1990 MX-5 - Project Summer Fun
Discussion
Sometimes you fancy scratching an itch for a long time. This could be to go out on a trackday, go to a venue you never have been before, maybe try a new kind of food.
For me I had a simple one ; get a soft top car; Those of you will remember that I have had a few soft tops over the years but mainly of the BL variety. You could argue that itch was scratched. I did love the character of the cars however, and the burble of the Stag's V8. What I did not like was seeming to constantly work on the cars. That and they were not the easiest of soft tops to live with; despite changing of the seals they still leaked more than a tabloid newspaper, and the roofs were pain to put away, even in something like a Midget - you couldn't simply throw it back if you wanted the hood to last more than a year. I guess also having wheezy engines in the Midgets probably didn't help matters either.
I guess what I wanted from a soft was:
-fun to drive
-reliable(ish)
-cheap to fix
-not a bad looker.
Boxsters initially came onto my radar as did Z4s, but like all great plans I ended up with one of these:
As great a car as it is I stil fancied a drop top, just not in an M3 format.
With the above spec in mind I ended up with one of these:
If that was not enough pictures the spec of the car ain't too shabby:
1990 UK Model 1.6
New sills and wings
Polybushed throughout
New updated rear adjusters
Gaz Adjustable shocks all round
New brake lines and braided brake hoses
MX-5 Parts dual exit exhaust system with the "silenced" decat pipe and 4-2-1 branch manifold
Wind deflector
Jackson Racing ignition leads
A thicker alloy radiator
Stock wheels powdercoated in Anthracite with new Goodyear EffientGrip Performance tyres.
I have to say as a package it is a little firm. But it is superb in the corners - I am surprised just how well in hangs in there! The steering and gearshift are also very direct! The wind in the hair motoring feel is wonderful in this little car! The roof is about one of the easiests I've had to put down this side of a modern car ; unzip the rear window, release the two catches and throw it back!
As for the downsides? The centre console requires replacing, the speakers despite being new require remounting (where I may add some sound deadening material).
I have only given it a service so far, not that much by my standards!
Bar feeling a little awkward when driving it with the roof down I am liking the car. With the roof down and tackling the country road corners it is a great little machine! Who thought you could have this much fun for a little amount of cash?
For me I had a simple one ; get a soft top car; Those of you will remember that I have had a few soft tops over the years but mainly of the BL variety. You could argue that itch was scratched. I did love the character of the cars however, and the burble of the Stag's V8. What I did not like was seeming to constantly work on the cars. That and they were not the easiest of soft tops to live with; despite changing of the seals they still leaked more than a tabloid newspaper, and the roofs were pain to put away, even in something like a Midget - you couldn't simply throw it back if you wanted the hood to last more than a year. I guess also having wheezy engines in the Midgets probably didn't help matters either.
I guess what I wanted from a soft was:
-fun to drive
-reliable(ish)
-cheap to fix
-not a bad looker.
Boxsters initially came onto my radar as did Z4s, but like all great plans I ended up with one of these:
As great a car as it is I stil fancied a drop top, just not in an M3 format.
With the above spec in mind I ended up with one of these:
If that was not enough pictures the spec of the car ain't too shabby:
1990 UK Model 1.6
New sills and wings
Polybushed throughout
New updated rear adjusters
Gaz Adjustable shocks all round
New brake lines and braided brake hoses
MX-5 Parts dual exit exhaust system with the "silenced" decat pipe and 4-2-1 branch manifold
Wind deflector
Jackson Racing ignition leads
A thicker alloy radiator
Stock wheels powdercoated in Anthracite with new Goodyear EffientGrip Performance tyres.
I have to say as a package it is a little firm. But it is superb in the corners - I am surprised just how well in hangs in there! The steering and gearshift are also very direct! The wind in the hair motoring feel is wonderful in this little car! The roof is about one of the easiests I've had to put down this side of a modern car ; unzip the rear window, release the two catches and throw it back!
