Mike's '92 ST185 Teal in New York (Daily Driving It)

Sounds like the alternator. Had a very similar issue with my A4, replaced the battery and then that same day the alternator went out on me on my 3 hour trip to visit my girlfriend. I hope the battery works but with the symptoms I would suggest at least taking it to an auto store that can test it and have it checked out.

I have always loved you car collection. I am happy with the choice you made to keep the AT. If you do want to sell it hopefully I will be financially ready to get a new one.


+1 for Long Island (CI)

Glad you are Keeping the AT !

The starter issue could be a week alt. as you suspect.
Could be bad grounds too. A few things to check.

Can't find garage space for the Elise ?

Regards

Yes, the alternator is the next suspect... I'll have to drop by an AutoZone or whatever to get a free battery testing and see what they say. I'm guessing testing of the alternator is outlined in the BGB? Never done it before, heh... I'm wary of rebuilt alternators, unless they have a lifetime replacement warranty. There was a discussion here about a good high-output alternator (remember that?), but I don't think they had a lifetime warranty on it, so I wouldn't buy it. Same goes for starters. Never again-- either get brand new OEM or rebuilt ones with lifetime replacement warranty. (I think I replaced the starter on my AW11 MR2 about 4 times before I got it right LOL).

So I received my replacement battery today via UPS, but they mishandled it and the box was crushed in one corner, which in turn cracked the corner of the battery :shoots: So I gotta get a replacement now. If my current battery checks out fine, I'll just ask for a refund instead, then, else I'm replacing it later...

@GMan: Yes, no garage space at all in the forseeable future... I can't keep more than 1 car, and unfortunately the Lotus is not a good "daily driver" for more than 1 person...

Mike, sorry to see you get rid of your toys.. I've always enjoyed the fact that you color coordinated them! haha But hey if life has bigger and better things in store for you, it's all good..

I was in NYC a few weeks back and I meant to ask, how the hell do you guys deal with the rough roads there? The aggressive drivers I can deal with, the traffic I can deal with.. but damn some of those roads are just downright suspension killers.. I can't imagine the pain they inflict on cars with modded suspensions or serious handling machines like your Exige.. I was tromping around in a rented minivan and some of the bumps/dips I hit made me go :doh:

I understood very quickly why the Northeast sells the most cars out of any region in this country.. haha

Awww, you shoulda contacted me when you were in town!~ I live right in Midtown (my ST185 is parked across the river in Long Island City at the moment, though)... Yeah, I know... I occasionally drive through the city/Manhattan with my Exige and it's not pleasant. Like I said, even my "touring car" like my Celica is a bit too stiff with the highest setting on my shocks, so I dialed them down. Just gotta know how to deal with the potholes and road "imperfections"-- but some of them are just unavoidable ><

I was thinking a little bit with my heart and not my head when I made the decision to keep the AT instead of my E46, but it's my last guilty pleasure of at least keeping a car that is much more special and unique than a BMW. And in some ways, it's more special than the Exige, although that car truly is something special too-- I hope later down the line to get another Lotus (new Exige or Evora or whatever they may have at the time?), as long as they stay true to their roots-- simple, lightweight, fun, soulful...

I still love the AllTrac even for all its flaws. Because you know what? Not everyone has one, and it's just a special car with a special history from an era long forgotten by most except the fun fanatics (like you all) that appreciate it. Toyota will never ever make another car like this ever again. As exciting as the LF-A is, it's not the same thing, and it doesn't have the same pedigree. And that is worth a lot... Realistically, though, the next car I will most likely get will probably be another Bavarian car, lol--which will fulfill my wants and also be acceptable to the most important lady in my life, hehe... M5 or M3 sedan... But now I'm getting ahead of myself...

(Sorry I'm so loquaious; I'm a bit drunk right now, just came back from my company's Christmas party (top shelf open bar is dangerous, my friends...)~~ *hick* )

turbo4wd":24wt06j7 said:

Mike, sorry to see you get rid of your toys.. I've always enjoyed the fact that you color coordinated them! haha But hey if life has bigger and better things in store for you, it's all good..

I was in NYC a few weeks back and I meant to ask, how the hell do you guys deal with the rough roads there? The aggressive drivers I can deal with, the traffic I can deal with.. but damn some of those roads are just downright suspension killers.. I can't imagine the pain they inflict on cars with modded suspensions or serious handling machines like your Exige.. I was tromping around in a rented minivan and some of the bumps/dips I hit made me go :doh:

I understood very quickly why the Northeast sells the most cars out of any region in this country.. haha

Click to expand...

mike325ci":2c4w1gi4 said:

keri & joe-- my offer to give you a co-drive in the Exige in an autocross still stands, so hurry up and come to NYC before it sells!!! haha. man, i'm going to miss that car. truly the most insane and fun car i've had & there's nothing in the world like it... i just hope they keep making cars like that that are true to their roots-- keep it simple and light..

