GDII's SW20 MR2

[GDII]

Today I decided I needed to wash my own car instead of doing detailing jobs for other people. It gets rather dirty even after just 3 weeks of driving it every day.

I've now got a foam cannon for myself so I can use it when I need to. Not every car needs it especially when you are going to claybar and do paint correction. It's mostly for use on cars that are already in excellent condition and need the paint looked after. I still struggle to not put scratching in my paint. It's so soft anything running over it will do damage. I need to get compressed air or a leaf blower to dry the car. I suspect this is the main reason why I get swirls. Even using the 2 bucket method, clean the mitt after every half panel and protecting the paint with layer upon layer of wax still won't work.

Freshly painted bumper is super scummy. Most comes off with the water blaster, them more with the foam cannon then the rest with a gentle wipe.


The joys of no mud flaps. I know you can get mud flaps for these cars but mine didn't come with them from the factory so the bumpers don't have all the holes and mounting brackets for them. I did have a set with everything needed but I sold them as I was never going to put them on. It looks too clean without them.




Using CarPro Reset in the foam cannon. Only need quarter of the bottle filled with the soap/water mix to do a tiny car like this.












CarPro DLUX has been working great on the calipers. Just waterblast off the majority of the brake dust and then go in with the detailing brush to get the hard to reach parts. No brake dust embedded here. The clear ceramic coating has lasted well after more than a year and the heat of a track day.
I'm a bit hesitant to put this coating on my wheels as I don't know what happens after a 3+ years to the coating. I think when I put this coating on other plastic parts I did it a bit wrong and tried to layer it on thick and leave it shiny but it would show the 'brush' marks from the cloth I used. You can see them when the coating is dry. You are meant to coat the part, then let it cure a bit for 10 mins or so then buff it back with a microfibre towel for an even finish. Something I now do on other parts I need to coat. I think if I do this to my wheels and apply 2 coats it will be fine. It's meant to last for quite some time. The black trim around my lights and the centre grille still look great and black even with applying it wrong.




My new wheel soap. Chemical Guys Signiture Series Wheel Cleaner. Has a mild chemical smell but works really well. Makes insane suds when mixed with my wheel woolies or horse hair detailing brush. Can be diluted down 4:1 soap/water so it lasts a bit longer than just a small bottle.
I don't have any photos of the suds it makes yet. Things get a bit messy when doing the wheels so I didn't want to grab the camera.
https://www.detaildepot.co.nz/product/c ... l-cleaner/




And clean again. I added another layer of CarPro Hydro2 as the water wasn't sheeting or beading off as well anymore.

 

[Bram Turismo]

Car looks great man!

It's impossible to keep scratches away from your car. The only thing we as detailers can do is minimize the amount of damage we do to the paint, and protect it as best as we can. Washing it inflicts love marks, which isn't really big damage as you can easily remove love marks with a single stage cut.

Most people I talk to think polishing is the best way of keeping paint looking great. I try to convince them otherwise, and say that protection is what gives the paint longevity. My GT86 turns 6 years old this year, but after a wash it still looks spanking new, purely because for me personally protection has always been a bigger priority than correction. Since I've owned it, the car hasn't seen a day in its life that it didn't have either a layer of sealant or wax on it.

On snowfoam, I've stopped using it for maintenance washes. For light dust and dirt, I found it to be literally throwing money away. If your shampoo is a good quality shampoo, you have enough lubricity not to damage the paint anyway. I don't classify love marks under paint damage because they're so easy to remove. However, I have found snowfoam to be very effective when the car is extremely dirty, especially during the winter. Sometimes I add a small dash of APC to increase the effectiveness of softening dirt. I've found that snowfoam kind of softens dirt, which makes it really easy to remove the dirt with a single pass with your mitt, even on very heavy dirt. This is why I love snowfoam in the winter, it makes removing salt and road grime so easy!

 

[GDII]

You make all good points of which after having more and more experience all makes sense.

