2006 MX-5 2.0 Option Pack
Discussion
Yeah - sadly the reality is less impressive. The tax renewal just came through, it's crept up to £320 this year. Keeping cars like this road legal for occasional use is becoming a pricey hobby.
Still, I'm doing better than my brother, who seems to be going for some sort of low mileage record on the Westfield he built back in 2005...
I bought a cheap hydraulic press so that I can tackle the rear wheel bearing/extended studs project...
It took quite a bit of effort as it's not something I'll use frequently enough to dedicate garage floor space to, so I've assembled it in the loft space above my garage. That meant clearing out seven years of accumulated rubbish to make some space up there. A couple of tip runs later and things are looking a lot tidier. I also found some trim pieces for a car I sold many years ago, they quickly sold for about the cost of the press, so that was a win!
Once I've tackled the stud project the press will be useful for refreshing the bushes in the rear suspension arms when I fit the new subframe I picked up a while ago.
I also used the Mazda to collect a vice I spotted for sale...
There was no real information apart from a blurry photo, but it was only £30 and local so it seemed worth investigating. It transpired that it had been listed on behalf of an elderly farmer who was retiring and selling up. The Mazda turned out to be a poor choice of collection vehicle as it was too low to get down his farm track, I abandoned it near the road and then had to carry 50kg of vice a lot further than planned.
It's massive, a lot bigger than the single photo suggested. It turns out it's a Woden that appears to date from the early 50s. It has a quick-release mechanism, although it didn't work. After some fiddling it seems to have just been missing some preload on the spring that keeps the mechanism engaged, with one turn added to the spring it works great. It's missing a chunk of the casting below the rear jaw, but it appears to have been that way for a while so I'm going to assume it probably won't fail during the sort of work I do.
Still, I'm doing better than my brother, who seems to be going for some sort of low mileage record on the Westfield he built back in 2005...
I bought a cheap hydraulic press so that I can tackle the rear wheel bearing/extended studs project...
It took quite a bit of effort as it's not something I'll use frequently enough to dedicate garage floor space to, so I've assembled it in the loft space above my garage. That meant clearing out seven years of accumulated rubbish to make some space up there. A couple of tip runs later and things are looking a lot tidier. I also found some trim pieces for a car I sold many years ago, they quickly sold for about the cost of the press, so that was a win!
Once I've tackled the stud project the press will be useful for refreshing the bushes in the rear suspension arms when I fit the new subframe I picked up a while ago.
I also used the Mazda to collect a vice I spotted for sale...
There was no real information apart from a blurry photo, but it was only £30 and local so it seemed worth investigating. It transpired that it had been listed on behalf of an elderly farmer who was retiring and selling up. The Mazda turned out to be a poor choice of collection vehicle as it was too low to get down his farm track, I abandoned it near the road and then had to carry 50kg of vice a lot further than planned.
It's massive, a lot bigger than the single photo suggested. It turns out it's a Woden that appears to date from the early 50s. It has a quick-release mechanism, although it didn't work. After some fiddling it seems to have just been missing some preload on the spring that keeps the mechanism engaged, with one turn added to the spring it works great. It's missing a chunk of the casting below the rear jaw, but it appears to have been that way for a while so I'm going to assume it probably won't fail during the sort of work I do.
It's the time of year when all the bills arrive for the MX5. This made me realise that despite doing 3k miles a year for the last few years I'm still insuring it for 10k, complete with business use.
So, time for the Mazda to earn its keep for the first time in a while and do some mileage on expenses to an airport.
This seemed like a great idea at the time, we were in the middle of a heatwave with no rain since the start of the previous month. I had a nice cooling drive up to Birmingham on a Sunday evening and deposited the car in the long-stay car park, not expecting to see it for almost a week.
I disappeared into the windowless depths of the airport for a couple of hours of security and overpriced food. When I made my way to the gate I was a little surprised to see that we were now in the middle of a thunderstorm, and there didn't appear to be a plane waiting for me.
The flight was cancelled. I've never had the pleasure of having a flight cancelled whilst being airside, and from the disorganised way things proceeded from there you'd think this was the first time Birmingham airport had experienced a cancellation too. I eventually found myself reunited with my luggage and back where I started in the long-stay car park.
Whilst waiting around to be allowed to leave I managed to book a replacement flight with a different airline for the next day. I should have found a hotel for the night, but I have family about 40mins from BHX so it seemed like a better option to call in on them. I had however overlooked that the car was wearing not particularly fresh R888R semi-slick tyres, and underestimated just how much standing water I'd encounter on the M6. The water by itself wouldn't have been so bad, but the expansion joints around spaghetti junction are like craters and seemed intent on unsettling the car. It certainly woke me up at 11pm!
All was well in the end, and my replacement flight the following day left without any issues, as did the return trip. The car wasn't stolen despite being left in an open car park in Brum for a week, so all-in-all I'd call the trip a success.
So, time for the Mazda to earn its keep for the first time in a while and do some mileage on expenses to an airport.
This seemed like a great idea at the time, we were in the middle of a heatwave with no rain since the start of the previous month. I had a nice cooling drive up to Birmingham on a Sunday evening and deposited the car in the long-stay car park, not expecting to see it for almost a week.
I disappeared into the windowless depths of the airport for a couple of hours of security and overpriced food. When I made my way to the gate I was a little surprised to see that we were now in the middle of a thunderstorm, and there didn't appear to be a plane waiting for me.
The flight was cancelled. I've never had the pleasure of having a flight cancelled whilst being airside, and from the disorganised way things proceeded from there you'd think this was the first time Birmingham airport had experienced a cancellation too. I eventually found myself reunited with my luggage and back where I started in the long-stay car park.
