Christine's little red NA6

xTine · Postby **xTine** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 9:34 pm

Hi everyone - I'm Christine and I am relatively new to the forum. I have been lurking for a couple of weeks and thought it was about time to introduce myself & my car! She is a red NA6 (manual) with approx. 300,000 km's on the clock and is going to be a project/weekend car for me and my partner - I am keen to join the MX5 club and have a go at some of the track days, maybe gymkhana's as well, but all that is a little way off yet!! I don't know anything at all about engines or mechanics so it is definately going to be a learning experience for me, but I am very excited about her and keen to have a go at working on her and get my hands dirty.

We bought her off ebay from a local guy here in Mornington about 5 weeks ago, he just used her as a weekender and said he looked after her...yeah right I hear you say! :lol:

Well her body was free from rust and we wern't worried too much about the engine, if it needed rebuilding or replacing so be it, so we bought her! She had a couple of minor things that we were aware of that needed attending to, mainly replacing a cracked windscreen, the soft top was a bit tired and the rear palstic window was yellow and cracked and torn away from the vinyl. There were also a couple of dings in the body that need repair. Here are some pics of from when we first bought her home..

My dog Oscar wanted in on the action

The door panels

Rear quarter panel damage

Dodgy side mirrors

Since then she spent 4 weeks at the MX5 Factory in Ringwood, she went in for the windscreen replacement and whatever else was needed for the roadworthy. WELL... I think my little car almost drove Freddy the mechanic insane on several occassions, Dick told me each time they were doing the final test drive for before doing the roadworthy things kept breaking and falling off! Last Monday they took it out for the final drive and the muffler fell off! :shock:

So the roadworthy turned into a bit of an ordeal for them - the looong list of things that were repaired/replaced included repairing a leak in the rocker cover gasket and the cluch master cylinder, repairing one of the brake calipers that was seized, tie rod ends & ball joints, spark plugs & leads which were totally screwed, shocker boots, new battery as the one in it was completely wrong and leaking. So after all that she finally passed the roadworthy test last Thursday. I can't thank Dick and Freddy enough for their efforts, they did a great job and Dick was really excited when I picked her up and said she has turned into a great little car!

We took her up to the top of Arthurs Seat on Good Friday, the weather was so nice and it was a chance to give her a good run and see just how different she was with all her new bits! Here are a couple of snaps I took of her at the lookout -

So now the immediate plan is to replace the soft top which we actually started on today, replace the seats which are DISGUSTING, and upgrade the brakes!

JRBasia · Postby **JRBasia** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 9:55 pm

Welcome christine! Looks like it's given you a hard time already, but that's part of the journey with these little fighters. Good luck and hope you have fun with your new obsession

cheers, Johnny

jojoeffe · Postby **jojoeffe** » Mon Apr 09, 2012 10:21 pm

Welcome! I was just down the peninsula with family - we drove past Arthur's seat yesterday.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with her and maybe we'll see you at Garage Cafe on Thursday?

emexv · Postby **emexv** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:54 pm

Welcome to the obsession Christine. Great to see someone else from down the Peninsula, Friday was a beautiful day down our way. We went for a Drive down to Flinders for a coffee, I didn't have allot of time or would have gone for a drive up Arthurs Seat also.

All those things you listed are pretty much standard repairs when buying an NA so I wouldn't be overly concerned.

We head up to the Garage most Thursdays so if you are interested in checking it out feel free to tag along.

Old Dude · Postby **Old Dude** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:55 pm

Hi Christine, welcome and enjoy the ride, the fun has just begun.

Cheers
Dale

zero00 · Postby **zero00** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 8:56 pm

Christine

Welcome and she looks really awesome! Paint job looks fine for 300k!! Amazing what some polish will do, I see 'reds' up this way and that's really all they need

Hope you have many happy hours/days/years of motoring in her - just like I do with mine!!

Take care

xTine · Postby **xTine** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 10:07 pm

Thank you to everyone for your warm welcome and comments! I am looking forward to many years of ownership of this little car, having loads of fun driving her and hopefully meeting a few of you along the way!

JRBasia wrote:Welcome christine! Looks like it's given you a hard time already, but that's part of the journey with these little fighters. Good luck and hope you have fun with your new obsession

cheers, Johnny

emexv wrote:Welcome to the obsession Christine. Great to see someone else from down the Peninsula, Friday was a beautiful day down our way. We went for a Drive down to Flinders for a coffee, I didn't have allot of time or would have gone for a drive up Arthurs Seat also.

All those things you listed are pretty much standard repairs when buying an NA so I wouldn't be overly concerned.

We head up to the Garage most Thursdays so if you are interested in checking it out feel free to tag along.

Thanks guys! Yeah I was a bit shocked when I first found out about all the things that needed repairing and replacing just to pass the roadworthy, but then thinking about it all it was a lot of little things because the previous owner/s hadn't cared for her properly, and to find out the engine didn't need rebuilding was also a plus!

Thanks emexv & jojoeffe for the invite to the Garage Cafe meet too, I look forward to tagging along one night soon, we just took the soft top off to replace with a new one but can't fit the new one till we get new rubber seals, tension leads, rain rail and b-pillar clips which we didnt realise we would need at the time we bought the replacement soft top (live and learn!). Plus the seats are gross and I need a new pair of those ASAP before showing her off!

zero00 wrote:Christine
Welcome and she looks really awesome! Paint job looks fine for 300k!! Amazing what some polish will do, I see 'reds' up this way and that's really all they need

Hope you have many happy hours/days/years of motoring in her - just like I do with mine!!

Take care

Thank you Zero00!!

Yeah pretty stoked with the paint, I live how it looks in the pics I took on the weekend at Arthur's Seat if I do say so myself

dalef92 · Postby **dalef92** » Sun May 06, 2012 10:07 pm

Welcome Christine to the addiction! Car is looking good in person and i hope your happy with the seats! It will be good to see the car out and about soon!!!

xTine · Postby **xTine** » Mon May 07, 2012 8:35 pm

Thanks Dale! The seats are awesome and was great to meet you too. I can't wait to be able to take her along to a Garage Cafe meet, hopefully sometime very soon!

xTine · Postby **xTine** » Sat May 26, 2012 9:27 pm

Well the soft-top has taken a little longer to replace than originally thought. Only because we had to wait a couple of weeks to receive the rain rail and other bits from overseas, also my partner works night shift and we really only have Saturdays together to do stuff including doing things around the house and catching up with family so we have had chip away it it here and there over the past few weeks.

Today I decided to start her up as she has been sitting in the garage for a few weeks now with no roof and no seats so hasn't really been able to go out. Started her up and let her run for about 5 mins and then we noticed what looked like oil coming out of the exhaust, not dripping but when the engine was revved it would kind of spray out. Didn't seem good. Turned her off and I stuck my head underneath to see if any oil was leaking from under the engine, there were a very small pool of oil about the size of 3-4 20c coins. I also noticed a fair bit of oil on the underside of the engine - sorry not really good with engine stuff so I dont know which particular part of the engine it was coming from. Tried to take a photo of the crime scene (the yellow tray is to catch any more oil and to moniter how much leaks out):

So now I am a bit bummed and not sure if this is like a 'time to rebuild or change the engine' thing or just a leak that needs a seal replaced or something.

mitch_f1 · Postby **mitch_f1** » Sun May 27, 2012 10:49 am

If the majority of the oil is on the backside of the engine and most of the gearbox, then I would say it would be your rear main crankshaft seal (which is behind the flywheel). If it is, it's not a massive issue, just really pissy to get to, as it involves removing gearbox clutch and flywheel. Having a look around the engine, can you see where it is coming from?

If you really want to know where it's coming from, spray a heap of degreaser on it, and then look for where the oil starts to leak.

xTine · Postby **xTine** » Sun May 27, 2012 9:32 pm

Thanks Mitch - I don't have any way of jacking up the front end to have a good look at where the leak might be coming from and I don't have any degreaser handy but I had a look through my Haynes manual and am pretty sure it looks like it is in the following area:

I left the tray under the spot overnight and there was no oil in the tray when I checked it today, and I actually started her up again tonight and ran her for about 5 mins again, the stuff coming out of the exhaust looks like water with black dirt or dust or something in it, not oil. And this time there was not a drip of oil in the tray! But it still looks like fresh/shiny oil on the underside of the engine like in my picture in my previous post

mitch_f1 · Postby **mitch_f1** » Mon May 28, 2012 3:06 pm

I would say there are two things going on then. 1) the oil leak near the front of the gearbox displays classic signs of being a RMS (only a few drops, only leaks when running). 2) the exhaust thing, which is probably separate.

With the car cold, remove the radiator cap and inspect for any signs of oil. If there is oil in the coolant or clinging to the radiator cap then your engine is up for a rebuild, as it has mostly likely blown the headgasket, which would explain the water (which would pick up the carbon buildup in the exhaust causing it to spit out a black liquid) coming out the exhaust tip. If there is no oil, then I'm stumped

xTine · Postby **xTine** » Tue May 29, 2012 8:48 pm

Well, had a look at the radiator like you suggested and there is no sign of any oil in the coolant or on the cap. The cap is pretty rusty but no oil is present.

hks_kansei · Postby **hks_kansei** » Tue May 29, 2012 11:07 pm

the exhaust liquid is normal.

It's just condensation/unburned fuel etc, it will be worse when the car has sat for a while (ie exhaust is stone cold)

Mine does it as well.