Fuses

Tools required: None

Difficulty: If you can’t figure this out after reading my writeup.. Step away from the car.

Probably the easiest thing to check is the fuses.

First you need to get your fuse removal tool. Go to the engine compartment in the back and find the fuse box (as shown below). Note: The fuses you are looking for are NOT located back here. You just need the tool to remove the tiny fuses.

Now grab the white thing I’m pointing to in the picture below.

Neat huh?

Now go back up to the frunk and find the fuse box and take the cover off. On the underside of the cover you will find a diagram, situate it so the fuse pattern matches the fuses themselves (it’s easier then it sounds once you look at them). I included a picture of the diagram situated as though you were standing on the side of the car next to the fuse box. I also put two red arrows pointing to the fuses you will need to check.

Now take your tool and remove the fuses to inspect them.

What you’re looking for is a broken wire. This means the fuse is blown, I have a comparison below.

The one on the left as you can see has a solid wire all the way through. It is fine, but the one on the right has a break in the wire. That means it’s shot as was mentioned before.

If you do have a blown fuse fear not. Toyota thought of everything and included a couple of spare fuses of varying ratings. Make sure you pick the one with a 30 on it if you do end up having to replace one of the fan fuses otherwise you will just blow out your brand new fuse once the fan kicks in. I circled the spare fuses in the picture below.

Relays

Next up are the relays.

Tools required: A multimeter and probably some 14 gauge electrical wire.

Difficulty: Easy as pie.

This first picture is a well written set of instructions on how to do this. I am mostly guiding you on a few (very) basic points it doesn’t cover for this part of my how-to.

The relays are located in the same fuse block and the fuses were. I’ve put arrows going to the relays you need to check in the picture below.

Pull one out and set it upside down somewhere.

Next you will want to set your multimeter up so it is measuring resistance (ohms). This picture shows mine setup to do just that.

A little side note, I went to lowes to get a cheap multimeter and they had one for 15 bucks but there was only one left and it was opened. I’ve had that one before but lost it or something and it worked just fine. However the one shown in this picture was bought at advance autoparts for 16 dollars and I can say for sure it is of much higher quality.

Now you will want to connect the wires up to the electrodes as shown to check for continuity. If you do have continuity you will get a reading (for example 100) if there isn’t any you will just get a 1 like is shown in my picture above.

The motors themselves

Tools: Your hands.

Difficulty: Stupid easy

Another easy test is to see if the motors work. I want to make it clear this test isn’t going to give you a definitive answer but it can help to point you in the right direction. Basically all you have to do is spin the fan blades and see how long they keep spinning. If one spins a lot shorter ammount of time it could mean it’s either dead or on it’s way out. Here’s a video showing a aging motor.

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b221/dar…es6-24-0830.flv

If the motor is bad here’s a writeup for replacing that.

The grounds

Tools: Wire stripper/cutter

Difficulty: Easy but not necessarily for the total idiot.

I don’t have any pictures of this but I can tell you how to do it. Basically you just need to cut the ground wire of your motor and try to ground it to the chasis of your spyder by stripping the insulation off and attaching it to some piece of metal on the car. To attach it you can just tape it and I’ve heard using liquid tape can be a good idea as well.

Please add anything constructive, questions or tips from your experience to this thread and I’ll edit and move it to the library later

so how do you change the coolant on the Roadster?

Ok first thing is coolant regardess of what others may say anything is fine as long as it s Ethyl Glycol based and suitable for aluminium engines

You’ll need a lot of it as you will lose a lot bleeding it, cheapest option is Halfords own brand concentrated, get enough to make 20 litres or more.

You will need the car on ramps or stands, I suggest ramps (CLOSE THE RAD DRAIN POINT)

Make sure your heater is on full (no keys in and no engine running)

1. Remove expansion tank cap
2. There is a drain plug for the block, bottom left at the back behind the manifold open it and catch the contents (leave it open)
3. remove all plastics from the front under the nose
4. tied up against the firewall is 2 hoses against a bleed valve
5. take the shorter one and attach to the bleed nipple, masking tape the other end vertically up to the bonnet, open the bleed point
6. take the other hose and attach it to the rad bleed point (drivers side top of rad on the end
7. tape it up verticaly to the bonnet
8. below that bleed point is a plastic thumbscrew open it up but be careful its a crap design and you don’t want it to fall out
9. passenger side of the rad at the bottom is a drain point, open it and catch any coolant that coes out (leave it open)
10. look where the rad feed hoses go under the bonnet and dissapear under the centre of the car. Just after they dissapear there are 2 drain points, ignore them as they will be seized up, just behind them are 2 clips that hold the rubber hoses on, pull those hoses and drain any coolant that comes out, then put them back on.
11. If there is any coolant still in the expansion bottle disconnect the bottle and empty it.
12. when confident no more coolant is coming out close all drain points.

