A very neglected NA MX-5
Discussion
This is MX-5 number 5 for me. All NA's. The newer models have never appealed in the same way. Blame those pop up headlights. It's been a while since I last had one in my life but I've been looking to do something about that for the last 18 months or so.
All of my previous ones have had some level of ferrous oxide to deal with so I swore that this time, I would just spend the money to get a great one and keep on top of it. That is how I came to pay 300 quid, sight unseen for this beauty! It is possibly the most neglected car I have ever bought. Spotted it on C&C. Terrible advert. 300 miles away. But I couldn't help making an enquiry. Chatting with the owners, a really nice retired couple. It seems the story is that it was in use until the end of 2019. Was parked up for winter. I guess covid happened and it was probably a year or so before the key was turned again and it wouldn't start. It would turn over but nothing else. A local mechanic had prodded around it but ultimately not got anywhere. I got some pics of the bodywork just to check it wasn't a total disaster. It had recently had repairs to both rear arches and sills but had not yet been painted. The odd dent and scuff. Basically extremely tatty but potentially solid enough. Nothing dodgy on the history so I decided to take a punt. I felt that at this sort of price, even accounting for getting it transported here, I couldn't really lose out too badly.
Organised transport, which cost a smidge more than the car itself and a week later it turned up and I saw it for the first time. Up close, it really is in a nasty state. Extremely mucky everywhere. Crusty brackets, fixings etc everywhere. Battery tray corroded. Paint flat as a fart. The brakes only just work. All sorts of broken bits that have had cable tie repairs. Hood is terrible. Repair to rear aches is not great and the appears to have been brush painted in black. I guess just to protect until it went to get paint but that clearly never happened.
The good news. Well the first thing that I have to cling onto is that even with transport I'm 'only' £700 in. I have to keep reminding myself of that each time I find a new surprise! The sills and arches do actually appear to be solid and with some paint and preventative maintenance might stand the test of time for a short while at least. It came with two keys and loads of history. It's an unusually basic spec which I'm seeing as a positive here as it gives me far less to worry about. It has keep fit windows, no AC, no interior boot release, and no PAS. The latter, I might have rather had PAS but I do like the sheer simplicity of not having it and lots of space in the engine bay. The pop up headlights work
Most importantly, the previous owner went to great lengths to tell me it has a CD player! Woohoo!
Order of play here was:
1) Get it running
2) Carry out some basics to get it MOT ready and get an MOT
3) Decide any future stuff from there.
So onto getting it started. Before it had even arrived, I bought a used 'good' CAS as this is such a common failure point. So once I'd established that, indeed the car does not start, I swapped the CAS over. I partly did this as removing the cam cover also allowed me to check that the timing belt was roughly still in one piece. It actually looks quite new. Turned the key. Nothing.
Next thing, I noticed that there were no dash lights, or radio etc when turning key. The only sign of life was the starter. The car had a blinking aftermarket LED indicating it probably had some sort of nasty aftermarket immobiliser. So I took all the trim away from around the steering column and removed a nasty aftermarket immobiliser. For now, I've temporarily rejoined the OE wiring. Need to do that with some proper connectors and shielding.
I now had dash lights and a radio etc so fully expected the little 1.6 to erupt straight into life. Nope!
So after that, I decided to get a bit more methodical. I picked up one of those ignition lamps and hooked it up to cylinder 1 and established that I had no spark. I could not hear the fuel pump either but connected a jumper across the diagnostic port and that told me the fuel pump was functional. Using an LED the diagnostics itself just gave me one longish pulse which I believe just means all is normal. Checked all fuses and they seemed good.
It was about this time that I turned to PH and got a good pointer from Belle427 (thanks) to take a look at the ECU. I pulled back the carpet under the glove box and was met with a grim scene. It's clearly had water getting in there at some point. Initially I thought the floor was gone but the rust seems to be mainly to the ECU cover and brackets. I had to cut both off to get to the ECU but there was no point trying to salvage them as you can see from pics. Opening up the ECU, everything looked clean in there. No sign of water. No sign of anything burnt out. Connectors look good too. Wafted some contact cleaner around anyway and put it back in but no joy when trying to start the car.
Fuses and relays all seemed to be working. This was starting to become a head scratcher.