Whilst waiting around to be allowed to leave I managed to book a replacement flight with a different airline for the next day. I should have found a hotel for the night, but I have family about 40mins from BHX so it seemed like a better option to call in on them. I had however overlooked that the car was wearing not particularly fresh R888R semi-slick tyres, and underestimated just how much standing water I'd encounter on the M6. The water by itself wouldn't have been so bad, but the expansion joints around spaghetti junction are like craters and seemed intent on unsettling the car. It certainly woke me up at 11pm!
All was well in the end, and my replacement flight the following day left without any issues, as did the return trip. The car wasn't stolen despite being left in an open car park in Brum for a week, so all-in-all I'd call the trip a success.
Anyone that reads the other NC thread might have spotted that Geraint has been busy making some nice covers for where his rollbar passes into the interior trim - https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
I made my own a few years ago out of vinyl, but they hadn't aged well in the heat of a car cabin and were now looking a bit sorry for themselves...
Geraint was kind enough to share his design. I printed them out using PETG, which shouldn't soften until around 85c, time will tell how well they age inside a car.
Geraint covered his with Alcantara, I decided to try and paint mine. I started with an etch primer to hopefully encourage the paint to remain on the PETG.
I then moved onto a high-build primer, flexible body filler and lots of sanding...
Followed by a matte black base coat and a semi-matte lacquer. I deliberately put the lacquer on quite coarse to hide any remaining imperfections.
I've attached them with hot glue for now, I'll see how well that adheres and might try 3M VHB tape if it doesn't.
Definitely an improvement!
I made my own a few years ago out of vinyl, but they hadn't aged well in the heat of a car cabin and were now looking a bit sorry for themselves...
Geraint was kind enough to share his design. I printed them out using PETG, which shouldn't soften until around 85c, time will tell how well they age inside a car.
Geraint covered his with Alcantara, I decided to try and paint mine. I started with an etch primer to hopefully encourage the paint to remain on the PETG.
I then moved onto a high-build primer, flexible body filler and lots of sanding...
Followed by a matte black base coat and a semi-matte lacquer. I deliberately put the lacquer on quite coarse to hide any remaining imperfections.
I've attached them with hot glue for now, I'll see how well that adheres and might try 3M VHB tape if it doesn't.
Definitely an improvement!
No major updates, but the car is still alive and well. I used it quite a bit up until a couple of weeks ago, often getting caught in the rain - as seems to be a theme this summer.
A couple of projects then coincided and meant that I needed to evict it from my garage for a little while. Our corner of a village finally got a decent internet connection, but running the fibre to where I wanted it meant lifting the floor in the loft above our garage, which in turn meant moving most of the contents of said loft down into the garage. We also bought an EV, and the cable run for the wall charger followed a similar route. This also meant I briefly had four cars and not quite enough room to store them, so the Mazda went to live in someone else's garage for a couple of weeks...
One car sold and a day of garage tidying later I was able to bring it home. I gave it the first clean it's had for a long time ahead of it being on display at the PH25 event at Bicester this weekend. The bucket seat and harness also got refitted. Don't expect much from my cleaning efforts, I'm a one-bucket-and-a-grubby-wash-mitt sort of guy, I assure you it looks better in photos than in the flesh.
A couple of projects then coincided and meant that I needed to evict it from my garage for a little while. Our corner of a village finally got a decent internet connection, but running the fibre to where I wanted it meant lifting the floor in the loft above our garage, which in turn meant moving most of the contents of said loft down into the garage. We also bought an EV, and the cable run for the wall charger followed a similar route. This also meant I briefly had four cars and not quite enough room to store them, so the Mazda went to live in someone else's garage for a couple of weeks...
One car sold and a day of garage tidying later I was able to bring it home. I gave it the first clean it's had for a long time ahead of it being on display at the PH25 event at Bicester this weekend. The bucket seat and harness also got refitted. Don't expect much from my cleaning efforts, I'm a one-bucket-and-a-grubby-wash-mitt sort of guy, I assure you it looks better in photos than in the flesh.
Kaveney said:
Still love this thing and it is looking very purposeful with the one bucket seat / one leather seat look .
I've come to quite like the mismatch - maybe when my kids don't need isofix I'll get a matching bucket.drgoatboy said:
What Ev did you go for?
Model 3. They're coming up for a refresh, and I suspect sales were slowing - as a result, there are some decent deals on ex-demo and inventory cars this month. It's replaced the MINI that I collected the welder from your house with, which had been very hassle-free to own for 7yrs but appeared to have some big bills coming.dapper said:
Looking good, those rollcage cover things came out a treat after the prep and paint.
I'm happy with them. The hot glue I used to fix them in place isn't holding up too well on hot days, I need to find something more permanent, but not so permanent that I can't get them apart if I ever need to strip the interior down.I had a blast at PH25 today. It was great to put some faces to usernames and cars. You're a lovely bunch! I think I ended up having the only MX5 on display, which is a little surprising given their ubiquity around these parts.
Seeing a 959 is a rare treat... Seeing a maroon one is even rarer... Seeing two within a few metres!?
I didn't realise until today that Chesil had bought the remains of Westfield from the administrators and production has restarted in Bicester. This is brilliant news. I helped my brother to build a Westfield back in 2005, it was the first car I ever drove on track and the car I used for my wedding day so I was more than a little glum to hear of their demise.
Seeing a 959 is a rare treat... Seeing a maroon one is even rarer... Seeing two within a few metres!?
I didn't realise until today that Chesil had bought the remains of Westfield from the administrators and production has restarted in Bicester. This is brilliant news. I helped my brother to build a Westfield back in 2005, it was the first car I ever drove on track and the car I used for my wedding day so I was more than a little glum to hear of their demise.
I've been chipping away at a small-but-big project recently. It's been a lot of work for a relatively trivial outcome, but it made sense to get it done for a number of reasons.
