Help Please

Hi, this is my first post in the MR2 section, i previously owned a Honda CRX, But purchased the MR2 on new years eve.

Im delighted with it, although the characteristics of rear wheel drive took some getting used to!

I have the UK spec 1991 GT Model, rated at 167 BHP.

Over the past couple of days i have noticed that in low rpm's the car is juddering under acceleration, almost as though there is insufficient fuel reaching the engine, but once i hit say around 3,500 4,000 rpm's i get a sudden surge as though power has returned and then its fine. It will rev all the way to redline, and when in neutral will rev with no hesitation or stuttering. This does not happen every time i drive the car but is becoming more often in the lst few days.

Im not that up to scratch with engines and how they work, this is only my second car, but iam quite worried about what the problem could be.

I thought i would ask on here for an opinion, see if anyone else had encountered the same problem and could point me in the right direction before i take it to a garage and have them charge me way over the top for parts i more than likely didnt need.

The car is totally unmodified, as standard and has 137,000 miles on the clock. The car is immaculate and was owned by 2 women before i bought the car so i know it hsnt been ragged.

Any help would be greatly appreciated before i head off to the garage..... cheers guys.

Jordan

Whenever I buy a used car ... especially an MR2, I do basic maintenance immediately:

New TOYOTA Cap, rotor, wires and plugs.
New Fuel filter.
New air filter (or upgrade to an open cone style filter).
Oil Change

You would be surprised how much better off most used cars run with just the basics done.
Do your self a favor and go look at your spakr plug wires and tell me what year is painted on them. I bet they are still from the 90s.

Your problem could be as simple as that. Regardless, the car will run much better with these basics taken care of.

Good luck and welcome to the community.
You might aslo want to check out: www.mr2oc.com

Thanks for the welcome, i have been reading up alot on mr2's seeing if anyone else has had the same problems i have and the advice you have given me is what alot of people have reccommended. I had a look for the spark plug wires, and i couldnt find which ones you meant, like i said earlier, i know bugger all about angines im a relative newbie, where should i be looking? Might sound daft but i really dont know what im looking for. Any pointers mate?

I appreciate the help.

On top of the engine, you should see 4 larger wires that appear to enter the top of the engine. They are the spark plug/ignition wires. They each got to a different cylinder and they all come together at the other end at the "cap." The cap is just a plastic cup that has the 4 wires coming into it. There is a 5th wire going into the cap from the ignition coil.

If they are Toyota wires, chances are they are RED and have white paint with a year on them. It is possible that Toyota wires would be black though.

I see where you mean. Yes the wires are black and from what i can see there is no date on them at all.

Im taking the MR2 yup to a mate of mine who used to have an MR2 Turbo and now has a lotus elise, he's gonna have a look at it for me over the weekend. Thanks for your help mate, appreciate it alot!

If the wires do not have a date on them, there is a good chance they are not Toyota.
There is also a good chance that may be your problem :)

Thats exactly what we were thinking. Cheers mate.

Ordered new wires, plugs and fuel filter, also going to do an oil change at the weekend, so hopefully things will be fine after that. I got burned by a little boy racer last night due to this stutterin, not happy! lol.

Sounds good ... I would get the "cap and rotor" as well for the ignition.

Well, started with the spark plugs and that got rid of the stuttering problems, fuel filter, H T leads and an oil change later and it was running better than ever before. Rotor and cap on order, here next week, thanks for your time and help mate.

Glad to hear it's working out for you.

After you get the leads, cap and rotor in I suspect you will be pleasenatly surprised how much smoother the car is :)

Having a little problem fitting the fuel filter, do i need to get under the car to fit the fuel filter or can i get to it by the bonnet?? I dont have access to a pit or anything so its a trip to the garage if i have to get under it.

Cheers mate

IIRC, we did mine from underneath; however, you only need to jack the car up ... you do not need a lift.

Right ok, well thats good to know. What do i need to do to take the original filter off?

Tell you what, got a shock for the fuel filter price, £26.80 plus 17% V.A.T Which equates to about 60 US Dollars! We dont have get ripped off in the UK.