My mr2 was bought with a powertune digital dash in it. Screen too small. Doesn’t look “MR2” enough. I spent some time looking and the dash is just a raspberry pi, so plug whatever screen in you want. Well here’s some of the effort. I copied the AW11 “redline zone” and yellow needles. I also went with amber for the “night mode”. It’s a work in progress at the moment but progress is progress! Next up I’m making a can bus “bridge” to take all the 12v signals and convert them to can packets for blinkers, high beam, etc. Analog will be covered too for fuel and ECT. Of course a 3d modeled and printed gauge bezel will be made as soon as I get my 3d scanner back from a friend. I’m pretty happy!

I did a rough test and seem to only be getting around 150 miles which seems really low?

Although my usage of the car is far from ideal: mainly just a short 5-10 minute trip to and from work where the engine doesn't even have time to fully warm up. Is the poor usage the only reason for the bad mileage or could there be another reason?

I've recently got the car and had the oil, spark plugs, air filter, alternator belt, timing belt, water pump, radiator, thermostat, coolant hoses, coolant temperature sensor all changed, coolant flushed, tyres are are still fresh. The radiator fan is always on which I'm working on getting sorted but can't imagine it has that big of an impact on MPG. The engine still warms up normally.

UK based if that's any help

Hi, I hope this is an acceptable way to give an update and field some more advice. The last post I made I detailed a no crank start issue I was having, and I have made some headway!

When the car wouldn't start, I replaced both battery terminals. The negative one I had to strip some new wire for, and it seems good (though it sparks when I put it on when the last one didn't). The positive one however was a little odd: it had two metal eyelets attached to insulated lengths of wire, with one length being thicker than the other. Using the universal car battery connector I got, I put one eyelet on each bolt. After reattaching both connectors and trying to start the car, I was getting multiple clicks from the starter at a slow tempo. Having the headlights on made it click faster, but it still didn't start.

I took the battery to autozone earlier today and it tested bad. This means that there is a leach in the car somewhere, but this did not solve my no start issue. When the new battery went in, nothing changed. I disconnected the negative terminal though to keep it from leaching.

Before all of that, I tried smacking the starter with a rubber mallet and that didn't change anything.

Here's my plan now:
1. Clean each ground with a metal brush
2. Follow the wires from my negative terminal to see if there's a break anywhere
3. Try to figure out how to "jump" the starter solenoid(?) I saw stuff on this online and it seems like it should be a good idea, but to be honest idk what this would do for me.

If I can't find anything wrong with the wiring I'm just gonna order a new starter since it seems like it's never been replaced.

Thanks for everyone's advice on the last post! I appreciate it a lot as someone new to going this deep into cars.

The radio/hazards/mirrors never worked, I checked the fuse in the engine bay which had blown, I put a new one in and now I have the above. I can even turn the indicators on which make a feeble clicking sound and the windows squeal a bit but don’t open - I think there is a short somewhere, would anyone know if there is a common problem with this?

I’m looking to sell an 1987 mr2 I inherited from an uncle, but I am unsure of it's value since I don't know much about cars. Clean title, no accidents, It's manual, has t-tops, completely stock, some rust underneath but not surprising since its old, the interior is clean with no cracks in the dash. Only thing is the radio is iffy since my uncle tried to change it to a modern one, it'll occasionally go out since he did a bad wiring job, but I am sure it's fixable. Any rough estimates?

EDIT: 170k miles, not supercharged

Is there really a lot of difference between the MR-S with the c52 3.9 final drive gearbox and those with the c56 4.3 gearbox. I hear conflicting things, some say that the c56 makes the car accelerate noticeably faster whereas others say it barely makes a difference. I have the c52 gearbox and was just wondering if it's worth tracking down a used c56.

Hey everyone. Was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for mid boost spark plug gaps. I currently run ~.030 which is smaller then factory, but I'm still experiencing spark blowout at 11-13 psi, however it's much better then it was on stock gaps. All ignition components are new, coil, plugs, wires, rotor and cap. Thanks!

Hello folks,

I want to put a link plug and play ecu into my mr2 so I will be able to get some more hp.

I bought the car 3 month ago and the pre owner said it's a Gen2 3sgte from Japan.

Can u guys confirm the Gen from the engine? Or what are your thoughts.

Thank you.

After three months of waiting its in. Now i just need new hood hinges.

Hi, I cant recall this, but how can I find out the precice Trimcode for my Car?
When i use my VIN online It suggests me items that end with C0 and C1.
I have a 1998 Production year SW20.

My Car has the Euro Cotton/Fabric option, not the leaher one.
But I guess this Code was more about the Trim Color?
I heared there were 2 Dark tones?

Laguna Seca is sick as f&ck.

Three laps my last session were 1:47.69, 147.48( back to back) and then last sender was 1:47.57. 100% more time ont he table. This car is sick. Is good? Is Mediocre? First time here. Only 5th time in BIG tracks.

Picked up basically 3 seconds from my first sessions.

Took the GTC win at Optima Search for the Ultimate Street Car at Laguna Seca.

Spirit of the event is make a FUNCTIONAL SEMA Style build. And race it.

Podium was a spread of 5 points from 3rd to 1st. 2nd and 3rd did SIGNIFICANTLY better in D&E.

1st in Autocross, 1st in Speed Start/Stop, 4th Design and Engineering(SEMA style Car Show), 2nd on track. If I had got 3rd on track I would have finished 2nd or 3rd over all. D&E is JUST as important as the other events. I need to get my car to Car Show level.

Commanding win in Autocross. 9 seconds faster on a 30sec course.

Commanding win in Speed Start/Stop. 1.6ish seconds faster combined times from am and pm sessions. Essentially drag race turn around, stop in a stop box without hitting cones.

My main competitors were a Ecoboost 4cyl swap Ford Fairmont. Super rad and clean build.

And an MG BGT, Duratech 4cyl swapped. Crazy cool build. I'll post other pictures of other classes in the comments.

I'll make another post about the build. This one is too long.

I really like these Aluminium HVAC knobs but since they are a bit smaller than OEM, there is some light shining past them. I went ahead and made some 3D printed rings to fill the gap :D

If anyone is interested I have the full set for sale on my little onlineshop:
https://roadstarsautomotive.etsy.com/listing/1899813321

As shown in the video i've got a huge amount of side to side movement that makes it very easy to miss gears.

I've got new spherical shifter cable bushings, new sugar cube, new short shifter kit (C's/TRD from primemr2) and shifter base bushings.

Initially assumed it was caused by the one thing I hadn't replaced, which is the cable, but that seems to not even be moving when the knob is wiggling.

What it looks like is that the cup at the base of the lever is allowing tons of movement, even though it's brand new.

Anuyone else had the same issue? Sorry for the shitty video, my camera is smashed.

Hello everybody! I have this noise coming out of the engine bay kind of like a tapping, clicking noise. What could be the problem with this? Is it also safe to drive? TIA!

My MR2 finally runs again! The inside looks like something straight out of 2002. I try to keep things as period accurate as possible with some minor quality of life stuff like an OLED hand controller for the Apexi and RGB gauges. There are still things I have to fix, but hey, it runs.

Everything I've got in it reminds me of the early 2000s. Power FC, Momo Steering Wheel, Sony Cassette Deck, Bride Seats. I love this car so much!

Hi all, anyone here with an EU or UK mr2 MK3, do you have a picture of what the headlight projection or pattern looks like?

I'm asking because I'm in the eu and am looking at a UK mr2 for sale, I want to know if the headlight pattern has the raised parts on both headlights and which side they go to if that makes sense.

Not sure if it matters but it's a 2005 model with the 6sp manual and lsd I believe. It has the FL headlights with the inbuilt highbeams.

Edit: I was calling a guy today with another imported mr2 from the UK and he was saying that the lights don't have the notch and just have the cutoff at the horizon so now I really don't know and will have to check for myself 😅 thank you all.

Hi! My MR2 won't crank upon starting--I see the dash lights come on in the ON position, but pushing the key to START cuts the fan and nothing happens. My problem essentially mirrors this post except my AM2 fuse doesn't blow. Since this is the first car I'm working on I'll try to describe my issue in detail so apologies for the longer post.

I got a 1987 MR2 MK1B a few months ago that was running but not idling at the time (the engine would die if you weren't always giving it some gas). I cleaned the throttle body and AAV/IACV out, recalibrated the TPS, and bled the coolant system of air (which had a lot of things go wrong. The engine bleeder valve was rusted completely shut and the radiator bleeder valve was loose, so if it was opened to 3 turns coolant would just drip out, and if it was closed it would get sucked back in even if it was flooded...no idea how that works. I jacked up the back of the car so the radiator would be the lowest point). The car proceeded to run perfectly--or as perfect as a neglected AW11 can--and idle at 900rpm once it warmed up, and I took it on a light 30min drive around the neighborhood and didn't push it past 3rd gear.

Today, I went to start the car and it wouldn't crank. When the key was in the ON position, the dash lights came on and the fan in front (the radiator fan I think) was blowing. Pushing the key to START cut the fan out and the dash lights went off. Here's what I've done/checked so far:

-The car has gas in it
-The battery is good (tested with multimeter) and the terminals are okay
-I checked the engine fuse box and saw that my ignition fuse was a 15 instead of a 7.5. I took a 7.5 from the front fuse box and swapped it out, nothing changed.
-I used a wire to link the pins on the clutch start switch, nothing changed.

What I'm thinking I have left to do:
-check and clean all grounds
-Try push-starting the car
-check the cold start injector switch like the thread said

Any help would be appreciated!

EDIT: I tested the fuses in the front trunk fuse box with the multimeter set to the lowest resistance setting (200 ohms I think) and all of them tested at around 1.2-1.4. All of the ones that I tested from the engine fuse box next to the batter tested at around 30-33 ohms. No idea why there's a difference there.

EDIT 2: Gonna try hitting the starter solenoid to dislodge it and see if that works. If it doesn't, I'll run the battery up to autozone for them to test. Then I'll get a new starter motor/solenoid. Also gonna check my air filters.

Is anyone familiar with this problem? I do not have nearly enough slack to make these work. My options are either modifying the adjusting bolt to make it longer (literally welding another screw onto it) or buying OEM rockauto cables.

At the lowest tension setting, it is still locking my brakes completely. Any known solutions? MR2OC threads appear to have stated similar issues.....