Now to refill

1 mix your coolant
2. fill from the expansion bottle cap slowly pausing to allow any air to come back out,
3. stop filling when the level in the clear hoses at the front is approx the same height as the expansion tank at the rear.
4. close all bleed points
5. start car and idle for 10 mins topping up the expansion tank as needed.
6. kill engine, open bleed points and allow any air to leave the system, topping up at the rear as needed. Massage the coolant pipes where accessable

7. repeat 5 and 6 as neccessary until no more air comes out.

8. shut bleed points replace expansion cap and go for an easy drive (leave plastic out as your not finished yet.)

9. check heater works when driving if not follow heater matrix bleed proceedure below as it’s air locked.

10. return car to ramps, remove expansion cap open bleed points and remove any air that comes out, top up at rear as needed.

if the heater didn’t work follow the below

1. Get an assistant
2. open bleed point on firewall
3. clamp (use a big gclamp) the rad hose that goes between the bleed point and the main rad pipe
4. you need a wet and dry shop vac for this (wicks do one for circa £20 if you don’t have one)
5. seal a hose to both vac and the hose coming from the bleed point.
6. have someone at the rear ensure the expansion tank does not run dry whilst you turn on the Vac
7. you should see the airlock siphon out of the heater matrix up the clear pipe, stop when you are sucking up water

that should do it

repeat various parts as needed if you still have air

keep a close eye on levels and temp over the next few days, expect to have to top up the expansion tanks periodically over the next week.

at all times during the fill proceedure never let the expansion tank run dry.

Also if you’re unsure what the issue with your fan is check out my idiots guide to diagnosing a bad cooling fan.

Tools required:
1) 10mm wrench.
2) 8mm wrench/socket.
3) Medium sized Phillips screwdriver.

Optional:
1) Flat headed screwdriver

Now onto the install. Once you remove the frunk plastics you will be greeted with this site.

You’ll need to take off the two bolts (10mm) which have a red arrow going to them and remove the two bars they are holding. Then you will need to remove the two bolts that hold the fan assembly in. These are circled in green above and I have a close up picture with a red arrow pointing at one below.

^^This is why you need a 10mm wrench and not just a socket.
Next pull the wire out from all of the clips holding it in place. Two examples of these are circled in green below. Once that’s done push down on the black connector with a red arrow going to it so it pops off of it’s holder.

Now you can disconnect the plugs on the drivers side motor (pink arrow above) and the black plug that has a red arrow going to it. Below is a picture attempting to show where to push on the connector so you can pull it off. If you’ve ever worked with the other electrical connectors on this car these are no different. Basically you have to wrestle with it a little bit but eventually the thing will pop off. Just keep trying.

Now pull up on the whole fan assembly which will fully remove it (more on why that is in a bit). Once you can move the whole assembly around freely you can get the last connector shown in the picture below. Just put your fingernail or flat headed screw driver where mine is and pull that tab out and it should release quite easily.

Now you can also examine what it was that held in the fan assembly up until now. I have a picture of one of the connectors that slips in a slot on the assembly. This is useful information as you will need to make sure you get the slots lined up so the bottom is secured when you put the assembly back in at the end.

Next remove the nut holding on the fan blades (circled in red below) with a 8mm wrench/socket.

Once the blades are removed you can get to the three screws which are holding the motor in place (circled in red below).

The motor just slips right out at this point and it’s just a matter of doing the reverse of this whole process.

I also have a video to show how much extra resistance my old motor had compared to the one that still worked.

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b221/dar…es6-24-0830.flv

As for difficulty, on a scale of 1-10 (1 being cleaning your MAF) this is a 1.5 I would say. A very easy task which looks hard but probably would only take 15 minutes to half an hour.

Feel free to ask any questions or make comments!