Your point about people thinking polishing is the only way to keep looking good is how I used to think. So naturally I did that. Now my paint is very thin so I can't really do much to fix any more swirls/love marks. I now know that protecting your paint is far better then constantly polishing it. Wash it properly and keep it protected. With the MR2 red it fades and oxidises easily but keeping a protective layer of wax or similar on it has definitely stopped or slowed it down significantly.

As for snow foam, seems to remove some of the heavier dirt when needed. I only use it on a few cars and not every wash on mine as it does use a bit of soap to do that.

 

[Bram Turismo]

If you encounter another oxidized or faded paint, try giving it a go with a paint deep cleanser such as Autoglym SRP or Auto Finesse Tripple, with a DA and a polishing pad. I've had great results with these products, because they are ever so gently abrassive that they remove the oxidized layer, but don't really take off a lot of your clearcoat. 👍

 

[Danoff]

Are you running staggered rims?

 

[GDII]

Are you running staggered rims?

I sure am.
GDII's SW20 MR2 New Wheels

 

[Danoff]

I sure am.
GDII's SW20 MR2 New Wheels

How important do you think the staggered setup is for the handling for this car? My buddy, who is an MR2 expert, was telling me that the staggered setup is actually more dangerous in the rain, since the back tires or more prone to hydroplane than the front. I don't plan on driving in the rain so that's not much of an issue. Have you run a square setup and do you feel like it compromises the car in any way?

 

[GDII]

If you encounter another oxidized or faded paint, try giving it a go with a paint deep cleanser such as Autoglym SRP or Auto Finesse Tripple, with a DA and a polishing pad. I've had great results with these products, because they are ever so gently abrassive that they remove the oxidized layer, but don't really take off a lot of your clearcoat. 👍

I deal a lot with single stage paints (such as my own car, no clear coat) but also quite well scratched stuff. CarPro Clearcut works well to remove oxidation and scratching then refines down to a polish to give a great gloss. I used SRP but it's so fine it doesn't do much to correct paint. It does help oxidation though.

 

[GDII]

How important do you think the staggered setup is for the handling for this car? My buddy, who is an MR2 expert, was telling me that the staggered setup is actually more dangerous in the rain, since the back tires or more prone to hydroplane than the front. I don't plan on driving in the rain so that's not much of an issue. Have you run a square setup and do you feel like it compromises the car in any way?

A staggered setup on these cars is important. The went from 195/60R14 front and 205/60R14 rear (my car) to 195/55R15 and 225/50R15 for a reason. They also changed suspension geometry at that time too to make them less oversteery. I have run a square wheel setup but always run staggered tyres. You should always run at least a 20mm difference in width to keep the rear end in check vs how much grip the front has. You put a square setup on and the front has too much grip meaning the rear is more likely to come around on you. But it will only do so if you drive the MR2 wrong. Always brake (hard) in a straight line then apply power gradually until full power while exiting the corner. Never change gears in a corner OR lift off. You will get major liftoff oversteer and it will spin very quickly.

If your buddy is getting hydroplaning in the rain in the rear his tyres are either wrong, worn out (low tread pattern) or the toe setting in the suspension is out. Toes settings can make or break these cars handling making them scary as in the rear if wrong. I drive mine everyday in all weather and never had any issues with hydroplaning when the tyre has a decent amount of tread.

It's very hard to compare the square wheel setup vs the current setup I have because of the tyre sizes and sidewall stiffness. My 15s were really soft so gave an uneasy feeling with initial turn in response and even worse with direction transitions. No grip issues though. Now with the RE003 tyres the car goes exactly where you point it immediately due to a far stiffer sidewall. Wet driving, the RE003 has never let me down. The only grip issues I get is due to my stiff rear swaybar and no LSD making tight slow speed corners lift a wheel a little bit making the inside spin.

