Imhotep's ever changing fleet - MG ZS180, Toyota GT86 - Why am I not allowed working AC?!

[Imhotep]

2 hours ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

Looking good are you planning on running both the Toyota and MG as daily drivers? I guess the MG is the more practical family car.

I’ll run both, I’m on a very limited mileage policy on the ZS, and I can’t use it for commuting. However that does mean it’s less than £300 a year to insure, will likely use the ZS in the warmer weather, but I do need it for a few tip runs before Christmas, then I’m going to take it for test and hope for the best as the test is due in 5 weeks. 
 

I may be over with some brake disks and pads at some stage as it needs some and I don’t like messing with brakes lol. 

[Imhotep]

MOT for ZS on Friday. Have a feeling it’ll fail. I have this feeling because immediately after booking it in, the washer pump died. Hoping these have one pump for the front and one for the rear so I can just swap them over as a bodge until I can order a new washer pump. 

Not much has happened over the holidays with the cars. They’ve mostly just been driven about. MG to blow out the cobwebs and the GT86 as it’s the daily runner. They did both get treated to a wash mind:

 

Toyota I’ve decided to put my own anxieties about the engine to bed and buy the upgraded oil pickup pipe. Hopefully that’ll prevent any oil starvation issues that seem to be all I see about them (then again it could be like N47s and timing chains, where it’s actually not a huge issue if you maintain the car).

We’ll see how the MG gets on however money is tight for a few months now so if it fails it’ll likely be locked away until May/June when money improves. 

[Imhotep]

Of course what does help if your washer isn’t working is checking if there’s fluid in it. That’ll do it. Have to over complicate everything don’t I?

However… the fluid must have gone somewhere as it was full when I parked it up. After a short 10 minute wait…

I think if I max the bottle and take it for test it might be okay, provided it doesn’t leak all over their floor! I’ll see if I can get something to hold it just for now…

[Imhotep]

Good day out yesterday at the Severns meet. Car got a fair bit of attention actually to say it was parked next to an arguably much more interesting Sierra Cosworth. 
 

Anyhow. MOT day today for it. Failed, obviously. Thought it might. Being sat in storage really didn’t do the brakes any good, handbrake was jammed on when I went to collect it and we had to free it off, and the front discs are obviously warped. Needs new discs, pads and the OSR caliper freeing off slightly. Garage wanted £373, but it’s January and I don’t have that so for now it’ll go in the garage and I’ll sort it when it’s a bit warmer. Honestly I’m mostly grateful there’s not even a mention of rot on the fail sheet.

[JMotor]

Liked for the attention the ZS got. 

Shame about the MOT. But all fixable as you say. Plus you've got another car to use, so not stuck for transport. 

Probably isn't the issue. It's worth giving the front caliper slider pins a check as these can seize in the carrier. Was always an issue on the 45's I've owned in the past. 

[Imhotep]

43 minutes ago, JMotor said:

Liked for the attention the ZS got. 

Shame about the MOT. But all fixable as you say. Plus you've got another car to use, so not stuck for transport. 

Probably isn't the issue. It's worth giving the front caliper slider pins a check as these can seize in the carrier. Was always an issue on the 45's I've owned in the past. 

The brakes aren’t overly expensive thankfully, just hard to get. All the local suppliers want silly money for discs. I can order some and wait a few days and get them for half the price. I think about £100 will see this back on the road again.

[Imhotep]

Always wait until I’m poor don’t they?

 

Cheap OBD reader to the rescue!

 

Knock sensor, driver side. That’ll need doing. Under the inlet manifold because of course it is…

[Imhotep]

Been advised by a man much more clever than me that knock sensor faults on an FA20 can be quite serious, and could be a precursor to rod knock. Now this may seem like massive overkill for the sake of a £40 sensor, but I’m going to get it locked away and trailered to a specialist just for a once over. I’d rather pay someone who knows what they’re doing a few hundred pound to call me an idiot with anxiety than have to pay £3000 for a replacement engine. 
 

So with that in mind, I’ve been on the internet again today and bought some MTEC brakes for the ZS. These should (hopefully) arrive before the weekend. If they do, I have as usual roped in @Heidel_Kakao to help me replace them as I don’t like working on brakes at all. I’ll also get it booked back in for a retest on Monday and then the MG will be back as a daily runner for a bit. I’ll aim to get the Toyota looked into around my birthday (end of May). 
 

Never rains, it pours.

[mintwth]

40 minutes ago, Imhotep said:

a specialist

Got one in mind? 

If you're Brum way, there's Rogue Motorsports near Southam which has a decent reputation for their work on 86s

[Imhotep]

Just now, mintwth said:

Got one in mind? 

If you're Brum way, there's Rogue Motorsports near Southam which has a decent reputation for their work on 86s

Was thinking Fensport as I have a friend that lives very near there who would help with transport 

[mintwth]

Fensport has an excellent reputation on 86s.

[Imhotep]

Right. Snow has stopped play for a bit. Especially with my leg which has (as my youngest calls it) ‘the big pain’ due to the cold weather and the pins/plates in my femur. 
 

Haven’t really left the house for a bit. So I had to do… Something today. I’ve been fed up of the Rover 45 steering wheel on the ZS since the day I got it. It’s not the right colour and it looks silly. That was changing today:

 

Even with the battery disconnected, I don’t like dealing with airbags. I also dropped it. Whoops.

Old one ready to come off

 

Needed some convincing with a rubber mallet and some wiggling but it eventually popped off the splines and left me with this:

 

The above freaked me out at first because it moved independent of the steering rack. I was worried I was meant to align it. Turns out it’ll do that itself as I discovered when I refitted the new wheel:

All back in, a couple of splines out but it’s something I’ll sort in a few days when it’s thawed out and I can drive it up and down the garage block to check if it’s straight without having to slide on the ice.

 

The smallest things seem to make the biggest difference don’t they?

[Heidel_Kakao]

Looks much better, I am probably going to change the steering wheel on the XJR as I am not a fan of the wood rim and would prefer a full leather one.

[Lord Sterling]

Looks good.

Reminds me of my changing the wheel in the S-Type. Same thing happened with that thing that moved independently. Didn't seem to make a difference and popped itself correctly back in place when I fitted the new steering wheel.

[Imhotep]

1 hour ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

Looks much better, I am probably going to change the steering wheel on the XJR as I am not a fan of the wood rim and would prefer a full leather one.

Wood is awful in winter and awful in summer, I’d be doing the same if I was you, I wanted a basic wheel on all my Mondeos for the same reason 

57 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

Looks good.

Reminds me of my changing the wheel in the S-Type. Same thing happened with that thing that moved independently. Didn't seem to make a difference and popped itself correctly back in place when I fitted the new steering wheel.

That S Type looks so much better with that new wheel mind. I was aiming to do it but never got around to it 

[Imhotep]

Some things have been done. Mostly ZS brakes.

As ever, went to see @Heidel_Kakao who as usual helped, this time with transport too (more on this later). Big thanks as usual!

Went to sort brakes on MG. They don’t actually look too awful here (I mean they’re still well overdue replacement but they don’t look as bad as they actually are):

Getting these off ended up with me breaking two slider pins. We had to go to GSF to get new ones, who oddly, have them on the shelf. For any ZS180 owners, rear calipers are the same as a Honda S2000. Only thing is the S2000 and the ZS have entirely different part numbers for certain things (not the sliders mind). Find an S2000 reg plate for use on the parts sites. 

Anyway. Pads out. And then they immediately fell apart:

 

Despite them looking thin there there’s actually about 3mm left on the old pads. Not entirely sure what’s happened here.

Here’s what I mean about the discs looking far better than they are…

 

Anyway loss of light stopped play so the aim is to do the other 3 pads and discs either this weekend or next week. On the upside though while we had it apart I discovered the car was polybushed:

[Imhotep]

Knock sensor replaced on Toyota and it seems a lot happier. The one removed was apparently cracked and fell apart as soon as it was removed. Might explain the issues it was having. Thankful it was just that. Haven’t used it much since but no hesitation, no EML and no strange noises, so I’m happy!

