Happy 300,000kms to my MR2! Oh wait...

I've always loved MR-2s (Mk1) and now I'm actually considering buying one. It's good to hear that the powerplant seems to be solid. How hard/expensive is it to maintain, in terms of ease of service and parts availability? Was the 4A-GE engine common? (I know it's also used in some Corollas of the era).
 
My Nissan has 420,000 kms on it. (Though I'm not sure how many it has left in it, 20 to 30 maybe:p)
 
Congrats, I guess. So, is there an upgrade in mind for the near future?:p
 
I've always loved MR-2s (Mk1) and now I'm actually considering buying one. It's good to hear that the powerplant seems to be solid. How hard/expensive is it to maintain, in terms of ease of service and parts availability? Was the 4A-GE engine common? (I know it's also used in some Corollas of the era).

dont know about canada but parts are a plenty in australia and the 4a series is very common and bullit proof (i had one and it took loads of abuse and kept taking it)

celicas, corolla, mr2 and a few other only jap models had them. though their are a few generations of the 4age, small and bigports. the bigport or 88kw, is the more common motor while the smallport or 100kw is the better option but much more rarer though u find them in the mr2. you can also get a supercharged 4agze version and 20valve (blacktop and silvertop) dervitive motors which are much more, in my opinion.
 
My Celica's got 225k miles/360k km on it, I hope your MR2 sticks around at least that long. I had a old Chevy pickup that had over 250k miles on it, but it got t-boned by a Saturn. I really wanted to see how long it would last lol.
 
dont know about canada but parts are a plenty in australia and the 4a series is very common and bullit proof (i had one and it took loads of abuse and kept taking it)

celicas, corolla, mr2 and a few other only jap models had them. though their are a few generations of the 4age, small and bigports. the bigport or 88kw, is the more common motor while the smallport or 100kw is the better option but much more rarer though u find them in the mr2. you can also get a supercharged 4agze version and 20valve (blacktop and silvertop) dervitive motors which are much more, in my opinion.


to go further on this point, its worth noting that the largeport is the better canidate for forced induction (the GZE/Supercharged was a largeport) as it has 7 Ribs instead of 3 (smallport), but the smallport does have a better setup if your not going to be pushing more then 160hp, as well its lighter internals make it quicker revving



forget the engine though, if you can get a mki with a nice chassi (little/no rust) then its worth it, the stock setup is a bit rediculous (way too much rear spring bias/stiffness) but its fun, the 87+ in particular more predictable and have they ability to put more power to the ground (different suspension geometry) but the 85/86s are very fun anyways, so eitherway its all good

i know their are critics for everything, but in my opinion the mki mr2 is one of the more soulful japanese cars, especially for a japanese cars from the 80s, although id be willing to worn that the stock engine setup is way too quiet (no intake noise, bearly any exhaust noise) but that can be fixed pretty easily with a good cold air intake, and a decent muffler! (may i suggest dynomax, love those guys!) the engine actually sings a really good song as long as you don't change the length of they exhaust
 
The Japanese got the 3S-GE/3S-GTE and so did Australia.

I think Australia only offically got the mr2 with the 3S-GE. The supercharged/turbocharged ones were all imports
 
i know their are critics for everything, but in my opinion the mki mr2 is one of the more soulful japanese cars

Absolutely agreed - somewhere along the way Toyota turned all cold and emotionless.

although id be willing to worn that the stock engine setup is way too quiet (no intake noise, bearly any exhaust noise)

Too quiet? That's not really a term I'd use to describe my car...
 
The problem with MR2s in my area is rust. I've only spotted a couple of listings that said "free of rust" and they were going for nearly $10,000 CDN, and it's not even the 4AGZE version.
 
my kadett has 45 000km ('89 car) although the steering wheel and the pedals are polished like a biljart ball (i think it went around a few times, but papers say it's original amount of km - a bit fishy)
 
The U.S. got a 3s-gte powered MR2. And the Celica "GT4" is the Celica all-trac here, but we only got the st185 and st195.
 
The problem with MR2s in my area is rust. I've only spotted a couple of listings that said "free of rust" and they were going for nearly $10,000 CDN, and it's not even the 4AGZE version.
Did you make sure those 4AGE were the 16V not the 20V? The 20V 4AGE is the successor to the 4AGZE and has the new valve timing technology being pretty much equal in power with more potential for the 20V.
 
The 20V, sadly, never showed up in an MR2 from the factory, only in mid- to late-90s JDM Corollas. It is a popular swap for those whose 16V 4AGEs have gone bad or boring. I personally have a sudden craving to put one in a (rust-free) Corolla FX chassis and make a sleeper hot hatch out of it.
 
The 20V, sadly, never showed up in an MR2 from the factory, only in mid- to late-90s JDM Corollas. It is a popular swap for those whose 16V 4AGEs have gone bad or boring. I personally have a sudden craving to put one in a (rust-free) Corolla FX chassis and make a sleeper hot hatch out of it.

yes that would be pretty sick.

also about 200 US to rebuild the motor. oil pumps go out sometimes...keep up on the oil levels and itll never do you wrong.
 
300,000 KM is pretty good.

It is not just toyotas that can do that kind of mileage though.

A friend of mine had a 1988 Park Avenue that finally had the trans die at 280,000 MILES. I sold him my 89 Bonneville with 145,000 miles and he has over 200,000 miles on it now.

As for british cars with high miles...

One of my clients had a 1987 Classic Range Rover that when he finally parked it for the last time had over 340,000 miles. Unfortunately 15 years of new england winters had taken their toll and the frame was rusted almost completly through within just a couple years of sitting.
 
The problem with MR2s in my area is rust. I've only spotted a couple of listings that said "free of rust" and they were going for nearly $10,000 CDN, and it's not even the 4AGZE version.

if i could do it again, id get my car shipped from california, seriesly, it sounds stupid, but im just ending up shipping a frame from california to put on my car anyways,

i don't know how bad ontario would be, but from cali to michigan i got quated for under $1000, seeing as you can pick one up in california for usually less than $2000 that should equate to a rather good deal

i paid $2800 for a rusty T-top in Illinious because i was too impatient to go further south or out west

also i wouldn't judge the car based on price, the nicest mki ive seen in my area (actually western onterior, about 2 hours away) was purchased from a unknowing guy for $800, the car was a automatic (people will heckle you for this, and the gearing is kinda crap) but the worst rust he has is surface, and for a mki in canada or any salty climate thats remarkable (would require some work, but any community college could do the hard bits assuming your willing to pay for parts)

Absolutely agreed - somewhere along the way Toyota turned all cold and emotionless.



Too quiet? That's not really a term I'd use to describe my car...

i stupidly purchased a Flowmaster Super 40 for it, and the size of the muffler ends up giving me a car that is pretty load for regular driving, but not load enough for spirited driving, its a pretty terrible muffler put simply (though makes a decent sound), hopefully a smaller muffler, preferably a dynomax SS or Bullet will work well

bullet in particular works way better then one would imagine, since it essentially is a glasspack made out of metal :p
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(that + a cat=much much more reasonable then one would expect, and most suprisingly it has very little drone)
 
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