MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals

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Tue 17 Jul 2018 01:49
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - macski

I note my car has a service interval of 10,000 and 20,000 miles. Had the car serviced this spring, I do about 3,000 in the car, when do I need to service it next 3 and a half years time :)

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Tue 17 Jul 2018 10:50
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - skidpan

All manufacturers specify a distance and time interval for services. Even those with distance intervals that vary withy type of usage have a max time interval programmed in.

Your car will probaly have a service interval of 10,000 miles or 1 year and desopite doing only 3,000 miles a year you still need to carry out some work every 12 months. On a lightly used car like yours keeping to the manufactures exact schedule is probably a bit pointless. but there will be some checks/work that are needed and the MR2 forum will be the best place to check for these.

But some items are non-negotiable. An annual oil and filter change is far cheaper than a new engine. Any oil to the correct Toyota spec will be fine, most supermarkets sell oil that meets the standards for much less than such as Halfords but using a manufacturers filter makes sense unless the MR2 owners know of a comparable product. A coolant change is necessay but this will depend on the type of coolant used. Some are 2 years, some are 5 years, some mix with others some don't. If you are unsure when it was last done a good flush and refill with the correct concentration of a Toyota compatible brand is sensible. Consider that anitifreeze is also contains anti corrosion properties and those can degrade faster than the antifreeze properties so a quick check of the freeze point will be meaningless. Changing the brake fluid is surely obvious but some never bother.

The above cost peanuts in realation to your annual standing costs (insurance, VED, tyres, fuel etc).

With regards to tyres these can be easilly ignored on a low mileage car. Manufacturers recomemmend that they are changed at a max age of between 6 and 10 years (the manufacturing date is moulded into the sidewall). Rubber ages, the carcass ages and while the tread depth may be fine a 10 year old tyre will not be offering the same level of grip/safety that a new one will. No need to spend a fortune, I bought a set of sensibly priced Uniroyals for my low moileage Caterham last year, £200 for 4 fitted. Punctures and other disasters permitting I will replace after 10 years, thats £5 a year per tyre.

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Tue 17 Jul 2018 13:19
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - edlithgow

But some items are non-negotiable. An annual oil and filter change is far cheaper than a new engine.

Well, this is true, but not especially meaningful.

IF you generally get the engine fully warmed up on your infrequent uses its very doubtful that stretching the OCI beyond the standard 1 year recommendation is going to do significant harm. Its generally accumulated water from short tripping that is the reason for low use concern.

The other stuff, especially the brake fluid change, is unarguable. Again, its water (in this case absorbed by the brake fluid) that is potentially damaging. Brake fluid is cheap, you don't need very much, and doing it regularly stops your brake bleeders rusting up as well as preventing internal corrosion damage..

Edited by edlithgow on 17/07/2018 at 13:21

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Mon 23 Jul 2018 15:39
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - John F

But some items are non-negotiable. An annual oil and filter change is far cheaper than a new engine.

Well, this is true, but not especially meaningful.

An annual oil change is not only 'negotiable' but sometimes absurd for a very low mileage per annum car. In 1993 my TR7 had an oil change at 56,000m (CastrolGTX). In 1997, another at 58,100m (Castrol GTX), another in 2002 at 60,900m (semi-synth 10-40), another in 2013 at 66,700m ((10-40 mineral). The engine is 38yrs old, uses virtually no oil and works perfectly. In that time, many MR2s and MX5s have come...and gone. I might change it later this year - if it gets to 71,000m. There is a lot of rubbish about oil 'going off' after 365 days.

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Thu 26 Jul 2018 19:04
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - skidpan

But some items are non-negotiable. An annual oil and filter change is far cheaper than a new engine.

Well, this is true, but not especially meaningful.

An annual oil change is not only 'negotiable' but sometimes absurd for a very low mileage per annum car. In 1993 my TR7 had an oil change at 56,000m (CastrolGTX). In 1997, another at 58,100m (Castrol GTX), another in 2002 at 60,900m (semi-synth 10-40), another in 2013 at 66,700m ((10-40 mineral). The engine is 38yrs old, uses virtually no oil and works perfectly. In that time, many MR2s and MX5s have come...and gone. I might change it later this year - if it gets to 71,000m. There is a lot of rubbish about oil 'going off' after 365 days.

JohnF. You must realise by now that you are the only person on this planet that thinks its a good idea to go 11 years without an oil change even when you do a low mileage. I suggest you give up trying to convert us, instead why not use your time more wisely and change the oil. £15 should get you 5 litres of a suitable spec.

Or are you just a troll like I have suspected for quite a while now.