It occurred to me that, maybe the issue had been the immobiliser and that by fitting another CAS early on, maybe I'd introduced a new problem and that the 'new' CAS wasn't functional.
First thing I checked was that the CAS was getting 12v with the ignition on. It was. It's not easy to check the output of the CAS but since I had a spare I decided to plug that into the loom instead of the one attached to the engine and with the ignition on, I could turn the CAS by hand and eureka, for the first time since getting the car, my ignition light on cylinder 1 lit up!
So at this point, I was convinced I'd taken out a working CAS and fitted a dud. Swapped them over again and was again convinced I was about to hear a purring mazda four pot. And..... nothing!
Time for a good head scratch here. I knew my CAS worked but for some reason did not work when actually installed . Then it finally dawned on me that I must simply be getting no ignition when the key is turned to the cranking position so now attention turned to the ignition barrel.
I took the ignition barrel out and took it apart. Tiny springs and ball bearings flew out everywhere. A lot of the contact faces were quite oxidised. I gave everything a good clean up, reassembled and put it back together. I didn't have any dielectric grease so I'll maybe take it out again in due course but for now it went back on the car.
And..... we have lift off! Engine started almost first crank. I guess because of the faulty ignition, it's not been dumping fuel into the cylinders and so it started like a normal car. No coughing or spluttering. 4 years since it last burst into life.
So that brings us up to date for now. The car arrived on Monday and I fired it up for the first time last night. Next jobs are to make good lots of things I've been messing with. Address some other tidy up jobs. Check the timing. Give all four brakes a very good clean up and check for anything else that might stop it from getting an MOT. I really only want an MOT because it gives us an option to A sell it or B at least move it around and get paintwork etc done. I don't really intend to drive it until I'm much happier with various bits.
Here's my list of problems I know about and do bear in mind I have not yet looked under the car or had the wheels off!
Oil is mucky so need to change that and filter
No undertray fitted
Headlight covers misaligned
Passenger door catching on front wing
Speedo in KMH still and has stickers pointing out important mph speeds!
Hole in dash for nasty immobiliser switch
No sign of rear fog lamp switch but it has a rear fog light
Hole in roof
Dent on rear O/S wing
Ding in O/S door
Wipers work on one speed only
N/S mirror bust
Carpet worn through in a couple of places
Both rear wings and sills need prep and paint
Coil bracket broken (held up with cable ties)
Many rusty things under bonnet.
Engine bay a bit rusty generally
Tyres are thousands of years old and likely cost £4 each when new.
Aerial broken
Heater fan doesn't work
Clutch and brake fluid look grim
Coolant looks nasty
All hoses in the engine bay are way past their best
Radiator fan held on by home made brackets
Paint may or may not polish up. If not, full respray needed.
Windscreen pillar rusty
Holes in soft top
4x tyres are Hero, Intensa, Westlake and Hankook. All destined for the bin.
Rust patch where hood meets the boot area.
All black plastics trying turn white.
I know when I get underneath I'll want to do something about the inevitable crustiness of subframes and suspension etc and I imagine springs, dampers, pads and discs will all be done at some point too.
You might be wondering why I'm bothering to do all this and not just buy a better one. To an extent I am wondering that too! I suppose firstly I think that if I can get it MOT'd for very little outlay and at that point, I probably have a get out option that would see me at least recoup my costs if I was so inclined. But actually, despite that very long to do list, I'm starting to think I might be in this for the long haul. Firstly, it gives me something to tinker with. My Lotus never really needs anything and nor do my other cars so this is something to keep me out of trouble. But also, I see a lot of appeal in bringing a car back from the brink. I've no doubt most people would just break or scrap this but I love the idea of slowly making a silk purse from a sow's ear. We'll see. Might depend what an MOT throws up.
Some pics:
Who cares if nothing else works when these do!
Needs a decat!
I bought a used CAS before the car even arrived so had a chance to make it shiny.
Removed a nasty immobiliser
This was the sight that greeted me when I lifted the carpet to see whether the ECU could have been exposed to any moisture!
Amazingly it was spotless inside.
The offending ignition barrel. Forgot to take a pic of it in 500 pieces before it went back together.
CD player!
A quality kmh to mph speedo conversion!
