Emily's 04 VR SE

[emily_mx5]

hahaa, yeah I know, but I can't really afford one right now.
After I pay for rego+insurance+new suspension, I will deffinately save up to upgrade to a real roll bar

[Apu]

That really is a pretty little car Emily! Should have taken a closer look when you were over but with the rain and all... Hopefully we'll see you at a gathering soon!

[emily_mx5]

Interior Light Upgrade:
I have very few issues with my mx5, as it was impeccably designed and built in the first place.
However, the interior lights are pathetic.
Mine didn't work at all, so I needed to fix them anyway, but I thought, why not upgrade and make them match the headunit?
So I ordered 2x 27mm blue SMD LED festoon bulbs and 2x 40cm blue SMD LED strips from eBay, cost less than $15 all up

I pulled out the old lights


Took them apart, to find green corrosion gunk, and that half the connections had come off

That would probably explain the not working part.

5 mins later with a bit of sanding and soldering they were good to go


To set up the LED strips, I vampire tapped and soldered the positive from the strip to the red of the light, and the negative to the white. This enables them to be controlled with
door open = lights on
door closed = lights off
(The black wire in the lights is also a negative point... if you want the strips to permanently stay on with no way of turning them off.)

Ofcourse protect with (matching!) electrical tape.


I used an automotive plug from JayCar which can be easily disconnected incase I ever need to have the doors open without the strips turning on.


I used 3M tape and a couple of cable ties to stick the strips way up in the footwells, so you can't see the actual strips (that would be tacky) just the glowing light they produce

Sidenote: At some stage someone put in central locking, and evidently a relay, so now whenever I press unlock on the remote, the interior lights come on! This is super super awesome and at night is really impressive.
I am very pleased

[emily_mx5]

The photo is pretty badly over exposed
They are way less bright in person.

[yem11n]

LOL... The first thought that popped up was that song, Blue Da ba dee..


Yemin

[Hjt]

We need an update after your studies!

[emily_mx5]

LOL... The first thought that popped up was that song, Blue Da ba dee..

Yeah, they were a tad ridiculous, changed to white now, less ricey, more classy

We need an update after your studies!

Yes update soon! I'm right in the middle of replacing all 9 water hoses with an awesome SFS set

[emily_mx5]

Maintenance:
So the windscreen wipers stopped working, in super heavy rain, on the highway. fml haha.
When I got home, I opened up the hood and noticed the little motor really struggling and sounding like scraping bearings.
Luckily luist had a spare one handy.
I decided to polish it, because you can never have too much shiny stuff in the engine bay, but mostly to practice because I will be polishing my rocker cover in the next month or so



Also tightened stupid alternator belt, again

[red devil]

its a pain when the wipers stop working and it always happens at the most inappropriate of times!!

Looks like she's getting there, keep it up!!

[Apu]

Hey you changed your nick! Good thing since there's mx5_se as well!

Polishing your rocker cover?! You're really getting into it!

[emily_mx5]

Polishing your rocker cover?!

Well I can't paint it, because i've already painted the callipers and that alone added around 23.7hp, aswell as the dipstick and the radiator overflow cap which is probly 6.4hp, so if I do the rocker cover aswell there will be just too much power
So that only leaves polishing, which will go with the vintage style I'm trying to get going.

[emily_mx5]

Red Silicone Hose kit
22 year old hoses needed replacing... some were split and mostly all were baked onto the (rusted) metal.


So, thanks again to luist, got a full set (9) of silicone hoses, I think he said there are SFS, but most importantly, they are RED.



Today I managed to replace 5. It takes so long because the stupid oem press clips are so freakin hard to undo in awkward spaces
I've never had so many cuts and bruises on my hands haha so I think i'll leave the rest for a mechanic or something like that.
Also, red dipstick and JDM radiator cap goodness

[Apu]

Shouldn't have gone with red silicon hoses Em...too much horsepower!

[mitch_f1]

Wow, red hoses are red!!

Good work on all the DIY

[Wivvix]

My only advice at this point is to look into the Mania CAI before touching the exhaust.
Exhaust noise and induction noise are very different and will have very different impacts on tonal quality.