Yes these cars can be more difficult to drive in the rain but if you know this, you just drive to the conditions. Like you should in any car. We run summer tyres all round here due to the weather so we don't change our wheels and tyres in winter.

 

[Danoff]

A staggered setup on these cars is important. The went from 195/60R14 front and 205/60R14 rear (my car) to 195/55R15 and 225/50R15 for a reason. They also changed suspension geometry at that time too to make them less oversteery. I have run a square wheel setup but always run staggered tyres. You should always run at least a 20mm difference in width to keep the rear end in check vs how much grip the front has. You put a square setup on and the front has too much grip meaning the rear is more likely to come around on you. But it will only do so if you drive the MR2 wrong. Always brake (hard) in a straight line then apply power gradually until full power while exiting the corner. Never change gears in a corner OR lift off. You will get major liftoff oversteer and it will spin very quickly.

If your buddy is getting hydroplaning in the rain in the rear his tyres are either wrong, worn out (low tread pattern) or the toe setting in the suspension is out. Toes settings can make or break these cars handling making them scary as in the rear if wrong. I drive mine everyday in all weather and never had any issues with hydroplaning when the tyre has a decent amount of tread.

It's very hard to compare the square wheel setup vs the current setup I have because of the tyre sizes and sidewall stiffness. My 15s were really soft so gave an uneasy feeling with initial turn in response and even worse with direction transitions. No grip issues though. Now with the RE003 tyres the car goes exactly where you point it immediately due to a far stiffer sidewall. Wet driving, the RE003 has never let me down. The only grip issues I get is due to my stiff rear swaybar and no LSD making tight slow speed corners lift a wheel a little bit making the inside spin.

Yes these cars can be more difficult to drive in the rain but if you know this, you just drive to the conditions. Like you should in any car. We run summer tyres all round here due to the weather so we don't change our wheels and tyres in winter.

He wasn't so much having a problem with hydroplaning as he was just stating facts. A wider version of the same tire is more likely to hydroplane. Therefore, wider tires in the rear will result in hydroplaning for the rear before conditions get bad enough for the front to hydroplane.


As for me, mine is a fair weather car. The stock rims have crap tire selection. Trying to find stock rims from any other car that has a staggered setup, which looks good, with the right bolt pattern (etc) is proving to be challenging. Aftermarket rims are such a minefield for value and quality. I'm kinda scratching my head for what to put on it.

 

[GDII]

Yes, things like supercars that have silly wide rear tyres have this issue but when it's only 20mm difference and you sort of max out the width at 235 or 245 it's less of a problem. Sure those can be facts but if we aren't having problems with it then it doesn't relate to these cars. Unless you like to drive in a river all the time.

We have the same issue with our stock wheel size hence the reason for going to the 17s. In New Zealand the only performance tyres in 195(205)/55R15 and 225/50R15 is a the Toyo Proxes T1R and Proxes 4. As for 14", you can't get any at all. And you should never put an economy tyre on an MR2 if you value your life or want to drive them how they were designed. They came with a high performance Bridgestone RE020 for the 15s in 1992 so at the time they were good.
We use 215/40R17 and 235/40R17 on 7/8 or 8/9 which matches our original tyre size the closest and have a choice of about 7 sets using the same tyre model. I'm sure we could mix and match front and rear from one manufacture or model to get what we need to make more sets available.

 

[Danoff]

Yes, things like supercars that have silly wide rear tyres have this issue but when it's only 20mm difference and you sort of max out the width at 235 or 245 it's less of a problem. Sure those can be facts but if we aren't having problems with it then it doesn't relate to these cars. Unless you like to drive in a river all the time.