Click to expand...

awwwww man! i wish we could make it - too many things going on right now unfortunately
maybe one of these days i can get a ride in a Lotus ... we've just got to get ourselves out to an auto-x one sometime soon!
if you're ever down in our neck of the woods you know you're welcome anytime for a visit & ride in Vadar & R2.

Hello 2011~!! Haha... Long time no update again...

So I am now down to 1 car. I sold my Exige about a month ago to another autocrosser in Florida. Up until the last day where I drove it to the dealership to drop it off, I really enjoyed driving that special car... Nothing like it... But on the flipside, I'm glad I finally made the choice to sell it and get rid of all of my cars given my current phase of my life, financially and otherwise. I will be back soon enough once things are more settled in m life.

So the ST185 has been doing "daily driver" duties for me the past few months now. I got a NYS Inspection a few weeks ago and it passed. I also got a ticket for it while parked right outside my condo because I didn't realize it expired... $65 grrrr. NYC roads will kill any car, but so far it's been good, except for not starting and the battery going dead on me. Well, turns out it was a stupid reason and I never detected it for YEARS because my car was always attached to a Battery Tender/Charger in the garage at home, but these days being parked in public garages and streets, etc. the battery never got recharged (due to failed alternator (or so I thought)). What happened was the alternator fuse was blown all this time and I never knew. Having replaced that, all my mysterious electric gremlins disappeared in one fell swoop: My steering wheel tilt-away works now, my power door locks work consistently now, and also my alarm / remote door locks work now...

The full story is here: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=41050

So my car is now used to do grocery shopping and furniture pickups (bought a condo last year and still furnishing my apartment) and driving me and my wife around... Summer is coming up soon, and realizing that this is our only car now, we're gonna need A/C...

So I'm looking around for a good air conditioning shop around the area. Going to diagnose for any leaks and refill with R12. I already ordered the o-ring gasket kit, receiver/dryer, and bidding on a few cans of R12 on eBay

One other thing on my to-do list is to wire up my horn button. I found the horn wire on the harness and I soldered up a connection wire to connect the button to the harness, hooked it up through my Momo hub and then at the first turn of the steering wheel realized why that was a fail. Haha... There is no simple way to run the wire to the horn without having it get twisted when turning the steering wheel. Either mount the yellow/black spinning thing back on, or get a really long length of wire for the horn so that there is enough to wrap around 2.5 turns or whatever it is without getting disconnected from the horn button (this the solution I'm leaning towards), or find some other way to wire it up.

I realized that I needed the horn because driving through Manhattan NYC-style aggressively requires generous use of the horn. And I can't play ball with all the crazy taxi drivers out there without a horn, so I put it higher on my to-do list, hehe...

I hope everyone is doing well... Sorry for being away months at a time... However, I will have some exciting news for everyone soon. Hint: I'm working on an online/web business that has to do with cars, and I know it will be of interest to you, so you'll be one of the first to know before the business launches!

Hello 2012~?!!~

I've been doing some updated on my website/blog for my car here:
http://ST185.325Ci.com/

But even that is a bit outdated now (will have to update there as well).

All in all, I haven't been racing much, just daily driving my ST185 around NYC... I think that's sort of taking its toll on the car, but still minor in the grand scheme of things.

Since last update here:
1. ECU fried (capacitor melted-- supposedly common for '92-'93 3SGTE ECUs), so replaced with stock '92 USDM ST185 one
2. A/C Recharged, but now it needs another charge. (we didn't fill it all the way last summer but there must also be a small leak?)
3. Clutch slave & master cylinders replaced
4. Someone hit & run my car while it was parked on the street: it's minor but still -- behind right fender near mudflaps.
5. Got a flat tire (nail puncture), patched it, and it exploded while at the track in Canada this past weekend... (9 hour drive one way x2 otherwise uneventful)
6. Wired up temporary horn button (not wired to steering wheel button yet)

Just did a 3-day racing / meet even up in Ontario Canada for the annual MR2 meet (CMR2E - http://www.cmr2e.com/ ). Full day lapping at Shannonville, ProSolo autocross, and regular autocross (almost 2-minute course very fast!). Had a blast. I think it's the hardest I've ever driven the Celica and it handled the task well. I was particularly surprised at how well the car handled at autocross. I could have taken the slaloms much faster than I did if I had better tires. I would even venture to say that I think the car can slalom faster than my E46 BMW, which is sort of the baseline I set for myself in turning my suspension...

About 1000 miles on the car over the weekend and nothing big to note except for the sidewall failure from driving on a flat and having the tire explode while it was in the paddock at the track (very lucky that it didn't happen on the highway or on the track). So I got some crappy street tires as a temporary replacement-- need to get full 4 tires to replace them all.

Car heated up at towards the end of the day from the long almost-2 minute autocross runs-- and also at the end of the lapping sessions. Temp guage went all the way to the max. Letting it cool off got it down, so it tells me the car doesn't have enough cooling.

Surprisingly the brakes actually worked well on the track and autocross. For some reason it doesn't have good feel on the street, but on the track it worked better-- go figure?~!@ In any case, I think better pads would be good just to be sure.



So I want to do a few more autocrosses this year and get back into it again. I think it's been 2-3 years since I've done it in any regularity... I'm definitely getting rusty. I had to buy a new helmet this year because the old one had expired (Snell 2000 rated) and started to smell funky because I haven't used it for over two years ><

I'll definitely be going to Bear Mountain for the MR2/AllTrac meet this October again: hope to see more people there...

That's my update. It's been way too long since I've been on the boards too, I dont' know who is still around and how everyone's cars are doing... Thanks for reading... Cheers~!

Thanks for the update Mike!

Always interested to hear "alltrac at the track" stories! What class do they put you in at autox?

I noticed from your mod list on the first page that you have a really solid mount and suspension setup. What's the ride quality like on bumpy city streets?

Re: the horn issue, have you considered replacing the momo with later model Celica/CorollaS/Rav4 steering wheel? They're a bit smaller diameter than the stock wheel and would give you an easier horn setup. Just a thought.

Too bad about the hit and run... when I read you were daily driving it in NYC the first thing I thought was "Oh no! And his paint was so nice!!" Hahaha... hard to keep people from dinging you in the city. I keep having to explain to my girlfriend that it's not okay to parallel park by backing up until you hit the car behind you. :doh:

Anyway, good luck getting her back into shape!

J

I like your once a year updates haha. Next up Hello 2013!!

~James

don't laugh; it truly is becoming a once-a-year update to this post; we're almost half-way done with 2013...

...this is mostly because there is nothing really worth updating-- which is probably good news...

i'm driving the car once or twice a month as usual. i recently picked up some direzza d1 tires for all 4 and just mounted them on my volks for summer driving. no more mismatched front/back tires. i'm thinking of turning down my front negative camber, as the uneven wear on the inside of the tire is quite noticeable.



still having some intermittent re-starting problems; when underhood temps get hot and i stop car and try to start, it doesn't and needs to cool off. i bring it to the shop and they can't figure it out either, suggesting that maybe one or few of my relays are bad and need replacing since it's heat-related. i dunno, i'm looking for a set of relays/fuses to swap and test so if you have some spares...

also recent since last update there's a mysterious clunk in the front right of the car over bumps. checked sway bar bushings, endlinks, strut top mounts, camber plate adjusting screws, etc... possible that the shocks are blown or the pillow-ball mounts are loose? it's on my list...

over the course of the year i have gotten 3 people leaving notes on my car asking if i'm selling it. lol. i believe two of you are on the boards... no sir, not yet, it's my only car and it suits me perfectly for now...

my plan is to get back into autocrossing again this season... i haven't gone regularly for a few years now (minus the yearly canada MR2 experience event (track/autox) that i go). i'm considering picking up a cheap Aw11 MR2 for this purpose. my old car has been resold last fall otherwise i was totally going to buy it back. in the meantime, i'm going to autocross the ST185.

in july i'm headed back up to canada for the MR2 track day / autocross / meet event. october/fall for the bear mountain meet (last year only marlon and i showed up to represent the AllTracs, as usual...). and then i guess it's 2014 and i come back for another update, lol...

good to see some of the old timers also coming back here lately... be well, drive safe.

Loving the updates bc I haven't been active on the boards the past few years I can catch up in 3 of your posts lol. I had the same starting problem and did the starter relay mod and never another issue again. It is common on the 165s but not sure if its an issue on the 185's. costs almost nothing so it might be worth a shot? Good luck.

good to see you still have the alltrac Mike

and YAY for a cheap AW11!!!
i got our 87 hardtop shell with no motor & 6 pt autopower roll cage for $400 so there are still deals to be had out there.
i couldn't imagine being without a 2 in the stable - so many things to love about them.

regarding the clunk .. have you checked the front endlinks on the sway bar? or the bushings on the crossmembers? if it clunks over bumps sounds like strut top mount issue but that's not always the case. good luck tracking it down.

i know what you mean about auto-x .. we haven't done it in over 5 yrs & i miss it terribly too, just no time for it

Glad to see your are still trucking. Does not hurt to give us pic updates now and then so we can admire your car.

Hotrodhendrix":1g87j2pl said:

I like your once a year updates haha. Next up Hello 2013!!

~James

Click to expand...

Wow.... I think I bent space and time!!! :shock:

Looks good as always!

~James

I came back this weekend from CMR2E 2013 up in Canada with some pretty hard driving on the track and autocross that resulted in a cracked radiator... Don't worry, I got back home in one piece, but now I'm forced to upgrade my radiator sooner than I had anticipated... So tomorrow, I'm putting in a Mishimoto aluminum one along with a 12" Derale puller fan.

Also, the hard start problem seems to have been solved by replacing the Main/EFI Relay with another used one off a parts car. I hope it works consistently and I'd be very happy if that was all...

As for the clunk, it's still a mystery and I haven't noticed any drastic changes in handling because of it. It's probably something really silly (or so I hope).

I did a little write-up about this weekend's activities on my website here:
http://wp.me/p1z2NX-4t

I also used a GoPro for the first time (just bought it a few weeks ago), although I didn't get any track footage. I only have autocross footage, but they came out better than I had thought! I also used a datalogging app on my phone (RaceChrono) along with a 10Hz Bluetooth GPS, which worked for half the time. So I'll see what I can do about overlaying that on the video... But the radiator replacement is more urgent...

Asi's are going for cheap on eBay like <200. Just a suggestion. Looking forward to seeing you at bear mountain

I ordered a Mishimoto and fan as soon as I came back home and installed it last weekend.

The radiator replacement job was probably the *easiest* job I've ever had to do on this car!! It required almost no removal of parts not associated with the part being worked on (yeah, unbelievable considering this car is famous for having to remove 30 unrelated parts just to get your part in question) I was pleasantly surprised that I got it done in about 2 leisurely hours!

Where the radiator burst:


Before Replacement:


After Replacement:


Pretty straightforward swap. You have to reuse the temp sensor from your stock radiator.

Compared to stock, here are the differences:
1) It's thicker, thus there is virtually no clearanace between the alternator cooling duct and the radiator now-- it's literally pushing up against the radiator: I'm considering fabbing up a DIY duct later.




2) The bottom drain plug cannot be reused. There is a hole for draining, but the diameter is much bigger and it points horizontally. Perhaps an aftermarket spigot is supposed to go there. I left it plugged.

3) The top 2 brakets that hold/cushion the radiator doesn't 100% fit. Stock is not totally curved (has a sharp bend towards the back), so if you're reusing the braket, it won't sit perfectly with the Mishimoto, it'll stick up more.



4) Radiator cap / top neck sits slightly higher. I think it touches the bottom of the hood/insulation.



I was a bit surprised and confused that the 12" Derale fan that I ordered has a SPAL fan in the box. Upon investigation (this took about 30 minutes of my time), it turns out that Derale rebrands (in this case, didn't bother to put any Derale branding-- it's literally a SPAL fan) SPAL fans for certain products in their line. However, I was happy that the fan I got fit *perfectly* with this radiator. The flat parts of the fan housing fit just right at the edges of the core where the end tanks meet. Couldn't have asked for a better fitment.



The harness that came with the fan isn't plug and play with our stock harness, so I cut it off, then cut the harness from the stock fan and spliced them together (used butt connectors for now since I didn't have my soldering iron with me-- will solder it later, maybe this weekend). There's definitely a lot more space where the stock fan used to sit as this fan is much thinner in thickness.



Had to run out to the drug store to get distilled water (another 30 minutes, so I guess the install itself was about an hour lol), filled up the radiator, connected the pipes back up and went for a drive.

Surprisingly, the temp gauge is exactly where the stock radiator put it, slightly left of center. Without a true temp gauge I can't tell. So from what I see, it's much of an "upgrade" from stock. The fan it a bit louder (or seems that way since the pitch is higher), and that's about the only difference. I guess I won't know until I take the car to the track or autocross to see if it dissipates heat better. Certainly better than a cracked radiator

-----------

And oh... I was going to do some editing of the GoPro videos from 2 weekends ago, but I haven't gotten around to it. So I just posted a few of the raw, unedited footages on YouTube. One of them seems to have a problem, but if you wanna see they are here:

ProSolo last runs before my radiator burst:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wo_7_W3pKc

AutoX Helmet Cam:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTi9uQvdeV4

AutoX Wheel Cam:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvqy-9e0GUw

AutoX Winshield Cam:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwOrL0dNUAY


How my tires looked after 3 days of track and autocross:


And oh, I meant to show you guys this. It's my underhood LED light strip (Corksport). I have it ziptied like this but it does the job:


Thanks for reading.

Yours is the same color as mine.

I want to replace the radiator I have and I had high hopes for that radiator fitting better. I've got an RC fan and I want to keep it instead of getting an aftermarket one...

Are the LEDs for lighting up the engine in the dark?

The stock fan might be ugly but you would be amazed at what a little shroud does.