So I just bought my first MR2, 92 Turbo. As I drove her home, half way home the car started sputtering on the freeway, as I near the exit, a little puff of white smoke came out the car and died out shortly after. By this time it smells like something is on fire. I pull over pop the hood open and noticed that the part after the turbo (don't know what its called) was cherry red like charcoal. I let the car cool down for about 20 minutes checked the oil, water and made sure nothing was leaking. The car started right up and off I went. I've gone thru the little things to make sure everything is plugged in and all the bolts are tight. I did notice that there's an exhaust leak in 3 places (so far), I've fixed one and will be fixing the other two this weekend. I've driven the car a total of roughly 30 miles since the mishap and hasn't happened again.
Does anyone know or experienced anything similar to this? Thanks for all your help.
its normal for the manifold to be glowing red....as for how it died..you'll have to trouble shoot some more before you figure out what caused it....did you check engine light come on??...
Nothing came on at the time it died out. But the last two days that I drove the car, I noticed the check engine turns on for a few seconds and then turns off. Same thing with the engine fan light on and off. I will go through the engine wiring this weekend and see if there's something loose.... Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it.
15 year old cars are usually money pits, the MR2's just happens to be a little deeper than others. Hopefully it won't be that bad. good luck with the car, it'll be worth it in the long run.
Yeah, I know what you mean, but wasn't expecting to spend so much in the beginning. But I've decided to run the engine to the ground and then just get it rebuilt. I'll be taking the engine in for a rebuild and getting the heads ported out as well.. Probably doing it by the end of the year.
So I just bought my first MR2, 92 Turbo. As I drove her home, half way home the car started sputtering on the freeway, as I near the exit, a little puff of white smoke came out the car and died out shortly after. By this time it smells like something is on fire. I pull over pop the hood open and noticed that the part after the turbo (don't know what its called) was cherry red like charcoal. I let the car cool down for about 20 minutes checked the oil, water and made sure nothing was leaking. The car started right up and off I went. I've gone thru the little things to make sure everything is plugged in and all the bolts are tight. I did notice that there's an exhaust leak in 3 places (so far), I've fixed one and will be fixing the other two this weekend. I've driven the car a total of roughly 30 miles since the mishap and hasn't happened again.
Does anyone know or experienced anything similar to this? Thanks for all your help.
The part after the turbo glowing red is the catalytic converter. It'll do that when it's clogged up and the vehicle will stall and you'll be unable to start it back up. You can either replace it w/ a stock OEM cat or replace it w/ a aftermarket downpipe. Don't condemn the engine and turbo just yet without getting it properly diagnosed. I'm from the oil soaked bay area. Who the hell sold you this car?
That's a good one, "Oil Soaked Bay Area" haven't heard that one yet. I actually got the car from someone off craigslist in San Jose. Seems like a nice kid, he bought it off someone back in April and he was trying to get the car running right, so he replaced all kinds of stuff and has receipts for everything. And I couldn't any turbos out there for cheap. So I jumped on it.
The car actually has a downpipe and its the piece in between that and the turbo that was glowing red. The car seems to be running fine now, and so far so good, it hasn't done that again.
Do you have any extra parts lying around that I can buy off you...
Last edited by IMAGYN; 11-11-2007 at 05:26 PM.
Reason: forgot something
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