As for the downsides? The centre console requires replacing, the speakers despite being new require remounting (where I may add some sound deadening material).
I have only given it a service so far, not that much by my standards!
Bar feeling a little awkward when driving it with the roof down I am liking the car. With the roof down and tackling the country road corners it is a great little machine! Who thought you could have this much fun for a little amount of cash?
Edited by SebringMan on Wednesday 6th July 13:42
Time does fly by.
Anyway, a few weeks ago I took it to the MotoFest with the roof on of all things! It did give me thoughts of changing the wheels but I must have a stronger will about me. @b3nson 's thread has not got me thinking about a Prototipo wheel at all, even though I now have 3 Momos!
Anyway, pics of it at the MotoFest:
Coming from an MG Midget a while ago both cars are quite a contrast to each other in a number of ways!:
The Midget certainly feels less awkward to be in, probably due to less of an image being about it. The engine is also willing but asmatic, well, unrevvy unless you lack mechanical sympathy. The gearing also comical for any road with a speed limit higher than 45MPH! But they are cool!
The MX-5 is different. The steering is surprisingly direct with it really hanging on in the bends! It just wants to rev and rev and doesn't complain! Despite the age all of the switchgear still feels as fresh as the day it came out of Hiroshima! You can see why these are such a popular car.
Anyway, a few weeks ago I took it to the MotoFest with the roof on of all things! It did give me thoughts of changing the wheels but I must have a stronger will about me. @b3nson 's thread has not got me thinking about a Prototipo wheel at all, even though I now have 3 Momos!
Anyway, pics of it at the MotoFest:
Coming from an MG Midget a while ago both cars are quite a contrast to each other in a number of ways!:
The Midget certainly feels less awkward to be in, probably due to less of an image being about it. The engine is also willing but asmatic, well, unrevvy unless you lack mechanical sympathy. The gearing also comical for any road with a speed limit higher than 45MPH! But they are cool!
The MX-5 is different. The steering is surprisingly direct with it really hanging on in the bends! It just wants to rev and rev and doesn't complain! Despite the age all of the switchgear still feels as fresh as the day it came out of Hiroshima! You can see why these are such a popular car.
I have been enjoying the car when the sun decides to make an appearance and enjoying the wind in the air experience. It's simplicity on a few things really does make you like it. The roof for instance. On my Stag and MG Midget, it was a matter of detaching half of the fastenings if you had any reason for the roof to not rip, where you could finally store it away.
Not with this little puppy. Unzip the rear window (or leave it if you have a glass window, or want to shorten the life of the plastic window), undo the two catches and throw the roof back. It's as simple as that!
That said, going back, it did have its share of issues, like any car does when it comes to you. This included:
-The themostat housing leaking around the gasket, despite a new gasket and thermostat being fitted.
-It's leaking somewhere from the front of the roof and collecting in the seal/catch - This seems to have fixed itself.
-The emissions being too high @ 4.75% for the CO and 300ppm for the HCs. A service was given the to the car with little change.
-Now and again it would gently hunt when coming onto idle from driving it and settle down after around 7 seconds (no, not the song by Youssou N'Dour).
Well, there was no time like the present!
However, I got a new camera body, and decided to take a few more shots for the timebeing!
Not with this little puppy. Unzip the rear window (or leave it if you have a glass window, or want to shorten the life of the plastic window), undo the two catches and throw the roof back. It's as simple as that!
That said, going back, it did have its share of issues, like any car does when it comes to you. This included:
-The themostat housing leaking around the gasket, despite a new gasket and thermostat being fitted.
-It's leaking somewhere from the front of the roof and collecting in the seal/catch - This seems to have fixed itself.
-The emissions being too high @ 4.75% for the CO and 300ppm for the HCs. A service was given the to the car with little change.
-Now and again it would gently hunt when coming onto idle from driving it and settle down after around 7 seconds (no, not the song by Youssou N'Dour).
Well, there was no time like the present!
