1992 Mazda MX-5
Discussion
On Friday afternoon I spent quite a bit of time trying to diagnose the lumpy idle. Using the websites shown below, I made a code reader using an LED, 1800 Ohm resistor and a bit of plain wire.
http://www.miata.net/garage/Engine_Diagnostics.htm...
http://www.mazdamenders.net/index.php/faqs-a-how-t...
After all the faffing around finding the bits (ended up at a local electronics shop), the ECU gave me... no error codes! That doesn't made sense to me at all because I'd even driven it for 15-20 minutes with the lambda disconnected which should generate an error code. (Incidentally, it felt exactly the same to drive with the sensor unplugged).
Next step was a multimeter on the lambda. At idle and revving saw it sitting around 0.5v which, according to the link below (about half way down, post # 9) is wrong.
https://www.mx5oc.co.uk/forum/yaf_postst45817_1990...
Fancying a quick fix, I drove over to a local motor factors. €96 for a new one from Denso! Screw that - internet prices (auto-onderdelen24.nl) were varying wildly, I found an NGK sensor with a huge discount at €18 (plus shipping and tax it came to €30 though!) so that's on its way to me. Honestly I'm not that convinced it will make much difference!
http://www.miata.net/garage/Engine_Diagnostics.htm...
http://www.mazdamenders.net/index.php/faqs-a-how-t...
After all the faffing around finding the bits (ended up at a local electronics shop), the ECU gave me... no error codes! That doesn't made sense to me at all because I'd even driven it for 15-20 minutes with the lambda disconnected which should generate an error code. (Incidentally, it felt exactly the same to drive with the sensor unplugged).
Next step was a multimeter on the lambda. At idle and revving saw it sitting around 0.5v which, according to the link below (about half way down, post # 9) is wrong.
https://www.mx5oc.co.uk/forum/yaf_postst45817_1990...
Fancying a quick fix, I drove over to a local motor factors. €96 for a new one from Denso! Screw that - internet prices (auto-onderdelen24.nl) were varying wildly, I found an NGK sensor with a huge discount at €18 (plus shipping and tax it came to €30 though!) so that's on its way to me. Honestly I'm not that convinced it will make much difference!
Some warts n all pics.
Left side rear arch/sill:
Right side rear sill:
No rust on the bootlid but wowser is the paint in bad nick!:
Old door ding, painted over with a repair pen probably:
Deepish scratch on right rear wing, also painted over with a paint pen:
Looking into getting the sills done. A dude on the Dutch MX5 club/group does them properly for €450 a side but he is waaaaaaay down south (2.5 hours drive each way) which is too far really. I want to take it for an APK (Dutch MOT) to see what it needs doing even though the current test doesn't expire until 30 October. If it fails, the current test remains valid so I can continue to use it whilst getting stuff fixed.
Also really really need to sort out the insurance. It's insured on a normal policy which has zero NCB (it's all used on my Prius) so I'm paying way too much (around €45/month). There are MX5 specific insurances here which can be had for something like €8-10/month but you have to join the club and have a valudation done. It's worth it of course but just a case of sitting down a figuring it all out. Free money though so I should get on with sorting it!
Left side rear arch/sill:
Right side rear sill:
No rust on the bootlid but wowser is the paint in bad nick!:
Old door ding, painted over with a repair pen probably:
Deepish scratch on right rear wing, also painted over with a paint pen:
Looking into getting the sills done. A dude on the Dutch MX5 club/group does them properly for €450 a side but he is waaaaaaay down south (2.5 hours drive each way) which is too far really. I want to take it for an APK (Dutch MOT) to see what it needs doing even though the current test doesn't expire until 30 October. If it fails, the current test remains valid so I can continue to use it whilst getting stuff fixed.
Also really really need to sort out the insurance. It's insured on a normal policy which has zero NCB (it's all used on my Prius) so I'm paying way too much (around €45/month). There are MX5 specific insurances here which can be had for something like €8-10/month but you have to join the club and have a valudation done. It's worth it of course but just a case of sitting down a figuring it all out. Free money though so I should get on with sorting it!
The weather has been proper top down stuff recently:
I'm glad I did the lambda replacement job, the engine is definitely running a bit better and yesterday it passed the emissions test! It didn't pass the rest of the test though. (wah-wah-waaaooow)
Fails, although thankfully not epic:
The dude with the seatbelt is based in Ijmuiden which is around 30 mins from me, so I went there after work yesterday. Friendly bloke turns up, opens the lockup and WOW, there are 4 race spec MX-5s in there! He and team had been at Assen this weekend and come back with a few dents. That's racing
Here's a pic of one of them:
And here's a pic of the holy inner arches which helped the car fail its APK:
Driver's (left) side
(it's in there)
Right side:
One of matey's racers, in classic colours:
Car's booked in on 22nd for the work to be done and a retest.
Sorted the insurance too. With a 'normal' insurance company I had had to start with 0 NCB so this car was costing over €500 per year. Moved both cars to a specialist, Prius is now about a tenner per year cheaper, MX-5 has gone down to €190 IIRC, huge saving
I'm glad I did the lambda replacement job, the engine is definitely running a bit better and yesterday it passed the emissions test! It didn't pass the rest of the test though. (wah-wah-waaaooow)
Fails, although thankfully not epic:
- Right ball joint boot split
- Handbrake ineffective (I knew it was a bit dodgy) - it pulled 100nm when the other was pulling 900!
- Driver's seat belt worn
- Rusty McRustarch x2.
The dude with the seatbelt is based in Ijmuiden which is around 30 mins from me, so I went there after work yesterday. Friendly bloke turns up, opens the lockup and WOW, there are 4 race spec MX-5s in there! He and team had been at Assen this weekend and come back with a few dents. That's racing
Here's a pic of one of them:And here's a pic of the holy inner arches which helped the car fail its APK:
Driver's (left) side
(it's in there)
Right side:
One of matey's racers, in classic colours:
Car's booked in on 22nd for the work to be done and a retest.
Sorted the insurance too. With a 'normal' insurance company I had had to start with 0 NCB so this car was costing over €500 per year. Moved both cars to a specialist, Prius is now about a tenner per year cheaper, MX-5 has gone down to €190 IIRC, huge saving
Retest done last week and passed. Worked out cheaper than they'd quoted too, which was nice.
The coolant was LONG overdue a change, there was some sludge in the expansion tank which I cleaned out. Drained the coolant which was yellowy/brown! Flushed a few times with fresh water then put in generic ethylene glycol stuff, €10 for 5 litres from Gamma (Dutch B&Q equivalent).
The intermittently wobbly idle remains, still pondering that one.
The coolant was LONG overdue a change, there was some sludge in the expansion tank which I cleaned out. Drained the coolant which was yellowy/brown! Flushed a few times with fresh water then put in generic ethylene glycol stuff, €10 for 5 litres from Gamma (Dutch B&Q equivalent).
The intermittently wobbly idle remains, still pondering that one.
_Nathan_ : Could be the valve, I've been ignoring it all this time and plan to do so for a little longer
My birthday was a few months ago and my OH bought me vouchers for track time at Zandvoort That's cool but the car is in no way fit for such a thrashing which means making a to-do list. This is a fun toy thing so I'm not putting any pressure on myself to get it done for a certain deadline. Having said that, I want to go on track so had to start doing some work:
- Exhaust. Waaaaay too loud, I don't know what the noise limit is at Zandvoort but there's no way it would pass any noise tests!
- Brakes. They work fine on the road but as far as I can tell are on normal pads and unknown quality brake fluid
- Cooling. Although I changed the coolant a couple of months ago (it was utterly filthy), yesterday I noticed what poor condition the bottom half of the radiator is in. Furthermore, it seems to have sprung a slight leak/weep on the top right corner.
Last week I was lucky enough to see an exhaust come up for sale. It is in the same double pipe style as the current one - although I prefer a single outlet, it would have meant leaving an empty cut-out on the left side of the bumper so I was glad to have found this one. It was a couple of hours drive away and I picked it up last Friday. Yesterday I was able to make some time to jack the car up...
...and remove the old one. As I pulled it out from under the car, the reason for its crazy loudness was revealed:
Yup, some madman has been here before! This means I was running around with only the cat as silencer... I SAID I WAS RUNNING AROUND WITH ONLY THE CAT AS A SILENCER!!!
New and old next to each other, note the middle box in the new one (and lack of welding scars)
Annoyingly one of the bolts between the cat and middle pipe had been welded up
so it was impossible to undo. The only answer was to shear the nut off, now I need to drill the stud out and put a new one in.
Once that's done, the new exhaust can go on and I'll be able to drive around and hear myself think at the same time.
I also gave it an oil change just about 1000 km after the last one. The oil was very black so it obviously hasn't been changed regularly enough in recent times. A few changes close together will sort that out.
Last picture and thought for this post - did the steering wheel used to be... blue?!
My birthday was a few months ago and my OH bought me vouchers for track time at Zandvoort
That's cool but the car is in no way fit for such a thrashing which means making a to-do list. This is a fun toy thing so I'm not putting any pressure on myself to get it done for a certain deadline. Having said that, I want to go on track so had to start doing some work:- Exhaust. Waaaaay too loud, I don't know what the noise limit is at Zandvoort but there's no way it would pass any noise tests!
- Brakes. They work fine on the road but as far as I can tell are on normal pads and unknown quality brake fluid
- Cooling. Although I changed the coolant a couple of months ago (it was utterly filthy), yesterday I noticed what poor condition the bottom half of the radiator is in. Furthermore, it seems to have sprung a slight leak/weep on the top right corner.
Last week I was lucky enough to see an exhaust come up for sale. It is in the same double pipe style as the current one - although I prefer a single outlet, it would have meant leaving an empty cut-out on the left side of the bumper so I was glad to have found this one. It was a couple of hours drive away and I picked it up last Friday. Yesterday I was able to make some time to jack the car up...
...and remove the old one. As I pulled it out from under the car, the reason for its crazy loudness was revealed:
Yup, some madman has been here before! This means I was running around with only the cat as silencer... I SAID I WAS RUNNING AROUND WITH ONLY THE CAT AS A SILENCER!!!
New and old next to each other, note the middle box in the new one (and lack of welding scars)
Annoyingly one of the bolts between the cat and middle pipe had been welded up
so it was impossible to undo. The only answer was to shear the nut off, now I need to drill the stud out and put a new one in. Once that's done, the new exhaust can go on and I'll be able to drive around and hear myself think at the same time.
I also gave it an oil change just about 1000 km after the last one. The oil was very black so it obviously hasn't been changed regularly enough in recent times. A few changes close together will sort that out.
Last picture and thought for this post - did the steering wheel used to be... blue?!
The new-to-me exhaust shown above had a hole. A rusted cracked hole on the middle silencer weld. I drove it a bit last week but it has been cold and as usual during the week life is busy with work and boring life stuff but today I cranked it up again. Sounded rubbish with the blowing flappy fart noise.
There's nothing for it - it had to come off again. Up she went on the ramps and in a few minutes the exhaust was off. 2 bolts and 4 hangers, too easy.
Out with the angle grinder and flap disk, cleaned up the crappy welds to get a better view of how bad it was.
Started the engine with only the cat on, OH comes out of the house saying how good it sounds. Yeah cheers love I've just fitted a really quiet exhaust.
Threw (placed gently) the exhaust in the Prius and off to the local dodgy garage - €20 later and they've welded it all back up again.
Pics to follow, when I can be arsed and/or remember to get them off my phone.
There's nothing for it - it had to come off again. Up she went on the ramps and in a few minutes the exhaust was off. 2 bolts and 4 hangers, too easy.
Out with the angle grinder and flap disk, cleaned up the crappy welds to get a better view of how bad it was.
Started the engine with only the cat on, OH comes out of the house saying how good it sounds. Yeah cheers love I've just fitted a really quiet exhaust.
Threw (placed gently) the exhaust in the Prius and off to the local dodgy garage - €20 later and they've welded it all back up again.
Pics to follow, when I can be arsed and/or remember to get them off my phone.
Gearbox and diff oil changed at the weekend, dead easy job. No photos because it isn't that interesting. The old oils were cloudy but not dark and both were, from what I could tell, sufficiently filled.
For reference the oils I used were:
Gearbox: 2 litres of this: TRIPLE QX EP 75w90 Transmission Fluid Fully Syn
Diff: 1 litre of this: TRIPLE QX EP 80w90 Transmission Fluid
After the oils were changed and it was up in the air I ran through the gears to listen for any bad scary sounds. There were none but it was clear that the rear left caliper was sticking. This has been happening since I've had the car and is MUCH worse after using the handbrake. So bad in fact that I never use it, otherwise it takes many hard presses of the pedal to clear it.
Well, it's up in the air so a good chance to 'just have a quick look at the caliper'. Yeah, right. A quick look. As if, after years of doing this, I still have these thoughts. Of course that quick look turned into taking everything apart. And finding a big old mess:
Jacked on up:
Caliper and carrier removed. It was so stuck, I had to use the persuader to bash it off as the pads were gripping the disk so hard
Not looking good
The carrier and caliper would NOT come apart, it took ages to get to this point. The pins were stuck and the stupid little metal clip things keeping the pads in place prevent the pads from sliding out, so I had to bash the carp out of them to remove them.
