2006 Mazda MX-5 NC 2.0 Sport
Discussion
Evoluzione said:
When I bought my first NC I was struck by how useable it was. When you get in and drive everything falls to hand and is in the right place. It just feels right straight from the off, there is rarely that thought of 'That's in the wrong place', 'That doesn't feel right' or 'How do I do that, where is that switch?' etc.
It does have it's quirks, but they aren't annoying and easily dealt with if you don't like them.
Until you want to open the fuel cap It does have it's quirks, but they aren't annoying and easily dealt with if you don't like them.
Two things that I've found out today in the cold mornings. Firstly, it's got heated mirrors which I didn't expect and am very glad of! Secondly, when I defrost the windows and lights, I pour a jug of luke warm water (between cold and warm, certainly not hot for obvious reasons) which defrosts all of the ice quickly. I've just found that tipping it on the headlights causes the water to run down the lights and behind the bumper, rather than over the top of it. and stops big water runs on the paint.
I don't know why but that made my quite happy...
I don't know why but that made my quite happy...
One odd thing which keeps me happy is the layout of the Bose on the later models. I'm one of those annoying people who can't leave the volume alone.
I find if I rest my wrist on the gearknob I can spin the volume dial with the ends of my fingers. It's almost as if someone put it there on purpose it fits so well.
I find the wheel buttons far too slow to react so this suit me better.
One strange thing which my road car has and have only ever known one person that reported it too: The water gets pushed out of the washer jets when cornering moderate to hard. Over a period of a few weeks it totally empties the tank.
I find if I rest my wrist on the gearknob I can spin the volume dial with the ends of my fingers. It's almost as if someone put it there on purpose it fits so well.
I find the wheel buttons far too slow to react so this suit me better.
One strange thing which my road car has and have only ever known one person that reported it too: The water gets pushed out of the washer jets when cornering moderate to hard. Over a period of a few weeks it totally empties the tank.
Accelebrate said:
I’m pleased the brackets made it to you.
The BMW speaker is a great idea, my car came with aftermarket sensors, the piezo speaker is horrible.
Thanks again! I'll be sure to explain the wiring on the write up, it's really simple and the speaker costs about £8 so it's a cheap fix.The BMW speaker is a great idea, my car came with aftermarket sensors, the piezo speaker is horrible.
Not much to update, the car has been it's usual flawless self to drive. It's just ticked over 45,000 on the clock, and after I install the parking sensors (it's been too cold!) I'll be thinking of the bigger plans.
The main thing is that I don't want to change the car from what it is; a useable, small, light weight and fun roadster. I'm not going to fit any exhausts and certainly not going to fit any flared arches or anything of the sort, it'll be an improved version of itself. Better suspension, brakes, induction and the odd nip and tuck here of a re-trimmed steering wheel and more modern wheels. The rest of the improvements will be under the skin. I'm very much a 'it needs to look like standard equipment' person. If someone looks at the car and says "Oh I like what you've done with this", then it's not good enough. It needs to be factory, so that's what I'll be sticking to. Hence the removal of the Apple CarPlay radio.
My next thing is induction. The car sounds lovely, but I'd like for it to have a bit more growl on the open throttle, but not from the exhaust. More of a snarl I suppose. My old 1.8 VVTL-i celica sounded beautiful on the valve lift with an induction kit, so it'll be the same thing here. Problem is that the induction kits look hugely expensive for what they are.
I'm going to see if I can fashion something myself by buying a standard induction cone from Direnza, and getting some piping for it to fit the intake pipe. It should cost no more than about £60 if I do it this way, with a great sound afterwards.
I'll get planning and will let you know of what I'd find. If it works, it'll be nice for others to know.
The main thing is that I don't want to change the car from what it is; a useable, small, light weight and fun roadster. I'm not going to fit any exhausts and certainly not going to fit any flared arches or anything of the sort, it'll be an improved version of itself. Better suspension, brakes, induction and the odd nip and tuck here of a re-trimmed steering wheel and more modern wheels. The rest of the improvements will be under the skin. I'm very much a 'it needs to look like standard equipment' person. If someone looks at the car and says "Oh I like what you've done with this", then it's not good enough. It needs to be factory, so that's what I'll be sticking to. Hence the removal of the Apple CarPlay radio.
