[MR2] OEM Shortblocks

[Bryan Kohart]

Arvid,
 
There have been a couple of discussions on mr2oc.com about problems with new transmissions (I guess transaxle is probably the more appropriate term).  The only thread I can find at the moment is here:  http://www.mr2oc.com/showthread.php?t=388861&highlight=transmission+problems  There isn't a definitive conclusion in the thread other than one guy went through 2 transaxles in 12k miles, and another guy killed one in 2k miles.  There probably isn't any way to know whether these are isolated incidents unless you could track the number of reported failures vs. total transaxle sales, but it's worth asking around.  If transaxles and engines for cars from 15-20 years ago are still being assembled to meet a market demand, I would imagine that parts availability becomes an issue and substititions for what to seems to be an equal alternative are made.  Again, I'm not sure how the process works so I could be completely wrong.  My experience on a small scale has been that vendors will periodically make batch runs on parts if there is a demand.  When that batch runs out, they can then decide whether a sufficient demand still exists to make another batch.  I'm curious to know how it works with Toyota since some parts (like transaxles) probably pull from a variety of different suppliers which may or may not still be in business.  It would be interesting to read some of the agreements made between Toyota and their suppliers to see what kind of demands Toyota places on them.  Maybe Aaron or Ken can chime in?  
 
Given the options for transaxles (new, used, rebuilt), I still wouldn't hesitate to purchase a new one.  My understanding is that rebuilt transmissions are using parts from Toyota anyway.  
 
Bryan
 


From: arvidj at visi.com
To: mr2-interest at mr2.com; kohartb at hotmail.com
Subject: Re: [MR2] OEM Shortblocks
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:32:36 -0500





>  I've heard about some issues with the dealer-new 93 LSD transmissions, so I'm curious as to whether the quality has changed for some parts over the years.

Just curious, what have you heard about the new 93 LSD transmissions? I need to refurnish the one in the '93 daily driver and figured it would be much less hassle to simply get a new one rather than try to rebuild this particular old one.
 
Arvid