Bought my spyder for $12,900 at 55k miles. I’ve spent $7783 in maintenance costs in one year of owning the car. What am I doing wrong? Why is my car so unreliable?

New member welcome but no detail will likely get minimal response from members. I feel like I wasted my time on this response.

 

I appreciate your response. Any tips on how I can improve? As you can tell, I’m very new.

 

I thought I should also mention I have driven the car 10k miles since I bought the car a year ago. Perhaps this is too much driving for this car?

 

Considering these generally push 200k before major problems start (even on some pre face-lift models), I'm guessing yours has lived a particularly hard life. From the repairs you described it probably had a ton of deferred maintenance and also I wouldn't be surprised if it lived a significant portion of its life in a state that has issues with rust and corrosion. All and all, your MR2 was woefully neglected prior to you taking ownership.

 

The weird part is the car is almost 100% rust free.

 

You need a new mechanic .... half those repairs are unnecessary and way over charged .

 

$1400 on injectors?????

 

What should it have cost?

 

this might be your opportunity to become more mechanically self sufficient, spend a portion of the repair budget on some basic tools, hang around sites like spyderchat & don't forget that You Tube is a great place for learning new skills, lots of mr2 stuff there. probably save some $ also,

 

I would love to, but my parents aren’t fond of making their garage an autoshop. (I am 18 and still live with my parents at the moment and can’t afford to move out due to housing prices and this damn car.)

 

Maybe $500-600. MAF should be maybe $200-250 you can install it in 2 minutes with a screwdriver LOL

Find a new mechanic. You are getting hosed.

 

Yeah find a new mechanic or ask us here how difficult a job is to see if you can do it yourself in an afternoon.

It sounds like you overpaid at 12k+$ for a Spyder with 110k+ miles

 

Bought my spyder for $12,900 at 55k miles. I’ve spent $7783 in maintenance costs in one year of owning the car. What am I doing wrong? Why is my car so unreliable?... I’m not even done with repairs. I have an EVAP leak, peeling clear coat on my side mirrors, deep scratches on the front and rear bumpers, fluids need to be changed, and my headlights are fogged up.

Scratches are cosmetic. Buy a little can of touchup paint and touch them up yourself. If your headlights are fogged up with moisture inside, remove the plastic covers and pop the bulbs out. Then blow a hair dryer in there to dry out the moisture. If they are "fogged up" from oxidation, buy a can of "light rite" headlight refinish spray for $18. Sand them down and respray. Let me guess - fluids need to be changed because the same repair shop recommended it? What fluids exactly? What "evap leak" are you seeing? Did the same repair shop read CEL codes? Have you tried tightening the gas cap until it clicks? Have you tried replacing the gas cap - there's a rubber seal that commonly leaks. Rockauto sells the seal for $3. You can install it yourself. With such low miles and all those parts replaced, I'd expect your spyder should run another 150,000 miles with no problems.

 

I actually checked the fluids myself. My coolant is brown and muddy as well as my brake fluid. I may not be mechanically inclined but I’m not stupid. And I tried restoring my headlights myself with no results. And the evap leak is code p0442. I have a OBDII reader.

 

Also a 110k mile car with a 55k mile engine is still a 110k mile car.

 

To me, you have overspend money buying your MR-S. It should not cost that much. From what you've mentioned, the exterior part should have alert you (bad headlights bulbs), scratched body part. Most of the prices wroted seem to be items boughts directly from a Toyota dealer. 1400$ for a set of 4 injectors is "normal" in Toyota Center. Same about coolant tube line (coolant replacement included probably). Those prices are not abnormal to be (I did asked a price for some of those items in Toyota Center).

 

Yep, you overspent on the car. It was not kept in good condition justifying the price.

 

The mechanics in my area get the parts at wholesale and then charge the customer their prices to make profit. If you bring the parts to the mechanic either they will not do the work or they will not offer any warranty on the work if you develop a problem. This is so they can make their labor rates seem reasonable. If you ever get a taste of how much you can save sourcing your own parts and the labor you can never go back even if you have money to burn. In their defense they need to keep the lights on and pay the tuition for their kids so they depend on customers like you.
When buying an old car like this you need to be mechanically aware otherwise it will hurt your wallet. Considering what was done and how much was actually needed for the repair, it seems like a shotgun and unnecessary preemptive approach was made. I estimate I could have got this car running well for less than $1k without much issue and even less if I used good salvaged parts.
This is why I tell my other friends that want what I have but are not mechanically inclined to just buy a new car or any car that is still under factory warranty and maintain it well so it does not develop a cascade of issues as it gets older.

 

I repaired everything as a check engine light came on or it was clear it needed to be replaced. While I am not mechanically inclined, I’m not stupid enough to fix everything a mechanic throws at me.
Though I do think you’re right about buying an older car and having the skills to fix it.

 

It is an older car which means things are going to wear out. Your repair charges are very high in my opinion. I would find a different shop. I do all my own work including a brand new engine install and transmission repair and suspension work so I don't really know the current rates.

 

I am not skilled enough nor do I have the tools to do it myself.

 

You have a give or take 20 year old car that previously had a blown engine. Let me ask you something, if going somewhere and renting a car, would you rent a 20 year old car? No? Why not? List the reasons. The same reasons apply to your car that you bought. If you wouldn't rent it, you certainly shouldn't buy it. If you have to rely on someone else for the care and maintenance of the car, and you are not able to source the parts yourself at economical rates, get rid of the car. Take the loss now. Better than a bigger loss later. Yah it's a Toyota and it should go 1 million miles. That is complete BS. Toyotas have a built-in self-destruct mechanism that engages at about 175,000 miles. There are exceptions. LIke with humans there are centenarians. Most people are long dead before that.

 

What self destruction mechanism are you referring to?

 

How can the coolant be brown and muddy after repairing 2 coolant leaks? Did they collect the old coolant a pour it back in? And the prices you are paying for the work is crazy.

 

They said they “topped it off” and they charge $200 an hour plus parts

 

Wow, that's a phenomenal shop rate! I work part time at an exotic import shop and their rate is $135/hour - working on old Rolls Royce, Maserati, Ferrari, McClaren, Austin Healeys etc. The brown coolant is disappointing. As you say, they must have mixed green and red coolants. Do you have any buddies with a garage and a few tools? It's a shame your parents don't encourage or support you doing your own work. I got my repair education the hard way - too poor to pay anyone else so I had to do it all myself.

 

Wow, that's a phenomenal shop rate! I work part time at an exotic import shop and their rate is $135/hour - working on old Rolls Royce, Maserati, Ferrari, McClaren, Austin Healeys etc. The brown coolant is disappointing. As you say, they must have mixed green and red coolants. Do you have any buddies with a garage and a few tools? It's a shame your parents don't encourage or support you doing your own work. I got my repair education the hard way - too poor to pay anyone else so I had to do it all myself. View attachment 96673

Oh the old Lotus Elan plus two. High on my list of wants, haha. Keeping that on the road without leaking oil is probably a big challenge. Still I love the one I drove many years ago.

 

$200 USD/hr plus parts? Fuck I'd be retired by now...

 

reality can be tough, at 18 you have a lot of time to learn anything you want to, don't fall for the negative stuff, you bought the car spent the money & it is what it is, moving forward do your research get just some simple tools you can do basic stuff in the driveway....if your parents give you trouble have them watch Christine..kidding..but most of all think how cool it is to drive a Spyder

 

Christine😆🤣

 

ouch

 

They probably topped it with the cheap green shit so now the coolant is muddy brown colour and chemically compromised. So not only is it an expensive mechanic but also an incompetent one. Why did they change all the injectors and coils? Chasing a misfire that was probably one coil or a bad plug I bet.

 

Just to pile on:
-Ignition Coils: $227

This is actually too cheap. OEM coils are $65/each from RockAuto. So you probably got a set of crappy ones (which will eventually cause problems).

Like everyone else has said, your mechanic sucks and he is essentially taking advantage of you.

 

You spent way too much probably because you paid someone to do all the work. If you can’t do the work yourself owning any older car regardless of mileage is going to be expensive. Next time make sure you buy something that someone else dumped money into. Or better yet, don’t drop your car off at the closest mechanic and trust them that you should be spending 2k(!!) on a goddamn cat.

 

The name is fitting.

 

Surely it was changed when the engine was swapped out.

Find a new mechanic. And remember you still have a 110k mile car.

 

I would say that you did overpay for the original purchase. $12k might be reasonable for a car with 55k miles if the body was in excellent condition, but it sounds like the car actually has 110k miles. A lot of the repairs you listed were to be expected.

On the time scale of decades and hundreds of thousands of miles, most of the mechanical parts are expendables. Exhaust parts, suspension parts, hoses, belts, pipes, and electronics will all get replaced eventually. A sound body is what gives the car continuing value.

It costs money to operate a car no matter how you slice it up. If you buy a new car, your money goes to banks and multinationals. If you buy an old car, much of your money is going to local businesses and used parts dealers. Of course, you want to avoid the ones that are taking advantage of you.

Also, it does not sound like your car was unreliable. You did not mention any instance of it breaking down on you.