We have the same issue with our stock wheel size hence the reason for going to the 17s. In New Zealand the only performance tyres in 195(205)/55R15 and 225/50R15 is a the Toyo Proxes T1R and Proxes 4. As for 14", you can't get any at all. And you should never put an economy tyre on an MR2 if you value your life or want to drive them how they were designed. They came with a high performance Bridgestone RE020 for the 15s in 1992 so at the time they were good.
We use 215/40R17 and 235/40R17 on 7/8 or 8/9 which matches our original tyre size the closest and have a choice of about 7 sets using the same tyre model. I'm sure we could mix and match front and rear from one manufacture or model to get what we need to make more sets available.

I was thinking of going with 16s (which are what my rims are now, except they absolutely ugly with terrible all season tires), but matching up a 16x7 and 16x8 set of rims is tricky. It looks like the RPF1 fits the bill for those sizes. I think tires are a bit scarce in 16s as well. Seems like most MR2 owners are going to 17s, which doesn't seem like quite enough sidewall to me for ride quality. Depends on how you're driving the car of course. How do you find the stiffness of the ride?

Maybe I should just suck it up with 15s.

 

[GDII]

I was thinking of going with 16s (which are what my rims are now, except they absolutely ugly with terrible all season tires), but matching up a 16x7 and 16x8 set of rims is tricky. It looks like the RPF1 fits the bill for those sizes. I think tires are a bit scarce in 16s as well. Seems like most MR2 owners are going to 17s, which doesn't seem like quite enough sidewall to me for ride quality. Depends on how you're driving the car of course. How do you find the stiffness of the ride?

Maybe I should just suck it up with 15s.

I assume you are talking about the NSX? If so they seem to run very similar sizes to the MR2.
16" tyres are a really rare breed. Not many cars have 16s so not many tyre manufactures make them anymore.

RPF1 wheels are good and cheap. Only downside is they are everywhere. If you like them and want them then that's good. Go buy them.

Smaller sidewalls do make for a harsher ride but it's huge trade off for comfort. I've driven a stock 1996 SW20 and if feels like a boat compared to mine. Mine is far more kart like than a stock MR2. I have significant suspension mods which increase the harshness of the ride. TRD springs, Bilstien dampers, Whiteline 22mm swaybars, Prothane bushes, engine mount inserts which transmit more vibration into the cabin from the engine, and 40/45 profile tyres with stiff side walls. All this adds up to a car that is extremely responsive to steering and braking inputs with the compromise of comfort. For me this is what I wanted, a car that went where I pointed it, not having delayed reactions like it used to. Sure it's not as comfortable as it used to be, not that it ever was that great anyway but it's not the purpose of this car.

 

[Danoff]

I assume you are talking about the NSX? If so they seem to run very similar sizes to the MR2.
16" tyres are a really rare breed. Not many cars have 16s so not many tyre manufactures make them anymore.

RPF1 wheels are good and cheap. Only downside is they are everywhere. If you like them and want them then that's good. Go buy them.

Smaller sidewalls do make for a harsher ride but it's huge trade off for comfort. I've driven a stock 1996 SW20 and if feels like a boat compared to mine. Mine is far more kart like than a stock MR2. I have significant suspension mods which increase the harshness of the ride. TRD springs, Bilstien dampers, Whiteline 22mm swaybars, Prothane bushes, engine mount inserts which transmit more vibration into the cabin from the engine, and 40/45 profile tyres with stiff side walls. All this adds up to a car that is extremely responsive to steering and braking inputs with the compromise of comfort. For me this is what I wanted, a car that went where I pointed it, not having delayed reactions like it used to. Sure it's not as comfortable as it used to be, not that it ever was that great anyway but it's not the purpose of this car.

Ah! No, here's a shot of the ugly rims on my newly-purchased SW21

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/help-me-plan-my-car-life.129881/page-9#post-12479924

There's some wheel discussion in there as well.

I'll do some more research on 16" tire options to see if i can find something reasonable. I'm still bouncing all over the place between lots of not-so-great options.

 

[GDII]

I've been chasing a knock and "rattle" in my engine mounts or suspension for a while now. It only occurred during accelerator inputs or clutch inputs. I check over all my rear suspension and did find a dry bush and worn custom swaybar links. Once those were gone I figured it was a north south engine mount issue. After doing a full bolt check it still was there.

I do have urethane engine mount inserts which I installed a while ago. I figured I'd remove them and check if it was those. The front mount did show signs if movement wear on the outside and a little bit of black rubber on the inside. So I greased the front inserts up and put it back in. I attempted to remove the rear mount but couldn't access one bolt on the back of the gearbox. So that one doesn't have grease on it. Drove it the next day to find that 95% of the sound had gone by just doing the front mount and by the end of the day it seems to have gone completely. It's so much more comfortable on the ears and mind not being able to hear the knock and rattle. It seems to drive a bit better at the slow speeds where it was most prominent.

Ive also been having major fuel economy issues. Around 300km on 40 litres of city driving. Checked the ECU codes and sure enough 21 came up being the O2/Oxygen sensor. So I have to replace that which looks rather difficult with rusty nuts. Looking to get a 12mm or 11mm nut extractor and then figure out how to get access to those nuts over the top of the cross member. Hopefully replacing it will net better economy as it's getting expensive to run this as a daily.

 

[GDII]

Swapping out the O2 sensor wasn't as bad as I thought. Although the ECU code hasn't shown up again since I reset the ECU. Still drinking fuel like E85.

Jack up the car, take off the right rear wheel, find all the extensions you own plus maybe some more. Borrow a friends nut extractor just incase you strip the rusty nuts with standard tools. Reach way down inside the engine bay and crack the nuts. Unplug the sensor and swap them over. I did purchase new nuts from Toyota for this if I ended up destroying the old ones. They were in OK condition but new is better. They superseded the part number for the nuts but they still use the same tools. Just bigger flange.

New nuts. Original part number is 90179-08059 superseded by 90179-08101



All the extensions. All my 3/8" set plus an adapter to my 1/2" short.
For reference the red carpet tile is 500x500mm.





Old sensor on the exhaust



Old vs old

Cleaned up my working one.



Old vs new nuts



Cable tided the old plug to the mounting plate. Olaf can relate.



Heat/dirt shield. Cleaned up my old one to go on instead of the even older one. This current engine has 400,000km on it now. Maybe the sensor does too.







Back in place with the new nuts

 

[GDII]

 

[GDII]

I have had another crack form in the front lip. Drove into something a while ago. It had torn through the vinyl wrap so was quite visible so I decided to make a cosmetic repair.

These photos make it look way worse than it really is and I'm not proud of the results.

Before



Removed a section of vinyl



Replaced with a new piece to try match the pattern. The only issue is new vinyl is darker than old sun faded vinyl.
I did fill the crack with glue to try hold it together, that's why there is a bump down the crack.



Some of you eagle eyed viewers might spot a previous vinyl repair to the left of this one. I think I matched the pattern quite well on that one even with the original wrap being partially stretched when I did it the first time. Trying to wrap the whole front lip in one piece was a challenge and used about 2.5m of it.

This was origianly done 6 years ago. It's been a while.
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/gdiis-sw20-mr2.209447/page-5#post-7709625

 

[GDII]

A few new shots from today.

 

[GDII]

My fuel economy seems to have improved a bit with the O2 sensor swap. It has gone from 12.36 litres per 100km to 11.23 litres per 100km. And that's with a bit of spirited driving and not driving like I am trying to save fuel. I'll see how I get on with the next tank. City driving in rush hour doesn't really help either.

 

[GDII]

I was kindly given an NZDM 260kph speedo by a mate in exchange for working on his car. So today I decided to swap out my JDM 180kph speedo.

To do so you need to remove the cluster from the dashboard and swap out the entire gauge. This is rather simple to do but if you have not had to remove the cluster for one reason or another here is how you get to it. One reason to take it out might be to replace the worn out capacitors in your tacho because it is not reading correctly.

