Discussion
DaveH23 said:
did you follow a guide for fitting the aux?
I've often thought about it but scared I snap one of the plastics or put them back in such a way it starts developing annoying squeaks and rattles.
Do you also need the radio code as I'm not sure I have mine.
I just followed this youtube video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9I9KDNUs4YI've often thought about it but scared I snap one of the plastics or put them back in such a way it starts developing annoying squeaks and rattles.
Do you also need the radio code as I'm not sure I have mine.
I don't recommend using a screwdriver through to get the surround off as it easily marks. You can get it off easily enough with finger nails. It was pretty much plug and play and it takes about 4 screws and a bit of rocking back and forth to get the stereo out. I kept it all plugged in so you don't need a radio code - I don't have one either so didn't want to risk it.
Time for a few more small touches..
I got some new chrome tinted indicator bulbs for the front and rear. The back ones -
Before:
After:
The fronts seem a bit trickier:
The gap..
There wasn't enough time to do it tonight but when I get more time I plan to take the wheel arch liner off and work from there
I have also ordered some plasti-dip so I can do some work on the front badge.
I got some new chrome tinted indicator bulbs for the front and rear. The back ones -
Before:
After:
The fronts seem a bit trickier:
The gap..
There wasn't enough time to do it tonight but when I get more time I plan to take the wheel arch liner off and work from there
I have also ordered some plasti-dip so I can do some work on the front badge.
More goodies!
We have a JBR heavy gear knob. This one weighs around 680 grams. Also got myself a reverse lock out gate. These make a massive improvement with the gear change:
Also a picture of the clear front indicators fitted:
I saw someone breaking an RX8 with these wheels on. I put in a very cheeky offer and managed to get them:
Much better looking and lighter then the standard MPS wheels
We have a JBR heavy gear knob. This one weighs around 680 grams. Also got myself a reverse lock out gate. These make a massive improvement with the gear change:
Also a picture of the clear front indicators fitted:
I saw someone breaking an RX8 with these wheels on. I put in a very cheeky offer and managed to get them:
Much better looking and lighter then the standard MPS wheels
Chris x said:
Bexhill!
Just looking through your other pics... guessing you work at Hastings direct? I live on that road.
I'll keep an eye out for the car, don't remember seeing it around!
Got it in one !! I don't really take the car out much maybe a few times a week. I'll keep an eye out for you though Just looking through your other pics... guessing you work at Hastings direct? I live on that road.
I'll keep an eye out for the car, don't remember seeing it around!
TheLordJohn said:
My words exactly when I saw those wheels "Ooooh, f
k me, they look good!", lol.
Good work. Like to see love for Jap cars
Cheers !k me, they look good!", lol.Good work. Like to see love for Jap cars
Edited by maxdb on Wednesday 8th June 21:15
A bonnet/scoop from a newer model won't fit unfortunately. They do make a carbon vented hood but I'm not sure if it will actually fit an MPS. Plus it does look a little tacky:
http://www.andysautosport.com/products/vis_racing_...
The wheels are actually Rota GR6's. They were just on an RX8 someone was breaking
http://www.andysautosport.com/products/vis_racing_...
The wheels are actually Rota GR6's. They were just on an RX8 someone was breaking
I decided to paint the brake calipers. I've never painted calipers before so I hope they last longer then a few weeks
As the weather has been nice I managed to give the car a good clean - well I cheated a little by taking it to the hand car was initially then finished it off with some Autoglym deep shine polish, bumper gel and high definition car wax I got myself for my birthday. It came out really well but having a black car you can see some stone chips - mainly on the passenger side.
The offending marks:
I really need to take the car out on location sometime for some better shots..
I'm just going to do a few minor cosmetic changers next. I bought myself some black rimblades to protect the wheels a little. I will probably change the side repeaters to some black ones to go with the other lights and I need to take the rear lights out to give them a good clean as they are going a bit green on the edges (common issue on the Mazda's apparently).
As the weather has been nice I managed to give the car a good clean - well I cheated a little by taking it to the hand car was initially then finished it off with some Autoglym deep shine polish, bumper gel and high definition car wax I got myself for my birthday. It came out really well but having a black car you can see some stone chips - mainly on the passenger side.
The offending marks:
I really need to take the car out on location sometime for some better shots..
I'm just going to do a few minor cosmetic changers next. I bought myself some black rimblades to protect the wheels a little. I will probably change the side repeaters to some black ones to go with the other lights and I need to take the rear lights out to give them a good clean as they are going a bit green on the edges (common issue on the Mazda's apparently).
Few more small bits done today. The car is getting a bit dusty so will need another clean so but surprisingly it's managed to miss a lot of bird poo!!
It's annoying that you can't just change the bulbs in the Mazda side repeaters so I found some Ebay replacements. Swapping them around was easy - you just unscrew the wheel arch liner and put your had up the wheel arch to unclip them:
A quick test to make sure they work:
They appear to do the job and are CE marked etc so should be road legal. A bargain at £17ish. I also fitted some black rimblades, which have made a lot of difference visually. I chose black ones so they are more subtle. They fitted ok I guess. I'm pretty rubbish at doing things like that. Here's the finished article:
I'm not sure what to do next. Maybe the badges or a high pressure fuel pump so I can make a start on changing the turbo, air filter etc.
It's annoying that you can't just change the bulbs in the Mazda side repeaters so I found some Ebay replacements. Swapping them around was easy - you just unscrew the wheel arch liner and put your had up the wheel arch to unclip them:
A quick test to make sure they work:
They appear to do the job and are CE marked etc so should be road legal. A bargain at £17ish. I also fitted some black rimblades, which have made a lot of difference visually. I chose black ones so they are more subtle. They fitted ok I guess. I'm pretty rubbish at doing things like that. Here's the finished article:
I'm not sure what to do next. Maybe the badges or a high pressure fuel pump so I can make a start on changing the turbo, air filter etc.
I noticed some more blue smoke recently which indicates the turbo seals are on the way out. The car doesn't appear to be using much oil but it appears the turbo will need to be done sooner rather then later. Luckily I had some money saved but with a holiday in Cornwall due in September money will be tight.
Well we all made it to Cornwall and back
I wouldn't recommend this car for long journeys as the seats aren't the most comfortable after several hours then you have the hard suspension and heavy clutch to deal with. It was a good experience though as I've always wanted to drive to Cornwall.
So back to the car parts..
As money was tight I purchased most the parts 2nd hand so got some good deals. I managed to get the following:
- BNR S3 Turbo (unused as the person I bought it off decided he wanted an BNR S4 instead)
- Versatune and link cable via a Group buy.
- K&N Typhoon and Sure turbo inlet pipe.
- Grimmspeed EBCS and gaskets/studs for the turbo.
- High Pressure fuel pump internals.
Heres's it all bundled together:
Versatune being installed:
All installed ok and I went for a long drive so it run in. For some reason the idle drops to 750rpm when you install Versatune. The person I bought the turbo from also had Versatune and mentioned this. So while running it in this happened:
I replaced 2 of the Potenzas with Rainsport 3's and the difference is amazing. I get so much more grip, no tramlining and far less/no more wheel spinning. I swapped the Potenzas on the front to the rear and put the Rainsports on the front. When the rears wear out I will eventually put Rainsport 3's on all around.
Going back to the engine I fitted the K&N 1st on it's own. It's quite noisy but only when you go over 3000 RPM:
Following this it was time to install the Turbo inlet pipe and High Pressure Fuel Pump internals. I completed this today and a job that was intended to take just over a few hours ended up taking 6 - the joys with cars!! Last weekend I have the Turbo inlet pipe a go.
Battery removed:
Intake removed:
Space is limited and removing the stock intake was actually a complete PITA. I resulted tipping up the battery tray and moving it as space was limited. The ECU cover on EU cars are bolted down so you can't remove them without drilling them out. This restricts access and you have to find all the clips and bolts. The internet guides make it look easy but pretty much all the guides are done on US models..
Eventually I got the stock intake off. Here it is compared to the Sure turbo inlet pipe:
As you can see the Sure pipe is much bigger and less restrictive then the standard inlet but there was something missing from it. I didn't know it until this point either so I had to put the parts all back together again
So today the bleed nipple came. They are hard to come by but I found one on Amazon from a UK seller pretty cheap (about a fiver). Now all fitted to the new intake:
So I repeated the process today and got it all fitted however the nipple is quite large and the vacuum hose would not fit. Luckily the EBCS I bought came with some vacuum hose so I ended up making a new hose. The old one is underneath for comparison:
All fitted:
During all of this I decided to replace the fuel pump internals. Here is the fuel pump in the engine bay:
Getting the bottom nut off was a massive pain due to lack of space. The red cloth is to help catch the nut and catch any fuel they may come off:
The fuel clips at the top are also fiddly. I'm not a fan of the square clamp connectors. The pump is bolted on using E8 reverse torques so I had to buy these for the occasion and the relevant adapters for my socket sets. In the Mk2 versions of the MPS you can take a fuse out for the fuel pump and drain the fuel before hand but in the Mk1 you cannot do this so I got a little bit of fuel come out when I undone the clips and bolt.
Here is the pump with the upgraded internals installed:
I removed the fuel rail lines so it would fit in the clamp easier. An 18mm deep socket and an impact tool did the job. I tried to do it by hand with a torque wrench but there was no chance in hell it was going to un do so luckily I manage to borrow the impact tool. Here's the uprated internals removed and compared to the standard internals:
![](http://thumbsnap.com/sc/Ol0gNWph.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="http://thumbsnap.com/Ol0gNWph" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]http://thumbsnap.com/sc/Ol0gNWph.jpg)
Next is what took most of my time today. The fuel rails are supposed to come off with a T25 security torx. I got myself a security torx set (they just have a hole in the middle) and had no issue removing the rails from the pump with the uprated internals. It wasn't happening at all with the standard pump. Many attempts with different sockets proved fruitless so I had to put the standard pump in the vice at a funny angle:
Then it was time to use the deep socket:
As you can see the spring was too big for the socket. The autotech sockets have slightly smaller springs. After lots of swearing and had scratching I noted a few others on line had the same issue. I thought I would try and pop the top off with a flat head screwdriver. Success!!