You might remember that I experimented with a 5mm shim spacer on the latest set of wheels I've purchased and concluded there wasn't enough thread engagement for me to be happy using them. In fact, there wasn't a huge amount of thread engagement without a spacer, so I went down a rabbit hole of researching extended wheel studs. The rear studs aren't a trivial swap. Unless you're happy to grind away part of the dust shield and part of the head of the new stud, then the entire hub assembly must be removed and pressed apart, destroying the wheel bearing in the process.
This might seem like a lot of effort when wheels can be purchased in a myriad of offsets, but it made sense in my head:
I ignored this for a few hours and tried to beat and press it out, before reaching for the drill bits.
Here's the offending fastener...
It's a grade 10 bolt, and I wasn't particularly well set up for drilling it out with a set of regular HSS bits. Despite my best efforts to keep things central I ended up damaging the hub carrier. I cursed myself and ordered a replacement rear hub assembly from a breaker, thankfully for not a lot of money.
There's a good video on YouTube detailing the process of swapping the rear bearings on the NC. Amusingly, being a Californian video they suggest that this bolt should be tapped out "with a small plastic hammer"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88inyRpBa0o
The next issue came in the form of a captive nut (in a most unusual retaining bracket) no longer wanting to be captive. It was just spinning in the bracket, and there wasn't really enough nut exposed to get a good hold with a spanner. Also, look at the state of that bushing...
I reinstated its captivity with a blob of weld.
The axle nuts are torqued to 275Nm and then chiselled into a slot in the driveshaft. I couldn't move them with my biggest breaker bar or any of my electric impact guns, but my old-faithful air impact did the job. Don't judge my lack of a 32mm impact socket, that's now been resolved...
I couldn't get the driveshafts to part company with the hubs. Despite owning a compressor I've never bought a decent air hammer. I remembered someone suggesting that an SDS drill on chisel mode works well for stubborn axles. It did indeed work great!
The rest of the joints were relatively easy to pop. The NCs multi-link suspension is definitely plentiful with links.
With the hub assembly removed I climbed into my garage loft and pressed the hub out of the carrier.
This leaves part of the inner race of the bearing attached to the hub.
With a split-ring removed I then pressed out the rest of the bearing.
The Mazda workshop manual suggests that the inner race should be removed by chiselling it away from the hub a little and then using a bearing separator to hold the race whilst it's pressed off. I didn't have the right tools so I resorted to cutting a slit in the race and hitting it with a chisel until it cracked. This worked fine and only took a few minutes.
I then pressed all the existing studs out.
The rear of the hubs got treated to a wire wheel and some paint.
Mazda uses studs with a splined section that's 12.82mm. There's not a huge amount of choice when it comes to Mazda-spec extended studs, and I had quite a specific requirement in terms of length so that I can still use my OE 16" wheels and 20mm spacers if required. Ford uses the same thread size and pitch but with a slightly larger 13.1mm splined section. There's much more choice in the world of Ford extended studs so I decided to adapt my hubs to take the slightly larger stud splines. The difference of 0.28mm doesn't sound much, but it was enough to prevent the new studs from pressing in. A 13mm drill bit did the trick and left a nice clean hole for the new splines to bite into.
Here's one hole mid-drill, as you can see it's just a whisker...
The new studs pressed in nice and tight and straight. I don't think I'll have any issues with them coming loose.
The replacement hub assembly to fix my drilling mishap showed up from a breaker and got treated to a pressure wash. They'd mullered the hub whilst beating the axle out so I just used the aluminium hub carrier.
I took a trip to the dealers to collect some parts. I like these 30th anniversary spec NDs a lot...
New pinch bolts, bushes for the hubs and dust shields...
I went with FAG bearings, I usually seem to do ok with FAG or SKF.
The perished hub bushes pressed out quite easily using an old wheel stud.
Mazda sells replacement bushes for about £10. I'm always keen on a new OE rubber bush over poly where possible. Sadly, the hubs are the only part that OE replacement bushes exist for at the rear. All of the arms are sold as complete parts for £100-140 each, which gets a bit spendy when there are ten arms in total.
New bearing and snap-ring installed...
I initially planned to delete the dust/heat shields as that seems to be the done thing on track cars. But looking at how close the many ball joints and associated rubber boots sit to the disc I figured some form of heatshield wouldn't hurt. If nothing else they were worth it for the visual enjoyment of installing something new and shiny. These are apparently no longer in production, so if it bothers you then swap them whilst you can still get them.
I didn't have anything the right size to press them on, so I 3D printed an installation tool. I should have made it 5mm taller, but it got them most of the way there and I managed to finish them off using a mallet to tap around the installation tool.
The hub could then be pressed into the new bearing, making sure to support the other face of the bearing from below. 90% of the time spent using a hydraulic press seems to be spent on finding things the right size to support or press.
I hadn't paid too much attention to the condition of the suspension arms when I removed the hub assembly. Refurbishing the arms is a job that I'd told myself could wait until I do the subframe swap.
I had a slight change of plan when I went to refit the hub and noticed just how decrepit one of the upper links was...
With a trip to Germany looming I couldn't bolt the car back together like that. But at this point, I had a little over a week, and only limited windows for spannering until I wanted to use the car again for an unrelated airport run.
I paid a little over the odds and ordered some SuperPro bushes from the one place I knew always delivered fast - MX5 Parts. Sure enough, they turned up the next morning.
Crusty! The crush tube in the middle was loose and pushed out by hand.
I've done my time burning and cutting out bushes in the past. Having the press makes this sort of work so much quicker/easier/more enjoyable. I'm looking forward to doing the rest of the arms in the future.
Without doing any research I tried to press the SuperPro bushes in by lining them up nice and straight. Every time I tried the bush would slip over to the side and the whole thing would ping apart. I should have read the manual sooner, turns out they're meant to be installed at an angle using a bolt to keep things together.
They're a great fit once they're in...
