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I've mentioned my cars a few times in various threads and figured that I've done enough to the little shits over the past few years to fill a thread of their own. I've been running a facebook group for a while and have posted every few days (more like once a week if I'm lucky) with various things that I've done to my herd of Soarers over the last few years. Most of it is aimed at Soarer enthusiasts, so rather than copy/paste it in or just link to the group, I'll make a lovely attempt to provide something remotely interesting. Ok, on to the Soarers.... Back in 2006, I was into two kinds of cars - '90s Japanese sports coupes, and American V8 muscle cars. It didn't take long to find out that there was only ever one V8 sports coupe to ever come out of Japan in the 90's: the Toyota Soarer. Originally a competitor for the Nissan Skyline, the third generation model was developed in the late 1980s along with the Celsior to launch Toyota's 'Lexus' brand in the USA. The Lexus SC is the sister car to the Soarer, and shares an almost identical chassis, but the cars themselves are remarkably different in many ways, and as usual with exported designs in the 90's, the Japanese kept all the good bits for themselves. There are 5 Soarer chassis codes, in addition to the SC300 and SC400 (which I won't really mention again, because I know very little about them other than the parts which the share with Soarers). The 'original and best' third gen Soarer was the JZZ30. This came with a 1JZGTE engine mated to a A340E 4-speed automatic. This was the fastest and most desirable Soarer, it had optional TEMS (which provided varied damping force), and was available in 5-speed manual form. It later received a VVTi version of the engine with a single turbo. The manual and single turbo cars are by far the most valuable Soarers. The older automatic cars are worth less than their engines, and are often bought to be broken for parts. The JZZ31 was similar to the SC300, with a 2JZ-GE engine. This is regarded as the 'poverty spec' car, by far the cheapest, but also the lightest and most economical. There were 3 Soarers available with the 'all new' 1UZFE V8 from the LS400. They are mostly similar, with the main difference being the suspension type: The UZZ30 was similar to the SC400. It features coil spring suspension, leather seats were optional, as was the premium entertainment/navigation system which featured the 'Electro Multivision', or EMV, one of the first touch screen based entertainment systems to be found in a road car. The UZZ31 was the most common V8 Soarer, it has air bag suspension and many more things (such as leather seats) as standard. The UZZ32 was flagship model, costing 8 million yen in 1991 (a small fortune). It is the most advanced model which features fully active hydropneumatic suspension and active 4WS. It's one of the most advanced suspension systems ever put into a road car. Only 872 of these cars were produced, the second shorted production run after the 2000GT. It gets almost every 'option' box pre ticked, including some hilarious things such as sonic wing mirrors which physically shake rain water off. I decided that the UZZ32 was the one for me! At this point, I had only just bought my first car, was in university, and had no mechanical ability whatsoever. Fortunately, I had plenty of time to figure it all out - finding a UZZ32 for sale is somewhat challenging... Six years later, a white '32 appeared on eBay. I had just changed jobs, had space, time and money to tackle a project car, and was sick of daily driving a Ford Mondeo. I thought 'gently caress it' and bought it sight unseen from a seller who lived 200 miles from me, but who agreed to deliver it to my door. What better way to learn about cars than on something old, hard to find parts for, and stupidly overcomplicated? The photos below are from the advert, and were all I had to go on along with a good description of the car. Little did I know that 3 years later I'd have a driveway full of rare Japanese coupes, and garage full of poo poo for these cars.     The UZZ32 is now somewhat of a collector's item - with only 872 of them it's easy to track them by chassis code, and there's a group of people who spend way too long trying to track down each one of them. I'll update this thread as often as I can (I work odd but challenging hours at work). I've got two years worth of photos and story to write up, the challenge will be finding stuff that is interesting and relevant outside of the Soarer-nerd circles. For those who are interested in the suspension system on these cars, there's a few good websites dedicated to them. Here's some reading material: Overview of Toyotas design for this system. Goes quite in-depth. Teardown of a hydraulic suspension strut Teardown of a nitrogen accumulator - used instead of a spring. In the mean time, I know there's a few SC's about in AI, so please feel free to share pictures and depressing stories. Holy poo poo this was a long OP.
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Aug 19, 2015 23:01
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Holy poo poo, the sonic mirrors sound fantastic. I still haven't driven my poverty spec 2JZ Soarer yet. Go giant boats of a car!~
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Aug 19, 2015 23:33
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Didn't you buy a SC300 to strip it down for racing? If so, you picked the perfect car. They are over 500kg lighter than the UZZ32!