My next thing is induction. The car sounds lovely, but I'd like for it to have a bit more growl on the open throttle, but not from the exhaust. More of a snarl I suppose. My old 1.8 VVTL-i celica sounded beautiful on the valve lift with an induction kit, so it'll be the same thing here. Problem is that the induction kits look hugely expensive for what they are.
I'm going to see if I can fashion something myself by buying a standard induction cone from Direnza, and getting some piping for it to fit the intake pipe. It should cost no more than about £60 if I do it this way, with a great sound afterwards.
I'll get planning and will let you know of what I'd find. If it works, it'll be nice for others to know.
5harp3y said:
Induction kits are ok but never make that much of a difference
can always drill your standard airbox for more induction and still retain OEM looks
Nice idea. I had the idea of taking off the front panel and temporary fixing the panel filter to the other half of the box to hear the sound. If I was happy with this, I would do as you say and cut a hole in the box to retain the OEM looks, but I'd fit edging around the sharp edges for a more factory look. I'm not expecting any performance gains, only sound improvements at this point.can always drill your standard airbox for more induction and still retain OEM looks
Finally got round to installing the parking sensors.
Off comes the bumper
Normally I'd mark where to drill inside here, but there's markings like this inside:
And these markings are conveniently on the corners:
They made for perfect locations, so I went ahead and drilled using the provided drill bit.
Popped the sensors in
Nice and neat.
I routed the wires in through a hole that was used by the previous owner's reverse camera.
All plugged into the module
I didn't take any photos of how it's powered, but basically it gives you a red/black wire to crimp into the + and - of the reverse bulb's wire. When the reverse bulb comes on, the parking sensors come on. Incredibly simple to wire up.
They do give you a speaker, but it sounds awful so I cut it off.
Instead I'm using this BMW gong that I bought for £5
The rear has + and - terminals, then you simply jump the negative to another terminal to give certain sounds. I chose one that's a constant beep, so that the parking sensors can manually beep this speaker.
I extended the wires and routed them through the boot and into the cabin. I tied the wires to a trombone cleaner (or just a long coat hanger will do) and fed the wires into the cabin that way.
They then route down the side of the sill, and up inside the dashboard where I've installed the speaker.
This means that the parking sensor's beep is that of a proper sound (and not a tamagotchi), and comes from the dashboard as it should.
All finished, barely noticeable with a factory look/sound.
The outer sensors are slightly lower than the center ones, as they should be.
They work superbly. I've used these parking sensors on multiple previous cars, and they've never let me down.
In the meantime, I've had an idea about the air box.
Now I'm not chasing performance numbers (though that may change in the future), but I do want the car to sound a little more sportier whilst keeping that standard tone when I'm not pushing it. Induction is the way to go for this, having successfully used it on my previous T-Sport Celica. However, I don't want to just have a cone filter suck up hot air in the engine bay, and with the prices of the induction kits (for what's essentially some metal tubing and a cone filter), I'd rather attempt it myself first.
I've just been outside and temporarily removed this front half of the air box:
I then taped the air filter to the remaining piece to keep it in place, as the half I removed holds it in place. This now allows the air filter to be exposed and the induction to be heard. Essentially, it mimics this following setup but without the ridiculous £200+ price tag:
I've gone for a drive and... oh my. The sound is beautiful, with no difference on light to medium throttle, but an outstanting roar on full throttle.
Now there's three issues here. Firstly, the part that I removed keeps the whole airbox assembly attached to the car. Without it, the inner half that's left is now bouncing around in the engine bay. Secondly, the airflow is now not as direct, and therefore not as effective. Third, the ECU is now exposed underneath the airbox, and I've now exposed the wires to any potential water coming in through the front of the vent.