Now time to use that socket:
This is why I couldn't use the uprated pump housing:
All got put back together. I put the ignition on 3 times to prime the pump. I started it and it appears to run with no issues. I will run the car for 100 miles and will keep checking it for now for issues. Once this has been done I will sort the mapping out and save some pennies up so my local garage and change the turbo. I might also look at installing the EBCS myself once I get some more hose.
Well we all made it to Cornwall and back
I wouldn't recommend this car for long journeys as the seats aren't the most comfortable after several hours then you have the hard suspension and heavy clutch to deal with. It was a good experience though as I've always wanted to drive to Cornwall.
So back to the car parts..
As money was tight I purchased most the parts 2nd hand so got some good deals. I managed to get the following:
- BNR S3 Turbo (unused as the person I bought it off decided he wanted an BNR S4 instead)
- Versatune and link cable via a Group buy.
- K&N Typhoon and Sure turbo inlet pipe.
- Grimmspeed EBCS and gaskets/studs for the turbo.
- High Pressure fuel pump internals.
Heres's it all bundled together:
Versatune being installed:
All installed ok and I went for a long drive so it run in. For some reason the idle drops to 750rpm when you install Versatune. The person I bought the turbo from also had Versatune and mentioned this. So while running it in this happened:
I replaced 2 of the Potenzas with Rainsport 3's and the difference is amazing. I get so much more grip, no tramlining and far less/no more wheel spinning. I swapped the Potenzas on the front to the rear and put the Rainsports on the front. When the rears wear out I will eventually put Rainsport 3's on all around.
Going back to the engine I fitted the K&N 1st on it's own. It's quite noisy but only when you go over 3000 RPM:
Following this it was time to install the Turbo inlet pipe and High Pressure Fuel Pump internals. I completed this today and a job that was intended to take just over a few hours ended up taking 6 - the joys with cars!! Last weekend I have the Turbo inlet pipe a go.
Battery removed:
Intake removed:
Space is limited and removing the stock intake was actually a complete PITA. I resulted tipping up the battery tray and moving it as space was limited. The ECU cover on EU cars are bolted down so you can't remove them without drilling them out. This restricts access and you have to find all the clips and bolts. The internet guides make it look easy but pretty much all the guides are done on US models..
Eventually I got the stock intake off. Here it is compared to the Sure turbo inlet pipe:
As you can see the Sure pipe is much bigger and less restrictive then the standard inlet but there was something missing from it. I didn't know it until this point either so I had to put the parts all back together again
So today the bleed nipple came. They are hard to come by but I found one on Amazon from a UK seller pretty cheap (about a fiver). Now all fitted to the new intake:
So I repeated the process today and got it all fitted however the nipple is quite large and the vacuum hose would not fit. Luckily the EBCS I bought came with some vacuum hose so I ended up making a new hose. The old one is underneath for comparison:
All fitted:
During all of this I decided to replace the fuel pump internals. Here is the fuel pump in the engine bay:
Getting the bottom nut off was a massive pain due to lack of space. The red cloth is to help catch the nut and catch any fuel they may come off:
The fuel clips at the top are also fiddly. I'm not a fan of the square clamp connectors. The pump is bolted on using E8 reverse torques so I had to buy these for the occasion and the relevant adapters for my socket sets. In the Mk2 versions of the MPS you can take a fuse out for the fuel pump and drain the fuel before hand but in the Mk1 you cannot do this so I got a little bit of fuel come out when I undone the clips and bolt.
Here is the pump with the upgraded internals installed:
I removed the fuel rail lines so it would fit in the clamp easier. An 18mm deep socket and an impact tool did the job. I tried to do it by hand with a torque wrench but there was no chance in hell it was going to un do so luckily I manage to borrow the impact tool. Here's the uprated internals removed and compared to the standard internals:
Next is what took most of my time today. The fuel rails are supposed to come off with a T25 security torx. I got myself a security torx set (they just have a hole in the middle) and had no issue removing the rails from the pump with the uprated internals. It wasn't happening at all with the standard pump. Many attempts with different sockets proved fruitless so I had to put the standard pump in the vice at a funny angle:
Then it was time to use the deep socket:
As you can see the spring was too big for the socket. The autotech sockets have slightly smaller springs. After lots of swearing and had scratching I noted a few others on line had the same issue. I thought I would try and pop the top off with a flat head screwdriver. Success!!
Now time to use that socket:
This is why I couldn't use the uprated pump housing:
All got put back together. I put the ignition on 3 times to prime the pump. I started it and it appears to run with no issues. I will run the car for 100 miles and will keep checking it for now for issues. Once this has been done I will sort the mapping out and save some pennies up so my local garage and change the turbo. I might also look at installing the EBCS myself once I get some more hose.
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