All of my previous ones have had some level of ferrous oxide to deal with so I swore that this time, I would just spend the money to get a great one and keep on top of it. That is how I came to pay 300 quid, sight unseen for this beauty! It is possibly the most neglected car I have ever bought. Spotted it on C&C. Terrible advert. 300 miles away. But I couldn't help making an enquiry. Chatting with the owners, a really nice retired couple. It seems the story is that it was in use until the end of 2019. Was parked up for winter. I guess covid happened and it was probably a year or so before the key was turned again and it wouldn't start. It would turn over but nothing else. A local mechanic had prodded around it but ultimately not got anywhere. I got some pics of the bodywork just to check it wasn't a total disaster. It had recently had repairs to both rear arches and sills but had not yet been painted. The odd dent and scuff. Basically extremely tatty but potentially solid enough. Nothing dodgy on the history so I decided to take a punt. I felt that at this sort of price, even accounting for getting it transported here, I couldn't really lose out too badly.
Organised transport, which cost a smidge more than the car itself and a week later it turned up and I saw it for the first time. Up close, it really is in a nasty state. Extremely mucky everywhere. Crusty brackets, fixings etc everywhere. Battery tray corroded. Paint flat as a fart. The brakes only just work. All sorts of broken bits that have had cable tie repairs. Hood is terrible. Repair to rear aches is not great and the appears to have been brush painted in black. I guess just to protect until it went to get paint but that clearly never happened.
The good news. Well the first thing that I have to cling onto is that even with transport I'm 'only' £700 in. I have to keep reminding myself of that each time I find a new surprise! The sills and arches do actually appear to be solid and with some paint and preventative maintenance might stand the test of time for a short while at least. It came with two keys and loads of history. It's an unusually basic spec which I'm seeing as a positive here as it gives me far less to worry about. It has keep fit windows, no AC, no interior boot release, and no PAS. The latter, I might have rather had PAS but I do like the sheer simplicity of not having it and lots of space in the engine bay. The pop up headlights work
Most importantly, the previous owner went to great lengths to tell me it has a CD player! Woohoo! Order of play here was:
1) Get it running
2) Carry out some basics to get it MOT ready and get an MOT
3) Decide any future stuff from there.
So onto getting it started. Before it had even arrived, I bought a used 'good' CAS as this is such a common failure point. So once I'd established that, indeed the car does not start, I swapped the CAS over. I partly did this as removing the cam cover also allowed me to check that the timing belt was roughly still in one piece. It actually looks quite new. Turned the key. Nothing.
Next thing, I noticed that there were no dash lights, or radio etc when turning key. The only sign of life was the starter. The car had a blinking aftermarket LED indicating it probably had some sort of nasty aftermarket immobiliser. So I took all the trim away from around the steering column and removed a nasty aftermarket immobiliser. For now, I've temporarily rejoined the OE wiring. Need to do that with some proper connectors and shielding.
I now had dash lights and a radio etc so fully expected the little 1.6 to erupt straight into life. Nope!
So after that, I decided to get a bit more methodical. I picked up one of those ignition lamps and hooked it up to cylinder 1 and established that I had no spark. I could not hear the fuel pump either but connected a jumper across the diagnostic port and that told me the fuel pump was functional. Using an LED the diagnostics itself just gave me one longish pulse which I believe just means all is normal. Checked all fuses and they seemed good.
It was about this time that I turned to PH and got a good pointer from Belle427 (thanks) to take a look at the ECU. I pulled back the carpet under the glove box and was met with a grim scene. It's clearly had water getting in there at some point. Initially I thought the floor was gone but the rust seems to be mainly to the ECU cover and brackets. I had to cut both off to get to the ECU but there was no point trying to salvage them as you can see from pics. Opening up the ECU, everything looked clean in there. No sign of water. No sign of anything burnt out. Connectors look good too. Wafted some contact cleaner around anyway and put it back in but no joy when trying to start the car.
Fuses and relays all seemed to be working. This was starting to become a head scratcher.
It occurred to me that, maybe the issue had been the immobiliser and that by fitting another CAS early on, maybe I'd introduced a new problem and that the 'new' CAS wasn't functional.
First thing I checked was that the CAS was getting 12v with the ignition on. It was. It's not easy to check the output of the CAS but since I had a spare I decided to plug that into the loom instead of the one attached to the engine and with the ignition on, I could turn the CAS by hand and eureka, for the first time since getting the car, my ignition light on cylinder 1 lit up!