My solution is to cut up the original box, but not to simply drill holes. I'm going to cut 90% off, keeping only the surrounding frame that the remaining box attaches to so that the filter is held in place, and the airbox assembly is secure by also keeping the bottom of the airbox that secure it to the car. That'll also give the original protection to the ECU, and will essentially be the exact functionality of the red surround shown above. That doesn't solve the air flow issue though, but that's easily solved by using some air duct tubing to route the air directly into the filter.
For those who are thinking "But the engine bay temperatures are now affecting it as it's open", the impact here will be negligible. This part of the engine bay doesn't get that hot at all; go for a run and put your hand by the air filter box, and that's the air temperature getting fed into the air filter, and that's only when idle. When the car is moving, cold air is still directly being fed into the filter as it was before, so there's next to no negative impact here. In theory.
I'll get cutting soon and will let you know how it goes. If it goes well, I'll purchase some edging to neaten up the edges of my cuts, and will purchase a Pipercross foam filter to complete the job.
Off comes the bumper
Normally I'd mark where to drill inside here, but there's markings like this inside:
And these markings are conveniently on the corners:
They made for perfect locations, so I went ahead and drilled using the provided drill bit.
Popped the sensors in
Nice and neat.
I routed the wires in through a hole that was used by the previous owner's reverse camera.
All plugged into the module
I didn't take any photos of how it's powered, but basically it gives you a red/black wire to crimp into the + and - of the reverse bulb's wire. When the reverse bulb comes on, the parking sensors come on. Incredibly simple to wire up.
They do give you a speaker, but it sounds awful so I cut it off.
Instead I'm using this BMW gong that I bought for £5
The rear has + and - terminals, then you simply jump the negative to another terminal to give certain sounds. I chose one that's a constant beep, so that the parking sensors can manually beep this speaker.
I extended the wires and routed them through the boot and into the cabin. I tied the wires to a trombone cleaner (or just a long coat hanger will do) and fed the wires into the cabin that way.
They then route down the side of the sill, and up inside the dashboard where I've installed the speaker.
This means that the parking sensor's beep is that of a proper sound (and not a tamagotchi), and comes from the dashboard as it should.
All finished, barely noticeable with a factory look/sound.
The outer sensors are slightly lower than the center ones, as they should be.
They work superbly. I've used these parking sensors on multiple previous cars, and they've never let me down.
In the meantime, I've had an idea about the air box.
Now I'm not chasing performance numbers (though that may change in the future), but I do want the car to sound a little more sportier whilst keeping that standard tone when I'm not pushing it. Induction is the way to go for this, having successfully used it on my previous T-Sport Celica. However, I don't want to just have a cone filter suck up hot air in the engine bay, and with the prices of the induction kits (for what's essentially some metal tubing and a cone filter), I'd rather attempt it myself first.
I've just been outside and temporarily removed this front half of the air box:
I then taped the air filter to the remaining piece to keep it in place, as the half I removed holds it in place. This now allows the air filter to be exposed and the induction to be heard. Essentially, it mimics this following setup but without the ridiculous £200+ price tag:
I've gone for a drive and... oh my. The sound is beautiful, with no difference on light to medium throttle, but an outstanting roar on full throttle.
Now there's three issues here. Firstly, the part that I removed keeps the whole airbox assembly attached to the car. Without it, the inner half that's left is now bouncing around in the engine bay. Secondly, the airflow is now not as direct, and therefore not as effective. Third, the ECU is now exposed underneath the airbox, and I've now exposed the wires to any potential water coming in through the front of the vent.
My solution is to cut up the original box, but not to simply drill holes. I'm going to cut 90% off, keeping only the surrounding frame that the remaining box attaches to so that the filter is held in place, and the airbox assembly is secure by also keeping the bottom of the airbox that secure it to the car. That'll also give the original protection to the ECU, and will essentially be the exact functionality of the red surround shown above. That doesn't solve the air flow issue though, but that's easily solved by using some air duct tubing to route the air directly into the filter.
For those who are thinking "But the engine bay temperatures are now affecting it as it's open", the impact here will be negligible. This part of the engine bay doesn't get that hot at all; go for a run and put your hand by the air filter box, and that's the air temperature getting fed into the air filter, and that's only when idle. When the car is moving, cold air is still directly being fed into the filter as it was before, so there's next to no negative impact here. In theory.