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Aug 19, 2015 23:34
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There is an SC400 of some description for sale right across the street from my office. They want $4500 and it's an auto  I've always loved the crazy rear end door hinges on these beasts.
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Aug 19, 2015 23:42
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Those door hinges are right up there with the Phaeton trunk hinges in the nonexistent 'top 10 best hinges' award. It's a clever design that moves the door forward and twists it back on itself so you can actually get out of the drat thing in a parking lot. They are under a huge force from the weight of the door, though, and the needle bearings inside them often collapse, which leads to the door dropping slightly and scraping the front fender as it opens All SC400s are auto, Toyota never sold a UZ series engine with a manual (much to everyone's disgust). The auto box is considered part of the engine - they share the same ECU, etc on almost every car. They do work very well together. It's a good auto box.
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Aug 19, 2015 23:46
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I have only seen a few soarers driving around and one was riced out with 2 huge fart cans, it was a beat. They are a sweet rare car for sure. I love me pre 2000 toyotas.
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Aug 19, 2015 23:46
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The wiring on these cars is loving nuts and everything has its own ECM. We got ours down to 2900lbs w/ full fluids and no driver (1315kg). It was 3500lbs (1587kg) when we started.
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Aug 20, 2015 00:08
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Phone posted:The wiring on these cars is loving nuts and everything has its own ECM. I know right? There's gotta be like 3 miles of wire in these things. But then you realize just how much work all those modules are doing without multiplexing or other modern computery stuff (or mechanical/electromechanical stuff, to go in the other direction) and it starts to make sense. Turbo Fondant fucked around with this message at 00:50 on Aug 20, 2015 |
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Aug 20, 2015 00:33
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Just curious, about how many of the UZZ32 still exist?
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Aug 20, 2015 00:39
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mariooncrack posted:Just curious, about how many of the UZZ32 still exist? And how many of them are currently in your driveway? 
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Aug 20, 2015 01:02
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There's about 200 UZZ32's that we know of left in the world. I've got 2 in my driveway, plus a parts car that lives in a junkyard that I can "just take whatever you want whenever and we won't charge you" because I've thrown so much money at them. I've worked on plenty more. I just passed up the chance to buy a third for next to nothing, but it needed work and I couldn't bear to break it for parts. There's about 40 ECMs in the car, 3 miles of wiring is probably quite accurate. This thing has separate modules for things like 'hydraulic engine fan control', 'mirror vibration control' (on top of the normal mirror controller), 'power steering flow solenoid control'. The stereo system is 5 separate modules, not including the touchscreen and its separate computer. ABS, TRC, cruise, all separate modules. Even the gauge cluster performs critical functions (it translates the speed sensor readings). But the TCU is built into the ECU so that's a plus! There is a weird CAN-style network for the entertainment subsystems, but only for their control from the touchscreen - they also have between 30 and 60 wires each for all their inputs and outputs. What's great is that there is no standard colours for 12v or ground wires at any time. And there's always the chance that the guy making your loom ran out of 'red with a black stripe and 2 silver bands', and used some plain green instead. Makes it fun when trying to follow wiring schematics (which are all in Japanese anyway!) If you think that's nuts, wait till we talk hydraulics. The UZZ32 is hydraulic crazy - the only non-hydraulic thing that the engine drives is the alternator and distributors. It has an external hydraulic fan, two power steering pumps, a variable displacement pump for the suspension, hydro boost brakes, and of course a torque converter. There are 5 different hydraulic fluids in use under the hood. The UZZ32 engine has a huge timing plate to hold all this crap, making timing belt changes a nightmare (it's a 2 day job on this car). Edit: My driveway a few months back when the green one arrived: 
Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 01:33 on Aug 20, 2015 |
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Aug 20, 2015 01:26
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That's fairly untrue; the manual that we had labeled everything correctly and was consistent throughout the wiring diagrams. There was a metric fuckton of it and things had secret grounds into the kicker panels, but it's just quantity.
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Aug 20, 2015 01:35
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I had an SC400 way back when, and I remember it being from the era of Toyota really going berserk on technology. For the early 90s that car was pure insanity. I came quite close to owning an SC300 manual about 10 years ago for a turbo kit install, but ended up with an Evo. The SCs were great cars.
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Aug 20, 2015 05:50
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I do seem to remember some earlier SC400s being able to be converted to manual, but it took a lot of electronics wizardry (and possibly living with a CEL forever). Their ECUs around that time also suffered from the same leaking capacitor issue that plagued many electronics from the mid 90s up until fairly recently. Friend had a SC400 that he wound up having to scrap because just about every module in the car was failing due to that capacitor issue.  It would have cost too much to repair/replace all of the modules. The car was rough to begin with, so it wasn't a massive loss, but he hated parting with it.They really are beautiful cars; I'm not usually found of the bubble shape that a lot of 90s cars had, but Toyota nailed it with the SC/Soarer. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 08:56 on Aug 20, 2015 |
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Aug 20, 2015 08:54
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They do suffer from capacitors wearing out, for sure. I must have replaced hundreds of capacitors between my two cars. I know someone who has replaced every capacitor in his UZZ32, around a thousand in total. I get the feeling that the UZZ32 was only produce to show off what they could do, and test whether the things they introduced would work in future vehicles. Some things were a success. My fathers 2012 Avensis has an almost identical 'car info' screen on its touch screen, which I find amusing. The engine still lives on, having evolved into the UR series V8. Some things were kinda seen again. I think a few Toyota SUVs got semi active hydropneumatic suspension, with the Citroen 'ball' style accumulators. A few Lexus cars got electric rear wheel steering - which is a much better idea than the all-hydraulic-but-with-an-electric-motor-and-a-steel-cable-from-the-front-steering-rack-to-both-work-together-to-operate-the-valves system. Some things were quickly forgotten (shakey mirrors, anyone?) The styling generally gets positive reactions - the cars are rare as hell outside of the US and are quite the head-turner. Nobody seems to like the separate high-beams in the front bumper - a solution is to fit HID high/low beam units in place of the standard headlights and fiberglass over the high beam holes.
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Aug 20, 2015 10:22
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This is a good thread. Are you going to be digging deep into restoring the systems on the car or do they largely work. I know the 3000GT had active suspension and active aero and 4 wheel steer and all this other crazy poo poo and a a result, it was one of the few cars to have LESS features every year as a result. Did these fancy tech barges hold up better?
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Aug 20, 2015 14:09
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Slow is Fast posted:Are you going to be digging deep into restoring the systems on the car or do they largely work. I started off slow and got steadily deeper into the abyss. Right now I'm covered in suspension fluid, as is my driveway and garage floor. This seems to happen once or twice a month, with various fluids. One of them mostly works, the other is turning into a giant hole which I am just pouring money and hydraulic oil into. I'll write some updates (backdates?) later tonight if I get a chance. I originally wrote loads of updates for my facebook group, but will combine a load of them and gloss over the nerdy poo poo to get you guys up to speed. Edit: missed this Slow is Fast posted:I know the 3000GT had active suspension and active aero and 4 wheel steer and all this other crazy poo poo and a a result, it was one of the few cars to have LESS features every year as a result. Did these fancy tech barges hold up better? The 3000GT/GTO is on my wishlist, I will own one of them someday! And yes, it will be a VR4 with all the good poo poo (earliest facelift was in 1994/5, those were the last ones before things got cut). I used to own a Legnum VR4 which has a similar drivetrain, that thing was brutal. The UZZ32 gained a few features - about 80% of them were made in 1991, but 1992 onwards cars got heated seats and an outside temperature sensor. 1994+ cars got R134a gas in the AC system and benefited from the general Soarer 1994 facelift. But there's only about 60 of those. They stopped making the car in 1994 and the last one was sold in 1996. It was most likely a financial disaster for the company considering the amount of R&D that went into them and the low sales. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Aug 20, 2015 |
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Aug 20, 2015 18:34
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I love the SC's and have come close to buying one a couple times, including a 5spd sc300. Of course this thread made me go look at CL and found a 5spd swapped sc400 I know its a terrible idea, but I still want it.
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Aug 20, 2015 19:04
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To continue moldyseatchat from the other thread: There's a bit of a drought of these things in the wreckers, basically since I bought mine I've seen precisely one (and it was hosed). I've got Row52 set to notify me when one comes in, so that's a waiting game at this point.
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Aug 20, 2015 22:44
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For now I would clean the foam out with warm soapy water, then use bicarbonate of soda (baking) to kill off what is left. I would dry them out inside (garage or greenhouse is preferable) once I was sure that the mould had been scrubbed as much as possible.
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Aug 21, 2015 00:32
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I've loved the UZZ32 since I first heard about it. It's like a complete clusterfuck of Citroën's insanity and Toyota's tech wizardry, it's glorious.