So at this point, I was convinced I'd taken out a working CAS and fitted a dud. Swapped them over again and was again convinced I was about to hear a purring mazda four pot. And..... nothing!
Time for a good head scratch here. I knew my CAS worked but for some reason did not work when actually installed . Then it finally dawned on me that I must simply be getting no ignition when the key is turned to the cranking position so now attention turned to the ignition barrel.
I took the ignition barrel out and took it apart. Tiny springs and ball bearings flew out everywhere. A lot of the contact faces were quite oxidised. I gave everything a good clean up, reassembled and put it back together. I didn't have any dielectric grease so I'll maybe take it out again in due course but for now it went back on the car.
And..... we have lift off! Engine started almost first crank. I guess because of the faulty ignition, it's not been dumping fuel into the cylinders and so it started like a normal car. No coughing or spluttering. 4 years since it last burst into life.
So that brings us up to date for now. The car arrived on Monday and I fired it up for the first time last night. Next jobs are to make good lots of things I've been messing with. Address some other tidy up jobs. Check the timing. Give all four brakes a very good clean up and check for anything else that might stop it from getting an MOT. I really only want an MOT because it gives us an option to A sell it or B at least move it around and get paintwork etc done. I don't really intend to drive it until I'm much happier with various bits.
Here's my list of problems I know about and do bear in mind I have not yet looked under the car or had the wheels off!
Oil is mucky so need to change that and filter
No undertray fitted
Headlight covers misaligned
Passenger door catching on front wing
Speedo in KMH still and has stickers pointing out important mph speeds!
Hole in dash for nasty immobiliser switch
No sign of rear fog lamp switch but it has a rear fog light
Hole in roof
Dent on rear O/S wing
Ding in O/S door
Wipers work on one speed only
N/S mirror bust
Carpet worn through in a couple of places
Both rear wings and sills need prep and paint
Coil bracket broken (held up with cable ties)
Many rusty things under bonnet.
Engine bay a bit rusty generally
Tyres are thousands of years old and likely cost £4 each when new.
Aerial broken
Heater fan doesn't work
Clutch and brake fluid look grim
Coolant looks nasty
All hoses in the engine bay are way past their best
Radiator fan held on by home made brackets
Paint may or may not polish up. If not, full respray needed.
Windscreen pillar rusty
Holes in soft top
4x tyres are Hero, Intensa, Westlake and Hankook. All destined for the bin.
Rust patch where hood meets the boot area.
All black plastics trying turn white.
I know when I get underneath I'll want to do something about the inevitable crustiness of subframes and suspension etc and I imagine springs, dampers, pads and discs will all be done at some point too.
You might be wondering why I'm bothering to do all this and not just buy a better one. To an extent I am wondering that too! I suppose firstly I think that if I can get it MOT'd for very little outlay and at that point, I probably have a get out option that would see me at least recoup my costs if I was so inclined. But actually, despite that very long to do list, I'm starting to think I might be in this for the long haul. Firstly, it gives me something to tinker with. My Lotus never really needs anything and nor do my other cars so this is something to keep me out of trouble. But also, I see a lot of appeal in bringing a car back from the brink. I've no doubt most people would just break or scrap this but I love the idea of slowly making a silk purse from a sow's ear. We'll see. Might depend what an MOT throws up.
Some pics:
Who cares if nothing else works when these do!
Needs a decat!
I bought a used CAS before the car even arrived so had a chance to make it shiny.
Removed a nasty immobiliser
This was the sight that greeted me when I lifted the carpet to see whether the ECU could have been exposed to any moisture!
Amazingly it was spotless inside.
The offending ignition barrel. Forgot to take a pic of it in 500 pieces before it went back together.
CD player!
A quality kmh to mph speedo conversion!
Edited by Gad-Westy on Friday 27th October 12:07
Oh in for this. A friend had a ratty NA, A March ‘90 (G) Mariner Blue NA. £750, with three sets of wheels. We both drove the wheels off of it, and it saw a lot of usage. It also remains the only car I’ve spun on the public road. 
It was a great car, but the rot meant it had to go. It was on 160k and had seen some stuff. It blew the no.3 plug out, but a new one nipped up and all seemed well.
