A couple months ago my daughter rear ended a Toyota truck with her 2003 R50 manual transmission. We had some decent aftermarket parts on it and the insurance company made me a super deal on keeping the car. The plan was to remove and sell the parts and scrap the rest. The damage was low impact but basically bent everything from the licence plate frame to the radiator. I stumbled upon a donor car, 2004 A/T, with what the owner described as transmission problems, but the front end was the same color and in great condition . When I plugged my code scanner into the donor car, the model year came up as a 2010 with improper vin. The title and VIN of the car confirm it is an 04. There is defiantly a ECU/DME issue. The seller claims he flushed the transmission and the fluid was clean. The car seems to be stuck in high gear and not shifting down. I am not a fan of the 1st gen A/T and would just assume to use the donor to repair my 03. I know there are quite a few folks looking for the 1st gen A/T and I hate to junk it if it is only malfunctioning due to the ECU. It is unclear as to if the ECU in the car is original. Is there anyway to confirm if the A/T is DOA ? Is there a way to match the part number of the ECU with the VIN?

 

Basket of snakes. Would pass and keep an eye out for a wrecked R50/52/53 with the tin you need at nearby yard and go pull it, regardless of color. You can always make repainting it a father/daughter project later..

 

I think you should look for a different car, with a bad engine/manual transmission. Move your existing engine/trans to the new car. The Auto trans has a bad reputation and converting Auto to Manual seems like a royal pain, so unless the new car has an amazing body/interior, I’d look for another.

 

I guess my conundrum was as to trouble shoot the transmission in the donor car for resale purposes before I removed the body panels and components I need to repair my 03, but I am kicking that idea out the window. The donor did come with some nice goodies for the interior, a stainless Borla exhaust, and decent tread. So it will be cannibalized, maybe pedal the running engine and it can take the place of my 03 at the scrap yard. Thanks for the advise!

 

Unless you’re thinking you can just pull the bumper, crush tubes and radiator from the donor and put your R50 on the road…

 

That is the plan. There is the issue of obtaining the R title, but in my state of West By God Virginia, the process seems pretty cut and dry.

 

Or keep it as a spare, because MINI parts hoarding is vastly underrated

 

Which title? The title of the car you’re gutting, or the car you’re repairing?

 

The car I am repairing currently has a salvage title. The insurance company totaled the car due to the accident. I have since replaced her mini with a more practical Jetta, but misses her Coop. I am still money ahead on her car with the purchase of the donor. so my only investment is time, not including the unpredictable. Its 30 and snowing so I don't mind a inside project.

 

Salvage title is still a title. It just affects resale value.

 

Fortunately my state has a decent process to convert your salvage title to a reconstructed title through the process of inspection and documentation of repairs. You can not license a salvage title vehicle here but you can a R title vehicle. As far as resale, we will run her till I run out of parts or ambition.