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Aug 21, 2015 13:05
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I bought my first SC400 a few months ago and instantly fell in love, now I have to sell it because we're moving across the country and it won't carry our zoo comfortably. It could do without the beast of a door hinge, though. Mine has the worn out bolt on the driver's side so it cracks and slides when opening and closing. Looking forward to seeing someone else working on one until I can get another 
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Aug 21, 2015 13:51
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Don't sell it! In fact, buy more! I know of a guy in Australia who has 6 UZZ32's and many more Soarers as well. The road outside his house permanently looks like there's a club meeting going on. I'm not sure why anyone needs that many of the same freaking car, but since I'm part way there myself, I'm not in a position to comment.
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Aug 21, 2015 19:15
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OK, update time. Let's get you up to speed on what I did to this loving car in the first year of owning it. This post is not really in chronological order, it's in 'this is the order that Imgur uploaded the photos' order. I've glossed over parts because I don't want to spend a month posting about loads of things that I did last year. I also did a load of other things that I don't have pictures for, such as rebuilding the brake calipers, removing and painting a million tiny hose brackets, flushing the transmission fluid and coolant (not together). Found a gently caress load of PO fuckery-ied wiring. Ripped all that poo poo out and started fresh. The original stereo setup includes the EMV unit, EMV computer, tape player, CD stacker, amplifier, subwoofer amplifier, and radio tuner. The tape player and CD stacker were missing. I pulled the tuner and extended the antenna wires to the tape player location, where I installed a shallow stereo unit (standard sized ones don't fit neatly - they bump the airbag computer). The amplifier is in the trunk, as is the connections to all the speakers. I ran a set of wires from the stereo to the trunk, and used AW11 MR2 stereo adapters to connect to the speakers. I used these adapters again to power my stereo (the adapters themselves are useless as it's a totally different car, but the plugs fit perfectly, as far as I know, these adapters are the only source of Soarer male stereo wiring harness connectors)     Figured out how to wire the aux out from my stereo into the stock subwoofer amplifier, and trick the acr into turning the subwoofer amplifier and antenna amplifier on with the radio. Pulled the interior apart to run those wires neatly alongside the stock wires.  Repaired my broken EMV. Bought another EMV and repaired that as well. At this point I had 2 working EMVs (I now have 6, and run a side business in repairing them). You just gotta be able to solder capacitors.       Got upset at my cracked door cars. All Soarers have them. Got me some uncracked ones and fiberglassed the poo poo out of them to hold them together. They ain't ever cracking now. Threw my cracked ones in the garbage.       Also did this little dash piece, which seems to snap easily.  Melted my broken window regulator tab right back on that fucker. Those things are expensive to replace as a unit.  Got some sweet BBS wheels from a Nissan Z32 non-turbo. Same fitment as a Soarer with some spigot rings. Cleaned those bitches up and threw some Hankooks on 'em. Love the wheels, love the tyres.     Mounted the LED for my aftermarket alarm to make it look stock. Found the only set of non-cracked Soarer centre vents in the history of the world not really, those things are pretty loving hard ot find though, and fiberglassed the poo poo out of them.   Broke a wheel stuf. Went crying to AI about what to do about the rest of my studs. Got told to change all my studs. Changed all my studs.  Stripped and painted my janky-rear end wiper arms.  Stripped and painted my janky-rear end hood struts.  Wiped some snow from the front fender.   Found out why the aftermarket reversing camera wasn't working. Pushing wires into the connectors is rarely the answer... AW11 MR2 stereo harness adapters is definitely the answer though!  Fiberglassed a broken spoiler mount that was making the spoiler go bwumpbwumpbwumpbwumpbwumpbwump on the highway and slowly destroying my paintwork.  Changed the parking brake shoes as the parking break didn't seem to work no matter what. It still barely holds the car in P/D when pulled as hard as I can, but now I know the shoes are good!  Cleaned the crap out of the windscreen cowl, cleaned up the disgusting wiper mechanism   Found some wood trim for the EMV, ashtray and shifter surround. This stuff is rare as hell!  Took apart my cruise control actuator to try and stop it jerking. It moves between 1 and 4 mph per click on the stalk. Turns out it's the mph converter loving with the car - the cruise control takes readings from the dash and the ECU to determine speed, and since these are different by 1.6x, it gets confused as gently caress.  Found a UZZ32 in a junk yard. Drove 3 hours and ripped all the UZZ32-related bits from it, Including all the suspension bits, both steering racks, gauge cluster, loads of ECUs, all 4 accelerometers, yaw sensor, height control sensors, and loads of general bits.        Fiberglassed and re-chrome-painted my side repeaters. I have clear repeaters on this car, these are apparently rare/hard-to-find/expensive, so I fixed mine up rather than look for new ones. Stock ones are orange, which look fine, but not so nice on a white car.   Had a hydraulic shop modify a banjo bolt to take a pressure gauge which they also built up for me. Soarer suspension pumps should produce a constant 1720psi, a ~50psi deviation either way will cause the system to malfunction. The pressure can be adjusted via a set screw on the pump that is a huge pain in the rear end to reach. Tiny adjustments will have drastic changes in ride comfort/firmness. The 'can' pictured here is an accumulator, fluid enters and exits through the bottom, the top is filled with pressurised nitrogen gas, and a set of copper bellows sit between these two to dampen pulsations from the pump. There are 8 accumulators total in this system, this is just one of them. It's also a really convenient place to measure pump pressure, and since you've taken the plastic arch liner off, you are right there to clean the suspension fluid tank filters and magnets.   Polished my headlights with Plast-X. These things normally go cloudy after about 6 months so I put some  headlight tint on to protect them. You can get that poo poo in clear so it's perfect for protecting your plastic lights.  Windscreen got cracked 'cause the seal failed and rust built up underneath it. Cut that loser out, ground back the rust, painted it, had some guys fit a junkyard windscreen. Went for a bronze tinted screen from a poverty-spec Soarer (Soarer 'class' can be determined by windscreen tint colour, but only the biggest Soarer losers on the planet know this). The bronze fits my tan interior better than the classy green tinted screens. My UZZ32 is now a sleeper among stock-looking Soarers.      Admired it in a parking lot  Held my passenger side mirror on with tape for a while after the clips broke. Used some of that 'gently caress you nails, its all about gluing your house together now' stuff to reattach the glass. Still good 2 years later.  Stripped my spare suspension struts and put them into storage just in case I need bits I needed bits    Crashed it, hosed the front bumper. Cable-tied that thing together (using white cable ties for a professional 'JDM drift stitch' look). Also cracked the suspension radiator. Drove 200 miles home with no power steering or active suspension, having cut the serpentine belt for the suspension and power steering pumps (had no tools to release the tensioner). Changed the suspension radiator. Got covered in hydraulic fluid (this happens quite regularly). Used most of a roll of shop towels (this also happens quite regularly).   Changed the oil like 10-15 times as I do 30,000-50,000 miles per year and the engine calls for a 3000 mile interval. Official Toyota oil is the cheapest 10W-40 I can find at £13 for 5 litres. Official Toyota suspension fluid, on the other hand, is the most expensive poo poo, at £60 for 5 litres.  Took some pictures of it looking pretty!    So, yeah. That's that car. Coming next: I buy another UZZ32 and we do it all again.
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Aug 22, 2015 19:54
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I drove the white car for a few years until I got offered a job in the Caribbean for 6 months (which was pretty sweet). The week before I returned, I got drunk and browsed eBay. There was a 'toyota soarer v8' on there with minimal description - just a list of faults. Fortunately, even from the lovely cell phone pictures I recognised the UZZ32 engine bay. I slapped a drunk £1000 bid on it and flew my rear end home a few days later. Turns out, the lovely eBay ad worked in my favour, and for a moderate three-figure sum, I won another loving UZZ32. I took a train up to Leeds and proceeded to drive home on the jankiest tyres known to man,on a car with inactive hydraulic suspension and very questionable steering, with no 4th gear and a wing mirror held on with parcel tape. Oh, and the battery is named Jack, apparently. Here's some photos from the ad. At the time I didn't even notice it had some '90s Rays wheels on it  This thing was a mess, and had it not been a UZZ32, I'd have parted it out right away. I didn't have the heart to break a '32, so I spent the next 3 months (and more, its still unfinished) making this pig my daily driver.            
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Aug 30, 2015 23:08
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ShittyPostmakerPro posted:(the adapters themselves are useless as it's a totally different car, but the plugs fit perfectly, as far as I know, these adapters are the only source of Soarer male stereo wiring harness connectors) Huh. There was a fully functioning adapter harness for the Nakamichi system in my car when I got it, RCA jacks to send line level audio to the factory amp and everything. Trashed it because the aftermarket radio was major theftbait and sounded like poo poo, and had no use for it.
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Aug 31, 2015 03:46
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Yeah, there are adapters for those systems, the EMV-equipped cars have the audio components spread out all over the place, and I've yet to hear of a stock, complete harness for those.