It was a great car, but the rot meant it had to go. It was on 160k and had seen some stuff. It blew the no.3 plug out, but a new one nipped up and all seemed well.
DaveyBoyWonder said:
Great - I've had 3, 2 minters and an absolute POS that I ended up stripping and scrapping (probably worth thousands given the current price for NAs!).
Yep. I keep thinking about one of these again, just as 'something to do', as if I dont alreayd have enough on..... Would be MX-5 number 5 if I ever did go back. Feel like I could strip and rebuild one with my eyes closed! Not too much to upstate here as I just haven't had too much time in the last week or so.
I have spent some time just to tidy some bad bits up under the bonnet while waiting on some bits to arrive. I removed the charcoal canister, it's bracket and solenoid which liberated some space on the LHS. I doubt it would still do anything at this age. It did reveal some brown patches of bodywork so at some point soon I think I'll strip a load of stuff out and do some rust treatment and painting under there but for now, I'll just clean it up.
I need to work out how the cables for the headlights are meant to be routed as I seem to have an enormous excess of cable on both of mine.
Today I went to actual scrapyard with tools to pilfer some bits from a 91 automatic NA. Absolutely years since I've done that. I came away with a new ECU cover and bracketry, speaker grills (mine are rusty), a new diagnostic port bracket. A new ignition coil bracket. Exhaust manifold heat shield, a new rad fan and some other bits I've forgotten. fifty quid well spent. It also gave me a chance to take various pictures that I can refer to in terms of how cables and hoses are meant to be routed and clipped.
I have a to-do list for MOT.
One tyre needs puncture repair.
Strip down brakes and check everything is free moving
Repair the ignition cables where the immobiliser was (I bought some fancy low temp solder connectors that I cannot get to work so I'll be doing this with old school solder and heat shrink instead.
Check all bulbs, horn wipers etc
Fit new fog light switch.
Once it's MOT'd I need to take a deep breath and decide what to do about bodywork. Now that I've spent more time poking around, I can see it needs a lot of work in terms of welding then paint. I could have put this off and spent some time getting other stuff right but I think it would be prudent to see where I stand with metalwork costs first before trying to make everything else perfect. I have spoken to some places and am prepared for an absolutely enormous bill! We'll see.
I have spent some time just to tidy some bad bits up under the bonnet while waiting on some bits to arrive. I removed the charcoal canister, it's bracket and solenoid which liberated some space on the LHS. I doubt it would still do anything at this age. It did reveal some brown patches of bodywork so at some point soon I think I'll strip a load of stuff out and do some rust treatment and painting under there but for now, I'll just clean it up.
I need to work out how the cables for the headlights are meant to be routed as I seem to have an enormous excess of cable on both of mine.
Today I went to actual scrapyard with tools to pilfer some bits from a 91 automatic NA. Absolutely years since I've done that. I came away with a new ECU cover and bracketry, speaker grills (mine are rusty), a new diagnostic port bracket. A new ignition coil bracket. Exhaust manifold heat shield, a new rad fan and some other bits I've forgotten. fifty quid well spent. It also gave me a chance to take various pictures that I can refer to in terms of how cables and hoses are meant to be routed and clipped.
I have a to-do list for MOT.
One tyre needs puncture repair.
Strip down brakes and check everything is free moving
Repair the ignition cables where the immobiliser was (I bought some fancy low temp solder connectors that I cannot get to work so I'll be doing this with old school solder and heat shrink instead.
Check all bulbs, horn wipers etc
Fit new fog light switch.
Once it's MOT'd I need to take a deep breath and decide what to do about bodywork. Now that I've spent more time poking around, I can see it needs a lot of work in terms of welding then paint. I could have put this off and spent some time getting other stuff right but I think it would be prudent to see where I stand with metalwork costs first before trying to make everything else perfect. I have spoken to some places and am prepared for an absolutely enormous bill! We'll see.
Awesome, i'm in 
Love an NA so can appreciate the appeal OP, i've fancied getting a Mk3 MR2 for a while however have a feeling i'd regret not getting an Eunos, alas i've waited a few years and now the MX5s have gone up in value!
