Mazda MX5 (Cheap Project)
Discussion
Hi, I've gone and bought another car to add to my collection lol. After having all the hassle I had with insurance with my mk5 fiesta zetec s, my insurance gave me the go ahead to a 1.6 mx5.
My budget was sub 1k due to being a student with all his money tied up in cars and I didnt want to sell the fez before ford fair (tbh I dont want to sell it but it was too much fun modded so going back to standard just isn't as fun).
So the hunt began, I decided I wanted an import for two main reasons, less chance of rust and more of the imports had an LSD compared to UK cars. Also UK cars seem to have a premium even though 80% of the time they are rust buckets. I went to see one which turned out to have had a massive shunt and was just panelled up, I called 8-9 for them to tell me they need a lot of welding or that they had sold. Then this morning I get to my dad's garage to tidy up the mk5 only to hear of an mx5 coming as a trade in... Result! Only problem being the cambelt has snapped, but they don't cause damage on these so off we went to pick it up and tow it back.
TBH, I've seen nicer ones lol, but it was cheap and will do me for a year or so. The paint is shot, laquer peeling all over and very faded and it needs welding on the sills. Here are the pics, I'm really no photographer and I only had my old nokia on me so I'll update with some better ones asap:
After an eventful trip here it is at the garage:
It come with some goodies too, OZ wheels and some sort of induction kit coupled with a strut brace (I think it might be standard)
Here is some of the rust
Interior shot
Plans:
- Mop the sh*t out of it and see if the paint is respectable if not respray of some description is on the cards... rattle cans anyone
- Bit of welding
- Half cage TR line or Mazdaspeed one
- poss hard top if I can nick one.
- tidy up engine bay
- Port and polish head if it comes off
- Dished wheel as they are awesome
- massive clean inside, vax and hoover.
about it for now, I will update shortly
PS I'm sorry if some of this doesnt make sence it was copied from another forum
My budget was sub 1k due to being a student with all his money tied up in cars and I didnt want to sell the fez before ford fair (tbh I dont want to sell it but it was too much fun modded so going back to standard just isn't as fun).
So the hunt began, I decided I wanted an import for two main reasons, less chance of rust and more of the imports had an LSD compared to UK cars. Also UK cars seem to have a premium even though 80% of the time they are rust buckets. I went to see one which turned out to have had a massive shunt and was just panelled up, I called 8-9 for them to tell me they need a lot of welding or that they had sold. Then this morning I get to my dad's garage to tidy up the mk5 only to hear of an mx5 coming as a trade in... Result! Only problem being the cambelt has snapped, but they don't cause damage on these so off we went to pick it up and tow it back.
TBH, I've seen nicer ones lol, but it was cheap and will do me for a year or so. The paint is shot, laquer peeling all over and very faded and it needs welding on the sills. Here are the pics, I'm really no photographer and I only had my old nokia on me so I'll update with some better ones asap:
After an eventful trip here it is at the garage:
It come with some goodies too, OZ wheels and some sort of induction kit coupled with a strut brace (I think it might be standard)
Here is some of the rust
Interior shot
Plans:
- Mop the sh*t out of it and see if the paint is respectable if not respray of some description is on the cards... rattle cans anyone
- Bit of welding
- Half cage TR line or Mazdaspeed one
- poss hard top if I can nick one.
- tidy up engine bay
- Port and polish head if it comes off
- Dished wheel as they are awesome
- massive clean inside, vax and hoover.
about it for now, I will update shortly
PS I'm sorry if some of this doesnt make sence it was copied from another forum
Today, I set about removing the cam cover and belt cover to see if it actually had a snapped belt.
First a couple of pics of the car
Not sure about the grill, might have to spray that black :S lol
anyway to work I went, before
cam cover came off, I thought this would be good shot but looks abit gay really
cam cover off
after a quick pull
here it is!
So now its time to get another belt on to see if it will fire.