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Aug 31, 2015 08:40
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OK, so I get this thing home around the end of May and spent an hour or so looking over it.  Headlight full of condensation. This happens all the loving time and nobody ever has a good solution to fix it other than 'check they are full sealed, check the vents arent blocked, and make sure your undertrays are fitted'.  Some damage to the clearcoat  Driving 100 miles home with a parcel-taped wing mirror was really something awful. The noise of the tape flapping around was unbearable.  These tyres are apparently legal, having passed inspection recently.  Some random aftermarket single-point parking sensor. Of course it doesn't work, and is now just a big fuckign hole in my bumper.  This cheap lovely 'L' badge swings hilariously as I drive along, scratching the paintwork.  'Engine electrical' fault on the barely working combination meter. Speedo reads 0 when travelling above 40kph. Lol  Structural tape to hold the overdrive button down, allowing me to use 4th gear on the highway.  Jack the battery. The brown tape came into play after I stopped for fuel and couldn't start the car. The terminals were bent out of shape and wouldn't fully tighten.  An old, crusty engine bay.  Dry-rotted and cracked boots on most parts. Old, brittle hoses everywhere, a broken oil cap (who does this?) and a rusty brown serpentine belt.     Rotten carpet on the bottom of the door card. This door card is split, as usual on these cars.  Pulling the interior revealed a poorly installed drivers door lock, with maskign tape holding the connectors to the door shell (right next to the holes that they clip into), and no weather shield.   And after removing trim below the steering wheel, I was greated with one of the shittiest alarm installs I've ever seen.     So far, the list of issues: Brake fluid leak Broken wing mirror lovely alarm wiring Broken overdrive switch Gauge cluster works 25% of the time Speedometer tops out at 40kph 'Engine electrical' fault Broken drivers wing mirror Rear badges all lovely, hole in rear bumper Tyres are hosed lovely alarm install EMV screen does not work (naturally) CD player doesn't work Headlights are full of water Interior is filthy, some parts are cracked. Suspension system is leaking Active suspension feels rock hard, as if the sealed nitrogen accumulators have leaked.
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Sep 15, 2015 17:50
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No, that looks like a fairly standard alarm installation job. At least as far as all the ones I've ever seen. Some people need to be hung by their toenails and whipped with 12 gauge wire until they bleed.
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Sep 16, 2015 04:36
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Ah yes, "Engine System". How useful.
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Sep 16, 2015 04:50
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You dont do repairs on other toyota ecu's do you? I'm too lazy and cackhanded to solder new caps on mine when they go.
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Sep 16, 2015 09:16
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track day bro! posted:You dont do repairs on other toyota ecu's do you? I'm too lazy and cackhanded to solder new caps on mine when they go. Can do, it's the same procedure for most ECUs. Send me a PM, I'm away until the 26th with limited internet so might not reply right away
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Sep 17, 2015 12:50
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Looks like the Soarer guys are just like the MK3 Supra guys. We spend (well, I used to spend) way too much on parts and fixes for cars that most people really don't care about. I loved my Japanese muscle car, and it looks like yours are receiving lots of love as well. Except that green POS. You should have put that pig out to pasture!
