billybunters - from a bmw z4 to a mx5 se

billybunter · Postby **billybunter** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:23 pm

Hi all
I had a little help from lokiel with this so i thought i'd have a go and create my own garage site. As the header shows about 4 months ago i came from a 2006 Z4 to the Mazda mx5 se and prior to the Z4 there was a Porsche Boxster.
Both the european machines although low klm cars were plagued with mechanical issues. The Beemer had only 26,000klm and the Boxster 68,000klm. Both were one owners cars.
The BMW was a pita. It was shod with the 18" alloys on run flats and handled like shite. It just wouldn't track through the corners and had a bit of bump steer, very similar to early RHD Mustangs. Although i paid 56k for it i felt sorry for the original owner who shelled out 103k.
On the other hand the Boxster was a very good car with great handling. All was well untill one morning i noticed a large patch of oil on the garage floor. So off i went and rang up the porshe dealership. Got onto the service centre and was told a common problem. All it required was a new oil seal but was a 6 to 8 hour job so while there good idea to replace the clutch and pressure plate. Total price of the quote was 4 to 5k.
Its a porsche i thought so that's fair -nothing for nothing.
While on the phone i was referred to the head mechanic who pointed out with oil leak in that particular location comes more problems. If the camshaft area etc is out of alignment unfortunately the seal won't bed in and the problem will get worse and you could have an engine failure. Should that occur then its a second hand replacement motor for 20k or 35k for a new one. A few days later the Boxster was gone.
Now the Beemer was not much better and only 26,000klm on the clock. One morning I kicked it over and there was a rattling noise coming from the top half of the motor. It appeared BMW new alloy N52 motor suffered from oil failure to the top end. Unfortunatel the roadster was out of warranty. My only option for the fix (which sounded like a diesel) was a totally new head/camshaft. The price quoted was 11k plus 1.5k to fit - So out the door it went.
Now it was back on carsales looking for the next chariot. I had heard/read about the Mazda mx5 SP but none unfortunately there were non available. I did site a handful of Se's though so to cut a long story short i lined up this 2004 example in Sunlight silver with 49,000klm in Qld (sight unseen) and had it transported down to NSW.
It was a one owner, elderly guy pushing 60 like me. Best of all totally stock standard and once sited i would say not very well looked after. It had a quite a few dents on the rear quarters which i had paintless dent removals take care of with excellent results. All the wheels were scuffed and on checking the service history found out that he was pretty miserable specimen and was running it on straight unleaded.
So you quessed it i never got back and thanked him for the purchase price of 20k.
So again the motto of this story is don't be fooled by the sales pitch "elderly one owner car" as these types are as bad or worse than the young guns.
To the gas station where i filled it up with 98 premium petrol then took it on a good hard 150klm run. My first impressions were - no rattles - good handling - rough ride and gutless.
Over the next few weeks i took it out frequently to decide if it was a keeper and my opinion changed on the Se for the better. why?
I joined Mazdaspeed.com and in a period of a couple of weeks read through 150 pages of threads on the Mazdaspeed miata/se. It was here that's how i bumped into lokiel.
Over the next month i put on about 1,000 trouble free klm. My passion is cars and over the years i have wasted stacks of cash on them. The only thing I was missing was the power of the europeans jobs so it was time to start some modifications.
Stay tuned and I hope you enjoyed the read.

timk · Postby **timk** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 8:14 pm

Welcome and good luck. I've heard that ChipTorque now have a flash available for the SE, I think this would be a good way to go to fix the hesitation when you start freeing up the exhaust and intake rather than fitting some aftermarket ECU.

billybunter · Postby **billybunter** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:03 pm

billybunter · Postby **billybunter** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:08 pm

out with the old

billybunter · Postby **billybunter** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:21 pm

one of the first things to go was the gas tank lid - replaced by a nice shiney chrome job. it was only a 5 minute task ( 3 screws etc ) and now really looks the smart

billybunter · Postby **billybunter** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:24 pm

Photo of the lemon

billybunter · Postby **billybunter** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:29 pm

I bought this Alfa gtv 3.0 straight after the z4. It lasted one week. Couldnt live with the fact that it wasn't a convertible

MINX · Postby **MINX** » Wed Mar 30, 2011 11:12 pm

Best wishes for your life with the SE Billy.
Hope it last longer than your other cars!
They are a great value for money sports car.

Stu

Postby **Okibi** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 4:54 am

Glad we have another convert.

Loads of SE owners here, good place to discuss modifications particularly if you decided to get an aftermarket ECU.

We've got a some SE's on the forum making a bucket load of power.

Lokiel · Postby **Lokiel** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 10:16 am

It's about time you started a Garage Chat thread

Thanks for posting your previous car experiences too. When I was looking around for a new car, the choice was a toss-up between a turbo-charged MX5, Boxster and S2000. Unfortunately given the price I was willing to pay, the Boxster would be around 10 years old and have 100,000km on the clock. Knowing how expensive Porsches are to repair, any Boxster that old would need some serious maintenance sooner rather than later so I scrubbed that idea. The S2000 is way too complicated for a DIYer and is hard/expensive to get any more power out of, plus you need to rev the crap out of it to get any power. At the recent 2011 Make a Wish Day at QLD Raceway, an S2000 owner was surprised that he couldn't catch me around the track (he wasn't aware of the MX-5 SEs or SPs) so modding your SE definitely produces tangible results without breaking the bank.

MX5s are renowned for their reliability so, fingers crossed, you shouldn't have many problems with the SE; even if you do, they're easy to work on so you can do much of the work yourself (unlike the Boxster or an S2000). The MX5 forum community is pretty good too so be sure to use the Search function of the various forums since almost every MX5 question has been raised and answered to some degree by now. Also, take the time with your modz to research them because it will save you a lot of hassle, particularly if there are "gotchas" involved (you can spend a lot of time doing things "the hard way" so reading other installer experiences can save you a lot of time and skinned knuckles).

Keep on moddin'

billybunter · Postby **billybunter** » Thu Mar 31, 2011 11:21 am

Thanks all
Overall, as a roadster I'm pretty happy with the SE. At the moment I'm in the process of fitting twin blue rally stripes. Hope to post the photo's later today.
Yesterday I fitted 15" alloy wheels with Kumo tyres. Bought the package off Sam from 'Big O tyres' Sydney. Photos later.