On the other side, I bought some carbide-tipped drill bits. They made the bolt removal a lot easier. No damage this time. They're certainly tough bolts, even with carbide it was about 30mins of drilling.
I repeated the process for the other hub...
As well as chipping the rust flakes off and wire-wheeling the arm I also went over this side with a file. It came out a little smoother than the other side. I sprayed both with my favourite 'direct to rust' paint. I'll be curious to see how well these hold up as research for when I do the rest of the arms - this was just above the bare-minimum in terms of prep, paint and effort/time.
Despite all the arms, this was probably one of the easiest hub assemblies I've put back together. None of the arms are under much tension so it didn't put up much of a fight.
I ran into a slight issue with the rear discs. I'd mocked up the new studs using a spare front hub and disc and had taken measurements on the rear to validate that everything would be the same length. I'd overlooked that the front discs had larger holes for the studs to pass through. The rears were exactly 12mm, so I had to drill them out to 14mm to fit over the shoulders of the new studs. It's no big deal and didn't take long, but it's something I'll have to remember to repeat when I replace the discs in the future.
The pesky bolts were replaced, I installed them with plenty of copper grease this time so they shouldn't hopefully come apart easily in the future.
Here are the front wheel nuts, this is without any spacer fitted...
Here is the rear, this is with a 5mm spacer fitted, much better...
Annoyingly, my mistake whilst drilling out the right hub has cost me a bit more than expected. I couldn't find any salvage hubs without chopped ABS sensors (which is a shame, as they're not particularly difficult to unclip in the boot). I couldn't reuse my original sensor as they also like to weld themselves into the hub, so I chopped and soldered the two parts together.
This hasn't worked, and the car is reporting a circuit failure on that corner. My solder joints were good, so I can assume that they've either interfered with the resistance enough for the car to throw an error, or the sensor in the salvage hub was faulty.
Unlike the front there are no aftermarket options for rear sensors on this car, and nowhere seems to have stock of genuine sensors online. My only option seems to be a new sensor from the dealership for £93 - ouch. Thankfully the dealer didn't seem to have any issues with sourcing one, I'm collecting it tomorrow.
I'll replace the front studs soon, they should hopefully be a lot easier.
You might remember that I experimented with a 5mm shim spacer on the latest set of wheels I've purchased and concluded there wasn't enough thread engagement for me to be happy using them. In fact, there wasn't a huge amount of thread engagement without a spacer, so I went down a rabbit hole of researching extended wheel studs. The rear studs aren't a trivial swap. Unless you're happy to grind away part of the dust shield and part of the head of the new stud, then the entire hub assembly must be removed and pressed apart, destroying the wheel bearing in the process.
This might seem like a lot of effort when wheels can be purchased in a myriad of offsets, but it made sense in my head:
- The rear studs are original, with the number of times I've changed wheels and plenty of track days behind it arguably seemed sensible to refresh them.
- Increasing the thread engagement on a car that primarily does track days doesn't seem like a bad idea, it seems to be common practice to pass inspection at a lot of US circuit events.
- Longer studs will also make swapping wheels a little easier as the wheel can easily be hung from them.
- The rear wheel bearings are also original, one of the fronts has failed already, so again a refresh wouldn't hurt.
- I want to fit the new rear subframe I picked up a while ago in the near future, possibly this winter. I knew that after 17yrs without being touched the rear of this car would be difficult to take apart the first time, so time spent now will make that job a little less daunting when I get to it.
- This project was a great excuse to buy a cheap hydraulic press. I'd been looking forward to using it.
I ignored this for a few hours and tried to beat and press it out, before reaching for the drill bits.
Here's the offending fastener...
It's a grade 10 bolt, and I wasn't particularly well set up for drilling it out with a set of regular HSS bits. Despite my best efforts to keep things central I ended up damaging the hub carrier. I cursed myself and ordered a replacement rear hub assembly from a breaker, thankfully for not a lot of money.
There's a good video on YouTube detailing the process of swapping the rear bearings on the NC. Amusingly, being a Californian video they suggest that this bolt should be tapped out "with a small plastic hammer"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88inyRpBa0o
The next issue came in the form of a captive nut (in a most unusual retaining bracket) no longer wanting to be captive. It was just spinning in the bracket, and there wasn't really enough nut exposed to get a good hold with a spanner. Also, look at the state of that bushing...
I reinstated its captivity with a blob of weld.
The axle nuts are torqued to 275Nm and then chiselled into a slot in the driveshaft. I couldn't move them with my biggest breaker bar or any of my electric impact guns, but my old-faithful air impact did the job. Don't judge my lack of a 32mm impact socket, that's now been resolved...
I couldn't get the driveshafts to part company with the hubs. Despite owning a compressor I've never bought a decent air hammer. I remembered someone suggesting that an SDS drill on chisel mode works well for stubborn axles. It did indeed work great!
The rest of the joints were relatively easy to pop. The NCs multi-link suspension is definitely plentiful with links.
With the hub assembly removed I climbed into my garage loft and pressed the hub out of the carrier.
This leaves part of the inner race of the bearing attached to the hub.
With a split-ring removed I then pressed out the rest of the bearing.
The Mazda workshop manual suggests that the inner race should be removed by chiselling it away from the hub a little and then using a bearing separator to hold the race whilst it's pressed off. I didn't have the right tools so I resorted to cutting a slit in the race and hitting it with a chisel until it cracked. This worked fine and only took a few minutes.
I then pressed all the existing studs out.
The rear of the hubs got treated to a wire wheel and some paint.
Mazda uses studs with a splined section that's 12.82mm. There's not a huge amount of choice when it comes to Mazda-spec extended studs, and I had quite a specific requirement in terms of length so that I can still use my OE 16" wheels and 20mm spacers if required. Ford uses the same thread size and pitch but with a slightly larger 13.1mm splined section. There's much more choice in the world of Ford extended studs so I decided to adapt my hubs to take the slightly larger stud splines. The difference of 0.28mm doesn't sound much, but it was enough to prevent the new studs from pressing in. A 13mm drill bit did the trick and left a nice clean hole for the new splines to bite into.