I'll get cutting soon and will let you know how it goes. If it goes well, I'll purchase some edging to neaten up the edges of my cuts, and will purchase a Pipercross foam filter to complete the job.
Edited by geraintthomas on Sunday 29th November 22:08
To further explain the airbox idea, here's the part I've removed:
I'll be cutting away the red bits, and will only keep the yellow highlighted area.
Basically, I'll only keep the surround to ensure the air filter is locked in place, and the floor to protect the ECU. The rest will be open. I'll run an air duct from the air inlet on the bumper straight to the filter, and will replace the filter with a pipercross foam replacement. This should give it the direct air that it had previously, better airflow thanks to the uprated filter, and a far better sound, all whilst retaining a somewhat factory look. Heat soak won't be an issue due to the engine heat not effecting that area that much at all, and when moving the duct will push fresh air into the filter. After the edges are cut, I'll simply apply some rubber edging to give the edges a nice neat look. It all sounds like it'll go to plan, so I just have to wait and see. If all fails, these go cheap on ebay.
Just arrived at work, and was able to take a clearer photo of the sensors. Last night was getting a little dark.
They work great!
I'll be cutting away the red bits, and will only keep the yellow highlighted area.
Basically, I'll only keep the surround to ensure the air filter is locked in place, and the floor to protect the ECU. The rest will be open. I'll run an air duct from the air inlet on the bumper straight to the filter, and will replace the filter with a pipercross foam replacement. This should give it the direct air that it had previously, better airflow thanks to the uprated filter, and a far better sound, all whilst retaining a somewhat factory look. Heat soak won't be an issue due to the engine heat not effecting that area that much at all, and when moving the duct will push fresh air into the filter. After the edges are cut, I'll simply apply some rubber edging to give the edges a nice neat look. It all sounds like it'll go to plan, so I just have to wait and see. If all fails, these go cheap on ebay.
Just arrived at work, and was able to take a clearer photo of the sensors. Last night was getting a little dark.
They work great!
The airbox thing is great for noise and keeping it looking OE. I've had a few cars now where ive bought a second airbox to cut up and modify and fit with a 'fancy' panel filter, keeps it looking standard but get all the noise benefits!
The cars looking great, my mum and her boyfriend got one over summer, i've yet to have a go though!
The cars looking great, my mum and her boyfriend got one over summer, i've yet to have a go though!
tr7v8 said:
Mine has the factory fit ones as its a Sport Tech. They are completely useless, they bleep & squeak almost randomly when reversing. According to my Mazda specialist they are fitted at the point of Import to the UK.
That's not the first I've heard of that. I wonder if you could fit after market ones in place of the standard ones, using the same holes?scottos said:
The airbox thing is great for noise and keeping it looking OE. I've had a few cars now where ive bought a second airbox to cut up and modify and fit with a 'fancy' panel filter, keeps it looking standard but get all the noise benefits!
The cars looking great, my mum and her boyfriend got one over summer, i've yet to have a go though!
You should totally have a go. Like I said, I used to have a Boxster S and this is far better to drive. Power isn't everything!The cars looking great, my mum and her boyfriend got one over summer, i've yet to have a go though!
geraintthomas said:
tr7v8 said:
Mine has the factory fit ones as its a Sport Tech. They are completely useless, they bleep & squeak almost randomly when reversing. According to my Mazda specialist they are fitted at the point of Import to the UK.
That's not the first I've heard of that. I wonder if you could fit after market ones in place of the standard ones, using the same holes?I got round to cutting up the airbox, and it's worked a charm. This is what I was running for the time being to judge the sound:
Here's the cut-up box:
Installed:
As you can see from the edges, they're a little sharp and not particularly straight.
Nevertheless, it's done its job perfectly. The tray has been left at the bottom to protect the ECU, and I've left the top part so that it secures to the front of the car as it used to.
