[MR2] 1987 MKI advice

[Jeff Richter]

On 1/22/2012 2:17 PM, Aaron Willis wrote:
> Jeff, this gets wordy and probably a little bossy.  That is both my
> nature and a result of dealing with non-MR2 mechanics for years.  Please
> bear with me.


Aaron,

No need for explanations or apologies.  I very much appreciate your 
thoughts and ideas.  This kind of feedback is precisely the reason I 
rejoined the list and wrote my own long-winded post.


I understand your wariness of mechanics.  Without getting all defensive 
of my guy, your three scenarios really don't fit his operation as I've 
experienced it.  Obviously being a non-mechanic I'm going at least 
somewhat on faith, but in my 13-plus years with him I've never 
experienced anything like you describe.  It is true that (as far as I 
know) he doesn't work on a lot of MR2s.  But he's pretty tied into 
Toyota generally (his business name is "Toy Enterprizes").

He's also pretty good about differentiating between when to use Toyota 
original or aftermarket parts.  In fact your Thermostat example is 
exactly what brought me to him the very first time.  My previous 
mechanic (who *WAS* a hack!) replaced my thermostat 2 or 3 times with an 
aftermarket one, but I kept having problems with the temp gauge dropping 
at highway speeds.   I finally gave up on him [there were other reasons 
having to do with another car too], got a recommendation from my brother 
for this guy, he took one look and said "You gotta use Original Toyota 
for the thermostat".  Put one in, never had another problem.  He's also 
one of the few guys I've found around town that doesn't mind me ordering 
tires from Tirerack.com.  Even has me direct ship to his place.  He's 
also directed me to other places or even the dealership for some things 
- don't remember the specifics off the top of my head, might have been a 
cracked exhaust manifold,  that he said he couldn't do any cheaper than 
they could.

I'll ask him about the valve covers and fuel injectors when I talk to 
him this week.  My preference right now is to put at least some money 
into getting the engine running.  If nothing else, it's a $70 one-way 
tow back to where I had the car stowed, so I'm looking at that as a 
minimum just to get it off his lot if I sell/trash it.   And if I just 
put off the work for a while without selling it, I'm looking at a $140 
swing just for a roundtrip to get it out of his place and back again 
some day.  Better to put a couple hundred into the engine and drive it 
out under its own power, even if I put off the steering and front-end 
work for cash flow purposes.

As you surmised, I'm somewhat emotionally attached to the car.  As I 
told Donald separately, I bought this car when I was 25, and the thing 
that started this whole process was an attempt to get the car roadworthy 
to treat myself to a 50th-birthday roadtrip down to Florida for my 
niece's wedding.  I figured after three years of driving a bigger, more 
modern car, spending a solid 3 or 4 days driving 2700 miles roundtrip in 
the '2 would either have me ready to give it away for virtually nothing 
or cement my desire to fully restore it.

Thanks again for the advice, and I will let you know what I find (and if 
I need any parts).

Jeff