Brave task judging by the state of that floor under the ECU, but best of luck and looking forward to further resto (and cat!) content
Love an NA so can appreciate the appeal OP, i've fancied getting a Mk3 MR2 for a while however have a feeling i'd regret not getting an Eunos, alas i've waited a few years and now the MX5s have gone up in value!Brave task judging by the state of that floor under the ECU, but best of luck and looking forward to further resto (and cat!) content
CKY said:
Awesome, i'm in Love an NA so can appreciate the appeal OP, i've fancied getting a Mk3 MR2 for a while however have a feeling i'd regret not getting an Eunos, alas i've waited a few years and now the MX5s have gone up in value!
Brave task judging by the state of that floor under the ECU, but best of luck and looking forward to further resto (and cat!) content
Love an NA so can appreciate the appeal OP, i've fancied getting a Mk3 MR2 for a while however have a feeling i'd regret not getting an Eunos, alas i've waited a few years and now the MX5s have gone up in value!Brave task judging by the state of that floor under the ECU, but best of luck and looking forward to further resto (and cat!) content
They're a bit of addiction. Though I do question how cheap this 'cheap' one is going to turn out. Regarding the floor. It's not nearly as bad as that pic makes it look. All of what you see there is the ECU cover plate and mounting bracket and various bits of underlay fluff. It does have a couple of holes though. As does the battery tray.
I'm trying to sweet talk a friend into doing some welding on it. There is a fairly solid car at a local scarp yard so if they're happy for me to cut some sections out of it, I might get the floor and battery tray done prior to MOT (probably have to really).
Well this isn't really the update to this that I wanted to make but sadly the car is no more.
Over the Christmas period, I spent s fir bit of time stripping it down and I just kept finding more and more issues. Mainly corrosion which wasn't a suprise, including some on the front offside chassis rail but basically rust everywhere. There was also some accident damage on the front nearside corner I wasn't completely phased by that as this was rapidly heading for a full bare shell resto anyway but actually what put the nail in the coffin on this was the sheer number of little brackets and fixings that were breaking. No matter how careful I was, it felt like everything I touched was breaking and was going to need a repair or replacement. I had a good chat with the body resto guy that I'd lined up but ultimately decided to break it.
It's not all doom and gloom though. I decided I'd basically box everything up and keep as spares for the inevitable next NA. A family member decided to buy most of the running gear from me to build a zero. I sold the wheels, dash, interior etc and just about broke even but was left with a huge amount of spares.
I have to admit it was a bit depressing seeing the shell being carted away at the end. Felt like mission failure but I know that it was sensible.
My wife did quite rightly point out that if I'd have done nothing else other than get it running which I managed more or less as soon as I got it , I could likely have just sold it on for a few hundred quid profit and saved myself a lot of hassle! That said, even though I was no strangers to these cars beforehand, I still learnt a huge amount from stripping one down to a bare shell. So that counts for something!
Anyway, inevitably about 3 minutes after this car left on a scrap wagon, I was scouring the internet for a replacement and ended up buying this. I better start another thread.
Over the Christmas period, I spent s fir bit of time stripping it down and I just kept finding more and more issues. Mainly corrosion which wasn't a suprise, including some on the front offside chassis rail but basically rust everywhere. There was also some accident damage on the front nearside corner I wasn't completely phased by that as this was rapidly heading for a full bare shell resto anyway but actually what put the nail in the coffin on this was the sheer number of little brackets and fixings that were breaking. No matter how careful I was, it felt like everything I touched was breaking and was going to need a repair or replacement. I had a good chat with the body resto guy that I'd lined up but ultimately decided to break it.
It's not all doom and gloom though. I decided I'd basically box everything up and keep as spares for the inevitable next NA. A family member decided to buy most of the running gear from me to build a zero. I sold the wheels, dash, interior etc and just about broke even but was left with a huge amount of spares.
I have to admit it was a bit depressing seeing the shell being carted away at the end. Felt like mission failure but I know that it was sensible.
My wife did quite rightly point out that if I'd have done nothing else other than get it running which I managed more or less as soon as I got it , I could likely have just sold it on for a few hundred quid profit and saved myself a lot of hassle! That said, even though I was no strangers to these cars beforehand, I still learnt a huge amount from stripping one down to a bare shell. So that counts for something!
Anyway, inevitably about 3 minutes after this car left on a scrap wagon, I was scouring the internet for a replacement and ended up buying this. I better start another thread.
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