I've ordered some rubber edging that I'll be installing around the rough edges to give a more finished look. I'll of course be accomodating the slats in the plastic design by cuttting slits into the edging so that it has a tailored fit. Next up is to get the air duct and a pipercross filter, but there's no immediate rush for either yet.
I took it for a spin, realised how beautiful it now sounds, and then I had a whoopsie.
The car gets taken for a good spirited drive on the open road from time to time, as you'd expect. The drive today was a quick one, and whilst exploiting the RWD nature of the car a little too much on a certain bend, I got it a little wrong and the throttle open for a bit longer than I should have. A bit too much oversteer and I had to correct. I did, usually a bit wobbly but fine, but I was a little too close to the curb when the front came back around and I hit it.
Luckily, that's all the damage there is. I did hit the curb pretty hard, so there's no doubt that it'll need an alignment. There's no obvious sign that it's out, but I'd rather get it checked out. I went home with my tail between my legs and parked up for the day.
For those who may be raising an eyebrow, this wasn't on a town road, nor was it with anyone else around. I drive very responsibly on my day to day driving, regardless of the car I'm in. I live in Wales so there are plenty of good roads around me to stretch the car's legs safely with no one around as I'd never drive quickly or spiritedly in towns, busy roads or on motorways. I also certainly don't race others. I simply enjoy the car for myself. But even so it can still go a little wrong, and it's lucky it was just the wheel. It happens I suppose, we've all been there, it's all a learning experience. That's also what the track is for, which I'll be going to sooner rather than later. Not because of this incident, but because I've found how fun this car can be and I'd like to explore what it can do a little further than on the public road.
Anyway. I've rubbed the area back and re-sprayed the damage.
It's not perfect at all as the metal itself has created the lip that you see on the inside. I may get a dremel on that to flatten it off a little more, just to take the eye off it. I'll be changing these wheels eventually and will keep them for track days, so I'm not too beat up about it.
Here's the cut-up box:
Installed:
As you can see from the edges, they're a little sharp and not particularly straight.
Nevertheless, it's done its job perfectly. The tray has been left at the bottom to protect the ECU, and I've left the top part so that it secures to the front of the car as it used to.
I've ordered some rubber edging that I'll be installing around the rough edges to give a more finished look. I'll of course be accomodating the slats in the plastic design by cuttting slits into the edging so that it has a tailored fit. Next up is to get the air duct and a pipercross filter, but there's no immediate rush for either yet.
I took it for a spin, realised how beautiful it now sounds, and then I had a whoopsie.
The car gets taken for a good spirited drive on the open road from time to time, as you'd expect. The drive today was a quick one, and whilst exploiting the RWD nature of the car a little too much on a certain bend, I got it a little wrong and the throttle open for a bit longer than I should have. A bit too much oversteer and I had to correct. I did, usually a bit wobbly but fine, but I was a little too close to the curb when the front came back around and I hit it.
Luckily, that's all the damage there is. I did hit the curb pretty hard, so there's no doubt that it'll need an alignment. There's no obvious sign that it's out, but I'd rather get it checked out. I went home with my tail between my legs and parked up for the day.
For those who may be raising an eyebrow, this wasn't on a town road, nor was it with anyone else around. I drive very responsibly on my day to day driving, regardless of the car I'm in. I live in Wales so there are plenty of good roads around me to stretch the car's legs safely with no one around as I'd never drive quickly or spiritedly in towns, busy roads or on motorways. I also certainly don't race others. I simply enjoy the car for myself. But even so it can still go a little wrong, and it's lucky it was just the wheel. It happens I suppose, we've all been there, it's all a learning experience. That's also what the track is for, which I'll be going to sooner rather than later. Not because of this incident, but because I've found how fun this car can be and I'd like to explore what it can do a little further than on the public road.
Anyway. I've rubbed the area back and re-sprayed the damage.
It's not perfect at all as the metal itself has created the lip that you see on the inside. I may get a dremel on that to flatten it off a little more, just to take the eye off it. I'll be changing these wheels eventually and will keep them for track days, so I'm not too beat up about it.
Edited by geraintthomas on Tuesday 1st December 21:53
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