Finally found an AC dryer for the ZS too, once that arrives and has been fitted it’ll be off to the local air con place to have the system recharged. I’ve been looking for one for ages, so I’m very happy I’ll finally have the AC working again. (I’ve had the whole system tested. The only issue was the dryer leaking slightly), next up is the AC on the GT86, but that uses R1234yf so I’d rather get it diagnosed before spending many pounds on a recharge that’ll likely just leak out again.

[Imhotep]

Unfortunately, a bout of the lurgy has stopped play, I felt a bit better today so I decided to try to diagnose an issue on the ZS, it tries to ‘run away’ when stone cold. 
I didn’t realise these had an ICV in truth but I pulled it once I found out they did, and had a look. Now that is GRIM:

 

Gave it a very liberal coating of brake cleaner, and plugged it all back in. Sadly no difference. However I can hear a slight hissing noise between the rattling from the inlet. So possible I have an air leak somewhere that might be causing it. Either way, further investigation required. Once I feel better I’ll get on with it. Still need to do the front brakes but I don’t want to give @Heidel_Kakao the lurgy so that can wait until I’m feeling better. This does mean the car is totally out of test now, sadly. My valeter man is coming over Friday as he reckons he can remove the small scratches etc with his machine polisher so we shall see how he does.

TOYOTA NEWS:

Some wanker did this. Honestly, I’m more annoyed that they’ve broken the bumper mount. I hope their DPF fails. Not the end of the world as my valeter has said he’ll give it a once over while he’s sorting the ZS.
 

[Heidel_Kakao]

@Imhotep How much does your valeter charge out of interest? As I might treat the XJR to a polish at some point as I am too lazy to do it myself.

[Imhotep]

20 minutes ago, Heidel_Kakao said:

@Imhotep How much does your valeter charge out of interest? As I might treat the XJR to a polish at some point as I am too lazy to do it myself.

Depends exactly what you would want doing, but a polish to him is a full machine polish all round so it’s £not cheap. I’ll find his prices in the morning for you and text them over with his details too 

[Imhotep]

So the rest of the brakes were done today… went to see @Heidel_Kakao in case I screwed anything up/to use his tools. Actually went a lot smoother than last time, thankfully, no broken slider bolts. Only thing we had to do was drill out a brake disc bolt. The brakes were well and truly knackered though. As were the pads:

While there I’ve cleaned up and greased the slider pins etc as they were all a bit reluctant to move. Might also explain why only the rear of the discs look like this. Seems happier now, only issue now is the handbrake seems to be completely garbage. May just need adjusting so I’ll get onto that if it doesn’t go through an MOT happily. Fingers crossed I’ll soon have a fully legal car! 
 

 

That’s how the sliders came out sans a wipe. They were pretty much bone dry. 

Pads fell apart upon being removed on every single corner.

 

Much improved!

[mintwth]

On 01/02/2026 at 20:21, Imhotep said:

Honestly, I’m more annoyed that they’ve broken the bumper mount.

This site's useful for part numbers:

https://toyota.epc-data.com/86/zn6/183278/body/

Or amayama

Most bits are available (if you search by part number) through:

https://toyotadirectparts.co.uk/

You can get metal bumper clip repair brackets here:

https://jtspec.com.au/products/86-brz-front-bumper-repair-plates-pair.

[Imhotep]

On 08/02/2026 at 18:13, mintwth said:

This site's useful for part numbers:

https://toyota.epc-data.com/86/zn6/183278/body/

Or amayama

Most bits are available (if you search by part number) through:

https://toyotadirectparts.co.uk/

You can get metal bumper clip repair brackets here:

https://jtspec.com.au/products/86-brz-front-bumper-repair-plates-pair.

Hero, I will have a look into these, might be useful for some of the bits I need to make the AC work again too! 
 

 

In MG based news:

 

Yay! Another year of legal motoring. Now to enjoy it for a bit, and have the little bits sorted out. 

[Imhotep]

Today I got into the MG to go out and something strange happened.