Here's one hole mid-drill, as you can see it's just a whisker...
The new studs pressed in nice and tight and straight. I don't think I'll have any issues with them coming loose.
The replacement hub assembly to fix my drilling mishap showed up from a breaker and got treated to a pressure wash. They'd mullered the hub whilst beating the axle out so I just used the aluminium hub carrier.
I took a trip to the dealers to collect some parts. I like these 30th anniversary spec NDs a lot...
New pinch bolts, bushes for the hubs and dust shields...
I went with FAG bearings, I usually seem to do ok with FAG or SKF.
The perished hub bushes pressed out quite easily using an old wheel stud.
Mazda sells replacement bushes for about £10. I'm always keen on a new OE rubber bush over poly where possible. Sadly, the hubs are the only part that OE replacement bushes exist for at the rear. All of the arms are sold as complete parts for £100-140 each, which gets a bit spendy when there are ten arms in total.
New bearing and snap-ring installed...
I initially planned to delete the dust/heat shields as that seems to be the done thing on track cars. But looking at how close the many ball joints and associated rubber boots sit to the disc I figured some form of heatshield wouldn't hurt. If nothing else they were worth it for the visual enjoyment of installing something new and shiny. These are apparently no longer in production, so if it bothers you then swap them whilst you can still get them.
I didn't have anything the right size to press them on, so I 3D printed an installation tool. I should have made it 5mm taller, but it got them most of the way there and I managed to finish them off using a mallet to tap around the installation tool.
The hub could then be pressed into the new bearing, making sure to support the other face of the bearing from below. 90% of the time spent using a hydraulic press seems to be spent on finding things the right size to support or press.
I hadn't paid too much attention to the condition of the suspension arms when I removed the hub assembly. Refurbishing the arms is a job that I'd told myself could wait until I do the subframe swap.
I had a slight change of plan when I went to refit the hub and noticed just how decrepit one of the upper links was...
With a trip to Germany looming I couldn't bolt the car back together like that. But at this point, I had a little over a week, and only limited windows for spannering until I wanted to use the car again for an unrelated airport run.
I paid a little over the odds and ordered some SuperPro bushes from the one place I knew always delivered fast - MX5 Parts. Sure enough, they turned up the next morning.
Crusty! The crush tube in the middle was loose and pushed out by hand.
I've done my time burning and cutting out bushes in the past. Having the press makes this sort of work so much quicker/easier/more enjoyable. I'm looking forward to doing the rest of the arms in the future.
Without doing any research I tried to press the SuperPro bushes in by lining them up nice and straight. Every time I tried the bush would slip over to the side and the whole thing would ping apart. I should have read the manual sooner, turns out they're meant to be installed at an angle using a bolt to keep things together.
They're a great fit once they're in...
On the other side, I bought some carbide-tipped drill bits. They made the bolt removal a lot easier. No damage this time. They're certainly tough bolts, even with carbide it was about 30mins of drilling.
I repeated the process for the other hub...
As well as chipping the rust flakes off and wire-wheeling the arm I also went over this side with a file. It came out a little smoother than the other side. I sprayed both with my favourite 'direct to rust' paint. I'll be curious to see how well these hold up as research for when I do the rest of the arms - this was just above the bare-minimum in terms of prep, paint and effort/time.
Despite all the arms, this was probably one of the easiest hub assemblies I've put back together. None of the arms are under much tension so it didn't put up much of a fight.
I ran into a slight issue with the rear discs. I'd mocked up the new studs using a spare front hub and disc and had taken measurements on the rear to validate that everything would be the same length. I'd overlooked that the front discs had larger holes for the studs to pass through. The rears were exactly 12mm, so I had to drill them out to 14mm to fit over the shoulders of the new studs. It's no big deal and didn't take long, but it's something I'll have to remember to repeat when I replace the discs in the future.
The pesky bolts were replaced, I installed them with plenty of copper grease this time so they shouldn't hopefully come apart easily in the future.
Here are the front wheel nuts, this is without any spacer fitted...
Here is the rear, this is with a 5mm spacer fitted, much better...
Annoyingly, my mistake whilst drilling out the right hub has cost me a bit more than expected. I couldn't find any salvage hubs without chopped ABS sensors (which is a shame, as they're not particularly difficult to unclip in the boot). I couldn't reuse my original sensor as they also like to weld themselves into the hub, so I chopped and soldered the two parts together.
This hasn't worked, and the car is reporting a circuit failure on that corner. My solder joints were good, so I can assume that they've either interfered with the resistance enough for the car to throw an error, or the sensor in the salvage hub was faulty.
Unlike the front there are no aftermarket options for rear sensors on this car, and nowhere seems to have stock of genuine sensors online. My only option seems to be a new sensor from the dealership for £93 - ouch. Thankfully the dealer didn't seem to have any issues with sourcing one, I'm collecting it tomorrow.
I'll replace the front studs soon, they should hopefully be a lot easier.
Jonny1984 said:
I do eventually want a hard top for mine, but I didn't realise how rare they are!
dapper said:
Same! I tried to look on ebay but all the seems to come up is the hardtop for NA/NB models.
When I first purchased the car Mazda had stopped production of the hardtops, but there was still some stock within the dealership network and MX5Parts had a stockpile of them. That's dried up over the years. I do see them for sale in Facebook groups every so often. Usually for £800-1000ish, which seems quite a lot when you can buy an entire car to put underneath it for not a lot more.If you use the car through the winter and have somewhere to store the surprisingly bulky roof through the summer I can sort of see the appeal. I guess they've traditionally held their value well so you'd get that money back when you sold the car.
I'll probably fit mine before I drive to Germany next month.