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Fri 27 Jul 2018 10:44
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - John F

Or are you just a troll like I have suspected for quite a while now.

' Numerous tales are recorded about trolls in which they are frequently described as being extremely old......slow and dim-witted' - Wikipedia.

Readers will doubtless arrive at their own opinions about which posters, if any, are trolls on this site.

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Sun 29 Jul 2018 17:33
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - edlithgow

But some items are non-negotiable. An annual oil and filter change is far cheaper than a new engine.

Well, this is true, but not especially meaningful.

An annual oil change is not only 'negotiable' but sometimes absurd for a very low mileage per annum car.

JohnF. You must realise by now that you are the only person on this planet that thinks its a good idea to go 11 years without an oil change even when you do a low mileage.

Me too!

(I meant the "An annual oil and filter change is far cheaper than a new engine." was true but not especially meaningful, not the non-negotiable bit. Apologies for the slight ambiguity)

If you have a poke around on the Bob is The Oil Guy US oil-obsessives website you'll find quite a few others, along with many accounts of long-extended oil-change intervals, indefinate shelf life, and a notable lack of any evidence to the contrary.

I think I'm on about 5 years on the current fill. I might change it fairly soon but my concern is accumulated wear metals (which MAY be a particular issue with this engine) rather than oil breakdown.

IF I can be bothered and can work up a fairly simple way of cleaning the oil (maybe centifugation in a spin dryer?) I might go for seasonal changes but re-use the oil a few times.

The climate here in Taiwan isn't very hard on oil.

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Sun 29 Jul 2018 18:28
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - skidpan

' Numerous tales are recorded about trolls in which they are frequently described as being extremely old......slow and dim-witted' - Wikipedia.

No idea how old you are, no idea if you are slow but surely 11 years between oil changes proves you are dim witted. One out of three is surely enough proof.

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Mon 30 Jul 2018 10:54
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - John F

JohnF. You must realise by now that you are the only person on this planet that thinks its a good idea to go 11 years without an oil change even when you do a low mileage.

Me too!

.....

If you have a poke around on the Bob is The Oil Guy US oil-obsessives website you'll find quite a few others, along with many accounts of long-extended oil-change intervals, indefinate shelf life, and a notable lack of any evidence to the contrary.

Quite so. I have searched for such evidence and found none.

I think I'm on about 5 years on the current fill. I might change it fairly soon but my concern is accumulated wear metals (which MAY be a particular issue with this engine) rather than oil breakdown.

I don't understand your concern re 'accumulated wear metals' . I have never read of galling (the technical term) being a problem in the pressurised filtered lubrication of car engines. I suspect it dates from steam engine days.

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Mon 30 Jul 2018 21:26
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - edlithgow

JohnF. You must realise by now that you are the only person on this planet that thinks its a good idea to go 11 years without an oil change even when you do a low mileage.

Me too!

.....

If you have a poke around on the Bob is The Oil Guy US oil-obsessives website you'll find quite a few others, along with many accounts of long-extended oil-change intervals, indefinate shelf life, and a notable lack of any evidence to the contrary.

Quite so. I have searched for such evidence and found none.

I think I'm on about 5 years on the current fill. I might change it fairly soon but my concern is accumulated wear metals (which MAY be a particular issue with this engine) rather than oil breakdown.

I don't understand your concern re 'accumulated wear metals' . I have never read of galling (the technical term) being a problem in the pressurised filtered lubrication of car engines. I suspect it dates from steam engine days.

I think galling only describes one particular wear form, though I'd have to look it up to confirm that.

Clearly wear and metal particle production happens in all engines, but it'll be related to mileage so won't be a particular problem in low mileage cars.

I THINK it MAY be a particular problem in mine because I noted what looked like metal on the upper side of the dipstick after a long stand while I was back in the UK. A magnetic pickup tool down the dipstick hole picked up what SEEMED to be a lot of fine ferrous metal slurry, but I don't have quantition of that, or any real standard of comparison.

I dropped the sump (a pain on this car) a couple of times on short oil change intervals, and MAY have got rid of most of it, but since I've never worked up a way of quanifying it I can't be sure of that.

The sump seems to drain poorly, which may be part of the problem, if it is a problem, and theres a minority view that the cams look rough, though most people seem to think they look OK.

It was dealer maintained by the book by the previous owner, which may have meant that the oil was drained cold and perhaps not for very long.

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Tue 31 Jul 2018 10:50
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - John F

Clearly wear and metal particle production happens in all engines, but it'll be related to mileage so won't be a particular problem in low mileage cars.

Agreed.