 

Started it up, no rattling. Odd, since the VIS motors have been broken since I bought it (jammed open thankfully). Thought nothing of it and went out for a drive anyway. After it had warmed up I put my toe down in first gear and sure enough, at just under 4000rpm the engine note changed and the car shot off. So, the VIS motors appear to have... Fixed themselves? Is this a thing they can do?

One more thing to tick off the repair list I suppose. 

In other motoring news, I've had the AC looked at on the Toyota, and it appears to need a new pipe. Apparently this'll only be about £45 fitted and then £90 to top up the gas. It'll need to wait until next month as I'm very broke for the next couple of weeks. But good to know that by this summer both the cars will have their AC working. Been ages since I've had a car with working air con.

[Imhotep]

I’ve had a leaking boot since I got the car. Hence why there’s an old shirt shoved down the side of the boot:

 

Not perfect though, as the box for my tyre inflator can attest:

 

So, a NOS boot seal was ordered:

 

Upon removing the old one, it turns out the only thing holding the latch in was the old seal:

 

Fitted the new seal but I think I’ve disturbed the latch and now the boot won’t open. I’m not messing about with that in case it needs a patch or something, so either the garage can have that job or I’ll deal with not having a boot until it’s warmer and not raining so I can be arsed to be outside with the car. 
 

Annoying regardless. But shit happens I suppose. 

[Imhotep]

Update: 

Boot is open again, and now opens and closes every time. However I will be getting that repaired, it’s a nasty bit of rot and the metal there is so weak you can pull chunks of it out. 

[Imhotep]

Servicing day today. Noticed in the handwritten history it hadn’t been done for a bit so I did the lot, plugs, oil, filters etc. helped as always by @Heidel_Kakao and by helped I mean he did the important stuff and I got in the way.

Anyway, I went for a service kit from DMGRS so I could get some OE stuff for it. Plus the service kit was £102 posted, I couldn’t find plugs for less than £70 (what on earth is going on with the price of plugs at the minute?!) 

Anyway, oil drained. Safe to say it’s been a while:

OE MG-R filter! I don’t think they’ve been available for a while now. 
 

We removed the old coils and they immediately fell apart, so I had to pinch 3 coils from HK’s ZT-T until I can get new ones to swap them back over:

 

Plugs didn’t look too bad, just very old, and I discovered the front bank has a leaky rocker cover. I’ll look into that.

Fuel filter and pollen filter had both very clearly been neglected:

All that and the air filter has been sorted. I did however find an area of concern while under the car in the form of the jacking point. Thankfully DMGRS sell what I need off the shelf, just needs a welder:

 

Finally, since I’ve had it the grille has sat outward like so, due to all the clips being snapped:

 

Being the colour it is, I won’t find another, so I employed a familiar bodge:

 

Car itself actually feels better to drive now it has new plugs, filters and oil etc. I’m chipping away at this car, but I’ve still got so much to do.

 

In GT86 news. I’ve ordered a sound generator delete kit, I tend to sit on the motorway where the engine noise is a drone, so this pipe needs removing and bunging:

 

I will update this once done and see if it’s any better. 

[Heidel_Kakao]

No problem dude it was lucky having the ZT there as an impromptu spares car lol.

[mintwth]

9 hours ago, Imhotep said:

GT86 news. I’ve ordered a sound generator delete kit, I tend to sit on the motorway where the engine noise is a drone, so this pipe needs removing and bunging

That sound pipe comes into the car in the driver's footwell, where it can be plugged with the plastic fake cigar lighter thing that usually lives in the 12v socket behind the glovebox (it's exactly the right size). Plugging it takes a bit off the sound but not a lot. 

Deleting that sound generator pipe should make a bigger difference than the above but don't forget to plug the hole into the footwell. Water can and will get through that hole into the footwell if there's no pipe or bung in it.

[R Lutz]

The first time I really studied the GT86 was at the Paris Salon, in I guess, 2012. It was probably at Geneva that year, but I'd have been worse for wear. Anyway, I remember being completely in awe of it. Years later I was looking that them again, this time at Geneva Salon and a fairly well known motoring journalist (who'd had more than their fair share of Subaru freebies) put me off them. Now they just seem to be all Barried or Chavved. I'd still love one though.