Mazda MX-5e Tesla Powered
Discussion
With ICE power still in place we have been doing soem testing to see how the car behaves dynamically. The 1992 automatic gearbox is ssslllloooowww !
The car handles and rides pretty well and the braking system is impressive. We have now ordered some new wheels and Yokohama Advan AD08RS tyres and these will be fitted with a CAN bus compatible TPMS in July.
We have a long list of jobs to be getting on with.
Very excited by this. I’d hoped to do the same to my MP62 supercharged Eunos, but there was a skill/time/funding gap that I couldn’t overcome, so I swapped it for an electric Mini instead. I’d still love to build/commission an SDU powered NA one day though, and thrilled that you’re doing the leg work!
A concern that I have always had about conversions, particularly soft tops, is that once you remove the engine noise you can hear every creak, clunk and rattle. All that power and torque will exacerbate the flex and groaning too. Have you got any plans for stiffening things up? I found a decent half cage and some bracing was quite effective, but I wonder if you might regret getting rid of all the sound deadening. Or you could just turn up the stereo
A concern that I have always had about conversions, particularly soft tops, is that once you remove the engine noise you can hear every creak, clunk and rattle. All that power and torque will exacerbate the flex and groaning too. Have you got any plans for stiffening things up? I found a decent half cage and some bracing was quite effective, but I wonder if you might regret getting rid of all the sound deadening. Or you could just turn up the stereo
Olibol said:
Very excited by this. I’d hoped to do the same to my MP62 supercharged Eunos, but there was a skill/time/funding gap that I couldn’t overcome, so I swapped it for an electric Mini instead. I’d still love to build/commission an SDU powered NA one day though, and thrilled that you’re doing the leg work!
A concern that I have always had about conversions, particularly soft tops, is that once you remove the engine noise you can hear every creak, clunk and rattle. All that power and torque will exacerbate the flex and groaning too. Have you got any plans for stiffening things up? I found a decent half cage and some bracing was quite effective, but I wonder if you might regret getting rid of all the sound deadening. Or you could just turn up the stereo
We have actually removed most of the sound deadening from the interior because the car is going to be so much quieter as an EV. Most of the dynamic testing we are doing now (and why we MOT'd the car to road test it before converting it) is looking at this stuff. We have completely replaced the braking system and fitted new coil overs to reduce the noise. We are doing a complete suspension refurb when removing the sub-frames and these will be shot blasted and powder coated. All of the bushes are being replaced and if you look at my progress blog (just been told off for posting a link to it A concern that I have always had about conversions, particularly soft tops, is that once you remove the engine noise you can hear every creak, clunk and rattle. All that power and torque will exacerbate the flex and groaning too. Have you got any plans for stiffening things up? I found a decent half cage and some bracing was quite effective, but I wonder if you might regret getting rid of all the sound deadening. Or you could just turn up the stereo
), you will see we have fitted new poly bushes to the ARB components.We have also stripped the doors and electric windows, which have been rebuilt with new cables, precisely to remove rattles. It's a commmon issue on the MX-5. We also have new door to window seals once the car has beeen resprayed. I'm currently fitting Delrin door bushes to ensure the doors close and are held more firmly.
My road testing so far shows the car is remarkably quiet for a 1992 soft top. The auto-box and over drive helps with this testing
Either way, if we find any noises will investigate and fix them. We have also fitted a very nice stereo system with a 10" Apple CarPlat screen, sub-woofer, etc. So we can make the noises go away 
Rob
We are also stripping components like the heater matrix to help reduce the noise. After 20+ years, the foam on the flaps has crumbled to dust. This is a project in it's own right. You can read more details in the projects section on our OSSEV website. This is the level of restoration that most people never bother with on old cars but, as we are fitting a 500V PTC heater inside it, it made a lot of sense to do it all in one go.
Even things like the wiring loom will eventually be replaced.
To answer the EV conversion question, these are our goals for July:
1. Refit the MX-5e fan unit. - DONE
2. Refit the heater matrix with a PTC heater. - IN PROGRESS
3. Ethan to complete his EV conversion course with Fellten. - The online bit is complete. He has two days in Bristol this month.
4. Buy and fit the iBooster to enable electrical assistance for the brakes. - I'm on it now
5. Depower the steering rack and modify the rack to reduce the internal resistance. - TO DO
6. Buy the new wheels and tyres. - DONE
7. Fit a CAN Bus compatible Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) to the wheels and fit the tyres. - Just looking at options now
8. Buy a Telsa SDU and start the required modifications. - I'm on it now.
1. Refit the MX-5e fan unit. - DONE
2. Refit the heater matrix with a PTC heater. - IN PROGRESS
3. Ethan to complete his EV conversion course with Fellten. - The online bit is complete. He has two days in Bristol this month.
4. Buy and fit the iBooster to enable electrical assistance for the brakes. - I'm on it now
5. Depower the steering rack and modify the rack to reduce the internal resistance. - TO DO
6. Buy the new wheels and tyres. - DONE
7. Fit a CAN Bus compatible Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) to the wheels and fit the tyres. - Just looking at options now
8. Buy a Telsa SDU and start the required modifications. - I'm on it now.
robcollingridge said:
Olibol said:
Very excited by this. I’d hoped to do the same to my MP62 supercharged Eunos, but there was a skill/time/funding gap that I couldn’t overcome, so I swapped it for an electric Mini instead. I’d still love to build/commission an SDU powered NA one day though, and thrilled that you’re doing the leg work!
A concern that I have always had about conversions, particularly soft tops, is that once you remove the engine noise you can hear every creak, clunk and rattle. All that power and torque will exacerbate the flex and groaning too. Have you got any plans for stiffening things up? I found a decent half cage and some bracing was quite effective, but I wonder if you might regret getting rid of all the sound deadening. Or you could just turn up the stereo
We have actually removed most of the sound deadening from the interior because the car is going to be so much quieter as an EV. Most of the dynamic testing we are doing now (and why we MOT'd the car to road test it before converting it) is looking at this stuff. We have completely replaced the braking system and fitted new coil overs to reduce the noise. We are doing a complete suspension refurb when removing the sub-frames and these will be shot blasted and powder coated. All of the bushes are being replaced and if you look at my progress blog (just been told off for posting a link to it A concern that I have always had about conversions, particularly soft tops, is that once you remove the engine noise you can hear every creak, clunk and rattle. All that power and torque will exacerbate the flex and groaning too. Have you got any plans for stiffening things up? I found a decent half cage and some bracing was quite effective, but I wonder if you might regret getting rid of all the sound deadening. Or you could just turn up the stereo
), you will see we have fitted new poly bushes to the ARB components.We have also stripped the doors and electric windows, which have been rebuilt with new cables, precisely to remove rattles. It's a commmon issue on the MX-5. We also have new door to window seals once the car has beeen resprayed. I'm currently fitting Delrin door bushes to ensure the doors close and are held more firmly.
My road testing so far shows the car is remarkably quiet for a 1992 soft top. The auto-box and over drive helps with this testing
Either way, if we find any noises will investigate and fix them. We have also fitted a very nice stereo system with a 10" Apple CarPlat screen, sub-woofer, etc. So we can make the noises go away Rob
Do you envisage having to do a lot of fabricating to get the SDU to fit where the diff is/was? I’d always hoped there was a bolt in solution that didn’t require any cutting.
Olibol said:
You obviously know your MX5s, but having done most of what you describe to mine it was still pretty noisy. I dread to think what weight I added back with dynomat.
Do you envisage having to do a lot of fabricating to get the SDU to fit where the diff is/was? I’d always hoped there was a bolt in solution that didn’t require any cutting.
We have done a complete refurb and rebuild on my son's 1990 Eunos Roadster in the past, so we know the MX-5 NA very well. He has his own web site too.Do you envisage having to do a lot of fabricating to get the SDU to fit where the diff is/was? I’d always hoped there was a bolt in solution that didn’t require any cutting.
We are going to have to cut into the rear sub-frame slightly and remotely mount the inverter from the SDU on top of the motor unit. We have a guy in the project FB group that has modelled this all on a CAD system. I don't weld but I know plenty of very good welders and fabricators that can help us with this part.
We also have a spare pair of sub-frames and suspension arms to work with. We bought a second set to get shot-blasted and powder coated, to go on my son's 1990 Eunos.
The group modelling has also shown that we can fit a fast CCS charging port within the existing petrol cap too but, we are still deciding if we need this on our test MX-5e.
There are loads of options for the batteries in terms of weight distribution and we have quite a few CAD models for this too.
robcollingridge said:
Craikeybaby said:
Your project website seems to be down, or at least what I think is your project website, before the links were removed...
It is working. Google OSSEV.The idea is you post stuff here not just push traffic to your blog.
Just repost it, it's not hard.
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