Morning all!
So I've been really busy with all sorts, started my MSc in UCL in Cell and Gene Therapy in October 2019 and I've been largely occupied with that, and since the pandemic stuff kicked off, I had a lot of time away from UCL; so did some work on my MR2. I also sat two online exams, and currently in the process of getting my thesis on neuroblastoma written up, just got past the halfway point with that.
Anyway, here is a text diary of everything I have done or had done to the MR2 most recently:
February 2020 Steering wheel:
As my previous steering wheel was quite rough looking I sought a replacement...which arrived with the airbag activated, despite it being disabled
fortunately, I was able to take the previous airbag out and transplant that in.
1). Remove plastic trim around steering wheel
2). Remove plastic trim on airbag side of steering wheel
3). Use a 'duck foot' hub puller to wind out the steering wheel mounting bolts.
April 2020 Timing belt/auxiliary belt:
Replaced timing belt, auxiliary belt, and idlers as it was coming to around the time, at 176,000 miles and I had no record of it being done previously. I couldn't get at the water-pump at all in-situ, I did try, but since it is free of leaks, I thought best to leave it. I don't know how good the pattern part is, but I'll keep it and will probably drop the engine next time and do the water pump with the timing belt again, at around 240,000 miles or in the next 4 years. This wasn't an easy job! It involved the following:
1). Remove engine inspection cover
2). Remove strut bar (4x 14mm bolts)
3). Remove rear driver side wheel
4). Remove all the bottom engine covers
5). 19mm socket and breaker bar braced between the rear axle and chassis and a quick 'blip' of the starter to free the crank pulley nut (EFI fuse removed).
6). Using a 'duck foot' hub puller to wind out the crank pulley - bent 4-5 bolts doing this, as I had to keep double checking everything. I chipped the original crank pulley when I got ham-fisted with impatience, so I had to buy a replacement crank pulley halfway through the job and eventually got the hub puller working.
7). Jack the engine up and down until all three engine mount bracket bolts could be undone
8). Twist the engine mount bracket in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways to get it out of the engine bay, by far the longest job.
9). Remove two nuts from underneath the driver side engine mount
10). Remove long bolt from driver side engine mount
11). Remove top and bottom timing belt covers.
12). Realised there were no timing marks on rear timing belt engine plate!!
13). Remove all the spark plugs
14). Marked the original belt and the new belt in-situ, old belt was in very good condition
15). Remove two 14?mm bolts for belt-tensioner
16). Realised everything had moved, even though the car was in first gear, so I had to put the crank pulley and pulley nut back on, to line up the crank marker with the top-dead-centre marker on the bottom engine oil-pump casing - rinse/repeat 15 times
17). Set the cams to TDC by putting a long screw driver in the first spark plug hole (nearest to the timing gear) rinse/repeat 10 times.
18). The MR2 was definitely not timed correctly - it wasn't running right, so I decided to buy a timing gun at small expense.
19). At this point the static reading was either 10 degrees after top dead centre then when I reset the two top cams it was 16 degrees before top dead centre!! WTF!
20). Only explanation was valve-crawl, the crank was still reading top dead centre, based on the oil-pump housing marker used previously and it seemed to occur every time the tensioner was bolted in.
21). New plan - I partially put the engine back together - I made sure the crank was still at top dead centre, put the bottom timing belt cover on, put the crank pulley, pulley bolt and new auxiliary belt in.
22). Leaving the top timing belt cover off, I found that the alternator belt and 1st gear kept good enough tension on the bottom crank pulley for it not to move at all.
23). I was able to remove the tensioner and reset the belt on the cams many times without disturbing the crank timing - as confirmed by the bottom crank marker and a long screwdriver in spark plug hole #1.
24). Driving tests still confirmed things were off - I got down to a static timing of 0 degrees, which was a little wrong still, but I swear all the matchmarks lined up! They were tipexed, and I could clearly see everything was straight with a inspection mirror!!
25). The 'eureka' moment
every time I was setting the cam timing it was slightly advanced - the reason being, the engine sits at a slight angle down towards the left when looking at it from the timing belt side. After phoning a friend of mine, between us, we figured out that I needed to move the cams one tooth anti-clockwise, so the top cam matchmarks (an S shape and a dot) were vertically pointing towards the top of the engine, at around 11 'o' clock not 12 'o' clock. I got the static timing bang on at 10 degrees before top dead centre (short jumper TE1 and E1 on the diagnostic port, use positive terminal in fuse box and clip the negative to a strut bolt).
26). I was finally able to put the engine mount and bracket on, mark with tipex new rear timing belt casing marks, wriggle the top timing belt cover in and do everything up, the car no longer felt bogged down to 3-4k when it the timing was retarded, or pinked when I drove it with the timing too advanced, and I had the proper power curve back.
The job took me probably a week and a bit to do, because of all the errors I made! But, I saved a bit of money doing it myself and now I know how to do it properly. Hopefully this means at the next interval I'll be done within 4 hours next time. Though adding in the water pump, I might be looking at more, because I will be dropping the engine next time, because it's much easier for a water-pump and timing belt change.
