2006 MX-5 2.0 Option Pack
Discussion
I've had some fun with the bushings that were missing from my Amayama order. I ordered some Whiteline poly bushes from Driftworks as a replacement. Despite their website claiming to have stock one of the items was on backorder, due at the end of Jan. I dutifully waited for it to come into stock, which it did. In the meantime, they'd sold the other item in my order and that now had an 8-10 week lead time. 
In a grump, I reordered both items from different brands elsewhere. Third time lucky.
In the meantime, I started stripping down the front of the car to make it easier to extract the lower control arms.
The skinflint in me feels a bit annoyed to be wasting this much pad material...
After years of popping ball joints by clouting stuff nearby with hammers I've bought a kit of various sized pullers. It made this job easier.
I've obviously had most of these parts apart relatively recently so it took very little time to get it stripped down to this point. I think the additional access this provided was well worth the time spent.
There are a few videos of people having a bad time removing these control arms. They always seem to end up cutting them out. I knew the bolts on mine were seized in the bushings after the last failed alignment attempt. Recent experience with the bolts at the rear had also taught me that carbide is the only thing that will make decent progress so I stocked up on carbide-toothed reciprocating saw blades in various lengths and price-points.
I attempted to loosen the bolts by hand and sure enough, they seemed to have become one piece with the sleeves that run through the bushes. I could have spent some time heating and beating them, but I had replacements and no intention of reusing the old hardware so I quickly progressed to the reciprocating saw.
I started with one of the cheaper blades, a £16 Chinese brand called Ezarc in a longer 225mm length. This ended up being the only carbide blade I'd need. There's plenty of room to cut through the rear bolt...
Access around the front bush is more limited. There's a rubber washer on one side that can be sliced off, on the other side I used a small pointy wood blade to rip out most of the rubber bush, this provided enough clearance to get the taller carbide blade in.
After what must have only been 10-15mins of cutting the arm was out and I was left wondering what all the fuss with these bushes is about. It's amazing how having the right cutting tools can turn a miserable job into a breeze.
Good excuse to use the press again...
The press didn't want to move the front bush, but it was able to push out the rubber core so I could slice through the outer sleeve with a hacksaw. It chiselled out easily after that. This is the one bush where I have an OE rubber replacement...
Access to reinstall it using a press would be tricky, so I followed the workshop manual and used a vice. I knew there was a reason I bought this massive thing...
Whilst the struts were out I set about replacing the perishing dust boots and top mounts, these are original to the car...
Reassembled with new rubber, the top mount plates got treated to a wire wheel and coat of paint too.
A Powerflex bush kit arrived for the rear bush. It was a single-piece design but popped in easily on the press. Powerflex don't produce a bush for the lower shock mount and I didn't fancy paying over £100 for the Superpro version, so I'm waiting for a cheaper kit from Floflex to arrive.
Rinse and repeat on the other side. This gives a better idea of the access around the rear bush - loads of room once you've sneaked a blade in there.
Ta-dah! I tend to reach for a grinder with a slitting disc when I need to cut through metal, but a reciprocating saw is a much more pleasant experience. No sparks, no dust, just metal cuttings.
The nearside took a bit longer to cut out. Looking at the blade several teeth had chipped. But it made it through ok, and given that it had done eight cuts through some thick and hard material that doesn't seem too bad.
After some cleaning and pressing both sides are now at the same stage.
I have a growing pile of junk, I missed the discs/pads and top mounts from this pile. Replacing rusty perished junk with new shiny is always satisfying.
In a way, not having all the bits to finish this job in one sitting has made it more enjoyable. I've been nibbling away at it as and when work and family allow, and I've been able to take my time chipping away rust flakes and painting the subframe and other bits and pieces.
I have a tracking number for the missing bush so my latest order appears to have stuck. I've also decided to refresh the ARB bushes whilst access is easy - naturally the first order for these was cancelled due to lack of stock
In a grump, I reordered both items from different brands elsewhere. Third time lucky.
In the meantime, I started stripping down the front of the car to make it easier to extract the lower control arms.
The skinflint in me feels a bit annoyed to be wasting this much pad material...
After years of popping ball joints by clouting stuff nearby with hammers I've bought a kit of various sized pullers. It made this job easier.
I've obviously had most of these parts apart relatively recently so it took very little time to get it stripped down to this point. I think the additional access this provided was well worth the time spent.
There are a few videos of people having a bad time removing these control arms. They always seem to end up cutting them out. I knew the bolts on mine were seized in the bushings after the last failed alignment attempt. Recent experience with the bolts at the rear had also taught me that carbide is the only thing that will make decent progress so I stocked up on carbide-toothed reciprocating saw blades in various lengths and price-points.
I attempted to loosen the bolts by hand and sure enough, they seemed to have become one piece with the sleeves that run through the bushes. I could have spent some time heating and beating them, but I had replacements and no intention of reusing the old hardware so I quickly progressed to the reciprocating saw.
I started with one of the cheaper blades, a £16 Chinese brand called Ezarc in a longer 225mm length. This ended up being the only carbide blade I'd need. There's plenty of room to cut through the rear bolt...
Access around the front bush is more limited. There's a rubber washer on one side that can be sliced off, on the other side I used a small pointy wood blade to rip out most of the rubber bush, this provided enough clearance to get the taller carbide blade in.