This is meant to be smooth and shiny - no wonder it's all stuck together and not working proper!
Uhmm, yeah.
Corroded and pitted piston. My hopes for a quick polish and cleanup totally out the window now.
For reference the oils I used were:
Gearbox: 2 litres of this: TRIPLE QX EP 75w90 Transmission Fluid Fully Syn
Diff: 1 litre of this: TRIPLE QX EP 80w90 Transmission Fluid
After the oils were changed and it was up in the air I ran through the gears to listen for any bad scary sounds. There were none but it was clear that the rear left caliper was sticking. This has been happening since I've had the car and is MUCH worse after using the handbrake. So bad in fact that I never use it, otherwise it takes many hard presses of the pedal to clear it.
Well, it's up in the air so a good chance to 'just have a quick look at the caliper'. Yeah, right. A quick look. As if, after years of doing this, I still have these thoughts. Of course that quick look turned into taking everything apart. And finding a big old mess:
Jacked on up:
Caliper and carrier removed. It was so stuck, I had to use the persuader to bash it off as the pads were gripping the disk so hard
Not looking good
The carrier and caliper would NOT come apart, it took ages to get to this point. The pins were stuck and the stupid little metal clip things keeping the pads in place prevent the pads from sliding out, so I had to bash the carp out of them to remove them.
This is meant to be smooth and shiny - no wonder it's all stuck together and not working proper!
Uhmm, yeah.
Corroded and pitted piston. My hopes for a quick polish and cleanup totally out the window now.
Sticky corroded calipers seem to be an issue on all iterations of MX-5. I've swapped one of the fronts on my MK3, a colleague with a MK2 has replaced two recently, another colleague with a MK1 has also had problems.
I fitted an entire new caliper and slider pins from http://www.brakesint.co.uk - surprisingly reasonable, price wise.
I fitted an entire new caliper and slider pins from http://www.brakesint.co.uk - surprisingly reasonable, price wise.
Do you reckon it might simply be lack of use? Also it is a light weight car so the brakes do not get worked very hard in normal driving.
Today I drove all the way to De Cabriohoeve to pick up some bits. I'd searched loads of websites for caliper rebuild kits and found ones which either had only the rubber parts or only some of the required parts. Kept asking myself if it was worth spending up to say €40, only to have to do the rebuild myself and probably finding out halfway through that some bit wasn't right, or breaking one of the small peices etc. Or even worse, doing the rebuild, putting the caliper on the car and finding it doesn't work. Been there, done it, no thanks.
De Cabriohoeve prices are very good indeed. You cannot find a brand new caliper as cheap as they sell them. They also do used ones, also the pins and any other bits you need. This is what I came away with:
Brand new caliper, replacement used but good carrier with guide pin, new pads and a brand new other guide pin.
The exisiting gear lever gaitor is ripped, the bush is knackered. They do this kit for a decent price so I took one of those too:
Having seen a couple of NAs with one of these, I asked if maybe they knew where I could get one? No problem sir, we have them in stock:
It is set to be between -1 and 0 degrees here this weekend, so I'm off to find my gloves.
Today I drove all the way to De Cabriohoeve to pick up some bits. I'd searched loads of websites for caliper rebuild kits and found ones which either had only the rubber parts or only some of the required parts. Kept asking myself if it was worth spending up to say €40, only to have to do the rebuild myself and probably finding out halfway through that some bit wasn't right, or breaking one of the small peices etc. Or even worse, doing the rebuild, putting the caliper on the car and finding it doesn't work. Been there, done it, no thanks.
De Cabriohoeve prices are very good indeed. You cannot find a brand new caliper as cheap as they sell them. They also do used ones, also the pins and any other bits you need. This is what I came away with:
Brand new caliper, replacement used but good carrier with guide pin, new pads and a brand new other guide pin.
The exisiting gear lever gaitor is ripped, the bush is knackered. They do this kit for a decent price so I took one of those too:
Having seen a couple of NAs with one of these, I asked if maybe they knew where I could get one? No problem sir, we have them in stock:
It is set to be between -1 and 0 degrees here this weekend, so I'm off to find my gloves.
Love these rolling restoration threads.... always inspires me to do similar which ends up with me buying something that s
ts itself in the middle of winter when the garage is full of other stuff, and ends up me paying professionals to do it while I ponder selling it.
Rinse and repeat.
Hopefully yours won't end up like that. We had a mk1 MX-5 for a couple of years. Great fun, bought as a cheap shed for the summer and just kept going. Only went when my wife was 7 months pregnant and literally could not get in or out of it!!
ts itself in the middle of winter when the garage is full of other stuff, and ends up me paying professionals to do it while I ponder selling it. Rinse and repeat.
Hopefully yours won't end up like that. We had a mk1 MX-5 for a couple of years. Great fun, bought as a cheap shed for the summer and just kept going. Only went when my wife was 7 months pregnant and literally could not get in or out of it!!
MrBig said:
Love these rolling restoration threads.... always inspires me to do similar which ends up with me buying something that sts itself in the middle of winter when the garage is full of other stuff, and ends up me paying professionals to do it while I ponder selling it.
Rinse and repeat.
Hopefully yours won't end up like that. We had a mk1 MX-5 for a couple of years. Great fun, bought as a cheap shed for the summer and just kept going. Only went when my wife was 7 months pregnant and literally could not get in or out of it!!
While I am glad you are enjoying this thread, I must agree with the garage full, paying for work and pondering selling sentiment. You have my sympathies, I have been there. It is quite liberating to have this car as a toy and not have to freak out when something doesn't fit, forcing the car off the road and into a garden ornament. That's fine, I have a Prius for the daily slogging.ts itself in the middle of winter when the garage is full of other stuff, and ends up me paying professionals to do it while I ponder selling it. Rinse and repeat.
Hopefully yours won't end up like that. We had a mk1 MX-5 for a couple of years. Great fun, bought as a cheap shed for the summer and just kept going. Only went when my wife was 7 months pregnant and literally could not get in or out of it!!
Mayrun said:
Thanks for the updates, nice to read!
could you recommend me the insurance specialist? a fellow neighbor here
You have a PM, Meneer.could you recommend me the insurance specialist? a fellow neighbor here
exelero said:
A little bit off topic really but still.
Why can a British guy buy a car with 146k miles in NL yet still scrap anything above 100k in the UK?
Please repeat, do not really understand question...Why can a British guy buy a car with 146k miles in NL yet still scrap anything above 100k in the UK?
Grant20V said:
Nice to see some parts being refreshed on the car, always a good feeling.
It is. But you have to be careful - it is 25 years old, not really worth much and parts are cheap and plentiful. It is VERY easy to get carried away replacing stuff which doesn't really need to be replaced. If I have time later today, I will post again. There's an update, but no progress.
"There's an update, but no progress." Last Friday I fitted the new pads but they didn't fit properly. Turns out you do need the metal clip things otherwise the pads rattle around in the carriers. Annoyingly I didn't know this and the place I bought the new calipers didn't mention it. Anyway, they arrived on Wednesday and today I got everything back together, adjusted and finally got it back down off the stands and drove it.
Pedal is soft, there must be some air in the line where the caliper was replaced. I bled it of couse but brakes (especially rears) have always seemed to be my nemesis. I've time tomorrow so will attempt another bleedin sesh.
That being said, I did manage to do some work which actually improves the car and doesn't just kinda fix something. Gear lever turret oil, gaiter and boot. The shift feel is much beter, I'd encourage others to do it especially because it is EASY!
Undo these three bolts (the 3rd is behind the lever, baaaad photo man)
Give it a tug and pull the lever out of the turret: (Yes that is gear oil, why and how is it grey?!)
Borked gaitor:
People say to use a turkey baster but since I only have a selection of syringes (questions via PM please), suck the oil out:
Keep going until it's empty:
Fill with fresh gearbox oil:
New boot and gaitor fitted:
Pedal is soft, there must be some air in the line where the caliper was replaced. I bled it of couse but brakes (especially rears) have always seemed to be my nemesis. I've time tomorrow so will attempt another bleedin sesh.
That being said, I did manage to do some work which actually improves the car and doesn't just kinda fix something. Gear lever turret oil, gaiter and boot. The shift feel is much beter, I'd encourage others to do it especially because it is EASY!
Undo these three bolts (the 3rd is behind the lever, baaaad photo man)
Give it a tug and pull the lever out of the turret: (Yes that is gear oil, why and how is it grey?!)
Borked gaitor:
People say to use a turkey baster but since I only have a selection of syringes (questions via PM please), suck the oil out:
Keep going until it's empty:
Fill with fresh gearbox oil:
New boot and gaitor fitted:
exelero said:
A little bit off topic really but still.
Why can a British guy buy a car with 146k miles in NL yet still scrap anything above 100k in the UK?
Please repeat, do not really understand question...Why can a British guy buy a car with 146k miles in NL yet still scrap anything above 100k in the UK?
.
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