1992 Mazda MX-5
Discussion
Since buying my Prius a year ago, things have been a bit... dull. Don't get me wrong - it is a great car for the day to day stuff. When you've got petrol and oil in your veins though, it does get boring. Quickly.
A couple of weeks ago a friend from back home bought a Mk1 MX-5 on a bit of a whim. Summer started making itself known. I started seeing people in cabrios with the roof down. The want was strong.
It didn't take long on the usual websites to get an idea of what I could get and for how much. Here in NL you need about €5-6k for a really good one whereas sub €2k things start to get ropey. More expensive than the UK but not insane, plus a no-depreciate guarantee. Unless it s
ts itself.
A couple of weeks ago I went to see my first one. I think it was a 1998, so a Mk2 in lovely metallic British Racing Green. Lowered, nice wheels, nice aftermarket exhaust. Fruity. Then I googled "Mk2 Mx5 front chassis rail rust" and became afraid. So afraid.
That's fine cos the Mk1 is cooler anyway. Less fancy bits = lighter. And popup headlights. Popup headlights!!
So the search was on for a Mk1. Preferably in red because they're always faster. Or yellow. Or that lovely rare light bright blue. With a mohair roof and glass rear screen. Oh and of course new or recently new cills. Checklist complete, can start looking now.
Never buy the first one you see, right?
Oops.
Pop. Up.
Free magic tree AND a 5 cent rebate!
Parked up outside home.
It drives nice. It has some kind of suspension kit on it, I dunno what make but it rides very well over short sharp cobbled type bumps and soaks up undulations on the motorway really well. I've been in cars with cheap spring/shock combos and they're very crashy, this isn't at all so I reckon it must be a decent setup. Power is good, exhaust is stupidly loud. This pleases my inner chav and displeases my grown up side. And probably the neighbours except the guy opposite (who owns the red 156 you can see in the photo above) who came straight over to tell me "Mooi auto!" (nice car!) and said he used to have a 1990 Miata in red back in the day.
Honestly I'm not really quite sure what I'm going to do with it yet, it needs bits and bobs doing so I suppose it will be a slow rolling project. The Prius is staying, it is too good, cheap to run, comfy, practical and reliable to sell.
Any questions? Short back and sides as usual?
A couple of weeks ago a friend from back home bought a Mk1 MX-5 on a bit of a whim. Summer started making itself known. I started seeing people in cabrios with the roof down. The want was strong.
It didn't take long on the usual websites to get an idea of what I could get and for how much. Here in NL you need about €5-6k for a really good one whereas sub €2k things start to get ropey. More expensive than the UK but not insane, plus a no-depreciate guarantee. Unless it s
ts itself.A couple of weeks ago I went to see my first one. I think it was a 1998, so a Mk2 in lovely metallic British Racing Green. Lowered, nice wheels, nice aftermarket exhaust. Fruity. Then I googled "Mk2 Mx5 front chassis rail rust" and became afraid. So afraid.
That's fine cos the Mk1 is cooler anyway. Less fancy bits = lighter. And popup headlights. Popup headlights!!
So the search was on for a Mk1. Preferably in red because they're always faster. Or yellow. Or that lovely rare light bright blue. With a mohair roof and glass rear screen. Oh and of course new or recently new cills. Checklist complete, can start looking now.
Never buy the first one you see, right?
Oops.
Pop. Up.
Free magic tree AND a 5 cent rebate!
Parked up outside home.
It drives nice. It has some kind of suspension kit on it, I dunno what make but it rides very well over short sharp cobbled type bumps and soaks up undulations on the motorway really well. I've been in cars with cheap spring/shock combos and they're very crashy, this isn't at all so I reckon it must be a decent setup. Power is good, exhaust is stupidly loud. This pleases my inner chav and displeases my grown up side. And probably the neighbours except the guy opposite (who owns the red 156 you can see in the photo above) who came straight over to tell me "Mooi auto!" (nice car!) and said he used to have a 1990 Miata in red back in the day.
Honestly I'm not really quite sure what I'm going to do with it yet, it needs bits and bobs doing so I suppose it will be a slow rolling project. The Prius is staying, it is too good, cheap to run, comfy, practical and reliable to sell.
Any questions? Short back and sides as usual?
Bedankt! It looks better in the photos than in real life, but is good enough 
Plans? At first just to drive and enjoy. Later, the left cill (dorpel) will need replacing. It needs an oil change for sure, probably air filter and other things but I am yet to check that. I only realised earlier today that I haven't looked in the boot yet, not even when I went to look over it before buying! Stupid. There might be a dead body in there.
