of them, but two front rotors are immaculate pretty much brand new.

I'm going to take caliper and bracket off to take to my MR2 friend. I hope the caliper is good and that the bolt can come out so that I don't have to drop cash on a new caliper.

git er done!

I have those wheel studs sitting on my workbench with my rallycross stuff, btw.

In reply to irish44j:

Trying my best! I swear this has to happen at the most inconvenient of times

YES I GOT THAT BOLT OFF!!!! Looks like the caliper and its bracket are on piece so disconnected the brake line to it and took it back to my place. Friend helped me out and whipped out his handy dandy vice grip, maxed torque the hell out of that thing and twisted the darn bolt out! Just as I thought we finished...

Have to twirl the caliper piston in, FUDGE! This thing won't freaking move with pliers. Went to Advance Autos snagged that joint and twisted, but MAN IT WAS SO TIGHT. It hurt a lot and I may have shed a few tears...

So tomorrow...going to run to home depot to get caliper bolt, reassemble all that ish, do the left side -friend was in the midst of doing them but ran out of time, bolts come off easy- bleed them brakes- back on the road!

Brake piston from hell

It took 4 hours to swap out rotors, and pads today. It was hella cold, each rotor took 1 hour to get off because they were stubborn, brake piston blowed, and I was just having a bad day. Just as I was putting on the caliper for the last rotor, the bolts won't go in. huh? I look again and the ends of the bolts are dull -___- shucks and I might have to buy a new caliper.

It can all be done tomorrow, but man I'm tired. Feel like such a newb for taking this long on brakes.

So good news! Bracket is not stripped, just one of my caliper mounting bolts! I was flipping out thinking I would have to buy a new caliper to get a bracket but nope.

Pic, stripped at end of bolt:

And I I have to get this caliper-bracket mounting bolt for the other side:

bad news: Don't know if Home Depot will have these bolts and I still have to bleed the brakes. Also not sure if I put in the pads right lol

Home Depot won't have anything better than a grade 5 bolt, most likely. Go to Fastenal, or possibly ACE hardware.

+1, Home Depot sucks, find an ACE or a True Value.

In reply to beans:

Yeah Home Depot, NAPA, Advance Autos, and even Toyota did not have the bolt in stock. There is a Fastenal in my area so I will hit them up

I just ordered form ToyotaPartsOverstock so I don't have to run around trying to find the bolt. Don't have time for that anymore. This is the part I believe 91619B1225.

Question, I didn't put any sort of lube on the pads but I did spray the rotor with brake parts cleaner. Am I going to have a problem? When I move the car from one spot to another I can hear the front pads making contact with the rotor but I am not applying the brakes. Is that because I have not broken them in yet?

After you give them a firm press they should work okay if you didnt have any sticking issues.

So I got my bolt. After I finished work at 9PM I was too excited to change and went to finish the work on this ish. But, when I get there it won't go in.

What??? I get so pissed because the bracket threads are messing up the bolt threads. On the verge of punching something, I decided to apply a hella lotta pressure on the bolts and finally I got them thangs in! Caliper is nice and snug against the rotor and the knuckle so it AIN'T GOING NOWHERE. BOO YAA.

I'm going to make sure everything is secure on both rear brakes. One of the rear bleeder valves opened with ease so hopefully the other will as well leaving my last job of bleeding brakes a breeze.

FIXED! A little screeching but they are semi-metallics and have to break in.

I am not touching my car anymore lol

That's no way to think... That's the best learning experience you'll ever have!!! I enjoy learning how to work on new things. Saw another '91 Turbo at the $2013 Challenge, I drove mine 1,000 miles to Florida from West Virginia. Thought you'd like seeing another MR2.

First picture doesn't work, but yes I do appreciate the photos :)

But seeing all the turbos makes me sad lol

So got tired of the squeaking so took off front caliper again and what do you know, a metail clip has dug into the rear side of my rotor! Took that ish off and tossed it away, now there is no noise and damage is minimal! :D

All was good, until...

Now there is this windy sound coming from my rear right wheel. We checked the caliper and pads, they are on hella tight and seem fine. However, when trying to torque the wheel down with my lugs, we noticed that the actual lug beds are fudged up and I have to torque deeper than usual.

SHUCKS!

So going up to baltimore tomorrow to buy an OEM set of turbo rims with good tires for 200 smackers which IMO isn't bad. Doesn't hurt to have two sets of wheels either.

UGHHHHHHHHHH

Got a new set of OEM rims with used Nankang Toursport tires, decent tread. $200 which is ok, since the treadwear is high. Better than the bald tires I am rolling on

I'll upload pics later

I put my glovebox in today though, looks awesome!

So I felt courageous, and went for a quick backroad run afterwards. Took a right hand sweeper pretty fast on these salty roads and back end drifted out. Was pretty scared so jumped on the brakes at first then gassed the hell out of it so I could recover from it

MAN this thing is scary, I'm just going to wait until Auto-X to go all out. I know the MR2 is notorious for being tail happy, but man that was so unexpected

There's this very annoying brake noise now at all speeds, it's coming from the back right caliper. Really loud when I turn left, but goes away when I turn right. Also goes away when I hit the brakes, squealing because really loud before I apply more and the noise goes away.

I checked all rotors, and the passenger side rear rotor has black spots on it, as if it has been burned?

Edit: It's stuck caliper. BLEH

Update, I checked them once I got back to school. The outer pad's material was already half from what it originally was, but the inner pad was not even in contact!

I re-did all that "E36 M3" now there is no sound, but seems that it is constantly braking now - that wheel is still hot.

Did I FUBAR the assembly? I had trouble with the inner pad staying on the shims, so I'd bring the piston out of its bore so the pad could rest on the piston whilst staying on the shims

Fixed it. My caliper guide pin was dry as a bone, lubed that up real good so now the pad doesn't stick.

YAY :D

Sal_the_man wrote: I put my glovebox in today though, looks awesome! So I felt courageous, and went for a quick backroad run afterwards. Took a right hand sweeper pretty fast on these salty roads and back end drifted out. Was pretty scared so jumped on the brakes at first then gassed the hell out of it so I could recover from it MAN this thing is scary, I'm just going to wait until Auto-X to go all out. I know the MR2 is notorious for being tail happy, but man that was so unexpected

My friend joe (a really smooth, driver and clean racer for 30+ years) took mine out for a couple of warm up laps. He said when leaving the pits that he was just going to put around (track to himself), he spun twice in two laps. Once you get to know them, they are super predictable, but until you speak their language, be carefull

In reply to carbon:

Ditto, I'll take your word for it. Auto-X season needs to come sooner