However, I got a new camera body, and decided to take a few more shots for the timebeing!
I was thinking that somees weekend would leave me lying idle. Far from it. It was time to get cracking on the Mazda.
The idling issue was down to a maladjusted throttle position. Armed with some feeler gauges, the Haynes Book of Lies, some sockets as well as the obligatory cup of tea I adjusted it which soon had the car running well again. I was quietly hoping the emissions issue would be solved but no such luck.
Now that the idling issue was fixed it was time to fix a smaller niggle ; the sound, or to those who know the termIn Car Entertainment. At the moment the ICe left little to be desired. Although I put in my Alpine HU with a few bells and whistles about it the sound itself was pretty poor and distorted with the bass sounding more like a distorted rattle, a little like some of Rhianna's lyrics. Some may recall my dabbling with ICE from a previous thread
Upon taking the speaker panels off I was expecting to see knackered speakers. However, I was in for a bit of a surprise:
Yup, it already had new speakers, of a JBL variety! However, the mounting of them left little to be desired, only one of the screws was actually holding the speaker in and not that well either! Was the previous owner really this lazy when it came to audio?
Not quite. Mazda in their infinite wisdom fitted MX-5s with 3 hole mounted speakers as you can see in this shameless stolen image (no, it's not my car):
This leaves you with a choice or either, going for stock speekers or "Custom Fit" 6.5" speakers as shown below:
Your other choice is to drill holes into the door so that it will accept the new speakers. Seeing as MX-5s appear to dissolve before your eyes I was not massively keen on drilling into what seemed to be decent metal. So I went with another option ; make my speakers custom fit speakers
.
However, not so fast! I was going to sort out another small matter first. Sound deadening. By my standards it was a bit of a half arsed job with me only deadening the half of the door that I could access via the speaker aperture. So I proceeded to clean up the surfaces which I would be deadening:
Almost clean enough to eat your dinner off, not that you would want to:
Enter Stage Left. This is awesome stuff and IME is more effective and WAY easier to work with than flashing tape ; I didn't even need a hairdryer for today's application.
Part of the way through:
Finally with the speaker put back on, with their new mounting points drilled into the speaker:
And the results? TBH it was a mixed bag. Overall the sound has dramatically improved and has become 'cleaned up'. As another bonus the doors shut with more of a thud and no longer sound tinny. However, I wonder if the speakers previously playing free air and resting against the speaker grill has harmed them : they sound a little distorted at some frequencies, but for a drop top they are actually fine
. I may change them but I suspect for many people out there they would be more than happy with the sound of the speakers ; it is an improvement from before after all . They are certainly listenable though!
After I had sorted out the doors I had been been driving the car around quite a bit! The MPG was around 31-34MPG but I was not being gentle either. With the few warm and dry spells we have been having it is a joy to drive about in it. Life seemed to be good.
Anyway, I decided to tackle a few more things on the car, given that I am using the car more and more. However, pictures are sparse as I was working in between the rain showers on Saturday! Oh, the joys of a doing some mechanics on the driveway.
First thing to sort was the weeping thermostat gasket. It wasn't pissing coolant out, but it was enough to make the coolant level drop and to appear damp around the gasket. When the cambelt was done it had also had the thermostat and gasket changed. I decided to in some people's opinion waste a bit of cash and get the following:
-Genuine Mazda Thermostat gasket
-Genuine Mazda Therostat
-Genuine Mazda Cam Cover gasket
-CAS O-Ring - It looked damp behind it so I figured it was best to check.
-A New Lambda sensor after this debacle.
Buying the parts was interesting. When I owned my 944 Porsche dealers were cheaper in a number of cases over the specialists and even GSF at times. I figured the same with the Mazda. Imagine my surprise when I found MX-5 Parts and a dealer in Coventry were cheaper than my local dealer in Warwick! The local people despite being told this even refused to come down even slightly in price! Ah well, MX-5 Parts ended up getting the business...
Upon removing the thermostat I noticed the genuine item looked quite different:
Firstly, the thermstat itself looked different. It looked as if it might open up more than the pattern one inside and looked to be a 2/3 stage thermostat as well as having the jiggle pin for bleeding. And people say they are identical? It also seemed to have higher opening ranges of 85 and 88 degrees as opposed to 82 degrees. It also seem to 'wiggle/move' alot less in the housing aperture.
The gaskets were also different (both gaskets below are new, with the Mazda gasket having green sealing ring on it.
With that in mind I carried on to fit the new bits after thoroughly cleaning everything. After warnings about the T Piece, I left that well alone and dirty! At the same time, I noticed that one of the housing bolts was smaller, than the other (presumably snapped off in the past), with both nuts appearing worn. With some spare Stainless bolts I fitted those in after cleaning out the threads. The bolts seem to be a better fit and with that the housing was done and clean even two days later!
Anyway, the other thing to fix was the leaking cam cover gasket. Initially, I was just going to tighten up the bolts but I figured since I went to the trouble of buying a new gasket I may as well fix it. A number of the bolts were loose, but some were tight! However, after removing the gasket it was clear that it had distorted in a few places. At the same time I took the opportunity to change the CAS sensor O-Ring, which I am glad I did, since the old seal was beginning to go a little square on the edges. With both of the seals refitted I put both items on, but in the case of the cam cover gasket I progressively hand tightened the bolts in sequence as according to the HBOL. After a while I torqued them to spec at around 10Nm. A few days leter I now had a leak free engine it seems
.
There is not much to see here bar the head looking a little cleaner!
One job that did not go to plan was changing the lambda sensor. Initially I could not get my 22mm spanner to go on well ; the sensor sits at the top of the pipe, and I did not fancy removing the exhaust manifold just to change a sensor! In the end I chopped the sensor wire off, and put the ring end of the spanner onto it. With this not being enough I then put a 19mm spanner onto the end of the 22mm. When I saw the 19mm spanner bending I figured I better get a larger spanner, a 32mm! With this, the sensor finally broke free and was removed. However, there were a couple of issues.
The new sensor was wrong in terms of the wire length and connector. I shall see if a suitable replacement can be sourced tomorrow.
I also gave the car its first wash under my ownership. Something else has been added, which some will feel is a wise precaution and others will think is silly. But can you spot it?:
So, everything is rosy, right?
Not quite. For a while I have heard a rubbing from the front when the car is on full lock. Today I decided to investigate. It seems that the wheels are rubbing on the braided brake hoses, and that they almost appear to be too short. Is this an issue with braided hoses, or when the car is lowered, or does it look like I have the wrong brake hoses?
So, I think it is time to attempt to check out other sensors in the engine bay in addition to swapping out the thermostat and gasket, where I figured I may as well check the T-Piece. It looks OK around there, but it's hard to tell with the thermostat gasket leaking as well.
The lambda sensor looked to be original but with its wiring hacked about with quite a bit over time with a couple of cheap crimp connectors; mine like many had a little movement in it, and knowing the quality of the connectors the wiring I suspected it had probably oxidised inside ; disconnecting the wire did not make the car run worse at idle either and with a few revs. I decided to solder the wire. One thing to note is that the emissions have gradually got worse over the past 2 years, although it does seem to smell less now ; OTOH maybe I have got used to the smell of rich running!
That said, I better sort the small niggles out on the M3...
The idling issue was down to a maladjusted throttle position. Armed with some feeler gauges, the Haynes Book of Lies, some sockets as well as the obligatory cup of tea I adjusted it which soon had the car running well again. I was quietly hoping the emissions issue would be solved but no such luck.
Now that the idling issue was fixed it was time to fix a smaller niggle ; the sound, or to those who know the termIn Car Entertainment. At the moment the ICe left little to be desired. Although I put in my Alpine HU with a few bells and whistles about it the sound itself was pretty poor and distorted with the bass sounding more like a distorted rattle, a little like some of Rhianna's lyrics. Some may recall my dabbling with ICE from a previous thread
Upon taking the speaker panels off I was expecting to see knackered speakers. However, I was in for a bit of a surprise:
Yup, it already had new speakers, of a JBL variety! However, the mounting of them left little to be desired, only one of the screws was actually holding the speaker in and not that well either! Was the previous owner really this lazy when it came to audio?
Not quite. Mazda in their infinite wisdom fitted MX-5s with 3 hole mounted speakers as you can see in this shameless stolen image (no, it's not my car):
This leaves you with a choice or either, going for stock speekers or "Custom Fit" 6.5" speakers as shown below:
Your other choice is to drill holes into the door so that it will accept the new speakers. Seeing as MX-5s appear to dissolve before your eyes I was not massively keen on drilling into what seemed to be decent metal. So I went with another option ; make my speakers custom fit speakers
.However, not so fast! I was going to sort out another small matter first. Sound deadening
. By my standards it was a bit of a half arsed job with me only deadening the half of the door that I could access via the speaker aperture. So I proceeded to clean up the surfaces which I would be deadening:
Almost clean enough to eat your dinner off, not that you would want to
:
Enter Stage Left. This is awesome stuff and IME is more effective and WAY easier to work with than flashing tape ; I didn't even need a hairdryer for today's application.
Part of the way through:
Finally with the speaker put back on, with their new mounting points drilled into the speaker:
And the results? TBH it was a mixed bag. Overall the sound has dramatically improved and has become 'cleaned up'. As another bonus the doors shut with more of a thud and no longer sound tinny. However, I wonder if the speakers previously playing free air and resting against the speaker grill has harmed them : they sound a little distorted at some frequencies, but for a drop top they are actually fine
. I may change them but I suspect for many people out there they would be more than happy with the sound of the speakers ; it is an improvement from before after all . They are certainly listenable though!After I had sorted out the doors I had been been driving the car around quite a bit! The MPG was around 31-34MPG but I was not being gentle either
. With the few warm and dry spells we have been having it is a joy to drive about in it. Life seemed to be good.Anyway, I decided to tackle a few more things on the car, given that I am using the car more and more. However, pictures are sparse as I was working in between the rain showers on Saturday! Oh, the joys of a doing some mechanics on the driveway.
First thing to sort was the weeping thermostat gasket. It wasn't pissing coolant out, but it was enough to make the coolant level drop and to appear damp around the gasket. When the cambelt was done it had also had the thermostat and gasket changed. I decided to in some people's opinion waste a bit of cash and get the following:
-Genuine Mazda Thermostat gasket
-Genuine Mazda Therostat
-Genuine Mazda Cam Cover gasket
-CAS O-Ring - It looked damp behind it so I figured it was best to check.
-A New Lambda sensor after this debacle.
Buying the parts was interesting. When I owned my 944 Porsche dealers were cheaper in a number of cases over the specialists and even GSF at times. I figured the same with the Mazda. Imagine my surprise when I found MX-5 Parts and a dealer in Coventry were cheaper than my local dealer in Warwick! The local people despite being told this even refused to come down even slightly in price! Ah well, MX-5 Parts ended up getting the business...
Upon removing the thermostat I noticed the genuine item looked quite different:
Firstly, the thermstat itself looked different. It looked as if it might open up more than the pattern one inside and looked to be a 2/3 stage thermostat as well as having the jiggle pin for bleeding. And people say they are identical? It also seemed to have higher opening ranges of 85 and 88 degrees as opposed to 82 degrees. It also seem to 'wiggle/move' alot less in the housing aperture.
The gaskets were also different (both gaskets below are new, with the Mazda gasket having green sealing ring on it.
With that in mind I carried on to fit the new bits after thoroughly cleaning everything. After warnings about the T Piece, I left that well alone and dirty! At the same time, I noticed that one of the housing bolts was smaller, than the other (presumably snapped off in the past), with both nuts appearing worn. With some spare Stainless bolts I fitted those in after cleaning out the threads. The bolts seem to be a better fit and with that the housing was done and clean even two days later!
Anyway, the other thing to fix was the leaking cam cover gasket. Initially, I was just going to tighten up the bolts but I figured since I went to the trouble of buying a new gasket I may as well fix it. A number of the bolts were loose, but some were tight! However, after removing the gasket it was clear that it had distorted in a few places. At the same time I took the opportunity to change the CAS sensor O-Ring, which I am glad I did, since the old seal was beginning to go a little square on the edges. With both of the seals refitted I put both items on, but in the case of the cam cover gasket I progressively hand tightened the bolts in sequence as according to the HBOL. After a while I torqued them to spec at around 10Nm. A few days leter I now had a leak free engine it seems
.There is not much to see here bar the head looking a little cleaner!
One job that did not go to plan was changing the lambda sensor. Initially I could not get my 22mm spanner to go on well ; the sensor sits at the top of the pipe, and I did not fancy removing the exhaust manifold just to change a sensor! In the end I chopped the sensor wire off, and put the ring end of the spanner onto it. With this not being enough I then put a 19mm spanner onto the end of the 22mm. When I saw the 19mm spanner bending I figured I better get a larger spanner, a 32mm! With this, the sensor finally broke free and was removed. However, there were a couple of issues.
The new sensor was wrong in terms of the wire length and connector. I shall see if a suitable replacement can be sourced tomorrow.
I also gave the car its first wash under my ownership. Something else has been added, which some will feel is a wise precaution and others will think is silly. But can you spot it?
:
So, everything is rosy, right?
Not quite. For a while I have heard a rubbing from the front when the car is on full lock. Today I decided to investigate. It seems that the wheels are rubbing on the braided brake hoses, and that they almost appear to be too short. Is this an issue with braided hoses, or when the car is lowered, or does it look like I have the wrong brake hoses?
So, I think it is time to attempt to check out other sensors in the engine bay in addition to swapping out the thermostat and gasket, where I figured I may as well check the T-Piece. It looks OK around there, but it's hard to tell with the thermostat gasket leaking as well.
The lambda sensor looked to be original but with its wiring hacked about with quite a bit over time with a couple of cheap crimp connectors; mine like many had a little movement in it, and knowing the quality of the connectors the wiring I suspected it had probably oxidised inside ; disconnecting the wire did not make the car run worse at idle either and with a few revs. I decided to solder the wire. One thing to note is that the emissions have gradually got worse over the past 2 years, although it does seem to smell less now ; OTOH maybe I have got used to the smell of rich running!
That said, I better sort the small niggles out on the M3...
Looks like a lovely car.
For Lambda issues one of these is a godsend, so much easier than worrying about spanners!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-Expert-55540-Oxyge...
For Lambda issues one of these is a godsend, so much easier than worrying about spanners!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-Expert-55540-Oxyge...
As always, thanks for the comms
However, I did buy one but returned it. With the gearbox and transmission tunnel next to an upright lambda sensor those sockets would never work. On a stock MX-5 manifold they would have been perfect.
However, this would have done the job, and I may get one in the future:
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/22mm-lambda-socket...
. I bought the car for that very reason. I know most old cars will come with work required but I really wanted an MX-5 that would give me little fuss. I have already covered around 2k in the car!
I've been at the car again fixing things!
Since I bought the car a cracked centre console has been bothering me, so I decided to fix it. It seems someone has had a go at glueing it previously as well. When a replacement came up cheaply I simply left it in the garage, until this weekend.
It was time to get removing things. It was surprising to not have the wiring hacked about for a change. What was also nice was to see that the gear gaitor had been attended to at some point:
As always, some of the screws were not budging. To save slipping on the screws I took slightly drastic action! Those are the tools I used:
The only wire to leave the building were the Alpine iPod lead. I only removed it as my replacement Alpine HU has a USB lead which replaced it.