I've also left the cam cover to soak over night then I think I going to attack it with some wet and dry and polish to give it a nice shine. I thought I would paint the strut brace and a few surrounding areas as I've never had a shiney bay before!
First a couple of pics of the car
Not sure about the grill, might have to spray that black :S lol
anyway to work I went, before
cam cover came off, I thought this would be good shot but looks abit gay really
cam cover off
after a quick pull
here it is!
So now its time to get another belt on to see if it will fire.
I've also left the cam cover to soak over night then I think I going to attack it with some wet and dry and polish to give it a nice shine. I thought I would paint the strut brace and a few surrounding areas as I've never had a shiney bay before!
Quite fancy a cheap one of these, of only for track fun. Good luck with the new belt, fingers crossed it solves the issue.
Few questions;
The cone air filter appears to be directly above the exhaust manifold, that can't be good?
Looks like something has been removed from behind the n/s headlamp, judging by the blue plug.
What does the orange switch next to the gear lever do?
Looks like there has been a lot of water around the plugs on top of the rocker cover, is that normal?
Good luck with the project!
Few questions;
The cone air filter appears to be directly above the exhaust manifold, that can't be good?
Looks like something has been removed from behind the n/s headlamp, judging by the blue plug.
What does the orange switch next to the gear lever do?
Looks like there has been a lot of water around the plugs on top of the rocker cover, is that normal?
Good luck with the project!
FlashBastd said:
What does the orange switch next to the gear lever do?
More than likely a foglight. FlashBastd said:
Looks like something has been removed from behind the n/s headlamp, judging by the blue plug.
Thats normal, a permanent auxilliary 12V feed under the bonnet as the batteries all the way back in the boot (for timing light, etc). FlashBastd said:
Quite fancy a cheap one of these, of only for track fun. Good luck with the new belt, fingers crossed it solves the issue.
Few questions;
The cone air filter appears to be directly above the exhaust manifold, that can't be good?
Looks like something has been removed from behind the n/s headlamp, judging by the blue plug.
What does the orange switch next to the gear lever do?
Looks like there has been a lot of water around the plugs on top of the rocker cover, is that normal?
Good luck with the project!
Thanks, I recognise your username from ZSOC! The air filter is close but that picture makes it look far closer than it is, but at the end of the day getting it running is my main priority never mind if there is heat soak! lol I read somewhere that most induction kits are more restrictive than the standard air box, how true this is I'm not sure. I've cranked the engine over today and it seem there are no lasting issues so hopefully it should be very very cheap motoring for the next year Few questions;
The cone air filter appears to be directly above the exhaust manifold, that can't be good?
Looks like something has been removed from behind the n/s headlamp, judging by the blue plug.
What does the orange switch next to the gear lever do?
Looks like there has been a lot of water around the plugs on top of the rocker cover, is that normal?
Good luck with the project!
.Some advice I would offer when looking would be, rust is the major issue and as there isnt much in the 1.6 and 1.8 I'd go on condition alone. Engines are pretty built proof (ironic I know lol) so mileage isn't an issue providing there is some service history. Also there are so many about only view locally as theres no point traveling for one. Good luck with the search
Update to follow!
FlashBastd said:
Still on ZSOC, got rid of my Puma a year ago now, running a 197 instead, which I adore.
Any progress with the new belt?
yeah I kept up with both your projects, very good reads!Any progress with the new belt?
Another update here, yesterday I continued to strip down to get another cambelt off. For a novice like me the mx5 is a nice car to work on as everything is fairly excess-able, however there are loads of rusty nuts and nuts and bolt hidden under oil so it took a good hour to get where I am.
right before I could access the cambelt, I had to remove two belts pictured below.