I THINK it MAY be a particular problem in mine because I noted what looked like metal on the upper side of the dipstick after a long stand while I was back in the UK. A magnetic pickup tool down the dipstick hole picked up what SEEMED to be a lot of fine ferrous metal slurry, but I don't have quantition of that, or any real standard of comparison.

I'd guess the commonest cause for a significant amount of metallic debris would be an overheated bearing shell breaking up, but don't know if yours would contain anything that is magnetic. Or bits of a damaged piston ring perhaps? You must have a very wide dipstick hole or v narrow tool!

It was dealer maintained by the book by the previous owner, which may have meant that the oil was drained cold and perhaps not for very long.

Quite so. Garages don't have the time or inclination to take care over an oil change. As soon as there's just a thin stream, on goes the sump plug and in goes the new oil - and you just have to take on trust its quality. Much residual gunge remains in the engine, the amount of which if left overnight to drip into a tray would surprise most people.

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Tue 31 Jul 2018 12:57
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - edlithgow

I'd guess the commonest cause for a significant amount of metallic debris would be an overheated bearing shell breaking up, but don't know if yours would contain anything that is magnetic. Or bits of a damaged piston ring perhaps? You must have a very wide dipstick hole or v narrow tool!

Best guess is it is/was accumulated (normal?) wear metal from the cams. Intermittent use might allow more oil to drain off the cams between uses, promoting startup cam wear.

I use fairly thick conventional oil (50-50 mix of SAE 40 and 15W40) which should minimise that.

I've thought of rigging up some means of pre-oiling the cams, but will probably never get around to it

The problem was described "live" on the Bangernomics forum website in some detail but that site seems to have been hijacked by junkware pushers.

Shorter version with fewer pictures here

www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topic...1

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Tue 31 Jul 2018 14:59
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - Bolt

I'd guess the commonest cause for a significant amount of metallic debris would be an overheated bearing shell breaking up, but don't know if yours would contain anything that is magnetic. Or bits of a damaged piston ring perhaps? You must have a very wide dipstick hole or v narrow tool!

Best guess is it is/was accumulated (normal?) wear metal from the cams. Intermittent use might allow more oil to drain off the cams between uses, promoting startup cam wear.

I use fairly thick conventional oil (50-50 mix of SAE 40 and 15W40) which should minimise that.

I've thought of rigging up some means of pre-oiling the cams, but will probably never get around to it

The problem was described "live" on the Bangernomics forum website in some detail but that site seems to have been hijacked by junkware pushers.

Shorter version with fewer pictures here

www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topic...1

TR7 engine was a pain for cam lobe wear and timing chain wear, fil bought a Dolomite sprint once had oval bores and as he didn`t want another 1.8 we found a TR7 scrapped due to rear end shunt

scrap bloke wouldn`t let us take cam cover off so we had to buy as was, car had done we think 30k so it should have been ok, till we took sump off at home and cam cover, cam was chipped and worn and oil was smothered in metal flakes so we though we`d gone this far try and resurrect it as its a powerfull unit, after spending a week on rebuilding engine and refitting it went like S off a shovel

but it always suffered metal filings in the oil, never did find where they came from but he used it for 3 years untill it siezed up on A21 through oil pump failure,probably why... I have to admitt it was a good engine untill that happened- talk about quick

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Wed 1 Aug 2018 10:49
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - John F

Thanks - interesting post, I like the photos. I presume its your car - can't be much wrong if still going 5yrs later! Incidentally , cam wear not a significant problem on the Triumph slant 4 engine AFAIK. (I had a Dolly sprint >40yrs ago - great car - source of one of my three speeding offences - M1, dark night, accelerated to complete overtaking manouevre to allow approaching faster car past....it was a Derbyshire police car! - apparently they were renowned for catching M1 speeders. So much for courtesy!)

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Thu 9 Aug 2018 13:25
MR2 MK3 - Service Intervals - edlithgow

Sounds like your metal may have been coming from the oil pump.

I took mine apart but couldn't see anything wrong with it based on what I could see and measure with feeler guages, but the casting voids in the mounting pedestal were completely full of thick sludge, though the rest of the engine seemed pretty clean.

Not sure what's going on with that, and have never seen "dead spaces" in the engine discussed. Possibilites seem to include:

(a) Slow/limited exchange with the rest of the oil means oil in there is effectively VERY old

(b) Static oil polymerises faster than oil thats being sheared and circulated by the oil pump

(c) Solids settle out in that space and accumulate.

(d) All of the above.

If it stays in there it probably doesn't matter, but if it washes out again it could contaminate the rest of the oil. Thought of filling the space but didn't in the end..

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