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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

High Mileage issues on TT - any problems experienced?


Mike B

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Hi Everyone.

 

Had one sup, looking for another. Have been told that TT's are very strong, and have been very impressed by my last, but my question is do these things have any specific issues when they reach high miles (80,000 +)?

 

I have friends running big turbos on high mileage and they say they are extremely stong cars - no problems.

 

Should I be worried buying a Sup with 90k on the clock and expecting years more trouble free use or is there more to it than that?

 

If I am looking at a high miler is there anything serious or specific to check, aside service and expecting turbos to go one day..?

 

all comments greatly received!

 

Mike

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Yeah, I'd say it mostly comes down to how it was driven and how it was maintained in combination. Obviously Supras will have been driven hard at some point in their life but with good servicing it shouldn't be a prob. Obviously all components will wear out at some point.

 

I'd check for bodywork issues as they're getting on a bit now and have seen more and more with bits of corrosion etc.

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Thanks for that, the link is a real resource for buying, but more importantly does anyone have any real reasons for not buying a high miler - any horror stories out there - or words from the wise...?

 

Do you traders have any reason for not buying over 80k? do they go pop at all with age?

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Whitelightning had over 90k miles on her.

We did a bit of "ragging" in her and the usual things broke after 2 1/2 years of this such as seals, gaskets. We lost compression on nearly all cylinders etc.

She was due a rebuild upon sale, which the buyer was aware of.

 

If I was buying an old Supra again I would ask for at least a compression test on her, otherwise if you are modding - she could be due an engine rebuild.

 

Bear in mind WL had been really tested. If you want a modded car to do track work, long trips, high speeds and general arsing about then the stresses will be higher than on a stock doing trips to Tescos weekly.

 

Enquire how she was used - but get a compression test.

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Thanks for that, the link is a real resource for buying, but more importantly does anyone have any real reasons for not buying a high miler - any horror stories out there - or words from the wise...?

 

Do you traders have any reason for not buying over 80k? do they go pop at all with age?

 

IMO i think the only reason to not buy high mileage is either

 

1) its previous treatment, ie already done a substantial mileage in a high(er) modded state (the extreme being a Whitelightning type car)

2) Higher chance of extended service intervals/oil changes

 

I've taken a UK manual car from 79K to 90K and its now with another member and still going strong (stock when i had it and similar still i believe)

Also my current TT was bought with 137K km and is now on 158K km.

Both these cars i believe were stock most of thier lives, my current TT was even still limited to 112mph and obviously untouched exhaust and turbo wise.

 

Both have/had no major issues, no clutch/box problems, no compression prob's afaik, no turbo issues etc........

 

IMO all 'Major' problems stem from mod's that are not supported properly, ie upping the boost with a crap old IC, 10+ yr old fuel pump etc. Go back a couple of years and this cost a few people their turbo's / engines, these days tuners and the advise on here tends to help avoid this happening to others.

 

Whitelightning's example is an extreme case, but highlights how prior use can affect a car. I'd be very confident of buying a high mile car where the miles were put on by the last owner over a number of years, and in those years no power hungry mods had been added. A car like this is IMO far more likely to have been a 80-90mph motorway cruiser than a late night 140+mph and car doughnuting track day weapon.

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I think the usual signs of maturity are:

 

Crumbling intercooler (a couple of replacements are available off people on this BBS for less than half the price of new Toyota ones)

 

Brittle vacuum hoses causing 2nd turbo problems (cheap enough to buy but a bastard to swap some of them)

 

Knocking from suspension on reverse at full lock (loose subframe bolts, just need tightening)

 

Connectors on the coil packs breaking up (cheap enough to fix)

 

Oily exhaust on startup and on booting it (valve stem seals - not life threatening but can be expensive to get sorted)

 

Other than that you get ceramic turbo failures that seem to be caused by running higher boost, but it's not a certainty, and we recently had a bit of a run on the front crank pulley losing its balancing mass due to the rubber section perishing.

 

If it's serviced OK and run sympathetically (easy cold starts, idle before switchoff, etc) then they will last aeons.

 

-Ian

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