[PSI-GUY]

is the MKIII Turbo going to be a a trouble free car for a daily driver with very light mods. I mean everery day I hear of someones new problem with their car, and their spontanious BHG, and their Turbo cracking or whatever. I know it's an old car, but suprislingly I've probably found one MKIII Turbo for sale in the last year, and that was gone before I knew it. I'm thinking I should just move on to another car. I really like the MKIII but all of a sudden I seem, so disapointed in it.

 

[Thermactor]

RUN AWAY

 

[conundrum07]

is the MKIII Turbo going to be a a trouble free car for a daily driver

:lol: Unfortunately, the Supra is a high maintenance car. Its is a old turbo sports car. None of which encourage reliability. You can minimize repairs by treating the car well and keeping up with preventive maintenance, but stuff will still break.

 

[PSI-GUY]

so this is just somthing I should expect from older Turbocharged cars?

 

[witeenigma]

stay away from the mk3 if you want reliability... :lol:

but in all seriousness, if you want reliable first thing would be the head gasket. from there on out your luck is as good as everyone else's

 

[chevyeater-on-sf]

Reliability is based on maintenance and care. A well maintained mk3 is very reliable. Mine ran for 160,000 miles without a single repair. Unfortunately, not many people care for thier car the way they should.

 

[MA70Supra88]

I agree. I've never had any reliability issues with my mk3. If it has been well taken care of it should last. After all, it is a Toyota. Just my 2 cents.

 

[SoupedUpSupra]

the problem is you end up buying these cars from guys in their 40's who took it to juffy lube and pennzoil for all their repairs, know jack about turbo timers, and don't understand premium gasoline. Most people don't know that you can't flog a turbo car and just turn it off, or that turbos require higher than 87 octane.

 

[Bishop92T]

You can expect problems from any old turbo sports car. Hell any old sports car or old turbo car will give you problems too. If you can find a well maintained Supra it will be mostly reliable, but you can expect it to give you troubles at least once in the time you own it. Mine gives me troubles every 8 months or so, but it always gets me to my destination.

 

[makenzie71]

Despite what these guys say the Supra IS very reliable. However, even the most reliable car is going to have problems after 15+ years. In this day and age they're as reliable as their mechanic.

 

[Typenamehere]

so this is just somthing I should expect from older Turbocharged cars?

Many years of abuse and hard driving. No one buys a turbocharged car unless they plan to use it.

 

[MRSUPRA]

I was a little worried about reliability too before I bought my MK3. But it turns out that my well maintained car has been trouble-free other than the problems that I have caused from tinkering with it. If you all think the Mk3 is unreliable, try owning an early 90's taurus SHO.

 

[osofast7m]

The car is a great and reliable car. Reliability is what you make it, if you put the time and effort into replacing the necessary pieces to restore some of the 15 year old parts in the car it will be very reliable and a wonderful experience to drive. If you half ass the mechanical restoration then you'll be in for a big headache.

Khris

 

[Dieselboy]

Toyota cars in general are pretty reliable. If your Supra is going to be "lightly modded" (assuming just BPU's), you keep up with required maintainance, and just have general common sense when dealing with your car, then your going to be just fine.

My MKIII has been female owned its whole life up to since I got it in mid December (first owner leased new for 3 months, the 2nd owner ever since). I had piece of mind with my buyer because she took extremely good care of this car. From garaging it, to using synthetic oil, she was on top of everything and knew what she was doing (suprisingly). The car shows because rather than a few chips in the front bumper, a small powersteering fluid and oil leak, and some clunking from the driveshaft (prolly joints), the car is in immaculate condition inside and out. Unfortunately, you wont always encounter that when buying a used MKIII (or any 12+ y/o car for that matter).

"If you all think the Mk3 is unreliable, try owning an early 90's taurus SHO."

If you think the MKIII is unreliable, try owning a DSM I have had my DSM for about 13-14 months and Ive probley driven it 6 months in that time. The rest she has been a jackstand whore. Its no fun going fast if your scared your gonna break something everytime. Some cars will respond to good maintainance and treat you right regardless of power output (could be applied to the MKIII or any well built car), others will just break and break and....break and suck your pockets dry (like my DSM ). But comparing the two cars, the MKIII is so much funner to drive at this point than my DSM was at the same point.

My advise is take the chance. I was in the same boat as you and Im still happy with my decision to purchase one.

 

[Wu_Tang]

my two cents: my engine have 221,000 minor things here and there...but i barely ever red line my engine..prob two or three times....so if you just treat it nice...it'll treat you nice

 

[mdr40z]

I've had mine for 37k miles and the only thing I've done that was not routine was the starter solenoid contacts everything else has been mods, pretty dependable and I ride it like a french ho, lol. I am expecting the autobox to wilt under the added hp of the mods but 6 months so far so good, every other oil change I also swap out the 1.x quarts of atf (Mobil-1 atf) that will drain out.

 

[MRSUPRA]

Responding to Diesal boy: I have owned two DSM's, a 91 turbo and a 97 turbo, both of them along with my supra have been very reliable. No comparison to my well kept SHO.

 

[PSI-GUY]

Well, another suprising dilema I'm having is actually finding one. You'd think there would be thousands with me living in Houston and all, but it's not what you think. I found an aweome silver 92T 5 speed with under 80K miles, but that was gone in no time, and the only one I've found in a long while.

 

[NeverNZ]

My MKIII has been female owned its whole life up to since I got it in mid December (first owner leased new for 3 months, the 2nd owner ever since). I had piece of mind with my buyer because she took extremely good care of this car. From garaging it, to using synthetic oil, she was on top of everything and knew what she was doing (suprisingly)

thats wierd, i dont know any girls around me and my friends that know anything about cars, not even when or why they need to change their oil. it kinda sucks that when my first car was a handme down from my mom that the car would get its oil changed like every 5000-12000 miles, needless to say its dying at only 100,000 miles, and its a 97

i know not all girls dont know anything about cars, but i just dont know any that do know anything

 

[Dieselboy]

Responding to *Dieselboy: I have owned two DSM's, a 91 turbo and a 97 turbo, both of them along with my supra have been very reliable. No comparison to my well kept SHO.

I think it is a hit or miss with DSM's honestly (especially 1G's). I am very easy on my cars, only unless I want to push them to the limit which isnt very often (track, freeway, the occasional stoplight).

I barely beat on my GSX, yet just over a year after buying my car, I had to deal with the following:

- A blown headgasket and toasted stock motor on the exact same night I bought the car in Portland on the way back (car was bone stock).

- 5 months downtime due to unemployement (at the time) and saving for preventative maintainance parts. I also purchased a partially rebuilt, used '90 6 bolt motor, new ACT2600 clutch, and tons of extra preventative stuff to toss in.

- Experienced another blown headgasket recently due to the previous owner of the 6 bolt not tightening the headbolts down enough (example to ALWAYS to your motor work yourself or at least check it). At the time spent extra money for new 2G pistons/rings, bearings, ARP headstuds, mitsu 4 layer HG, 3" GM MAF Translator, and more.

- Car is DEAD...again because of a faulty coolant temp sensor (wiring, sensor, or ECU problem) and the GM MAF is crap.

So see, it pretty much is a hit and miss situation, especially if you baby your car like I do and you dont even get the chance to take her down the 1320