It was fiddley work, if you can see the bracket in the top of the picture, I had to loosen that and then slide across to slacken the aux belt for the aircon (yeeeaaahhh she has aircon)
Next onto the alternator belt, similar bracket thing which put up a fair fight
here I become stuck, so i drafted in some intellegence and muscle (rather handy have a dad with a garage and an ex mazda mechanic)
The old man using gentle persuasion
out this came... not sure what the pulley does but they said remove it so hey ho!
One of my dad's mechanics then came over to help, he turned the engine over checking for clearance issues as although they are a none interfering engine that is only to 90% and as the belt on there wasn't a genuine mazda one (so it had obviously been replaced), it was important to check everything was A ok to proceed.
She was given the all clear! no reason it should fire with a new belt. only issue causing concern is the 3rd spark plug wouldn't come out so that will have to be investigated. I also need to order some seals (cant remember which ones)
For the next update:
- fit seals
- fit cam belt
- polish cam cover and refit
FlashBastd said:
All looking very promising!
An update to strengthen this view coming up.Today I set about fitting the new cambelt to give it a pressure test.
So take one cambelt kit...
It was very easy to get on and time up, I'm told the mx5 cambelt is a p*ss easy job and it was a nice one to do with some help as my first cambelt. We finally got spark plug 3 out, there was nothing wrong with the thread however where the spark plug socket grips it, it was a bit rounded off and coupled with it being pretty tidy it made for a tense few mins trying to get it out.
So the pressure test
results
Shes a gooden, looking forward to having it up and running very soon now
I cleaned the camcover (was going to polish it but I cba really) and got some of the muck off the inside by the pulleys
before
During
After
new gasket
and then I rested it in place ready for another day
It needs new camshaft oil seals and the idle pulley is sort of on its way...
I'm not sure whether I should spend the money or just use it as it is as it'll go on for ages in its current state with a new belt or should I sort it and hope thats the last of the problems. Economically, it makes more sense to leave it as I could find it needs a new clutch when its done or something but as I'm going to track it, I might as well make sure its in tip top shape. We shall see
Comments welcome
I made a decision, I'm going to change the the water pump and both pulleys just to make sure I dont have to do all this again.
So once the parts arrived I cracked on & removed the old one is relative short space of time, here is the old one:
The new one arrived & by this time I had completely forgot where all the bolts went. Mainly because I tried to take this out... :facepalm:
old
I cleaned up the edge of the block so that when I refit it properly
new
I can't work out where this red one goes :S
Pump will go on tomorrow once the I finished work
So once the parts arrived I cracked on & removed the old one is relative short space of time, here is the old one:
The new one arrived & by this time I had completely forgot where all the bolts went. Mainly because I tried to take this out... :facepalm:
old
I cleaned up the edge of the block so that when I refit it properly
new
I can't work out where this red one goes :S
Pump will go on tomorrow once the I finished work
forgot to update this!
first of all,
I bought this and fitted it when I picked the car up...
added these (I know they are very common and "scene" but I've always had stickers and I love these)
then I got the main bar of the cage fitted and went for a little drive with my dad through some sussex back roads, I got back in time to steal these too
A bit of an impulse buy but they were cheap
first of all,
I bought this and fitted it when I picked the car up...
added these (I know they are very common and "scene" but I've always had stickers and I love these)
then I got the main bar of the cage fitted and went for a little drive with my dad through some sussex back roads, I got back in time to steal these too
A bit of an impulse buy but they were cheap
well I got mine purely by chance, my dad took it in as a trade in at work with a snapped cam belt so it was very cheap but they can be had for as little as £500. Just take your time as there are plenty about so its a buyers market, check for rust and accident damage apart from that the engines are bullet proof so no worries there
I'm slightly upset about having sold my MX-5 but there's always "Next car"... They're simply a no-loss situation- So simple to work on, so many parts...yeah I never meant them to match tbh! bought the bar with the intensions of painting it black but the chap was a sprayer by trade and had only done it a week ago so it seemed a crime to rattle can it. The seats were cheap and happened to be yellow lol so I seem to have choosen a theme by chance!
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff