Que Sera Sera ... serviced and normalising.

[Bear]

Looking good! Did you check out the door balancers at the same time?

[skattrd]

... Did you check out the door balancers at the same time?

 

erm, I might have forgotten ... which are those again?

[Bear]

The big black tubes with yellow stickers on at the front of the door. They terminate in a dark grey metal pivot with a balljoint linking to the strut - get the pivot moving well, and the doors might lift as designed - 2-4" push on the door trim when you release the latch and they should raise up, slowing for the last bit of travel.

[skattrd]

Ok Richard, I'll have a look at them at the weekend.

[Jim Bell]

Ha! I thought you'd found the holy grail of cleaning products for a moment there. And you have.

 

Money.

[skattrd]

Today I've changed a few fluids, engine oil, coolant and gearbox oil. I also changed the thermostat and the car now registers a temperature whilst moving.

The old coolant looked like the P.O. had used ditch water with nothing in it. I reckon I'll give it a couple or three weeks then change the coolant again.

The gearbox oil was fine but the sump gasket on the gearbox appears to be on it's way out. I'll order a new sump gasket and see if there's a filter in there as well, if so I'll change the gearbox oil filter as well.

Engine oil wasn't too bad, but the filter looked a bit old, shiny new filter fitted along with nice clean oil.

 

I can't say the car runs any different but at least I know the fluids are fresh.

 

Tomorrow I have a little mission to collect some other bits for this one, pics when done

[Lacquer Peel]

New dashboard?

[skattrd]

New dashboard?

 

Yes

[twosmoke300]

Wasn't it brake fluid rather than brake cleaner that vulg used?

[skattrd]

Wasn't it brake fluid rather than brake cleaner that vulg used?

 

I had just spotted that literally 5 minutes ago, I reckon I've got some brake fluid around somewhere that I'll try on one of the old door cards.

[Bear]

Today I've changed a few fluids, engine oil, coolant and gearbox oil. I also changed the thermostat and the car now registers a temperature whilst moving.

I can't say the car runs any different but at least I know the fluids are fresh.

 

Tomorrow I have a little mission to collect some other bits for this one, pics when done

 

It should go into overdrive now - so around 2-2.5K rpm at 70 and much better economy...

[skattrd]

It went into overdrive without issue before.

 

1230 M6 near Birmingham

The car drives ok, accelerates fine and with overdrive at 120 kmh it's doing 2700rpm, pretty good for a 1490cc motor.

 

I've just taken it out to do some errands and I must say the gearbox now changes incredibly smoothly. It was good before, but now it's gr9.2

[Bear]

Weird, usually if the thermostat isn't opening/closing properly and the sender registering the car is warming up, the gearbox won't select overdrive.

[skattrd]

Overdrive definitely worked as when I turned it off the revs went up massively.

Do you know what these boxes are, 3spd +o/d?

 

Before I changed the stat the temp gauge never moved unless I was stationary. The rad must be very effective, it certainly looks big enough for the size of the engine.

[purplebargeken]

Great progress

[Bear]

I think they're 3 + overdrive, from memory. I know when mine wasn't engaging overdrive it was properly screaming at motorway speeds - but then, the manual 5-speed was around 4,000 rpm at 75ish. Maybe nearer 80. Can never be sure what's accurate and it's 10 years ago so I only remember the 'impression' of the auto being way more relaxed as a motorway car.

Good gearbox for a small auto, though.

[skattrd]

Cheers Richard. I've just been to the shops in it and did a little experiment.

100 kmh (62mph) overdrive on 2200rpm

100 kmh (62mph) overdrive off 3200rpm

 

If it performs adequately tomorrow it shall be put on work duties next week. I just need to sort out a cup holder for my coffee.

[Bear]

The dashboard organiser was a crap cupholder for driving purposes. If it has the cubby box, I could balance Red Bull cans in there but can't remember if it's big enough to hold one of those "hang on the door" type cupholders to be secure for coffee.

[Bear]

Ah! Now I remember. I got hold of the 1-DIN pull out cupholder and put it in the space below the radio after I rewired the SLSS.

 

Here's a universal version. It looks very similar to what I had.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Toyota-MR2-Celica-Double-Din-Pocket-Cup-Holder-Starlet-/230592901070?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item35b0686fce

[Jon]

I borrowed STUNO's auto Mazda for a while earlier this year and it was pressed into 200km commutes up to various parts of Auckland, whereby I got in the habit of stopping at the BP around 5am for a coffee. Despite it having cup holders, they're awkward to access whilst driving so the natural method was to just drive one-handed up the motorway whilst casually supping coffee. This habit promptly stopped one the 205 had been fettled, due to no cup holders and a manual box.

 

I therefore concluded that I'm not very good with autos as they make me quite a lazy driver. I'll have to buck up my ideas though if I ever get the chance to own an SEC Mercedes, which is firmly on the future wish list.

 

Oh yeah, nice Sera! I very much approve of this return to standard, though only because those mods were so mind-numbingly gopping.

[skattrd]

6:30am on a Sunday morning what do you do, go out and polish the headlights of course....

I enquired as to what to use on the stupid question thread and advised by "Sorn me" that autosol or silvo should be good for the job. I couldn't find autosol in Sainsburys last night but did find T-cut metal polish, meh, near enough.

 

Before, a bit milky around the top, most likely due to being in the sunlight a bit more.

 

 

 

After less than 5 minutes the headlights are much better, so easy to do, polish in, job done.

 

[skattrd]

Replacement dash and seatbelt collected, I'll look at fitting them next weekend.

 

I have now also clocked up around 500 miles in the Sera and done a full tank for mpg calculations. I have not really been taking it careful in the car, and do like to give a bit of a blast. For about a third of the tank the thermostat was broken, so it would have been on running  a bit rich. With that said, the first tank with me it has achieved a rather surpising 44mpg. I reckon 50mpg should be quite easy to achieve.

[Bear]

My auto gave 44mpg, the manual wasn't better. In part because I used to really drive the manual quite aggressively - you'll find most manual Seras have, or need, the rear lower engine mount that does a lot of the torque reaction control. It's crazy - Toyota could make this appealing, easy to park, economical and practical car, but people buy sodding Corollas by the shed (literally) load.

 

I've tested some headlight renovation kits recently and if you can get it separately, look for headlight sealer. The 3M sanding/buffing kit worked well on my crappy E-class lights, but they stayed looking milky - the T-cut kit is just rubbing compound in theory, though it worked a lot better than silver polish or normal T-cut, but the real finishing touch was the sealer - which gave the light a nice, clean and bright finish.

Those lights look oddly dark. Have they been dismantled and painted black instead of the dark metallic grey?

[skattrd]

For once in my life I thought I'd keep a rough track of cost of ownership

 

£700 - purchase

£ 30 - door cards

£ 70 - dash & seat belt

£ 10 - filter and thermostat

£ 40 - oils & coolant

 

Current total £850 ...  plus tax, insurance, petrol, labour and various things I've probably forgotten.

 

I've now decided that it probably needs front springs, as I think the current ones have been chopped, it looks a tad low and is quite crashy over bumps.

[skattrd]

As some of you are aware this made it to Chumley a couple of weeks ago without issue, despite me breaking the king lead and having to make a new one the day before. It covered the 300 miles or so in a day without missing a beat.

 

It  has been occasionally used since then, but work/life and other things mean that I still haven't changed the dash on it. I did however notice that the MOT was due next month, so expecting it to need a few bits I stuck it in for a test today and it only went and passed. There's a couple of advisories, slight corrosion on brake lines, but that's all. It now has 13 months MOT and looks like shit. To celebrate I fitted some new door struts, so the doors no longer try to kill you whilst getting in and out of the car.

[vulgalour]

I'm amazed this returns such good economy, I'd expected mid-20s just because it looks sporty and is a bit kooky.

[skattrd]

Vulg, it weighs not a lot, around than 900kg, is quite aerodynamic and overdrive keeps the revs down, all quite good for decent mpgs.

 

I've gone through 3 tanks of fuel so far, 36 worst, 44 best, average 40mpg. On a run I reckon it could do 50mpg, but around town and shortish runs I'm very happy with 40mpg. The Aerodeck is averaging 30mpg doing the same sort of thing.

[skattrd]

I addition to the door struts I also bought some tailgate struts. Today I fitted those, so the tailgate now opens itself when you pull the lever and it stays open.

The risk of decapitation from the car has now been reduced by 327%.

 

Running total:

£700 - purchase

£ 30 - door cards

£ 70 - dash & seat belt

£ 10 - filter and thermostat

£ 40 - oils & coolant

£120 - struts door and tailgate

£ 25 - wings (Thx Billy)

 

£995 ...  plus tax, insurance, petrol, labour and other things.

This is no longer looking like a bargain, it still looks like shit despite now costing me about a grand.

 

As mentioned previously the front of the car is a bit low and crashy over bumps. After seeing the springs whilst it was on the ramp for the MOT they don't look right, they are almost fully compressed with the weight of the car on them. The good folk on the Sera Faceache group have mentioned that Starlet ep82/91 springs will fit. My thinking is that I might go for the springs from the diesel variant as they should be a bit stiffer, I'm just waiting for confirmation that they will fit before ordering some.

[320touring]

£1k for something that makes everyone go WTAF! is a bargain:)

 

it has a certain charm and sounds like you have done some good work mechanically- keep it up!