The comparison shot! Yup, the only thing holding that facia together with all of its broken fixings was the storage bin beneath the HU: The new one is in slightly better condition:
At the same time I thought I would put on the steering wheel that was in better condition, which the pictures cannot quite make out. The steering wheel came with the car when I bought it.
Finally, it was time to have a beer and admire what I had done ; I will point out that I did not tighten the fixings with the impact driver, but the screwdrivers instead!:
Now for the closeup of what I had been replacing:
It is surprising the difference such a piece can make to the car.
Krikkit said:
Looks like a lovely car.
For Lambda issues one of these is a godsend, so much easier than worrying about spanners!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-Expert-55540-Oxyge...
Cheers,For Lambda issues one of these is a godsend, so much easier than worrying about spanners!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-Expert-55540-Oxyge...
However, I did buy one but returned it. With the gearbox and transmission tunnel next to an upright lambda sensor those sockets would never work. On a stock MX-5 manifold they would have been perfect.
However, this would have done the job, and I may get one in the future:
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/22mm-lambda-socket...
ECG1000 said:
Always liked these! Would be nice to have a go in one sometime.
Yours looks a good example with some decent improvements.
If you are based near Warwick I'm happy to let you try it out Yours looks a good example with some decent improvements.
. I bought the car for that very reason. I know most old cars will come with work required but I really wanted an MX-5 that would give me little fuss. I have already covered around 2k in the car!I've been at the car again fixing things!
Since I bought the car a cracked centre console has been bothering me, so I decided to fix it. It seems someone has had a go at glueing it previously as well. When a replacement came up cheaply I simply left it in the garage, until this weekend.
It was time to get removing things. It was surprising to not have the wiring hacked about for a change. What was also nice was to see that the gear gaitor had been attended to at some point
:
As always, some of the screws were not budging. To save slipping on the screws I took slightly drastic action! Those are the tools I used:
The only wire to leave the building were the Alpine iPod lead. I only removed it as my replacement Alpine HU has a USB lead which replaced it.
The comparison shot! Yup, the only thing holding that facia together with all of its broken fixings was the storage bin beneath the HU: The new one is in slightly better condition:
At the same time I thought I would put on the steering wheel that was in better condition, which the pictures cannot quite make out. The steering wheel came with the car when I bought it.
Finally, it was time to have a beer and admire what I had done ; I will point out that I did not tighten the fixings with the impact driver, but the screwdrivers instead!:
Now for the closeup of what I had been replacing:
It is surprising the difference such a piece can make to the car.
There is nothing much to report here!
Besides checking the diagnostic LED readouts which are reading no codes I have just been piling on the miles!
I eventually got an NTK lambda sensor and threw that in after extending the wiring harness. It may be a placebo but the car does seem to be running the best it ever has done, pulling better beyond 4kRPM. I have yet to check the MPG but the reading does seem to have gone higher from an average of 31-33MPG.
It was MOT time where it failed on a balljoint boot being split and 1 washer jet not working out of the 4. I cannot really complain about this! With that all sorted it is time to have the wind in the hair and enjoy a few more outings out.
Are there plans? Definitely? These include to:
-Raise the car ; some 'mound' speed bumps will kiss the exhaust and some will hit the chassis legs if I am not super slow going over them. But it looks so coo1!
-Quieten the exhaust. It is quite loud! I am going to sling in a cat (if I can find one secondhead!) and see what happens there.
Oh, and maybe give it a clean.
Besides checking the diagnostic LED readouts which are reading no codes I have just been piling on the miles!
I eventually got an NTK lambda sensor and threw that in after extending the wiring harness. It may be a placebo but the car does seem to be running the best it ever has done, pulling better beyond 4kRPM. I have yet to check the MPG but the reading does seem to have gone higher from an average of 31-33MPG.
It was MOT time where it failed on a balljoint boot being split and 1 washer jet not working out of the 4. I cannot really complain about this! With that all sorted it is time to have the wind in the hair and enjoy a few more outings out.
