Haloruler64's 2000 MR2 Spyder build thread

Old tires

New tires! RE-71Rs in 205/45R16 and... well I took a risk and got 225/50R16. And they're T H I C C 

Autocross went so much better than I could have hoped for!

I was one of the absolute fastest people there, beating Alfa 4Cs, Mustang GTs, WRXs, almost everyone. These tires are phenomenal. The balance is phenomenal. It was an extra tight course so I was hitting the brakes hard, turning in sharp, and hitting the gas to get angle. Sliding almost every corner to great effect. It grips so hard, front end barely washes out, and rear can slide when I need it to.

I did manage to tear out what was left of my fender liner. Hit some cones and it shot out of my wheel well. Was quite funny. I'll eventually replace it, it was already ruined anyway.

Unfortunately I do have a new issue. On a regular drive to the vet, I started hearing a light knock on decel. Then it got worse and worse, and it became a rhythmic knocking on light decel or accel, but when on harder accel or decel it went away. Felt like an axle, as it was wheel speed related and still did it on clutch out. And when you gave it pressure, like accel, it would lock and stop making noise. Well I popped the engine lid and there's axle grease everywhere and a split boot. However, when I crawled under the car I couldn't feel any wear. The "wobble" in the axle when forcing it around by the center was the same as the driver's side, almost none. I removed the tripod end and it looks good, haven't removed the cup end yet as I haven't drained the transmission. 

I hope it's just a bad axle and I can swap it out with a used OEM one. 

Congratulations on the fun and fast racing times.  Hope you are able to sort out the noise issues as you described and get back to permagrin soon.

A new boot would easily fix it. The grease that came out is fresh and not watery you should be good.  

 The boot can be easily replaced on the car without having to remove the axle.  Just remove two of the control arm attachments and cut the boot to separate the joint and get to work. Make sure you support the axle.  You will need a c clip players and a plastic hammer to remove the tulip but apart them that it was just an hours work.  I couldn't believe I was done so quick as it was too easy but if you decided to take out the entire axle it's much harder. 

I've done a boot on the driver's side before, it is easy! I'll see how the cup side looks like soon. And my buddy is selling me a used axle to use just in case. 

I pulled the cup side out. It was still filled with grease.

What do you guys think? It doesn't look like it's damaged. Re-boot and ready to go? Or not worth it?

@haloruler64 From the appearance of the grease, it seems to have gotten some water in it.  Water greatly reduces the load bearing capacity of an interface

Mine had the same consistency of grease and it was ok. If you have a spare good axle I would use that instead. 

I don't think it got water in it, it hasn't rained at all and the car hasn't been washed in many months. Never contacted water. I think it just might be old and worn out. 

I'm going to use the spare axle but it bugs me to just throw away a potentially good axle. I might give it to a friend to rebuild and maybe test.

Even though it didn't look like the axle, it was. I put in a used axle and she's good to go. Well, kinda. The brakes tried to kill me. Every time I would brake, at 10 MPH the brake pedal would forcefully pop up for 5 seconds and stop braking... then pop down again and continue braking. Wouldn't happen again while rolling, only once I got up to speed. It felt so much like malfunctioning ABS, so I unplugged the actuator and the issue went away. Maybe I damaged an ABS sensor when removing the knuckle to change the axle? 

Either way the bright orange ABS light now joins the bright orange CEL, and I wanted to delete ABS anyway as it tends to kick into "ice mode" when you run super sticky tires. No loss in my book. Got her aligned a few days ago and she's good to go! Clutch still squeaks, though less now. 

i would check the wheel speed sensor at the wheel with the replacement axle. Might have pulled on the wires too much.

I def didn't pull the wires, since it was the first thing I removed. But it's likely I messed it up anyway. I'll deal with it eventually but I've been meaning to disable ABS ever since I did my first autocross with the RE-71Rs and it started kicking in randomly.

In which case, it could just be a bad connection, or bent pin.