Lift your ash tray out



Remove the 2 screws of the base of the stereo/climate control surround



Lift the shifter boot up



Push the 4 clips of the shifter boot surround up from underneath



Remove the 2 lower screws from either side of the steering column and pull the lower trim down on both sides.





Pull the base of the stereo surround backwards, there are clips in the top corners and also above the left hand screw in the previous step.
Mine doesn't have the AC vents attached making it easier to remove.



Remove the hazard light switch and cig lighter plugs from behind.





Remove the screw from the left side of the steering column cover trim to enable you remove the trim panel from around the ignition and right hand vent.





Remove the 2 screws from the top trim panel. Check out that awkward screw driver grip style

Pull the top trim down and backwards. There are 2 clips in the middle.



Remove the screw from beside the ignition



If your car is a 1989-91 it will have a speedo cable so pull the gauge cluster backwards a bit. Pull the left side out further to get your hand behind to push the retaining clip and release the cable from the gauge. This can be a bit painful if you have large hands. Be careful not to break the lower tabs on the bottom of the cluster. Best to tilt the steering column down as far as it will go.



Once that is removed tilt the base of the cluster towards the back and upwards to access the 3 plugs connecting it to the car. 1 on the right, 2 on the left. The release tabs are on the top of the plugs.



Once it is out you can separate the cover and the cluster housing. This was needed to adjust to needle to read correctly as with my larger tyres it was always 4kph out. Now it is 1kph out. Push the black tabs to separate it.






To remove the speedo gauge it is just 4-5 screws depending on the version you have.



This shows the LEDs I have installed. There are 5 per unit giving decent directional lights vs ones that only point forwards.



And the 260kph gauge installed into the housing.



180kph before.



260kph after.



I had to leave it like this until I have finished the testing and adjusting the needle.

 

[GDII]

And to celebrate the new speedo install I took it out for some more photos. Wellington really is a beautiful city!

 

[GDII]

Another fix and some more additions to the car.

I had a corroded pin in the plug that powers the door card light on the drivers side. I needed to either find a new wire or a full door loom. A mate kindly let me take one from his black MR2. Turns out this wire had already broken in the rubber boot on his car so once I had unpinned it it just came out. Someone had been searching for the reason for the broken wire in the black car but obviously didn't find it.

So I re-pinned the plug on my car and connected the wire up to the door loom. I looked at the light and it wasn't working, got out my multimeter and tested the wires. They were working fine and the LED seemed to be OK. I thought the LED was broken so I grabbed the old standard bulb out of my parts bin and it instantly worked. So I put the LED back in, turns out I must have turned the LED over when trying to figure out why it wasn't working a while back and forgot I had done that.







I didn't realise it has been well over a year since I found the issue.
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/gdiis-sw20-mr2.209447/page-19#post-11764701

Some new parts that I didn't even realise I was missing until I saw them on another car. These are some steel plates that cover the front caster arm adjustment nuts and bushes from getting damaged from any rocks or stones. The plates are quite substantial in thickness so could take quite a hit. They only just fit with the caster set to 4.5º which is max on the OEM threads. The arm thread hits the inside of the plates but only just.

Cleaned them up for painting.






Painted the bolts too just because.


























They should eventually match the dirt on the rest of the car. More parts to add to the missing things on the car. Just add more weight to the car like I have been doing for the last 10 years. Why stop now right?

 

[GDII]

Well that didn't quite work as planned. Due to my 4.5º of caster angle the plates hit the arms so make horrible rubbing noises. I've had to remove them until I get a more factory spec wheel alignment.

 

[GDII]

Ok, so these plates were not the actual issue. Turns out my swaybar link mounting bracket on the sturt has been ripped off. Welds completely torn off. Looks to have started recently and completely gone last night.