Kev_Mk3 said:
Great work. I've just had all this with a Clio we bought. Went to do all the brakes on the rear and its fought us on every level. Currently rear beams off and getting blasted / coated to fit new bushes then build it up. Thankfully that wont be out till next year but my swift I've not even checked the oil for the trip as I wont have time to do anything as i was going to fit my 6th point for the harness and wheel studs etc. I can do that later in the year as its off to SW Motorsport in 2 weeks to scan for foot plates in the car.
Should be good to see this at the ring!
It's never simple, is it?! Are you taking the Swift to the Ring? When do you arrive? We travel over on the Tuesday, so have a few days of hanging out before the TD - looks like there's no TF that week.Should be good to see this at the ring!
I took another trip to the Mazda dealership to collect the replacement ABS sensor. Sourcing OE parts is a bit of a pain for this car, the nearest dealer is a 45-mile roundtrip from my house and there are limited online options. I didn't mind too much on this occasion as it gave me a good opportunity to check that everything still worked. ABS error aside everything seems good, the rear suspension is nice and quiet and tight.
I also ordered a replacement dust cover for one of the arms. I noticed a split and replaced it with an aftermarket boot I had in stock, but it wasn't a great fit.
The new sensor has a little sealing gasket where the sensor passes from the wheel arch into the boot. These were missing, presumably perished on both my originals. Wet boots seem quite common on these cars, often from the rear lights leaking. I suspect this is another source of water ingress into the boot for some owners.
Access to the sensor is nice and easy with a wheel removed. But I would abandon any hope of removing it intact unless you have a particularly low-mileage car.
I had the luxury of having a trial run at this job on the old hub on my bench. The easiest option seemed to be snapping the outer casing with a pair of mole grips, this pulls the innards out intact.
The remaining metal casing then drills out quite easily using a 10mm drill bit.
The hole in the hub is staggered in size, the top portion is 12mm to accommodate the larger plastic retaining shoulder on the sensor. A 12mm drill bit spun in reverse cleaned all the alu-oxide out to allow the new sensor to slide it easily. I put a little silicone grease on the new sensor to hopefully make removal possible, if I ever need to.
I had a quick attempt at clearing the code using an OBD phone app, it's inactive but wouldn't clear. From memory when I was messing about with the front hubs and sensors it should clear after the car has been driven.
I also ordered a replacement dust cover for one of the arms. I noticed a split and replaced it with an aftermarket boot I had in stock, but it wasn't a great fit.
The new sensor has a little sealing gasket where the sensor passes from the wheel arch into the boot. These were missing, presumably perished on both my originals. Wet boots seem quite common on these cars, often from the rear lights leaking. I suspect this is another source of water ingress into the boot for some owners.
Access to the sensor is nice and easy with a wheel removed. But I would abandon any hope of removing it intact unless you have a particularly low-mileage car.
I had the luxury of having a trial run at this job on the old hub on my bench. The easiest option seemed to be snapping the outer casing with a pair of mole grips, this pulls the innards out intact.
The remaining metal casing then drills out quite easily using a 10mm drill bit.
The hole in the hub is staggered in size, the top portion is 12mm to accommodate the larger plastic retaining shoulder on the sensor. A 12mm drill bit spun in reverse cleaned all the alu-oxide out to allow the new sensor to slide it easily. I put a little silicone grease on the new sensor to hopefully make removal possible, if I ever need to.
I had a quick attempt at clearing the code using an OBD phone app, it's inactive but wouldn't clear. From memory when I was messing about with the front hubs and sensors it should clear after the car has been driven.
Cambs_Stuart said:
Really good work.
And these posts have now got me looking for a press which I don't have space for...
They're big things for the occasional use they get. It made this project a lot easier though, and I'm now thinking about all the other bushes I can tackle...And these posts have now got me looking for a press which I don't have space for...
DaveK-S1 said:
I'm in the process of doing similar , but i bought a complete rear subframe assembly so i can build up and simply swap one for the other once its done.
they are so simple to work on, its quite satisfying to do these jobs , took me a week of lunchtimes to press all the old bushes out of the 10 arms though, luckily we have a big 20 tone press at work to use, but some of the bushes needed quite bit of pressure to remove
It is satisfying, I'm quite looking forward to doing the rest now. What are you planning to use as a paint finish? I might look into epoxy primer and something like Gravitex.they are so simple to work on, its quite satisfying to do these jobs , took me a week of lunchtimes to press all the old bushes out of the 10 arms though, luckily we have a big 20 tone press at work to use, but some of the bushes needed quite bit of pressure to remove
I did the school run in the NC this morning. Sure enough, the ABS light disappeared not long into the journey.
The dash is now pleasantly error-free...
Here's the boot on one of the arms that I replaced with an aftermarket part. It wasn't a great fit so I ordered the correct replacement.
The genuine boots have an integrated metal retaining ring. It was a super tight fit and I couldn't get it into position by hand. I ended up using a tool I bought recently for popping exhaust hangers apart, it was just the right size to slide over the top of the boot and apply a nice even force downwards.
I gave it a quick wash and refitted the hardtop. I'm doing a motorway run to the airport in it this weekend, as it's the one car I know definitely won't be missed by my wife whilst I'm away.
The dash is now pleasantly error-free...
Here's the boot on one of the arms that I replaced with an aftermarket part. It wasn't a great fit so I ordered the correct replacement.
The genuine boots have an integrated metal retaining ring. It was a super tight fit and I couldn't get it into position by hand. I ended up using a tool I bought recently for popping exhaust hangers apart, it was just the right size to slide over the top of the boot and apply a nice even force downwards.
I gave it a quick wash and refitted the hardtop. I'm doing a motorway run to the airport in it this weekend, as it's the one car I know definitely won't be missed by my wife whilst I'm away.
Thanks!