Are there plans? Definitely? These include to:
-Raise the car ; some 'mound' speed bumps will kiss the exhaust and some will hit the chassis legs if I am not super slow going over them. But it looks so coo1!
-Quieten the exhaust. It is quite loud! I am going to sling in a cat (if I can find one secondhead!) and see what happens there.
Oh, and maybe give it a clean.
Cheers. It seems these are getting a bit more attention these days with more fond memories of them. That can only be good news for the future of these cars.
As previously mentioned it failed the MOT on a failed balljoint boot. With that in mind I changed it with a genuine Mazda item. Now to celebrate with some pics:
Firstly, I put the car up in the air. Woohoo! Yes, I drove one wheel onto the ramp so as to put the jack underneath it!:
The staple diet of the weekend mechanic. Haynes; check, tools check, hammer, CHECK!
Yup, that boot was pretty much toasted!:
And back on form:
There is another development and it is a sad one. All shall be revealed soon.
As previously mentioned it failed the MOT on a failed balljoint boot. With that in mind I changed it with a genuine Mazda item. Now to celebrate with some pics:
Firstly, I put the car up in the air. Woohoo! Yes, I drove one wheel onto the ramp so as to put the jack underneath it!:
The staple diet of the weekend mechanic. Haynes; check, tools check, hammer, CHECK!
Yup, that boot was pretty much toasted!:
And back on form:
There is another development and it is a sad one. All shall be revealed soon.
Good grief, you are having almost the exact same problems with yours as I am with mine!
- Lambda sensor and bad/rich running but no error codes
- Exhaust waaaay too loud (Yours looks the same as mine, probably the same one)
- Lowness (although I haven't scraped any speed bumps)
- Centre console - your storage bin was the only decent part; I'm t'other way round, console is fine but bin is totally borked
Looks lovely in red, I do kinda wish I'd not gone for the black one but hey it's only a colour. Please do keep your thread updated, I will be reading with interest
- Lambda sensor and bad/rich running but no error codes
- Exhaust waaaay too loud (Yours looks the same as mine, probably the same one)
- Lowness (although I haven't scraped any speed bumps)
- Centre console - your storage bin was the only decent part; I'm t'other way round, console is fine but bin is totally borked
Looks lovely in red, I do kinda wish I'd not gone for the black one but hey it's only a colour. Please do keep your thread updated, I will be reading with interest
LeoZwalf said:
Good grief, you are having almost the exact same problems with yours as I am with mine!
- Lambda sensor and bad/rich running but no error codes
- Exhaust waaaay too loud (Yours looks the same as mine, probably the same one)
- Lowness (although I haven't scraped any speed bumps)
- Centre console - your storage bin was the only decent part; I'm t'other way round, console is fine but bin is totally borked
Looks lovely in red, I do kinda wish I'd not gone for the black one but hey it's only a colour. Please do keep your thread updated, I will be reading with interest
It does seem that way. As for the codes, was that checking the codes with the LED light trick? Mine came back with two codes, but I suspect having an unheated lambda sensor further downstream probably does not help its longevity.- Lambda sensor and bad/rich running but no error codes
- Exhaust waaaay too loud (Yours looks the same as mine, probably the same one)
- Lowness (although I haven't scraped any speed bumps)
- Centre console - your storage bin was the only decent part; I'm t'other way round, console is fine but bin is totally borked
Looks lovely in red, I do kinda wish I'd not gone for the black one but hey it's only a colour. Please do keep your thread updated, I will be reading with interest
The lowness was a pain. It is a shame as the car handled beautifully ; it was an absolute thrill in the bends and it was so easy and playable. It was asking for more power really, which is probably why I did what I did.
I was not after a red car originally, but the respray on this one certainly helped lift it and in hindsight the wheels looked superb.
However, this thread may not get any more updates. It has now been sold. I was oddly approached at a show about it, so it has now been moved on
. It goes to show that solid and decent cars do sell well.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff