mx5cartalk.com

Hi mx5cartalk!

My name is Bee and I'm 23 years old, from the hills district of Sydney. I've loved cars for a very long time but never thought of it as an achievable project until a year or two ago. And seeing as I've loved mx5s almost as long as I've loved cars, an NA was the obvious choice.

I drove a few before making up my mind, and while I saw some beautiful examples, what I really wanted was a project. Something I wouldn't be afraid of breaking a part or two in the learning process of diy car maintenance.

So this is my new baby! She's a little rough in spots, but came with a hardtop (which I love), a decent-ish service history, and in the colour that always caught my eye.

Here she is:



There will be a lot more writing, with a lot of questions to come, but for now I just wanted to say hi

I quite like a good mariner blue na

Got any plans for mods?

Welcome to the forums Bee!

Even though you have been a member for a while, it's good to see you post and share your 5!

awesome awesome awesome, another chick haha.

Love the hardtops when they are colour matched, such a classy touch!

Ask as many questions as you want, we are a friendly forum

Welcome to the obsession Bee, look forward to seeing your updates.

lee wrote:I quite like a good mariner blue na

Got any plans for mods?

Yes so many plans but at the moment I'm trying to be sensible and get everything running smoothly first. It came with a mania cai and exhaust from the extractors back.
Although I think the mania cai is to loud at times

MrRevhead wrote:Welcome to the forums Bee!

Even though you have been a member for a while, it's good to see you post and share your 5!

Thanks for the welcome, it's true I have been lurking for a while but I finally have a reason to join in the fun haha.

emily_mxV wrote:awesome awesome awesome, another chick haha.

Love the hardtops when they are colour matched, such a classy touch!

Ask as many questions as you want, we are a friendly forum

Hi! It's always great to not be the only girl in the room haha. I've been working my way through your thread and just want to say I love the detail you've put into everything. Going to cut down on a lot of the questions I'd be asking. So thanks for that

Okibi wrote:Welcome to the obsession Bee, look forward to seeing your updates.

Thank you. I'll be fitting updates around uni, so they might be slow, but definitely on their way.

Welcome Bee nice looking car
Cheers
Dale

Nice to see another mariner blue NA6, the colour does grow on you. However you will the odd one out at most MX5 days if you are mariner blue. Also welcome to the obsession.

Nice to see another mariner blue NA6, the colour does grow on you. However you will the odd one out at most MX5 days if you are mariner blue. Also welcome to the obsession.

Magpie likes twice as much ...

Welcome Bee ... "happy" looking color that blue.

Magpie wrote:Nice to see another mariner blue NA6, the colour does grow on you. However you will the odd one out at most MX5 days if you are mariner blue. Also welcome to the obsession.

Haha yes I was happy I found one in a colour other than the traditional red or white. I'm happy to be a little different

KevGoat wrote:Magpie likes twice as much ...

Welcome Bee ... "happy" looking color that blue.

Thank you. I've always thought they were happy little cars, I'm glad you think that colour matches.

So I thought I'd give an update on what I've been doing.

The car came with way too much oil, that was way dirtier than normal. When I put the car up to drain it, I found oil all over the bottom of the engine, dripping into the splash tray. I've since replaced it with the right amount and cleaned up everything I could. After driving like that for a week there are no leaks to be found

The idle was terrible, on start up and when sitting in neutral. The car never stalled, but came close. When I went to mania to pick up oil and spark plugs David adjusted it for me, and I left with the advice to change my spark plugs and if that didn't work, to look at changing the injectors.

Found oil in the spark plug wells and all over the bottom of the ignition leads.



Cleaned it off the leads with WD40, used a clean cloth and screwdriver to get into the wells and hoped for the best. I've been keeping an eye on them and I haven't found oil in them since, but will probably change the seals for peace of mind.

Spark plugs explained the idle. . . (You can't see in the pic, but the threads were coated in oil.)



I had read that a bad AFM could affect the idle as well, so I decided to have a look inside to see if there was anything obvious. I found a lot of white gunk.


I cleaned it up with brake cleaner and a cotton bud, probably not the best way but it's all I thought of at the time Also saw that the head that moves along the carbon strip has left deep grooves on the strip. I had a go at moving it up so it would have better contact but couldn't without feeling I was going to break something. I guess this means I'll be replacing it some time soon? For now I've just resealed it and put it back. . .

Also removed the soft top and back speakers (which didn't actually work). Went from this:



To this:


So much room for activities!

And replaced the door sills from these:



To these:




So the car is looking a little more presentable, and the idle has improved a lot. However, it's now not starting very well. The car just keeps cranking, if I accelerate it helps, although the idle still dips very low and fluctuates on start up for maybe 10 seconds.

Tomorrow I'll be cleaning the throttle body in the hope that helps with my starting issues. Also going to be doing the gearbox and diff oils which I picked up from the supercheap sale today

It looks like you're getting right in there and getting your hands dirty!

Oil around the ignition leads usually means you need to either replace/tighten the rocker cover gasket.

Re: the idle hopefully the cleaning of the AFM with brake fluid didn't harm the electronics.... otherwise try cleaning out the throttle body and see if adjusting the idle screw helps. If you haven't changed your ignition leads that might again be something to consider. (Considering you have already changed your plugs).

So much room for activities, step brothers fan I take it lol


Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Looking good so far! Have a look at some of the eBay knockoff OEM front lips. They're only around $150 or so, and they make the front end look a lot neater

Hi Bee. Welcome to the MX-5 community. I hope you join the fun in the MX-5 Club of NSW. You're going to have a great time with this car!