There’s obviously drivers who can pedal a Clio quite sedately and remarkably quickly. But generally, I’d say that before the decat manifold and remap an NC is slower than most Clio RS owners, afterwards it’s a more even match.
There’s been a few trackdays where I’ve ‘hung out’ with 197 owners on track for extended periods of time. They have a similar turn of speed in a straight line. The differences between drivetrain and suspension then become more apparent with different corners favouring each car.
There’s obviously drivers who can pedal a Clio quite sedately and remarkably quickly. But generally, I’d say that before the decat manifold and remap an NC is slower than most Clio RS owners, afterwards it’s a more even match.
There’s been a few trackdays where I’ve ‘hung out’ with 197 owners on track for extended periods of time. They have a similar turn of speed in a straight line. The differences between drivetrain and suspension then become more apparent with different corners favouring each car.
Kaveney said:
So you are all set now for the Ring yeah .
Is it the same old crew going ie Alex and co ?
I need to go back as it was 2019 the last time i was there but i bet you will have great fun and looking forward to the update on the trip .
I’ve got a week between returning from one trip and going away again. I’m hoping to get a few more changes made then. Is it the same old crew going ie Alex and co ?
I need to go back as it was 2019 the last time i was there but i bet you will have great fun and looking forward to the update on the trip .
No Roshan in the 350z/GT86 this year, I’m travelling over with Alex (Fiesta) and Charlie (Megane) and meeting the usual group of Germans once we’re there.
I started another Mazda adventure this weekend. It began with a trip down to Polesden Lacey in Dorking on Saturday. My wife was going to visit her family down south so I accompanied her in a separate car to kill some time before an evening flight.
That afternoon I made my way back around the M25 and abandoned the car at Heathrow, whilst being mildly amused that it's ULEZ compliant.
I landed in the US for a work trip. Hertz did a great bait-and-switch on me at Los Angeles airport. I'd booked a Polestar 2 for the week, that car specifically, not a category. They'd spent the preceding weeks spamming me with emails and videos about its features and how great it would be. Upon arrival at the Hertz desk I was informed there were no Polestars available and it was a Chevy Bolt or nothing. I whinged for a while but a substitution to something big and petrol-powered wasn't forthcoming. It was gone midnight at this point and I had a long drive to do so I accepted my Chevy-shaped fate and got on the road to San Diego.
The Bolt is a perfectly good EV, the range is great even at speed. It's a little hindered by a fairly low max of 50kW DC fast charging but I could forgive that as they're sold here for next to nothing after incentives are deducted. However, equivalent to a Polestar it is not.
I'd flown to California a little earlier than I needed to as it's a long way to go for a few days work. It's not a bad part of the world to be sent to...
I couldn't resist stopping at a Harbour Freight, it made Machine Mart look a bit tame.
I don't have much baggage room to play with for reasons that will become clear later, so I restrained myself and only picked up some 1/4" sockets and a ratchet.
American public EV charging is... interesting. My sample size is very small but they seem to install relatively small numbers of chargers in each location and a lot of the EVgo network seems to be down. Those that are working often have broken card readers, you can pay through an app but it's not available in the UK iTunes store. Luckily, I've found that the 3rd-party Plugshare app can also be used to pay and activate a charge. Demand also seems very high in California, so expect a wait or to find yourself charging at obscure times. There's a lot of negativity around UK charging infrastructure, but I feel like we're a good few years ahead of the US.
Anyone who's been around NCs for a while has probably heard of GoodWin Racing - https://www.good-win-racing.com. Conveniently, it turns out they're only about 15 minutes south of my employer's office. After exchanging a few emails before my trip I formed a plan that culminated in me paying them a visit today.
There was a box waiting for me in reception. More on that later.
They were kind enough to give me a tour of their workshop. There are some interesting supercharged and turbo cars, all built to compete. GoodWin is a business built out of Brian Goodwin's passion for racing MX5s.
Greg, who looks after customer service and 'other odd stuff' (I guess I fall into that category) spent a ton of time chatting about their projects, the business, and his time around MX5s and competing. It was very different to when I last visited the UK's best-known MX5 tuner and the owner wouldn't let me into their waiting area for a while as he was too busy.
Greg has a turbo NB that he's owned for 11 years. During that time his wife claims that he's progressively ruined it, a phrase that sounds oddly familiar.
GoodWin don't provide workshop services to the public, but within the same complex is Rocky's Miatomotive. Rocky seems to have reached legendary status for his spannering ability, with American's bringing cars to him from all over the country.
There was quite the collection dotted around Rocky's car park...
As for what I was collecting... I'd placed an order with GoodWin for some new springs...
The next logical question would be why I've gone to all this trouble for a set of springs?
I currently have 30mm lowering springs from Vogtland paired with Koni Yellow shocks. I originally fitted the 30mm springs to the OE shocks and was happy enough with the result in terms of ride height, but when I moved to the Koni dampers they've lowered the car a further 10mm. The resultant 40mm drop has always seemed a bit excessive. I think the rear springs have also sagged a little as the rear now sits slightly lower than the front and it's always felt a little too softly sprung at the back. They're also starting to rust, which is a little surprising given that the car is garaged and rarely used in the winter. A lot of the roads near me have an interesting surface thanks to farm machinery and I find myself driving along wincing expecting every compression that's combined with a sunken road surface to lead to an impact underneath.
Most EU manufacturers seem to only produce a 30 or 40mm lowering spring for the NC. I've bought a set of Progress Springs which according to the great description on the GoodWin should give me a 25-30mm drop with Koni dampers...
https://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda-Performance-...
I think the spring rate should also be increased slightly, although I can't find any data for the existing springs. I'll have to measure them once removed. They're also linear rather than progressive springs, which should be a better fit for my usage.
I've also picked up a set of GoodWin's sport bump stops for lowered cars...
https://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda-Performance-...
