mx5cartalk.com

Time to introduce my new guilty pleasure, may it bring me great fun and add great lightness to my wallet!!

It's a 1991 and red of course! No other colour does it for me quite like the red. Didn't seem to for my partner either, I was keen to go a BRG but I got a blank stare and a 'can you see ME in a colour like that??' ooookay better go the red then





Not too many of the mod cons, there's no aircon, and no power steering (doesn't seem that heavy to steer though compared to some things I've dríven).

The previous owner was a young guy who didn't drive it much during his ownership due to travel, and before him apparently it was owned by an MX5 club member, I imagine the stuff this car has was added by that owner. I had been looking at NA8's initially as many threads around the place of 'what to buy?' tend towards recommending the 8. I did drive a few of both though and didn't feel the 6 was lacking and with what I had to spend a 6 meant I have a bit of leeway to add more stuff and fix things. I think the family I bought it off were a bit bamboozled by my pulling on my beanie to drive it home topdown at whatever ludicrously cold temperature it was on Friday night hehe

Its not the most perfect example ever, but it felt good compared to a few I looked at in my search and is quite serviceable, I didn't expect that any car this age would be utterly flawless, and after all, I wanted to leave myself some stuff to do on it



As you can probably tell it was lowered already and has some wheels that I can't identify but don't mind the look of for now. I can't tell exactly what the suspension is but it looks like it may be some KYB shocks and some red springs (technical aren't I!) At the very least I need to replace a few of the rubber boots that are broken on them, but I had factored in a new suspension if needed so I wasn't too concerned if whatever car I got had dead bouncy stuff. Though to be honest I can't tell if its functioning ok or not. It seems very bumpy over rougher stuff, and the whole car is quite juddery when it does so. On what smooth roads I can find in Brisbane (not many!) its really nice though, maybe its just set for more sportiness. Its not unlivable with, and my partner doesn't see to mind but I find myself concentrating a lot trying to avoid crap since to me it all seems like big hits hehe! Oh and its in dire need of an alignment pronto



The powerplant was replaced at some point too and runs quite well, its not perfect though and I'll investigate what needs to be done soon. Mostly its pretty random at idle. After you slow to a stop the revs seem to hover at 2000 and drop off quite a bit after you've stopped accelerating, or sometimes stays that high. Or else its moving up and down between 900 and 1200 rpm at idle. A bit weird. There's also a bit of black smoke under acceleration. So its running a bit rich probably, maybe because of sensors or the ecu? At higher revs it all seems to run quite smooth.

Inside its mostly all good, it had seat covers on it that I didn't get a chance to look under when I saw it first time, and underneath it had leather chairs, though not in the greatest condition



The seat covers are loose and annoying and although I wish the leather seats were better looked after I don't mind replacing them, or getting the leather (or pleather?) covers you can get and sew over the seats. Softtop isn't pristine but serviceable and I don't believe it leaks though only real rain will tell. It has had some repairs but seems solid and I wasn't able to get water in it when I washed the car today, so hopefully that's all good. I desire greatly a hardtop and soon.

There's a very small carpark ding in the drivers door, and a slightly indented part of the driver side rear panel that I totally didn't see til today Since I'd also like to delete entirely the aerial (I have too much music to use radio ) I can get that whole panel fixed up in one hit when time allows. One other scratch on the boot but not deep enough to hit metal.

The list of things I'd like to do is long provided nothing goes bust too soon!

I think I am going to have to wuss out and get an aircon in it soon. I can't stand the humidity in Qld and I'll go crazy without it when summer rolls around.

A hardtop of course, there's some wheels out there I like and a second set for splitting up road and the occasional track usage seems a good idea.

Boosting probably won't be any time soon but its in the back of my mind, I'd rather learn to drive it first. Perhaps if I have to get a new engine at some point it will probably happen then.

There's a lot I'd like to try out on the interior and after the mechanicals are all solid I'll start on those projects.
I'd like to tackle DIY gauges and gauge panel. I totally love the Artworks Dewa and other interesting gauges out there and they're close to what I would like but maybe I can put a slightly different spin on it. Also I need to think of an interesting way to set up some interior lighting I'm not digging the little lights either side of the centre console hehe. One of the stock speakers is bust so I think I'll find a nice pair of new ones to put in there shortly.

If you made it this far thanks for reading, man I can ramble on! Don't think the photos made up for all the text but will be taking more. If you have any suggestions about the idling I'd like to hear what you think.

Looks good mate!

The wheels are Enkei's, and will be light and strong. Are sought after, don't give them away!

If you've got KYB's under there, they are adjustable - dial/knob on the back of the shock near the base. There are suspension braces available which will help stiffen up the ride a bit and reduce some scuttle shake. Mazda added these to later models, so you can either buy from them (and they're even a reasonable price) or there are many after market versions available. Some people even make their own...

Idle, could be a few things, but nothing major. I'd recommend getting your hands on a good owners workshop manual - there is one called "Rods .......... " (sorry can't remember the exact name) which is a good one. Drysdale Auto Books at Bowen Hills will either have it on the shelf or could get it in for you.

Welcome aboard, sounds like you're going to have some fun with this.

paint job looks like its in great shape.

Welcome Slug-dub,

nice looking red Na, but I'm a bit partial to em

Your idle issue is prob the co2 sensor, quite common.

For a workshop manual look in the Tech section, there are NA workshop and parts manuals you can down load.

But any questions ,just ask, we don't bite usually!!

Terry

ps, what part of nth Brissy are ya??

Thanks for the tips guys. Tbro, I know exactly where Drysdales is I'll check them out as soon as I can. I'm in Albion so just up the road literally.

The paint isn't too bad there's little pockmarks from stuff and a bit of wear around the edges of a couple of panels. This afternoon when I took the photos I only had time to polish up the bonnet and front side panels as I needed enough light remaining for the pics, so I'll see how the rest polishes up another day.

Welcome

Welcome

Looks very clean

Well my pretty happy fun car with an idling problem has gotten quite considerably less well today

I went out at lunch to do the rego transfer and when I was driving back to work I noticed a severe lack of pull under acceleration til higher revs, and also has started making a shrieking noise from the belt when you start the car. So I bumped up the urgency for a service and called MX5Plus to see when I could take it there for some mechanical lurve.

I forget the name of the chap I talked to now, but he was quite helpful though worried the symptoms I described are indicative of the dreaded crank problem. My inner voice howls nooooooooooooo......

I'm hopeful that it may not be quite that bad but I'll have to wait til Thursday now to assess. Not sure what the best course of action to take will be if it is. I'm glad I left myself leeway though to deal with a big problem if there is one hehe.

Congratulations and welcome.

Alan at MX5 Plus has been doing all sorts of things to my car the last few days
I was relieved when he told me that the crankbolt is all good and undamaged, and not the cause of the lack of power.
I won't be able to pick it up til Monday but it will be much improved:
new pads and rotors all round
throttle body and injectors cleaned
a leak in the gearbox fixed
some airflow meter stuff (:lol:) has been changed to fix the idle hunting
gasket changed in the injectors as it had oil in there - hence the big misfiring problem

Alan was also able to tell me that the suspension consists of stock springs with some ridiculously high rated springs, its obviously a useless setup from the way it goes over things, so I aim to get some new kit for that this coming week.
I've been surfing through a few old threads of opinions about the various suspension types and in the end I have to be ruled a bit by budget. I could go Koni shocks and Kings or Eibach spring, some BC Coilovers from Wholesale Suspension, or something around that price range anyway. It looks like a lot of you have rated the Tein's quite highly but I just can't spend that much on that one component alone. I'm leaning though towards giving the BC's a go. I'm happy to tool up with a slant towards performance rather than comfort, and I think anything I add to the car is going to improve the ride comfort from what it is right now! The car's primary duties will be weekend drives and daily city driving, track days won't be too common yet though I can't wait to give that a whirl

On Tuesday will be new tyres. PP2's I think, or Proxes T1R, another thing that there are so many opinions on I can't decide! Well it will be one of those two anyway.

Have you joined the Queensland MX5 club yet http://www.miata.net.au ?

Once you are a member you can get discounts at their sponsor businesses by quoting your membership number.

You could then go and talk to Fulcrum Suspensions about your options on the suspension upgrade, see http://www.miata.net.au/sponsors.htm for details about them.

Ah yes thanks for the reminder... I had intended to join the club but have been probably a bit too preoccupied with getting the car running decently! I didn't think far past joining the club to get more involved with the other MX5'ers but a bonus with the sponsor businesses is a reason to get that done asap.
Fulcrum suspension was catalogued in the brain to go to for some quotes and a wheel alignment when it's all done, but I haven't been along to their gaff yet.

I picked up the Slug from MX5 Plus today, after a great deal of work from Danny and Alan on fixing all its issues.
It was great to meet Danny and he showed me round the workshop and the NC racecar he's building *droooool*, and I can't thank them enough for the work on my car, its utterly awesome now compared to last week.

They had quite a bit of trouble identifying where the idle problem was coming from, and had tried 2 many fixes and in some cases three different sensors, and also a couple of different ECU's to see if there was a change.. but nothing. Thankfully before they tore all their hair out though it was discovered in the camshafts... they've at some point in the past had new metal added and reshaped, but they were wearing quite badly, Danny took some pictures to show me how they looked...







Two replacement camshafts were fitted and the idle now is very smooth.

With that and all the other fixes mentioned in the previous post (it was spark plug gasket replaced though not injector!) its running very sweetly and the power is back and improved actually.

Straight from MX5 Plus to a Tyre centre round the corner from my work for 4 Michelin PP2's and an alignment this afternoon, and overall the car is considerably better overall. I'm still tossing up about what to do with the suspension (or whether to change it at all right now) but with the alignment today its all a lot better and the jarring on the bumpy roads has been reduced already. Now comes the driving!

Here's another option to think about. If you are happy with the stock ride height and are on a tight budget the KYB AGX or Koni Yellow shocks with stock spings are a good compromise for every day driveability. They provide an improvement in handling while still maintaining a good ride to use as a daily. Just crank up the adjustment a bit for the occassional track day.

KYB AGX's are available very cheaply from US EBay (sorry Josh), pretty hard to go past them for the money.

After trying lots of different spring and shock combo's I used a set of AGX's on my NA with some stock springs reset slightly lower and I was very happy with the result.

wow those cams look nasty! Hurry up and get the lip on already!!