[WilcoMR-S]

Your car makes me miss my old 02 version. Loved that color.

 

[Haloruler64]

The MR2 Spyder had its first breakdown. And realistically it was my fault. I was driving to MR2sday and just got off the freeway. I floored it in first turning right into a street with no stops and I hear a thud and lose power. Gas pedal does nothing. RPMs slowly dropping until they hit 0 and I'm coasting. I can smell gas. I pull into the bike lane, since there are no turns for quite a while, and crank the engine. Nothing, but the smell of gas gets stronger. I get out and there's a big puddle of gas underneath the car.


Luckily it's MR2sday, and there are other MR2s. Three others pull up with me providing me with lights, tools, and a handy fire extinguisher. I take what's left of my cubbies out and remove the metal plate covering the fuel pump assembly. There was gas everywhere, and part of the fresh butyl was liquified by the gas. ANd there's the issue, the main fuel line had popped off. The orange clip was still there, fully seated. Maybe it was installed improperly when I dropped the tank, that's the most likely scenario. After some fiddling we got it all buttoned up and I drove the rest of the way.


Unfortunately the drive back was miserable. The interior was filled with gas fumes and it made me quite sick. I don't know if there is still a fume leak going on, or if it's leftover gas. I'll let it air out and drive it in a few days. Also, I was looking through the BGB and found a diagram of this fuel line and it shows that there are two O rings sealing it to the fuel pump assembly. Unfortunately I cannot find those O rings on any Toyota parts diagram, and neither could the dealer. Any thoughts on where I can find them? Or whether they're inside the line or on the pump assembly? I would like to replace them since the line has been off twice now.

 

[SRW]

On the pump right? I only see one O-ring on this diagram.... weird

 

[Haloruler64]

That O ring is actually on the pump itself, not the housing. I'm talking about where the main fuel line, 77209D, connects to the pump housing 77024A. Here's a diagram from the BGB.

Also based on this diagram I can't tell if the O rings are on the hose side or the pump assembly side.

 

[SRW]

Hmm.. looks like the two O-ring is a part of the (77024A)

 

[Haloruler64]

That's a big oof, as the kids say. Would suck to pull the entire assy to replace the top plate and need a new gasket for that as well.

 

[Haloruler64]

I sprayed down the top of the fuel tank with brake clean then dumped hot soapy water all over it and let it air out for a week with the windows open. Today I drove it for the first time in a long while. No rear cubbies and the metal plate that's usually glued over the fuel pump assembly is removed. Car runs great, revs great, and there are no visible fuel leaks. No smell either, until I get to my destination and let it idle in place. Just a slight smell of fuel. Unsure if it's actually fumes leaking or leftover smell but likely the former. Where else could this fuel smell be coming from? Just a bad line, or something else?

 

[Haloruler64]

Been driving the car, still smells of gas. Occasionally the P0440 comes back. Suspected bad vent valve seal. Might still be true. But I did a lot of testing so let me go through that. Bought a smoke tester. Can't use it on the gas cap, don't have a gas cap adapter so that's probably why all my testing failed. But I did some things Toyota suggested.


I removed the hose from the closed canister valve (on the airbox) and fired smoke into it. I also did the same for the purge line. Both resulted in the same thing. No smoke in the cabin, but all coming from the gas cap.

However, my gas cap is only 3 years old and OEM. I had a suspicion it was fine, and a friend told me that this method won't even get smoke into the tank. So I removed the fuel filler neck trim and lo and behold, no smoke in the tank. All venting from the sides.

So my testing didn't really get anywhere. Gonna get that overpriced $50 fuel filler neck adapter for a smoke machine and fill the tank itself with smoke. See if the vent valve really is bad. That's what usually fails, and what usually causes fuel smells in the cabin according to a lot of MR2 Spyder owners.


Any thoughts welcome!

 

[Haloruler64]

I grabbed a $7 gas cap from O'Reilly Auto along with a $5 set of hose barbs. I took the cap apart: The white part is what actually seals, while the black part is just the cap that ratchets on the white part. There is no seal between the black and white parts. First I gutted the seal from the inside of the white part so there's a hole in it.

Then I drilled a hole in the cap and inserted the correct size barb.

Then I threw on some tape and reinforced the top with JB Weld.

I filled the area around the barb inside with black RTV, since it should be fairly chemical resistant. I then laid down a bead of the stuff into the black cap and reinstalled the white section. Afterwards I filled the area with RTV.

Final result! Sealed gas cap that will let smoke into the fuel tank without venting it out. Yes the ratcheting mechanism doesn't work anymore, so installation will have to be careful. It's only held together with RTV. But it only needs to seal well enough to hold a couple PSI at most, the smoke tester self regulates to one PSI. I'm excited to try it! $13 total.

 

[Haloruler64]

The cap seems to have been a waste of time, leaked around the edges.

 

[phattires]

Why don't you use the vent that goes into the top of the gas tank . It's the smaller of the two metal tubes that run down the filler tube . You'd have to get underneath to access , it connects to a rubber hose at the bottom .

 

[Haloruler64]

I don't follow. Any chance you can give me more guidance on what line you're talking about? The tiny one that is to the left of the vent valve?

 

[phattires]

I'll try to get you a couple pics later today or tomorrow . But yes ...it's to the drivers side of the vent valve . It runs to the bottom of the filler tube and attaches to one of the metal lines that runs down the filler tube .

 

[Haloruler64]

Huh that actually sounds ideal. Gotta look into that, dig through some docs.

 

[phattires]

Here's the metal tubes running down the filler tube I was talking about . I thought there was only 2 but there's 3 .

Here's where they go from metal to rubber hose and where you would connect .

The smallest goes directly to the top of the tank and has no valves or restrictions , the one I think you should blow your smoke into . The top one ( next bigger hose ) goes to the vent valve and probably has a check valve in it so fumes would go out but smoke wouldn't go in . You make need to plug this hose . The biggest hose you may also need to plug it .... it goes to the charcoal canister .

 

[Haloruler64]

Badass, thank you so much! I'll lift the car probably this weekend and do exactly that.

 

[2mAn]

Been searching around researching people’s experiences with the Tanabe GF210 and Koni’s. Seems like your name kept coming up and ultimately found your thread...

Not sure if you still have them or any pics of it. I’ll probably spend a few days going through the thread but if you can let me know if it’s worth it or not. Ideally I’d get TRD race spring, but they are non-existent so ...

also, what happened to the early pics?

 

[Haloruler64]

Dropbox killed all early pics. They decided the "Public" folder feature would be entirely removed. I'm very mad at Dropbox.

I loved the Konis. Would not REALLY recommend the GF210. They're very understeer prone, very stiff front end. Washes out a lot. Teins are way better, and softer ride too.

 

[Haloruler64]

I'm still popping a P0440 and not really working on it. The car is finally smogged and registered (smogged it between emissions monitors setting and the code popping, short little window!). The Lexus has been at the shop for 2 weeks awaiting its fate, totaled or not, and the rental is a Nissan Rogue. Not a bad car besides the trans. But of course I'd rather be driving this. So it's racking up miles, going on drives with friends, just hit 153351.

I'll get this fixed soon. Just not now.

 

[Steve447]

I feel your frustration with the P0440 code. I finally fixed mine with a combination of fuel pump gasket (the big round rubber seal), new roll over valve rubber seal and new roll over valve. All OEM parts. I did all three at the same time so don’t know which part it actually was but figured they were all 20 years old! It took an hour or two once I finally decided to do it and required dropping the tank a few inches to get to the roll over valve. Wasn’t as bad as I though it was going to be although it’s pretty tight doing the roll over valve. The rubber seals were definitely harder than the replacements and had some cracking.