After what must have only been 10-15mins of cutting the arm was out and I was left wondering what all the fuss with these bushes is about. It's amazing how having the right cutting tools can turn a miserable job into a breeze.
Good excuse to use the press again...
The press didn't want to move the front bush, but it was able to push out the rubber core so I could slice through the outer sleeve with a hacksaw. It chiselled out easily after that. This is the one bush where I have an OE rubber replacement...
Access to reinstall it using a press would be tricky, so I followed the workshop manual and used a vice. I knew there was a reason I bought this massive thing...
Whilst the struts were out I set about replacing the perishing dust boots and top mounts, these are original to the car...
Reassembled with new rubber, the top mount plates got treated to a wire wheel and coat of paint too.
A Powerflex bush kit arrived for the rear bush. It was a single-piece design but popped in easily on the press. Powerflex don't produce a bush for the lower shock mount and I didn't fancy paying over £100 for the Superpro version, so I'm waiting for a cheaper kit from Floflex to arrive.
Rinse and repeat on the other side. This gives a better idea of the access around the rear bush - loads of room once you've sneaked a blade in there.
Ta-dah! I tend to reach for a grinder with a slitting disc when I need to cut through metal, but a reciprocating saw is a much more pleasant experience. No sparks, no dust, just metal cuttings.
The nearside took a bit longer to cut out. Looking at the blade several teeth had chipped. But it made it through ok, and given that it had done eight cuts through some thick and hard material that doesn't seem too bad.
After some cleaning and pressing both sides are now at the same stage.
I have a growing pile of junk, I missed the discs/pads and top mounts from this pile. Replacing rusty perished junk with new shiny is always satisfying.
In a way, not having all the bits to finish this job in one sitting has made it more enjoyable. I've been nibbling away at it as and when work and family allow, and I've been able to take my time chipping away rust flakes and painting the subframe and other bits and pieces.
I have a tracking number for the missing bush so my latest order appears to have stuck. I've also decided to refresh the ARB bushes whilst access is easy - naturally the first order for these was cancelled due to lack of stock
Kev_Mk3 said:
Great stuff. I did the swift wishbones last winter with new oem ones as didnt want a harsh ride. When these go I may go poly bushes but I suspect I wont need to replace them any time soon as cars not moved in so long.
Being cast alu the MX5 arms are a bit pricey to swap as a complete part, so I was pretty happy when I discovered I could just buy replacement OE rubber bushes. Shame it didn't work out.mattdavies said:
Great update and good information on the Chinese Cutting blades. Now I need to go find a cordless saw and buy some blades .... ebay here i come.
The blade came from Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08FQPX2VD/It'll rip through more than you're attempting to cut if you're not careful. I found that stopping just short of cutting through the bolt and then snapping it off by turning it with a spanner worked well and avoided any accidental cuts in the subframe.
The new front ARB bushes turned up...
Having the first order for these cancelled did me a favour. SuperPro sell this style of bushing in a number of different sizes, I'd originally ordered 26mm. My car has 'yellow dot' RX8 rollbars fitted, some further research reveals they're actually 26.5mm thick so the 27mm version of the SuperPro bush is probably a better option.
The car had ARB poly bushes from a company in Russia called Siberian Bushing fitted. They were sold as RX8 bushes, but the RX8 ARBs come in a number of different sizes and the split in these bushes has always gaped. I suspect they were too small. This seems to have allowed all the grease to be washed away with time.
The 27mm bushes were a great fit on the bar, still nice and tight, but not so tight that anything deformed when the brackets slid on.
Another good SuperPro product. Prices for their stuff in the UK seem to vary quite wildly, these were a very reasonable £28 delivered quickly from TDC Automotive.
Having the first order for these cancelled did me a favour. SuperPro sell this style of bushing in a number of different sizes, I'd originally ordered 26mm. My car has 'yellow dot' RX8 rollbars fitted, some further research reveals they're actually 26.5mm thick so the 27mm version of the SuperPro bush is probably a better option.
The car had ARB poly bushes from a company in Russia called Siberian Bushing fitted. They were sold as RX8 bushes, but the RX8 ARBs come in a number of different sizes and the split in these bushes has always gaped. I suspect they were too small. This seems to have allowed all the grease to be washed away with time.
The 27mm bushes were a great fit on the bar, still nice and tight, but not so tight that anything deformed when the brackets slid on.
Another good SuperPro product. Prices for their stuff in the UK seem to vary quite wildly, these were a very reasonable £28 delivered quickly from TDC Automotive.
The tinkering continues. The mounts and spring perches on the Konis were looking a bit rusty (they have thick paint that chips off in big pieces easily). I gave them a coat of Hammerite smooth yellow - it's the wrong shade of yellow but looks better than rust.
The Flo-Flex bushes for the lower shock mounts turned up. I've always been curious about their products, there's a mix of feedback out there. They were £35ish, which was more appealing than £100 on the only other option I could find from SuperPro.
Here's what I got, no grease, no instructions...
No fancy knurling to retain grease inside, and more bubbles in the poly than an Aero bar...
The outer sleeves and inner tubes are aluminium, most poly kits seem to use steel tubes, I assume for good reason. But at least the outer shells won't corrode. The poly isn't bonded to the outer sleeves, it's just pressed in, there doesn't seem to be anything stopping the bush from rotating in the outer sleeve. If that's intentional it's a bit odd that no grease was used to install them, I suspect this could lead to squeaks. Dimentionally they looked to be a good copy of the original.
Things didn't look as good when I went to press in the inner tubes, they're an overly tight fit within the poly. On most poly kits I've used the tubes can be slid in by hand using firm pressure, that was impossible with these.
Once pressed in with the big vice the poly was then distorted and ballooned out of both ends...
Most poly bushes are designed on the basis that the inner tube can rotate within the poly, these are so tight that I can't see that ever happening.
Removing the tubes revealed that the tubes were getting on for 0.7mm over the 25mm OD that was written on them, the other dimensions were correct.
The poly was around 0.3mm under, so there's 1mm of deflection between the two parts, this seems excessive.
I suspect if the inner tube was correctly sized to 25mm they'd be spot on. Measuring some other bushes I had in the garage from Powerflex and SuperPro they all have around 0.2-0.3mm difference between the tubes and poly.
I sent these details over to Flo-Flex and asked for some tubes in the correct size to be sent out - they've so far fobbed me off stating that's an interference fit is intentional. I don't think an interference fit should interfere to the point that it deforms the part. Unsurprisingly, you get what you pay for.
It's at times like this that I wish I had a lathe. I've found a handy business that will turn and send out alu spacers in any size, £12 for a pair of replacement tubes delivered next working day
The Flo-Flex bushes for the lower shock mounts turned up. I've always been curious about their products, there's a mix of feedback out there. They were £35ish, which was more appealing than £100 on the only other option I could find from SuperPro.
Here's what I got, no grease, no instructions...
No fancy knurling to retain grease inside, and more bubbles in the poly than an Aero bar...
The outer sleeves and inner tubes are aluminium, most poly kits seem to use steel tubes, I assume for good reason. But at least the outer shells won't corrode. The poly isn't bonded to the outer sleeves, it's just pressed in, there doesn't seem to be anything stopping the bush from rotating in the outer sleeve. If that's intentional it's a bit odd that no grease was used to install them, I suspect this could lead to squeaks. Dimentionally they looked to be a good copy of the original.
Things didn't look as good when I went to press in the inner tubes, they're an overly tight fit within the poly. On most poly kits I've used the tubes can be slid in by hand using firm pressure, that was impossible with these.
Once pressed in with the big vice the poly was then distorted and ballooned out of both ends...
Most poly bushes are designed on the basis that the inner tube can rotate within the poly, these are so tight that I can't see that ever happening.
Removing the tubes revealed that the tubes were getting on for 0.7mm over the 25mm OD that was written on them, the other dimensions were correct.
The poly was around 0.3mm under, so there's 1mm of deflection between the two parts, this seems excessive.
I suspect if the inner tube was correctly sized to 25mm they'd be spot on. Measuring some other bushes I had in the garage from Powerflex and SuperPro they all have around 0.2-0.3mm difference between the tubes and poly.
I sent these details over to Flo-Flex and asked for some tubes in the correct size to be sent out - they've so far fobbed me off stating that's an interference fit is intentional. I don't think an interference fit should interfere to the point that it deforms the part. Unsurprisingly, you get what you pay for.
It's at times like this that I wish I had a lathe. I've found a handy business that will turn and send out alu spacers in any size, £12 for a pair of replacement tubes delivered next working day
Edited by Accelebrate on Thursday 1st February 14:39
Thanks - but it doesn't look like ILM will ship outside Germany.
Assuming it looks ok with the thinner tubes I'll try the poly mount for a bit, it's in a position where I can inspect it and press it out/in without removing the arm again or altering the alignment. It's possibly something that a Mazda dealer will be able to order in, they're just a bit of a pain to get to around here.
Autodoc list a couple of aftermarket options, but they've been out of stock for a while and I can't find them anywhere else - https://www.autodoc.co.uk/spares-search?keyword=F1...
Assuming it looks ok with the thinner tubes I'll try the poly mount for a bit, it's in a position where I can inspect it and press it out/in without removing the arm again or altering the alignment. It's possibly something that a Mazda dealer will be able to order in, they're just a bit of a pain to get to around here.
Autodoc list a couple of aftermarket options, but they've been out of stock for a while and I can't find them anywhere else - https://www.autodoc.co.uk/spares-search?keyword=F1...
Edited by Accelebrate on Thursday 1st February 14:56
waynedear said:
Drove my first mx-5 an hour ago, darker blue than yours, think it's an 07.
A mate treated himself, think he paid over the odds... £6500...
What a fabulous thing though, has me thinking...
They're great fun on a sunny but crisp day like today! If only mine had the wheels connected...A mate treated himself, think he paid over the odds... £6500...
What a fabulous thing though, has me thinking...
drgoatboy said:
Good work as usual. Love the carbide blade top. I always use a slitting disc like you say so this could be a game changer!
Noticed you were using a socket on your press, I invested in a sleeve kit and it made life so much easier. Expensive but worth it. I got this one from eBay (ignore the threaded bar attachment although it might come in useful somewhere)...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374388604070?mkcid=16&a...
Also a little hack if you remove the jack from the press and stand it on the cross beam you can use it to push up onto the top of the press frame, helps with some tricky angles. Mega bodge and probably not safe at all but it's worked for me in the past
That's a useful-looking kit, thanks. I've been using/abusing a bearing install kit as well as sockets, but it's aluminium and they're not enjoying being used in a press.Noticed you were using a socket on your press, I invested in a sleeve kit and it made life so much easier. Expensive but worth it. I got this one from eBay (ignore the threaded bar attachment although it might come in useful somewhere)...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374388604070?mkcid=16&a...
Also a little hack if you remove the jack from the press and stand it on the cross beam you can use it to push up onto the top of the press frame, helps with some tricky angles. Mega bodge and probably not safe at all but it's worked for me in the past
The replacement bushing tubes turned up quickly...
They're a nice snug fit, but not so tight that excessive force is required to install. No deforming or ballooning on the bushing with them installed...
Compare that to using the supplied tubes...
I know it's not a complicated piece, but I find it quite cool that there are companies out there who will make a custom part to your specifications quickly and cheaply. Hats-off to Ultraturn in Manchester.
They're a nice snug fit, but not so tight that excessive force is required to install. No deforming or ballooning on the bushing with them installed...
Compare that to using the supplied tubes...
I know it's not a complicated piece, but I find it quite cool that there are companies out there who will make a custom part to your specifications quickly and cheaply. Hats-off to Ultraturn in Manchester.
I got quite a lot done on the car this weekend. Starting with finally getting the lower arm bushes assembled...
The cheap bushes had no knurling or similar to retain grease. I've tried a thin wrap of PTFE tape along with grease on the tubes, some people seem to swear by this technique to avoid squeaking poly.
The caliper carriers had been painted at some point before I owned the car, but they were looking scruffy. The calipers have both been replaced during my ownership but the zinc coating on them was starting to fail and they were beginning to corrode. I'm not mad keen on painting floating calipers, so I picked a boring graphite VHT paint to tidy them up.
Onto reassembly. Lots of new hardware for the lower arms...
Putting it all back together didn't take very long at all. This is the first time during my ownership of this car that the front axle doesn't have any perished rubber.
I took the lazy option and masked and painted the calipers on the car...
New discs and PBS ProRace pads...
Looking good!
I've left the calipers off to give them chance to harden a bit. I've got an alignment booked for tomorrow afternoon. I'll try and eyeball it beforehand so that the journey over isn't too awful.
The cheap bushes had no knurling or similar to retain grease. I've tried a thin wrap of PTFE tape along with grease on the tubes, some people seem to swear by this technique to avoid squeaking poly.
The caliper carriers had been painted at some point before I owned the car, but they were looking scruffy. The calipers have both been replaced during my ownership but the zinc coating on them was starting to fail and they were beginning to corrode. I'm not mad keen on painting floating calipers, so I picked a boring graphite VHT paint to tidy them up.
Onto reassembly. Lots of new hardware for the lower arms...
Putting it all back together didn't take very long at all. This is the first time during my ownership of this car that the front axle doesn't have any perished rubber.
I took the lazy option and masked and painted the calipers on the car...
New discs and PBS ProRace pads...
Looking good!
I've left the calipers off to give them chance to harden a bit. I've got an alignment booked for tomorrow afternoon. I'll try and eyeball it beforehand so that the journey over isn't too awful.
Thanks. I should have thought about Buzzweld, I like their primers.
I used E-Tech VHT - https://e-tech.uk.com/e-tech-xht-paint-xtremely-hi... the instructions state it needs to be baked at 160c for an hour. That wasn’t a problem for the carriers (although my wife wasn’t too impressed with the house being full of paint fumes), but I couldn’t be bothered to remove the calipers to do the same. Hopefully, the heat of the brakes will cure them at some point. They were hard enough this morning that winding back the pistons using a clamp and block of wood didn’t damage the paint.
I used E-Tech VHT - https://e-tech.uk.com/e-tech-xht-paint-xtremely-hi... the instructions state it needs to be baked at 160c for an hour. That wasn’t a problem for the carriers (although my wife wasn’t too impressed with the house being full of paint fumes), but I couldn’t be bothered to remove the calipers to do the same. Hopefully, the heat of the brakes will cure them at some point. They were hard enough this morning that winding back the pistons using a clamp and block of wood didn’t damage the paint.
I got the final bits buttoned up on the car this morning. The calipers look quite smart in boring grey...
I then did some slightly dubious things to tighten down the suspension under load. This would only be for the drive over to the alignment garage. I moved the new alignment bolts to positions that I thought seemed sensible and matched what I did on one side with the other by eye, I didn't measure anything.
I returned to The Tyre Warehouse in Brackley and their Hunter machine. It drove remarkably well on the way over, albeit with a slightly offset steering wheel.
Considering how little effort I put into my eyeball alignment I was amazed at the consistency of the before measurements...
Unfortunately, they couldn't undo the bolts on the one part I hadn't touched on the front end - the track rod ends. I'd gone as far as researching and adding new inners and outers to my eBay basket, but there was no play in the existing parts so I decided to draw a line somewhere.
They've manipulated the toe and camber to straighten the steering, but that's left the two sides mismatched. They also refused to charge me anything again for a second time. It's driving really nicely, but I feel like I need to give them some money for their time at some point so I've ordered the parts and will revisit this soon.
I then did some slightly dubious things to tighten down the suspension under load. This would only be for the drive over to the alignment garage. I moved the new alignment bolts to positions that I thought seemed sensible and matched what I did on one side with the other by eye, I didn't measure anything.
I returned to The Tyre Warehouse in Brackley and their Hunter machine. It drove remarkably well on the way over, albeit with a slightly offset steering wheel.
Considering how little effort I put into my eyeball alignment I was amazed at the consistency of the before measurements...
Unfortunately, they couldn't undo the bolts on the one part I hadn't touched on the front end - the track rod ends. I'd gone as far as researching and adding new inners and outers to my eBay basket, but there was no play in the existing parts so I decided to draw a line somewhere.
They've manipulated the toe and camber to straighten the steering, but that's left the two sides mismatched. They also refused to charge me anything again for a second time. It's driving really nicely, but I feel like I need to give them some money for their time at some point so I've ordered the parts and will revisit this soon.
I removed the front undertrays to gain access to the inner track rods. I don't think I've ever had a reason to remove this undertray before, which is odd as there isn't much of this car that I haven't had apart.
The angled radiator is a nice little feature, and I had access to some more brackets and chassis to rust treat.
The outer track rods cracked loose just fine, but the jam nuts were well and truly jammed. I got this side moving with some heat.
I skipped the heat on the other side and ugga-dugga'd it off.
With the undertrays out of the way there's loads of access to remove the inner track rods. No special tools required, a 30mm spanner is a perfect fit, but equally, I'm sure an adjustable or water pump pliers would work fine.
I was half-tempted just to clean the threads, grease everything and put it back together. But the inners were a bit crusty and chewed up and I'd gone this far. They'll make a good set of spares in my track day toolbox.
There are no 'premium' aftermarket track rod options for the NC, nothing like Lemforder for example. Just lots of the usual factors brands or OE at four times the cost. I went with Febi inners, I find their parts to be a bit hit-and-miss. The outers weren't in stock so I went with Blue Print which is probably the same Febi part in a different box. I assumed the boots would be split so I also ordered a vehicle-specific boot kit from First Line.
They looked like decent clones of the originals...
I sprayed the threads with copper grease to hopefully avoid any alignment issues in the future. Installation was simple enough. I counted the threads off and on to hopefully get the initial toe somewhere close for the drive over for alignment.
The boots on the NC are two different sizes, with the nearside being longer and narrower. The First Line boot kit included two of the same part which was a perfect copy of the offside, but much too wide to attach to the nearside. Luckily the original was in good condition.
Some of the undertray clips were missing, or the wrong size. The ten screws that attach it to the front bumper were also rusty. I looked up the part numbers and found that https://vehicleclips.co.uk stocked aftermarket replacements for both.
New fasteners make me happier than they probably should. I also cleaned the streak of manure off the underside of the car that's been there since the journey back from my last track day - the dangers of a low car.
More shiny new...
I'm booked in for another alignment next week
The angled radiator is a nice little feature, and I had access to some more brackets and chassis to rust treat.
The outer track rods cracked loose just fine, but the jam nuts were well and truly jammed. I got this side moving with some heat.
I skipped the heat on the other side and ugga-dugga'd it off.
With the undertrays out of the way there's loads of access to remove the inner track rods. No special tools required, a 30mm spanner is a perfect fit, but equally, I'm sure an adjustable or water pump pliers would work fine.
I was half-tempted just to clean the threads, grease everything and put it back together. But the inners were a bit crusty and chewed up and I'd gone this far. They'll make a good set of spares in my track day toolbox.
There are no 'premium' aftermarket track rod options for the NC, nothing like Lemforder for example. Just lots of the usual factors brands or OE at four times the cost. I went with Febi inners, I find their parts to be a bit hit-and-miss. The outers weren't in stock so I went with Blue Print which is probably the same Febi part in a different box. I assumed the boots would be split so I also ordered a vehicle-specific boot kit from First Line.
They looked like decent clones of the originals...
I sprayed the threads with copper grease to hopefully avoid any alignment issues in the future. Installation was simple enough. I counted the threads off and on to hopefully get the initial toe somewhere close for the drive over for alignment.
The boots on the NC are two different sizes, with the nearside being longer and narrower. The First Line boot kit included two of the same part which was a perfect copy of the offside, but much too wide to attach to the nearside. Luckily the original was in good condition.
Some of the undertray clips were missing, or the wrong size. The ten screws that attach it to the front bumper were also rusty. I looked up the part numbers and found that https://vehicleclips.co.uk stocked aftermarket replacements for both.
New fasteners make me happier than they probably should. I also cleaned the streak of manure off the underside of the car that's been there since the journey back from my last track day - the dangers of a low car.
More shiny new...
I'm booked in for another alignment next week
B'stard Child said:
What an excellent site - thanks for sharing it as I never knew it existed and I do like to replace clips and trim fasteners as they get old and brittle but I don't like BMW and Mercedes prices for items like that 
It’s a good site to know. They seem to get most orders to you the next day too, even with their ‘free’ regular postage.Always the way
I was nearly late for my alignment appointment today. My daughter was playing in the car whilst I pottered around the garage over the weekend, she'd drained the battery enough with the headlights that the engine refused to turn over. Luckily, a spare battery I hadn't charged for a long time had enough juice to jump-start. I then spent the appointment pondering if the 20-minute drive over to the alignment place would have provided enough charge to start the car to drive it onto the ramp, and again to reverse off, and then for me to leave their car park. It had, as it turned out, I guess the alternator is working well.
No issues aligning the front this time. I've gone back to the -1.3 degrees that I used to run on the front, this seems to lead to relatively even tyre wear.
I'd previously told them to focus on the front as the rear will be stripped down soon. The rear is mostly fine but the nearside has about half a degree of positive camber more than I'd like. It wasn't quite clear if they couldn't adjust the rear or didn't because I'd previously suggested not to. Back at home, I found that my phone and a straight edge down the wheel gave very close readings to the Hunter machine, I attempted to correct the nearside camber but the nut on the adjuster wouldn't come loose with either an impact or a relatively big bar. I don't want to snap it until I have a replacement so I'll leave it alone until after Oulton park - it's been like that since I rebuilt the rear hubs and didn't cause me any issues at Spa/Ring/Abingdon.
I was nearly late for my alignment appointment today. My daughter was playing in the car whilst I pottered around the garage over the weekend, she'd drained the battery enough with the headlights that the engine refused to turn over. Luckily, a spare battery I hadn't charged for a long time had enough juice to jump-start. I then spent the appointment pondering if the 20-minute drive over to the alignment place would have provided enough charge to start the car to drive it onto the ramp, and again to reverse off, and then for me to leave their car park. It had, as it turned out, I guess the alternator is working well.
No issues aligning the front this time. I've gone back to the -1.3 degrees that I used to run on the front, this seems to lead to relatively even tyre wear.
I'd previously told them to focus on the front as the rear will be stripped down soon. The rear is mostly fine but the nearside has about half a degree of positive camber more than I'd like. It wasn't quite clear if they couldn't adjust the rear or didn't because I'd previously suggested not to. Back at home, I found that my phone and a straight edge down the wheel gave very close readings to the Hunter machine, I attempted to correct the nearside camber but the nut on the adjuster wouldn't come loose with either an impact or a relatively big bar. I don't want to snap it until I have a replacement so I'll leave it alone until after Oulton park - it's been like that since I rebuilt the rear hubs and didn't cause me any issues at Spa/Ring/Abingdon.
S600BSB said:
Great thread - thank you! Do you happen to have the part numbers handy for the undertray/bonnet fasteners and screws you ordered?
Sure, it was these and these (the part diagrams on Amayama are good for figuring out part numbers)...https://vehicleclips.co.uk/products/plastic-push-f...
https://vehicleclips.co.uk/products/8mm-head-m5-bo...
DaveK-S1 said:
Love reading this and the other MX5 threads its given me so many useful links for finding parts for mine , which is undergoing a rear end resto at the moment
Just looking at the pic with the undertray off , the air con rad looks quite damaged , which will restrict airflow to the main rad behind
A rear-end resto is next on my todo list, I picked up a fresh subframe ages ago and have accumulated all the bushes. Unfortunately, I'll need to empty a lot of the contents of my garage to accommodate some building work in a couple of weeks, and a car in pieces won't help with that, so it'll be a project for later in the year.Just looking at the pic with the undertray off , the air con rad looks quite damaged , which will restrict airflow to the main rad behind
The aircon rad is definitely well peppered, particularly around the lowest holes in the front bumper (which are quite large and open - some mesh behind them probably wouldn't hurt). Not that surprising given how much time it's spent following people on circuits. I had the AC regassed a few years ago, it still works but isn't as good as it was so there must be a small leak somewhere. I'll probably refresh both radiators at some point, I nearly bought a nice aftermarket alu coolant rad a while ago and then forgot all about it.
I went up to Oulton Park for the first time last week. It ended up being just me and Roshan after Geraint from the other PH NC thread had to drop out due to some car issues. Roshan's Mum runs a nice B&B near Shrewsbury so we met there the night before.
The morning was a bit damp, the forecast had predicted this, so for the first time in quite a few track days I'd got the right tyres on. My new Eagle F1s seemed to have no trouble finding grip which gave me a lot of confidence on what's quite a narrow circuit.
Guess where we were?!
It was good to meet up with Kevin and see his ex-R4R Swift in the flesh again. Roshan rented this very car at the Ring when it was still on the R4R fleet and we both spent some time in it, it's a bit funny to see it in Cheshire all these years later.
The rain held off in the afternoon and a dry line soon appeared. I spent quite a bit of the day chasing or being followed by Roshan. He was quicker than me in the morning, I think from a mixture of circuit knowledge from sim racing and more confidence in the wet. By the afternoon I'd got the gist of the circuit and I think I was carrying more speed through the now dry corners than he was so I started to pull away. The GT86 has similar mods to my car (manifold, remap, suspension) and they made for well-matched sparring partners.
Thanks to Robert Baxter ( https://www.rbpsphotography.com ) for the excellent photography.
Here's some footage from the GT86, featuring a very rapid Corolla...
I enjoyed Oulton a lot, any circuit in the UK with elevation changes is always a treat and it seemed to have a nice flow to it. None of the straights are really long enough for a car like the MX5 to feel annoyingly underpowered and a number of the corners are technical enough that they kept me engaged all day getting quicker through them.
The morning was a bit damp, the forecast had predicted this, so for the first time in quite a few track days I'd got the right tyres on. My new Eagle F1s seemed to have no trouble finding grip which gave me a lot of confidence on what's quite a narrow circuit.
Guess where we were?!
It was good to meet up with Kevin and see his ex-R4R Swift in the flesh again. Roshan rented this very car at the Ring when it was still on the R4R fleet and we both spent some time in it, it's a bit funny to see it in Cheshire all these years later.
The rain held off in the afternoon and a dry line soon appeared. I spent quite a bit of the day chasing or being followed by Roshan. He was quicker than me in the morning, I think from a mixture of circuit knowledge from sim racing and more confidence in the wet. By the afternoon I'd got the gist of the circuit and I think I was carrying more speed through the now dry corners than he was so I started to pull away. The GT86 has similar mods to my car (manifold, remap, suspension) and they made for well-matched sparring partners.
Thanks to Robert Baxter ( https://www.rbpsphotography.com ) for the excellent photography.
Here's some footage from the GT86, featuring a very rapid Corolla...
I enjoyed Oulton a lot, any circuit in the UK with elevation changes is always a treat and it seemed to have a nice flow to it. None of the straights are really long enough for a car like the MX5 to feel annoyingly underpowered and a number of the corners are technical enough that they kept me engaged all day getting quicker through them.
The car was perfect all day at Oulton. On the way home I accelerated on the M40 and noticed the CEL briefly illuminate. It stayed off for the remaining 50 miles to home and the car ran fine.
I scanned the car the next day and found a stored code for a misfire on cylinder 1. I removed the plastic engine cover and swapped the coil from cyl 1 with cyl 4 to see if the code would move. Given how it had only briefly misfired many miles earlier I thought it might take a while to hunt this one down. I was almost relieved to find that the car was constantly misfiring when I started it back up. The codes revealed that the misfire was still on cyl 1 so that ruled out the coil.
The good thing about being around a model of car for a number of years is that you unwittingly absorb the knowledge of most of the common failure points. I was aware that some owners have had issues with the wires to the coil pack connectors becoming brittle over time. A little prodding of the wiring around the first coil confirmed this diagnosis...
Some further testing revealed it was the first wire that was at fault. The insulation was still intact, but it was noticeably harder and no longer flexible on the first 10mm after it emerged from the connector. I suspect the engine cover was pressing the wiring into a position where it didn't misfire.
The original connectors feature no obvious part numbers, but some research revealed that they're Sumitomo 6189-0779 - https://www.auto-click.co.uk/6189-0779
Lacking a particularly great/premium option, I took a chance on a suspiciously cheap set of prewired pigtails for £9 delivered the next day with Prime - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B1T6KZQB. They appear to be the same thing that's sold through a number of retailers for a lot more money. A set of these and some inline Wagos would make a good addition for anyone building up a trackday/holiday spares box.
They're not bad for the price. The connectors are really good and look to be potentially genuine. Given that the real Sumitomo's are made in China that might be the case. The wiring is a few strands thinner than the original and appears to potentially be aluminium rather than copper. If I was doing this again I'd possibly look into buying the connector pins separately and making up my own pigtails.
I've always been better at soldering than crimping wires, but I bought a decent set of ratcheting crimpers with an array of different dies for a project a while ago so I thought I'd revisit heatshrink butt connectors. Executed properly a crimped connection should be more reliable in an engine bay. I had a lot more success than with previous attempts and was happy with the strength of the connections I made. It's amazing what the right tools can do.
Factory spec cheap insulation tape reinstated...
I dithered for a bit about if I should stop there or replace the other three. Common sense would suggest if one has failed the others might follow, but then I'm also introducing 9 potentially unnecessary crimp connections. In the end I decided to swap all of them out, my crimping got a little neater too...
Cyl 2 and 3 looked ok, but 4 appeared to be quite brittle, so I was pleased I continued.
Codes cleared and nothing came back. I took it for a 10-mile test drive to get some fuel, all seems to be well. I rewarded it with a quick wash to get rid of the trackday filth.
I scanned the car the next day and found a stored code for a misfire on cylinder 1. I removed the plastic engine cover and swapped the coil from cyl 1 with cyl 4 to see if the code would move. Given how it had only briefly misfired many miles earlier I thought it might take a while to hunt this one down. I was almost relieved to find that the car was constantly misfiring when I started it back up. The codes revealed that the misfire was still on cyl 1 so that ruled out the coil.
The good thing about being around a model of car for a number of years is that you unwittingly absorb the knowledge of most of the common failure points. I was aware that some owners have had issues with the wires to the coil pack connectors becoming brittle over time. A little prodding of the wiring around the first coil confirmed this diagnosis...
Some further testing revealed it was the first wire that was at fault. The insulation was still intact, but it was noticeably harder and no longer flexible on the first 10mm after it emerged from the connector. I suspect the engine cover was pressing the wiring into a position where it didn't misfire.
The original connectors feature no obvious part numbers, but some research revealed that they're Sumitomo 6189-0779 - https://www.auto-click.co.uk/6189-0779
Lacking a particularly great/premium option, I took a chance on a suspiciously cheap set of prewired pigtails for £9 delivered the next day with Prime - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B1T6KZQB. They appear to be the same thing that's sold through a number of retailers for a lot more money. A set of these and some inline Wagos would make a good addition for anyone building up a trackday/holiday spares box.
They're not bad for the price. The connectors are really good and look to be potentially genuine. Given that the real Sumitomo's are made in China that might be the case. The wiring is a few strands thinner than the original and appears to potentially be aluminium rather than copper. If I was doing this again I'd possibly look into buying the connector pins separately and making up my own pigtails.
I've always been better at soldering than crimping wires, but I bought a decent set of ratcheting crimpers with an array of different dies for a project a while ago so I thought I'd revisit heatshrink butt connectors. Executed properly a crimped connection should be more reliable in an engine bay. I had a lot more success than with previous attempts and was happy with the strength of the connections I made. It's amazing what the right tools can do.
Factory spec cheap insulation tape reinstated...
I dithered for a bit about if I should stop there or replace the other three. Common sense would suggest if one has failed the others might follow, but then I'm also introducing 9 potentially unnecessary crimp connections. In the end I decided to swap all of them out, my crimping got a little neater too...
Cyl 2 and 3 looked ok, but 4 appeared to be quite brittle, so I was pleased I continued.
Codes cleared and nothing came back. I took it for a 10-mile test drive to get some fuel, all seems to be well. I rewarded it with a quick wash to get rid of the trackday filth.
Kev_Mk3 said:
Great to meet you both and car was going well. Shame I didnt get out but also glad I didnt when I found an alarming issue once home in the form of the cage moving thanks to a certain motorsports company not actually tightening the bolts to the floor on 90% of them! Angry cant get close.............
Oulton is a great track I love it, just gets dam expensive usually.
Thank god that electric issue was a simple fix
Agh. That's a bit of an oversight! At least you found it before Zandvoort, how did that go?Oulton is a great track I love it, just gets dam expensive usually.
Thank god that electric issue was a simple fix
I was pretty happy about how the misfire unfolded. No issues all day at Oulton, just a little cough on the way home to prompt me to investigate further. Such a polite little car
IdiotRace said:
I clicked on this thread out of curiosity (don't visit pistonheads that much tbh) and funnily enough going through it there was a post I made in like 2018 saying my friend wanted to buy an NC MX-5 after coming with me on some trackdays.
Funnily enough he did end up buying a 3.5 PHRT with about 150,000 miles on it all the way up past Inverness, it had also had it's engine swapped out for a very low mileage one due to a garage messing up an oil change.
Coming from northern Scotland you can guess what the underside was like. So from summer 2019 to about spring 2020 we spent treating the entire underside of the car to make sure there wasn't any actual rust. But we also swapped the entire front and rear subframe/suspension from a 2015 car that someone was breaking and was immaculate. We fitted eibach springs to the bilstein dampers and he also went with the same RX8 ARB setup. I can't remember what pads he's using I think one of the american brands like hawk, but I think he's looking into the clio brembo swap as he's got some 17 inch advan wheels fitted with avon zz-r's which are cast off from one of the mx5 race series.
He ended up going to BBR for the super 200 stuff as we just couldn't be bothered to deal with the manifold swap and I was very impressed with how punchy it was afterwards.
It was honestly the most work I've done on a car and it was great fun, especially once we'd got it all roadworthy and MOT'ed. After that we've been on a few track days together.
Weirdly enough I've sold my old mr2 track car and ended up in a GT86 also. I definitely want to do the ring on one of those actual trackdays though, I've heard too many horror stories about TF days.
An MX5 from northern Scotland was a brave buy. I'm glad you got to the point of having a rot-free car and still found it fun. It's funny that you should mention 197 brakes, I've got an update along that theme to write up at some point.Funnily enough he did end up buying a 3.5 PHRT with about 150,000 miles on it all the way up past Inverness, it had also had it's engine swapped out for a very low mileage one due to a garage messing up an oil change.
Coming from northern Scotland you can guess what the underside was like. So from summer 2019 to about spring 2020 we spent treating the entire underside of the car to make sure there wasn't any actual rust. But we also swapped the entire front and rear subframe/suspension from a 2015 car that someone was breaking and was immaculate. We fitted eibach springs to the bilstein dampers and he also went with the same RX8 ARB setup. I can't remember what pads he's using I think one of the american brands like hawk, but I think he's looking into the clio brembo swap as he's got some 17 inch advan wheels fitted with avon zz-r's which are cast off from one of the mx5 race series.
He ended up going to BBR for the super 200 stuff as we just couldn't be bothered to deal with the manifold swap and I was very impressed with how punchy it was afterwards.
It was honestly the most work I've done on a car and it was great fun, especially once we'd got it all roadworthy and MOT'ed. After that we've been on a few track days together.
Weirdly enough I've sold my old mr2 track car and ended up in a GT86 also. I definitely want to do the ring on one of those actual trackdays though, I've heard too many horror stories about TF days.
I like the GT86, similar in many ways to the NC, but they have the advantage of being able to easily carry a full set of spare wheels to a track day.
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