Mk3 MX-5 questions
Discussion
First post here too so be gentle 
My other half bought herself a tidy 2.0L mk3 MX-5 recently and as I have the job of looking after our cars I had a couple of questions. The car is a 5-speed pre-facelift model btw.
First, the stone guards behind the front brake discs, these appear to be in three sections but the middle one on each side appears to be bent back into the arch, I take it they're not supposed to be like that? We've noticed a slight scraping noise when turning at full lock, not sure if it's both or just one direction but I figured maybe the stone guards had been making contact with the springs, would this be right?
Jacking up the car - i.e. with a trolley jack and then onto axle stands. Where are the correct locations for each of these?
Wheel offsets, etc. I thought it might be wise to get a spare set of wheels and have winter tyres put on those, can anyone tell me what offset we need? Her car has the 16" wheels on there just now but if it was cheeaper (by the time we factor in the tyres as well) to get 17" wheels and put summer tyres on there and use the 16's for winter ones then we'd probably go for that.
Finally, are there any good, busy forums specific to the MX-5 (or Mazda in general) that anyone can recommend?
Cheers in advance,
8bit
My other half bought herself a tidy 2.0L mk3 MX-5 recently and as I have the job of looking after our cars I had a couple of questions. The car is a 5-speed pre-facelift model btw.
First, the stone guards behind the front brake discs, these appear to be in three sections but the middle one on each side appears to be bent back into the arch, I take it they're not supposed to be like that? We've noticed a slight scraping noise when turning at full lock, not sure if it's both or just one direction but I figured maybe the stone guards had been making contact with the springs, would this be right?
Jacking up the car - i.e. with a trolley jack and then onto axle stands. Where are the correct locations for each of these?
Wheel offsets, etc. I thought it might be wise to get a spare set of wheels and have winter tyres put on those, can anyone tell me what offset we need? Her car has the 16" wheels on there just now but if it was cheeaper (by the time we factor in the tyres as well) to get 17" wheels and put summer tyres on there and use the 16's for winter ones then we'd probably go for that.
Finally, are there any good, busy forums specific to the MX-5 (or Mazda in general) that anyone can recommend?
Cheers in advance,
8bit
8bit said:
Finally, are there any good, busy forums specific to the MX-5 (or Mazda in general) that anyone can recommend?
MX5 Owners club has a forum.For people more into their mods and more technical help -
www.mx5nutz.com/forum has a fair few Mk3 owners now.
www.clubroadster.net - US site with lots of Mk3 info
www.miata.net - the oldest MX5 site, US again
hours and hours of reading for you there already.
Hello 8bit and welcome to PH.
1. First, the stone guards behind the front brake discs, these appear to be in three sections but the middle one on each side appears to be bent back into the arch, I take it they're not supposed to be like that? We've noticed a slight scraping noise when turning at full lock, not sure if it's both or just one direction but I figured maybe the stone guards had been making contact with the springs, would this be right?
Same on mine - and my car is 12 months old and never had any issues. Sorry, can't help with the scraping noise - maybe a stone lodged in there?
2. Jacking up the car - i.e. with a trolley jack and then onto axle stands. Where are the correct locations for each of these?
Sorry can't help with axle stand locations as I haven't used axle stands on mine yet. On other cars I usually just find a solid area of the suspension/subframe and use that!
3. Wheel offsets, etc. I thought it might be wise to get a spare set of wheels and have winter tyres put on those, can anyone tell me what offset we need? Her car has the 16" wheels on there just now but if it was cheeaper (by the time we factor in the tyres as well) to get 17" wheels and put summer tyres on there and use the 16's for winter ones then we'd probably go for that.
Standard offset on the 17 inch wheel is ET55. Getting 17s with summer tires and keeping the 16s for winters seems like a good idea to me.
3. Finally, are there any good, busy forums specific to the MX-5 (or Mazda in general) that anyone can recommend?
You mean apart from this one?
The two best forums for Mk3s are MX5.com and Miata.netCheers!
@snotrag - thanks for that, I'll check those out
@hornetrider, cheers - I have been lurking here for some time and reading the news etc. on the front page for a couple of years or so but just got round to joining the forum now. I'll take a look in the arches then, good to know the guards are supposed to be like that, I was planning on bending them flat again! Cheers also for the other forum suggestions (obviously besides this one!).
@hornetrider, cheers - I have been lurking here for some time and reading the news etc. on the front page for a couple of years or so but just got round to joining the forum now. I'll take a look in the arches then, good to know the guards are supposed to be like that, I was planning on bending them flat again! Cheers also for the other forum suggestions (obviously besides this one!).
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