It won't be a daily, the Prius is great for that job and will stay with me as a main car
Plans? At first just to drive and enjoy. Later, the left cill (dorpel) will need replacing. It needs an oil change for sure, probably air filter and other things but I am yet to check that. I only realised earlier today that I haven't looked in the boot yet, not even when I went to look over it before buying! Stupid. There might be a dead body in there.
It won't be a daily, the Prius is great for that job and will stay with me as a main car
Edited by LeoZwalf on Tuesday 31st May 14:57
Thanks Chimp It rained the cats and dogs last night but this afternoon everything had dried out and it was lovely and warm. Went for a spin in it when I got home from work, it was fun. I haven't had fun driving for too long, it was great to have that feeling again.
Some more photographic pixels for you.
1.6 litres of 16 valve revvyness
This car has had 9 previous owners since it was imported into NL in 2003. Goodness knows how many it had before that, or from where it was imported (educated guess says Germany). One of those crazy mofos fitted the funky Sparco steering wheel, moved the horn button and added very beautiful horn wiring. Nnnnggg...
Centre console area. Tried the stereo on the way home from picking it up yesterday. Couldn't hear a damn thing over the exhaust.
Free screwdriver. Quite what the pull-out knob switch is, I don't know. Perhaps an override for the electric antenna? Something to play with tomorrow.
Free oil. Doing well for free stuff! Also spare wheel, not secured at all. Added to "should fix soon" list.
OMGFreestuffz. Melted protein bar of unknown age and a box which appears to have contained many of said bars. Did not taste. Did wonder if someone somewhere is trying to tell me something about my own bodywork?!
Rear suspension. Appears to be adjustable, certainly isn't OE. Does anyone reading this know what it is? Let me know. It certainly rides nice, very firm but compliant and no crashyness at all.
Tyres. Boots. Rubber.
195/50/15 all round.
Nice looking Bridgestones on the back. Note bluey brake disc, yes - caliper is binding a bit.
"Interstate" tyres on the front. WHUT? Never heard of. You?
Had a bit of a throw-around on the roads earlier, it does handle nice. There is a hint of understeer but having now noted "Interstate" tyres on the front, perhaps that isn't surprising. The exhaust is so bloody loud - I had a look underneath the car earlier and there's only the cat and rear box, it needs a centre section adding, I suppose.
It rained the cats and dogs last night but this afternoon everything had dried out and it was lovely and warm. Went for a spin in it when I got home from work, it was fun. I haven't had fun driving for too long, it was great to have that feeling again.Some more photographic pixels for you.
1.6 litres of 16 valve revvyness
This car has had 9 previous owners since it was imported into NL in 2003. Goodness knows how many it had before that, or from where it was imported (educated guess says Germany). One of those crazy mofos fitted the funky Sparco steering wheel, moved the horn button and added very beautiful horn wiring. Nnnnggg...
Centre console area. Tried the stereo on the way home from picking it up yesterday. Couldn't hear a damn thing over the exhaust.
Free screwdriver. Quite what the pull-out knob switch is, I don't know. Perhaps an override for the electric antenna? Something to play with tomorrow.
Free oil. Doing well for free stuff! Also spare wheel, not secured at all. Added to "should fix soon" list.
OMGFreestuffz. Melted protein bar of unknown age and a box which appears to have contained many of said bars. Did not taste. Did wonder if someone somewhere is trying to tell me something about my own bodywork?!
Rear suspension. Appears to be adjustable, certainly isn't OE. Does anyone reading this know what it is? Let me know. It certainly rides nice, very firm but compliant and no crashyness at all.
Tyres. Boots. Rubber.
195/50/15 all round.
Nice looking Bridgestones on the back. Note bluey brake disc, yes - caliper is binding a bit.
"Interstate" tyres on the front. WHUT? Never heard of. You?
Had a bit of a throw-around on the roads earlier, it does handle nice. There is a hint of understeer but having now noted "Interstate" tyres on the front, perhaps that isn't surprising. The exhaust is so bloody loud - I had a look underneath the car earlier and there's only the cat and rear box, it needs a centre section adding, I suppose.
227bhp said:
Suspension looks like Tein.
That button though, do you ever have any passengers you really don't like?
Someone else said that to me too, so I think you may be right. As for the question about the passengers, an ejector seat hadn't crossed my mind! Best be careful...That button though, do you ever have any passengers you really don't like?
Medic-one said:
Mooi! Alleen de PH sticker ontbreekt nog 
Dank je wel Not sure if I'll get a sticker.Evanivitch said:
If it's like my car then the hidden switch will be for a "sleepy eye" effect on the headlights.
Nice suggestion. I gave it a try yesterday evening, it doesn't do anything with the headlights. Which reminds me - the headlights do not pop up when you switch them on. They do pop up when you press the button under the hazard light switch, but not automatically. From what I've read, this is caused by a relay somewhere? Went shopping this morning for some mild servicing bits. The seller told he it had had a large service including cambelt 20,000 km ago. By the looks of the oil, it hasn't been changed since
Also gonna give this a try to fix the non popup headlights:
http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2...
http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2...
Feeding time this morning, first one I've done.
This afternoon she went up on the ramps. Dad gave me these ramps many years ago, they've lifted almost all of my cars - he had had them since before I was born and I remember him driving his XR3 up onto them when I was little.
Oil change done - old stuff came out blacker than yer hat! Wasn't thick or too stinky so don't think it had been in the TOO long, but obviously overdue.
The air filter was a fun one. There are 5 screws holding the airbox together. On this car, they're all different! Curse previous owners. All part of the fun of having an old car which loadsa folks have had their mits on:
Old filter came out. Wasn't very dirty at all and when I saw the red colour I immediately thought it must have been an eBay K&N special ripoff jobby. Don't want none of that nasty red oil going into my engine so that'll go in the bin.
Then I opened the new filter.... oh!
Erm, they are the same. Still put the new one in, I'd bought it after all.
Having a poke, peer and ponder around the engine bay and found this little pipe which I assume is/was a vacuum line which has, for reasons unfathomable, been disconnected. And cut off. And blocked. Eh? Why?!
One nice thing I did find today was this - nice battery cutoff switch. When doing oil changes I like to disconnect the battery battery just in case I have a senior moment and try to start the engine with no oil in it. We can all a be a bit absent minded sometimes right? Right?!
After the oil a and filter change, I told Mrs Leo we were going out for a drive. She isn't a car girl, far from it, but to my surprise she is already warming to the MX-5. We were out for over an hour, unfortunately the roads around here are pretty boring so there was a lot of 30 mph, speed bumped straight line dullness but still - it was fun to go out together, roof down on a warm (ish) summer (ish) Friday evening
I have to say, I'm enjoying this car even more than I thought I would. Well chuffed.
This afternoon she went up on the ramps. Dad gave me these ramps many years ago, they've lifted almost all of my cars - he had had them since before I was born and I remember him driving his XR3 up onto them when I was little.
Oil change done - old stuff came out blacker than yer hat! Wasn't thick or too stinky so don't think it had been in the TOO long, but obviously overdue.
The air filter was a fun one. There are 5 screws holding the airbox together. On this car, they're all different! Curse previous owners. All part of the fun of having an old car which loadsa folks have had their mits on:
Old filter came out. Wasn't very dirty at all and when I saw the red colour I immediately thought it must have been an eBay K&N special ripoff jobby. Don't want none of that nasty red oil going into my engine so that'll go in the bin.
Then I opened the new filter.... oh!
Erm, they are the same. Still put the new one in, I'd bought it after all.
Having a poke, peer and ponder around the engine bay and found this little pipe which I assume is/was a vacuum line which has, for reasons unfathomable, been disconnected. And cut off. And blocked. Eh? Why?!
One nice thing I did find today was this - nice battery cutoff switch. When doing oil changes I like to disconnect the battery battery just in case I have a senior moment and try to start the engine with no oil in it. We can all a be a bit absent minded sometimes right? Right?!
After the oil a and filter change, I told Mrs Leo we were going out for a drive. She isn't a car girl, far from it, but to my surprise she is already warming to the MX-5. We were out for over an hour, unfortunately the roads around here are pretty boring so there was a lot of 30 mph, speed bumped straight line dullness but still - it was fun to go out together, roof down on a warm (ish) summer (ish) Friday evening
I have to say, I'm enjoying this car even more than I thought I would. Well chuffed.
Evanivitch said:
Haha I've just taken the generic conefilter off my car and retrofitting the airbox the old owner provided. I too had mismatched, and some broken bolts on the box. Planning to measure them up and get Allen sockets on them all.
This is one of those cars which really doesn't lend itself well to an open air filter in the engine bay. It sits at the back, right above the exhaust - why anyone would think that's a good idea I don't know.Did some tinkering today and feeling pretty chuffed. The headlights didn't auto popup when switching on dipped beam.
Under the steering column there's some wiring and relays.
Find and remove this one:
Prepare your high tech workbench and warm up your soldering iron:
Carefully open it up and extract the circuit board.
The photos are taken with a well used iPhone 5 so aren't the best but I think you can just about make out the cracked solder on the joints on the top right of this pic (actually no, you can't. Photobucket took all the detail away):
After:
Put it all back together and huurah! Headlights came right open when I turned them on.
Also removed the radio. It was a very well used early/mid 2000's JVC:
Considering the huge number of previous owners and total lack of history, I was very surprised to not find a nest of scotchlocked, badly crimped cables held together with a sticky mound of electrical tape:
There is one random cut wire, as yet unidentified:
If you're removing one thing, might as well remove more, right? Cubby hole under radio. Useful but cracked and broken, looks s
te:
Cup holders, seems rather silly in a car like this. I think it might be aftermarket??
