1202 ALARM

  Taking the throttle body off the MR2 is a pretty simple job with one exception.  There are 2 coolant hoses that go in and out of the Idle Speed Control Valve (ISCV) which are a pain in the backside to re-fit as there is so little space in the engine bay.  This is the real problem working on this car because everything is so tightly fitted in.  Anyway, after spending about 30 minutes fiddling with the hose clips I came up with the idea that I needed pliers with an extra wide nose to crimp the clips open so I could get them back up the hoses.  A bit of searching in my scrap boxes and I found these 2 threaded clips which I pushed onto the pliers.  DIY extra wide nosed pliers.  Job done in under 5 minutes with these!

I have nearly finished converting the battery in the MR2 from the piddly little 35Ah to a bigger 55Ah one. There were a few considerations with this. The battery terminals were too small, but I got the big ones in Halfords along with new earth cables. I also discovered that all the time I've owned the car the engine earth strap was disconnected which explained why the car was so hard to start! A trip to a scrap yard got a battery bottom clamp (off a Citroen) for a fiver and I made up my own rear clamp. The battery is clamped in securely and isn't going anywhere, but the big problem is the intercooler which is supported by the existing battery top plate (red thing below). If this wasn't the case I could lose the plate because it isn't really necessary, but then the intercooler would be flapping about a bit. As a stop gap I've bolted risers onto the plate because the new battery is 20mm lower than the old one and the top plate needs to be level, but I'm g...