I'll swallow my pride and admit, my friend who told me about this was right. They do break and they do need reinforced by welding a vertical tab to the bottom of the spring perch to help distribute the higher loads with stiffer suspension and stiffer swaybars. These are the OEM 99 GT Bilstien struts too that I purchased in 2013. I'll swap these out for my other set and get these made stronger.

 

[GDII]

All fixed. It seems to drive better now as I also swapped out the swaybar links for OEM spec ones. Good results.

 

[GDII]

Well over a year ago I made a purchase through Yahoo Auctions Japan and Moonlight racing. A used but extremely tidy 3SGTE TRD Muffler. Part number 17400-SW240. It was in Sapporo in the north of Japan but very little rust on it. Just a quick clean up with a cloth and some special touches to finish it off nicely, it came up really well.



I finally got around to installing it today with the help of a friend and his welder. Due to the way the 3SGE and 3SGTE exhausts are setup you can't just bolt one to the other. I had to design up an adapter pipe to allow the 3SGE B pipe to bolt to the 3SGTE muffler. I got it half built by my brother in Dunedin then got my friend to weld the second flange on to the pipe once I had cut it to length and test fit it in.


This shows the flanges being plasma cut to my design. They are 2 different sizes as the 3SGE has a larger flange and bolt spacing where the 3SGTE is smaller.

As it came with the second flange slipped over the pipe.







Colin welding the flange on for me. Epic work and much appreciated. A skill I would love to have.



Painted with VHT to make it not rust and look a little bit more like the muffler. Thanks to @SVX for the paint. The muffler has a grey metallic paint that would be really hard to find or even replicate.

This is the hardware I needed to install the pipe. 2 OEM crush washers from Toyota and some nuts and bolts with a flange on them. I really don't like engineers bolts for this stuff.



The muffler itself after the clean up.



The all important part number.

Built by SANGO who also make the standard OEM mufflers too.







This tips are very very tidy. Only a few minor scratches on the bottom and I hope to keep it that way.

This is how the 3SGE setup looks under the car. The 3SGTE muffler has a longer pipe that goes into the muffler therefor you need a pipe instead of using the CAT.

This is the factory 3SGTE B pipe. Just bolts up to the TRD muffler. Unfortunately the OEM B pipe necks down to 2" as it goes into the muffler. This is why replacing the OEM pipe with at least a 2.5" is the best thing to do.

I gave the tips and proper polish first with a decent paint compound that breaks done to a polish as you use it more then used a fine metal polish from Autosol to finish it off. Then I cleaned it with a solvent to remove the Autosol protection it leaves behind then added 2 coats of my favourite product, CarPro DLUX. It doesn't show up in the photos but it beads so well when water is pours or sprayed onto it. It will keep the tips looking good for longer and far easier to clean.



Also coated the inside of the tips as that is where the worst of dirt comes from.

Testing the muffler fitment then took off the pipe to weld up.

Pipe installed.

Removed the old system. Damn thing would never stop leaking no mater what I did.

How the tips looked before. They are now almost 4" in diameter.







I'll have to test if this muffler is still bearable when driving. Starting it up, it sure is a bit louder than the stock system but not sure how it will behave at road speeds.

I'm extremely happy with the look of it. This will go perfect for the 3SGTE swap that I will eventually get around to doing.

 

[Katiegan]

Looking nice at the rear now! Hope we get a video of how it sounds.

 

[GreenGhost74]

That is excellent 👍 I'm curious to hear how it acts on the road.

 

[GDII]

After a few drives I can say it is louder than stock but at 50 and 100kph under light load it's barely louder than stock. Only when you get on the throttle and the engine has load like going up hill does it start to shout. Still to test the drive home up the gorge which is long sustained throttle at 80kph in 3rd or 4th. No really annoying drone either, just that typical 3S buzz which I could still hear with the stock system but it's not that bad.

Just can't hear the intake sound anymore over the exhaust. Because race car? Sort of sounds like that and with my downshift throttle blips that have become a habit, even in the Demio, it sounds quite race car like.