American?
That's all for now. Dead chuffed fixing that headlight relay
SebringMan said:
P.S, I see you changed the engine oil. How did you remove the oil filter without the oil going everywhere? I have taken a look but it seems it will decorate the crossmember with oil!
I didn't. Had to put plenty of rags on the ground after I realised how much oil had dribbled down 
GordonL said:
Hard to tell from your photo, but check the battery area carefully. The correct battery is an expensive gel one and it sits in a plastic tray. Over the course of time, some plank will get a standard wet battery and shove it in, without the tray. You'll then get a nice rusty boot floor thanks to the battery acid ??
Thanks for the tip - I will take a look.Last night was another lovely warm evening. To my surprise, Mrs Leo was enthusiastic to join me for a spin. We were out for well over an hour, enjoying the very very ohhhh so flat scenery. The roads here aren't much fun, long straight stretches with 60-80 km/h limits. There's the odd roundabout though - very little slowing down required
The car loves being thrown around, it feels great.
By the time we got home, we both had ringing ears. The exhaust is loud. I SAID THE EXHAUST IS LOUD!!!
Not much to update but want to make a bit of a To Do list which I will very very slowly work through.
Also would like some advice regarding slightly poor running:
- Engine starts and idles perfectly from cold
- Gets up to temp quickly but during this period, feels a bit flat and will hesitate badly if you use lots of loud pedal (I know you shouldn't do this when it's not up to temp, of course. But it is clearly indicative of an issue)
- Once up to temp, the flatspots are gone and it revs cleanly all the way to 7000 rpm, BUT the idle is lumpy. It isn't misfiring but is lumpy.
Spark plugs are all as clean as you'd expect and are gapped correctly at 1.0 - 1.1 mm. I suppose this could be caused by
:
- Bad coolant temp sensor
- Bad lambda sensor
- Bad air flow meter
Or something else. Or a multi combo bonus of the above. Or it's a characteristic of this engine?
To do list:
- Cills and rear arch, this will need a bodyshop, I won't do this myself
- Fix lumpy idle as shown above
- Remove, dismantle and clean up LHR caliper; it sticks on a bit sometimes
- Get an extra silencer welded into the stupid loud exhaust. Make it sound nice instead of like a total hooliganchav
- Might have to replace clutch master and/or slave cylinders. Idle drops when in gear and stationary, suspect clutch is dragging a bit
- Replace gearbox and diff oil; no idea when they were last done
- Polish it. There are insane swirl marks especially on the bootlid. I'm not a bodywork show/shine guy but this is too bad even for me.
Not related directly to the car but I really need to find some semi decent driving roads around here. There are of course NO hills in NL so that part of the fun is denied, but their love of dremples (speed bumps) and long straight roads with 90 degree turns at each end makes things incredibly boring and not at all suited to this car. Maybe I need a track day at Zandvoort?
Also would like some advice regarding slightly poor running:
- Engine starts and idles perfectly from cold
- Gets up to temp quickly but during this period, feels a bit flat and will hesitate badly if you use lots of loud pedal (I know you shouldn't do this when it's not up to temp, of course. But it is clearly indicative of an issue)
- Once up to temp, the flatspots are gone and it revs cleanly all the way to 7000 rpm, BUT the idle is lumpy. It isn't misfiring but is lumpy.
Spark plugs are all as clean as you'd expect and are gapped correctly at 1.0 - 1.1 mm. I suppose this could be caused by
:
- Bad coolant temp sensor
- Bad lambda sensor
- Bad air flow meter
Or something else. Or a multi combo bonus of the above. Or it's a characteristic of this engine?
To do list:
- Cills and rear arch, this will need a bodyshop, I won't do this myself
- Fix lumpy idle as shown above
- Remove, dismantle and clean up LHR caliper; it sticks on a bit sometimes
- Get an extra silencer welded into the stupid loud exhaust. Make it sound nice instead of like a total hooliganchav
- Might have to replace clutch master and/or slave cylinders. Idle drops when in gear and stationary, suspect clutch is dragging a bit
- Replace gearbox and diff oil; no idea when they were last done
- Polish it. There are insane swirl marks especially on the bootlid. I'm not a bodywork show/shine guy but this is too bad even for me.
Not related directly to the car but I really need to find some semi decent driving roads around here. There are of course NO hills in NL so that part of the fun is denied, but their love of dremples (speed bumps) and long straight roads with 90 degree turns at each end makes things incredibly boring and not at all suited to this car. Maybe I need a track day at Zandvoort?
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.
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.
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.
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