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Sep 17, 2015 18:51
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Nocheez posted:Except that green POS. You should have put that pig out to pasture! I'm too far down the well to be saved! All I can do now is throw more money into this piece of poo poo. Ok, so, here's some things I did to fix up this car. I'm going to try and post a load at once over the next few days to get up to current events. Swapped the broken mirror mount with one from a spare mirror which I bought because I needed the vibrate/heater parts. This required re-pinning the connectors which was somewhat tedious.  Mirror = fixed! Stripped down the broken EMV. Found the backlight tube to have a broken wire. Not sure what the function of the wire is, maybe a trigger wire for the tube. I can't repair this, so I pulled another EMV unit out of my pile of fixed EMVs.    All good.  Removed the window tint. The rear glass left behind a shitload of gunk which took several hours across a few days to remove. Pro tip: oven cleaner dissolves the glue better than IPA, mineral spirits and acetone, smells better than gasoline, and doesn't harm the heater/antenna wires.   Stripped the interior. Jet washed the carpet, mats and headliner. Cleaned all the leather and vinyl parts. Treated the seats with some leather restorer.     Found a hilarious soldered-over fuse. These are normally expensive but fortunately I have a complete fuse box from the junkyard to pull from.  Pulled the ECU, replaced the capacitors to try and fix any phantom 'engine electrical' issues. This didn't fix the issue but some capacitors were leaking so it was worth doing before they caused more problems.   The engine electrical issues were to do with the TPS and the right-side cam position sensor. The TPS tested fine, and just needed some adjustment to line up the internal idle switch.   Removed that lovely Lexus badge. gently caress you, PO.  Also ripped out all aftermarket wiring, putting the car back to stock. Then re-wired the rear foglight to one reversing light (I prefer it to the dumb add-on lights that everyone seems to put on imports) and fitted a red lamp (this is road legal). Still to do: Brake fluid leak Broken overdrive switch Gauge cluster works 25% of the time Speedometer tops out at 40kph 'Engine electrical' fault for the cam sensor Boot lid all lovely, hole in rear bumper Tyres are hosed CD player doesn't work Headlights are full of water Suspension system is leaking Active suspension feels rock hard, as if the sealed nitrogen accumulators have leaked. Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Sep 28, 2015 |
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Sep 28, 2015 20:57
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Next up was the other 'engine electrical' fault. This was error code EFI 13, for the right hand cam position sensor. I spent a long time trying to track down the source of this error. It can be caused by: Faulty sensor Faulty ECU Faulty wiring Misaligned sprockets (the engine will run pretty well if one cam is off by one tooth, and the 1UZ is known for jumping teeth during hard use). While pulling the engine covers off, I found a hilarious aftermarket spark plug wire - this was not even terminated at the distributor end, and was just shoved into the rotor cap.  (also note the large chopstick being used to confirm #1 TDC) Here it is next to an OEM wire.  No idea how to read plugs for age, especially these Iridiums, but there was oil making its way up the ceramic and these things are meant to be changed every 100,000km. This car was at 101,000km and I had a set on my shelf so I changed them anyway.  I spent the next few hours swapping out the ECU, swapping out the sensor, metering the sensor, checking all wiring, checking timing again and again and doing everything obvious. After much searching, I found the cause of the issue - the reluctor ring on the left hand cam sprocket was missing entirely. This ring contains a single tooth which triggers the sensor on every revolution of the camshaft. The ring is on the rear of the sprocket and cannot simply 'fall off' - this ring was purposefully removed and discarded! Left:  Right:  You can see a 'good' sprocket on the left, and my sprocket on the right.  I ordered a replacement sprocket (along with many other parts), and mentally prepared myself for the 2-day timing belt replacement that lay ahead of me. Parts haul!!  Parts included: Replacement door card (as I mentioned previously, these often crack. Uncracked ones are expensive, and I use fiberglass to reinforce them to keep them uncracked! Cam sprocket and OEM plug wire Some new drivers door seals as water was getting in - turns out these weren't needed as mentioned below) Some trim bits to replace cracked interior trim Replacement window switch (the one in the car only goes down....I learnt this the hard way at 70mph, 40 miles from home). The ever desirable flip-down cup holder (this thing is useless for any 'modern' sized cups, but it looks cool). Badges!! Set of 16" BBS wheels with not-poo poo tyres to replace the Rays wheels with ever-so-poo poo tyres. I found the source of the drivers door leak - no weather seal at all! A piece of thick polyethylene bag and some butyl tape solved the problem!  (I also tidied up the wiring that was previously held on with masking tape) Fun fact, I am the owner of the last ever weather seal for a Soarer or SC in the world. I attempted to order a pair from Toyota and was given only one - there are apparently no records of any more in stock and they are no longer being produced. My one came from the US. I keep it to use as a template. The de-gunking of the rear window continues - this was a very uncomfortable job!  Finally managed to remove the centre security caps from the wheels to try to track down the suspension fluid leak  Found a split boot on the front left strut - not an immediate concern but this will let in dirt that will break down the external hydraulic shaft seals. More concerning is the oil patch on the front splash tray - the main suspension valve body is mounted behind the plastic vents, and is generally a pain to repair.  Also the brake caliper is partly stuck on. Cool I'm away from home for the next 2 weeks. Up next, I change a cam sprocket! Still to do: Brake fluid leak Broken overdrive switch Gauge cluster works 25% of the time Speedometer tops out at 40kph 'Engine electrical' fault for the cam sensor Boot lid all lovely, hole in rear bumper CD player doesn't work Headlights are full of water Suspension system is leaking Active suspension feels rock hard, as if the sealed nitrogen accumulators have leaked. One torn suspension boot Front left brake caliper is sticking Pomp and Circumcized fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Oct 15, 2015 |
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Oct 15, 2015 01:00
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These are such awesome cars and I dig the amount of detail in each of your updates. Those old plugs don't look too bad, but to your point it's worth the effort to replace them once they're out. Keep it coming, I can't wait to find out how that timing belt change goes.
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Oct 15, 2015 02:01
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Oh god, the timing belt. For those that have never had the joy - Even if you know exactly what to do and don't run into any problems, its a good 8 hours. Never again! Good luck!
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Oct 15, 2015 05:20
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Ahh this thread brings back memories of my TT that I sold back in December: The PO left me plenty to play with: -Cracked door trims, switches held in by silicone -Decent front mount coupled with a very cheap air filter -Hacked and exposed wiring everywhere. The new stereo was spliced into the air conditioner wiring. Someone tried to tap into the central locking wires for some reason and left them exposed. Exposed wires on the ECU. -Constant seatbelt light on, constant brake light out warning (more hacked wiring in the lights, one holder crushed beyond recognition) -Coolant the colour of coffee God knows how many owners it's had since being here in Aus... Still, once fixed it was a magnificent car. A big turbo barge, but it could get up and dance when it wanted to 
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Oct 19, 2015 06:21
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Haha, sounds like any other TT Soarer that's been passed from lovely PO to lovely PO. It's amazing how much you can fix on these cars simply by cutting out all the aftermarket poo poo that people stick on them and then repairing the stock wiring!
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Nov 15, 2015 21:18
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Time to change that cam sprocket. The front of the 1UZ engine on the UZZ32 is unique. It has a large aluminium front cover which covers the timing belt and is used to mount the suspension pump, alternator and AC compressor. It sits on long studs which forces you to slide it forwards about 6 inches before removal. This requires the radiator to come out. The radiator fan is it's own small hydraulic system, with tank, pump, motor, and hilariously its own radiator (this is a car where the radiator cooling fan needs its own radiator). This requires removing the tank, hoses and high pressure line, none of which is accessible becasue gently caress you Toyota. After that it's the standard affair of removing the trans cooler lines and radiator hoses and then half an hour of cursing everything else in the front of the car for stopping the radiator from coming out. Finally:   Pro tip: felt pens make the perfect tool to block the transmission cooler lines.  After that, it's a fairly simple process of removing bolts to gain access to the cover plate. The crank pulley bolt was removed using the 'long breaker bar under the chassis rail then bump the starter' technique, rather than the 'stuff a length of rope into a cylinder' technique which many 1UZ owners use. You can see how much of a pain in the rear end this is - the piles of hydraulic hoses in this picture are all in the way of the cover plate and need to be dropped down by a few inches to allow it to clear. The PS hoses, PS flow divider (splits the high pressure fluid between the two racks), and pulsation dampener all also need to be relocated downwards to allow this plate to be removed.  Remarkably, I only managed to strip one bolt in the whole processes. Unfortunately it's also the only left-hand threaded bolt which needed to be removed. I knew it was a LH thread but it bound up partway out, and would no longer move in either direction. It finally came out, taking around 4mm of threads with it. 30 minutes of blow torching and wire wheeling later, and this bitch is clean, and there's still plenty of threads left for it to bite onto.   With the cover plate off, its's a 5 minute job to replace the sprocket, followed by an hour or so to time this piece of poo poo. It usually takes me 2 or 3 tries to get the timing to line up after releasing the hydraulic tensioner - it's common for the timing to look fine, but for it to actually be off by one tooth, which isn't always apparent until you apply tension.  You can see the cover plate here during reassembly. You can also see the hilariously unnecessary power steering hose which travels across the engine bay twice for no apparent reason - the two ends of this hose are mounted right next to each other. My guess is that it exists for ease of construction and installation.  The radiator was original, and V8 Soarers are known for blowing radiator top tanks at around this age, so I bought a new rad and stuck the old one on eBay (as it's still fully working). My other '32 has had the same model of aftermarket radiator for 7 years, and it' s still going strong,.   After 3 days of work (working from around midday until 6pm), the car is back together and running with no errors! Excellent Next up, a bit of work on the interior, and dealing with the gauge cluster and speed sensor. Still to do: Brake fluid leak Broken overdrive switch Gauge cluster works 25% of the time Speedometer tops out at 40kph Boot lid all lovely, hole in rear bumper CD player doesn't work Headlights are full of water Suspension system is leaking Active suspension feels very hard, as if the sealed nitrogen accumulators have leaked. One torn suspension boot Front left brake caliper is sticking
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Nov 15, 2015 21:43
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