I remember my bump stops not being in great condition when I last had the shocks apart, quite why I didn't change them at the time I don't know. According to the GoodWin site the NC is designed to corner on the bump stops, so it'll be interesting to see what sort of impact this has on the handling.
GoodWin sells both of these products as a package combined with the Koni Shocks...
https://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda-Performance-...
Racing Beat Europe do import these springs for sale in the UK. However, they're over £450 delivered. That money would cover a good chunk of a new set of adjustable coilovers. In the US these springs are a little over $200, for that price they seem worth a try, I'm happy with every other aspect of the Konis.
It was a good adventure if nothing else, and Greg kindly sent me away with some stickers and a mug. I've promised him a photo of a GoodWin sticker on my car at the Nurburgring in return.
Now I just need to get them home, and hope that the TSA don't cause me too much bother...
That afternoon I made my way back around the M25 and abandoned the car at Heathrow, whilst being mildly amused that it's ULEZ compliant.
I landed in the US for a work trip. Hertz did a great bait-and-switch on me at Los Angeles airport. I'd booked a Polestar 2 for the week, that car specifically, not a category. They'd spent the preceding weeks spamming me with emails and videos about its features and how great it would be. Upon arrival at the Hertz desk I was informed there were no Polestars available and it was a Chevy Bolt or nothing. I whinged for a while but a substitution to something big and petrol-powered wasn't forthcoming. It was gone midnight at this point and I had a long drive to do so I accepted my Chevy-shaped fate and got on the road to San Diego.
The Bolt is a perfectly good EV, the range is great even at speed. It's a little hindered by a fairly low max of 50kW DC fast charging but I could forgive that as they're sold here for next to nothing after incentives are deducted. However, equivalent to a Polestar it is not.
I'd flown to California a little earlier than I needed to as it's a long way to go for a few days work. It's not a bad part of the world to be sent to...
I couldn't resist stopping at a Harbour Freight, it made Machine Mart look a bit tame.
I don't have much baggage room to play with for reasons that will become clear later, so I restrained myself and only picked up some 1/4" sockets and a ratchet.
American public EV charging is... interesting. My sample size is very small but they seem to install relatively small numbers of chargers in each location and a lot of the EVgo network seems to be down. Those that are working often have broken card readers, you can pay through an app but it's not available in the UK iTunes store. Luckily, I've found that the 3rd-party Plugshare app can also be used to pay and activate a charge. Demand also seems very high in California, so expect a wait or to find yourself charging at obscure times. There's a lot of negativity around UK charging infrastructure, but I feel like we're a good few years ahead of the US.
Anyone who's been around NCs for a while has probably heard of GoodWin Racing - https://www.good-win-racing.com. Conveniently, it turns out they're only about 15 minutes south of my employer's office. After exchanging a few emails before my trip I formed a plan that culminated in me paying them a visit today.
There was a box waiting for me in reception. More on that later.
They were kind enough to give me a tour of their workshop. There are some interesting supercharged and turbo cars, all built to compete. GoodWin is a business built out of Brian Goodwin's passion for racing MX5s.
Greg, who looks after customer service and 'other odd stuff' (I guess I fall into that category) spent a ton of time chatting about their projects, the business, and his time around MX5s and competing. It was very different to when I last visited the UK's best-known MX5 tuner and the owner wouldn't let me into their waiting area for a while as he was too busy.
Greg has a turbo NB that he's owned for 11 years. During that time his wife claims that he's progressively ruined it, a phrase that sounds oddly familiar.
GoodWin don't provide workshop services to the public, but within the same complex is Rocky's Miatomotive. Rocky seems to have reached legendary status for his spannering ability, with American's bringing cars to him from all over the country.
There was quite the collection dotted around Rocky's car park...
As for what I was collecting... I'd placed an order with GoodWin for some new springs...
The next logical question would be why I've gone to all this trouble for a set of springs?
I currently have 30mm lowering springs from Vogtland paired with Koni Yellow shocks. I originally fitted the 30mm springs to the OE shocks and was happy enough with the result in terms of ride height, but when I moved to the Koni dampers they've lowered the car a further 10mm. The resultant 40mm drop has always seemed a bit excessive. I think the rear springs have also sagged a little as the rear now sits slightly lower than the front and it's always felt a little too softly sprung at the back. They're also starting to rust, which is a little surprising given that the car is garaged and rarely used in the winter. A lot of the roads near me have an interesting surface thanks to farm machinery and I find myself driving along wincing expecting every compression that's combined with a sunken road surface to lead to an impact underneath.
Most EU manufacturers seem to only produce a 30 or 40mm lowering spring for the NC. I've bought a set of Progress Springs which according to the great description on the GoodWin should give me a 25-30mm drop with Koni dampers...
https://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda-Performance-...
I think the spring rate should also be increased slightly, although I can't find any data for the existing springs. I'll have to measure them once removed. They're also linear rather than progressive springs, which should be a better fit for my usage.
I've also picked up a set of GoodWin's sport bump stops for lowered cars...
https://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda-Performance-...
I remember my bump stops not being in great condition when I last had the shocks apart, quite why I didn't change them at the time I don't know. According to the GoodWin site the NC is designed to corner on the bump stops, so it'll be interesting to see what sort of impact this has on the handling.
GoodWin sells both of these products as a package combined with the Koni Shocks...
https://www.good-win-racing.com/Mazda-Performance-...
Racing Beat Europe do import these springs for sale in the UK. However, they're over £450 delivered. That money would cover a good chunk of a new set of adjustable coilovers. In the US these springs are a little over $200, for that price they seem worth a try, I'm happy with every other aspect of the Konis.
It was a good adventure if nothing else, and Greg kindly sent me away with some stickers and a mug. I've promised him a photo of a GoodWin sticker on my car at the Nurburgring in return.
Now I just need to get them home, and hope that the TSA don't cause me too much bother...
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff