Mk1 N/A servicing

[lurcher10]

Coming up to 6 months ownership, and a service would probably be a good idea.
There`s a MrT within a few miles, but I wonder if anyone in the Derby area knows an alternative.
Unfortunately, Mr Woods lives too far away!

[Lauren]

Coming up to 6 months ownership, and a service would probably be a good idea.
There`s a MrT within a few miles, but I wonder if anyone in the Derby area knows an alternative.
Unfortunately, Mr Woods lives too far away!

Do not go to MrT they will fleece you and probalby willy it up.

Seriously, why not do it yourself?

Its not hard to change the oil, put new spark plugs in etc. This is the kind of thing with practice ought to take no longer than say ten mins for an oil change plus another ten to change the plugs. you can visually inspect everything else.

[lurcher10]

Coming up to 6 months ownership, and a service would probably be a good idea.
There`s a MrT within a few miles, but I wonder if anyone in the Derby area knows an alternative.
Unfortunately, Mr Woods lives too far away!

Do not go to MrT they will fleece you and probalby c0ck it up.

Seriously, why not do it yourself?

Its not hard to change the oil, put new spark plugs in etc. This is the kind of thing with practice ought to take no longer than say ten mins for an oil change plus another ten to change the plugs. you can visually inspect everything else.

I`ve been thinking on those lines, Lauren. I used to do work on my motors many years ago, but for a long time now I`ve paid to have the work done. I never was much good at `mechanicing` but with the labour costs at garages nowadays, it`s probably time to have a go again.
Just need a bit of confidence, I suppose..wouldn`t want to make a mess of it..<pray>

[Lauren]

Honest, its not difficult.

Things like changing the oil is a really good starting point in basic servicing. The key i find with doing these things, is simply to take your time and allocate a morning or day to do it.

Mark normally ends up doing my oil changes as he seems to like doing this sort of thing. I tend to do all the suspension stuff on our cars. Anyways last week i did my own oil change on the engine which took me about ten mins! Then i did the gear oil, another ten mins! With a bit of prep you can do this stuff with no problems at all. remember you always have us long suffering lot on the list to help you out if you have any questions.

For an oil change simply go to MrT and buy an oil filter and new sump washer. It won't cost over £9. Then zoom off to halfords and get some oil. we use magnatec in MK1 NA's.

You don't actually have to jack the car up to change the oil, you can simply take off the dizzy cap and reach over and unscrew the oil filter, though you'll need a good reach to do this.

If like me you are on the shorter side (!) then i prefer to jack the car up and do it from underneath. Invest in a jack and a pair of axle stands if you don't have them already.

Basically jack the car up under the rear gearbox mount as high as the jack will go, then put an axle stand under each rear sill on the jacking points, lower car onto axle stands, so it is then safe to go underneath it.

I popped under the car and gave the filter a quick test to make sure i could undo it by hand. Then put a catch can under the sump, get a 14mm socket and undo the sump plug, make sure you don't drop it in the catch can and let the oil drain. Then go back under and unscrew the filter.

Get the new filter and wipe some new oil around the top and screw that in place just hand tight will do fine.

Then put new sump plug washer on and screw sump plug back on.

Now all you have to do is put the oil in, job done!

HTH

[lurcher10]

Now there`s a thing!
A couple of weeks ago I aquired a second hand jack and a couple of axle stands, purely because they were so cheap! So there`s no excuse now..

Now I`d better get a Haynes from the Mk1 club, as a bit of insurance, and get my finger out!

Thanks for the jacking tip, I`d been wondering where the best place is, I`ve read conflicting ideas, I`ll go with yours.

Many thanks for your help Lauren, much appreciated

Geoff

[Lauren]

No probs, glad to be of help.

You may be interested in this:

http://www.manual.mr2.net/

Mark my boyf and MR2 geek has scanned the whole of the BGB and now has it online. Really he did it so that we had a permanent copy of it as our own BGB was getting a bit tatty.

Needless to say it took him months to scan 1100pages, so he's offered it up on a subscription basis. I'm not trying to sell it to you, obviously its up to you if you want to go with that, but as its the official toyota manual it has quite a lot more detail than the haynes manual.

that said for basic servicing the haynes manual will suffice no probs.

[lurcher10]

Nice to know what is available, thanks. Hope I get to the stage where I need one !

(Starts looking for spanners he knew he once had.....dammit, only rusty BSF and Whitworths)

[Icsunonove]

When I first got mine it had no service history. Having just snapped a cambelt in my everyday car, and working 13hrs a day, 7 days a week, I had to take it to Inchcape in Derby. I told them to service everything and fix anything that was wrong. Well they did that, but the bill came to £980!!!

On a serious note if you get stuck I don't mind popping round to help. I am only 10 or 15 mins from Spondon

Alternatively I could service it for you at my house for a few quid. I am in Ripley. I am "in between jobs" at the moment and every little helps!

Tom

[Lauren]

Nice to know what is available, thanks. Hope I get to the stage where I need one !

(Starts looking for spanners he knew he once had.....dammit, only rusty BSF and Whitworths)

Whitworths? Thats going back some!!

All you need for the MK1 is:

(mm)
8
10
12
14
17
19
24 (gearbox oil filler/drain)
30 (hub nuts)

Those sizes in sockets and spanners up to 19mm.

[lurcher10]

Thanks for the offer Tom. Much appreciated. I`ve got a couple of pals from Ripley, as you say, not far away! Be nice to have a chat about Mk1`s sometime ?

Lauren, you mean mine are obsolete ?
Probably got all I need from your list, though might treat meself to some new `uns
Now see what you`ve started?

[BenF]

I'd deffo say do it yourself. Servicing on the mk1 and Mk2 (even turbo) just requies you to check and re-torque a few things, (eg belts, subframe, brake pads, tyres) as well as change the oil and change the spark plugs.

I've just done my turbo this evening and taking my time, plus changing the oil with a flushing oil before putting the new oil in only took me a couple of hours, and that included taking tools down to the car, setting up and then packing up and driving to a waste oil dump later in the evening.

Other than spanners, I'd recommend a 2 tonne trolly jack and a 3/8 socket set, plus some 'wobbler' extensions. No doubt you've got all of these stashed away somewhere though if you've done your own work in the past.

You can buy all the bits in Halfords, or online look for Screwfix and Machiene mart and they'll deliver it all to your doorstep (!)

[PW@Woodsport]

All you need for the MK1 is:

(mm)
8
10
12
14
17
19
24 (gearbox oil filler/drain)
30 (hub nuts)

Add a 21mm to the list,wheelnuts.

[Mk1 Turbo Powered Steve]

A question for Lauren or Paul!

How comes i have never had a problem changing the oil filter on my my old na or my Dads but when it came to doing this on my sc i had megga problems,just couldn't get my hand on the oil filter enough to change it!

Had to take it into my local garage to sort the problem,costs me 20 quid everytime though,just to take the filter off and me supplying the filter and oil!

[PW@Woodsport]

same here steve,Na's seem to come off without hassle....SC filters seem welded on!! might be due to the fact you have to be a contortionist to get at it from below past the air con etc,ive no answer why they seem tighter but i do agree with you,every SC ive serviced has been a B*****D!

[lurcher10]

Moral for me in there!
Stick to NA`s

BTW, a good rummage round leaves me just a couple of the large sockets short of what I need.

So, when the weather picks up a bit....!

[Lauren]

A question for Lauren or Paul!

How comes i have never had a problem changing the oil filter on my my old na or my Dads but when it came to doing this on my sc i had megga problems,just couldn't get my hand on the oil filter enough to change it!

Had to take it into my local garage to sort the problem,costs me 20 quid everytime though,just to take the filter off and me supplying the filter and oil!

Its funny Mark and I have not had any problem with our three SCs. If a filter is tight its normally whoever did it last thats to blame!

Oh, Steve, the airfilter on your old car came off very easily, which i was most relieved at. Didn't fancy the screwdriver trick with me lying underneath it!

[Mk1 Turbo Powered Steve]

Good to hear you had no problem getting the oilfilter off!

What filter have you replaced it with?

From all the info i managed to find the Champion one came out best in tests and the Toyota one was one of the worst!

So i have always stuck with Champion!

[Lauren]

Good to hear you had no problem getting the oilfilter off!

What filter have you replaced it with?

From all the info i managed to find the Champion one came out best in tests and the Toyota one was one of the worst!

So i have always stuck with Champion!

I replaced it with a toyota one.

[lurcher10]

Out of interest, Lauren, I was in Halfords today and noted the price of Magnatec at £24 ish for 4.5 litres. Just along the road at Costco,(now getting quite a lot of car-care products in) the price was £14 ish.
Not much difference, is there?

[Icsunonove]

Geoff,

If you need the large sockets and don't want to buy them, you are welcome to borrow mine (as long as I get them back!).

Tom