Took the MR2 (1993 Uk spec 2.0 N/A GT T-Bar) for an MOT today and it failed on "handbrake efficiency only 8% "
Took a look when I got home, the left side is'nt working at all. Gave the mechanism bit on the calipers a good squirt of WD40 and cranked it on and off iscase they were seized but they don't appear to be (i.e both sides move in and out like they should)
The cables appear to be intact although a lot of it is covered so it's not fully obvious.
Any thoughts as to what could help? I'll get her up in the air tomorrow and remove the undertray and have a good look at eveything. Thanks in advance for your help guys.
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Hi
my lads handbrake on a MR2 import was duff. I found the cables were seized in the outer casings. New cables on both sides made the handbrake like new. so by now i think your outers are suffering from water ingession
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A final rundown of events for anyone thats interested, drivers side cable was seized, so was'nt working the mechanism in the caliper which in turn seized. A recon caliper (£100) new cable (£45) and pads whilst I had it all apart (£22) have solved the problem. The passenger side is a bit stiff compared to the new side but should last me another MOT before I need to change it hopefully. Anyone interested in one of these cars be warned that the calipers are a weak point, the previous owner had the fronts changed by toyota at a cost of £700 ouch! might be something to do with them sitting so low down and attracting all the water spray from the wheels and seizing.
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There's an important lesson of Toyota ownership here - don't buy parts from Toyota!
There's a whole host of internet / mail order companies who can supply service and mainstream pattern parts at a fraction of the price. Brakes international for example do reconditioned MR2 calipers for £72 each.
Only use Toyota if you're certain the part can't be sourced by an alternative.
As for the MR2 brakes, apart from my handbrake (mentioned above by TurboD) they've been great on my turbo. A bit of cleaning/ greasing every now and then helps keep them silent and effective.
1993 MR2s have 15" wheels, so the calipers don't actually sit any lower than any other car with 15" wheels.
A lot of seizure in my opinion is due to the rubber boots protecting the slider pins perishing, letting in water, and corroding the slider.
The floating caliper needs the sliders to be working to keep the brakes effective.
Same fault as with the handbrake too - the expandable rubber boot letting in water.
Worth a check before autumn, as water in there will freeze your parking brake on one morning.
hth
Ian
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