The NB8A of El Jay

[El Jay]

So instead of clogging up this thread in the general forums about the little things I do to my car, I decided I’ll start my very own thread!
Here’s my car:



Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be updating this often, and it won’t be with exciting items like turbos, engine work, etc. The main reason for this is as a young male I want to try and be sensible by not throwing too much money into the car (the wife wouldn’t approve either!) plus I wouldn’t have the skills to do such advanced work by myself.
I’ve owned this MX5 for nearly 2 years now; I’ve been quite happy with the car but human nature’s want for ‘more’ eventually kicked in. This resulted in some very light modification.

So far these are the modifications I’ve made (in order of progression):
• ASI radiator
• Voodoo (pearl) gearknob
• Mania CAI

What I plan/would like to do in the future consists of the following:
• Shocks and springs
• Rollbar
• Exhaust
• Bucket seat(s). I’d want two for the sake of symmetry but that would be an expensive venture!

There are also some more mundane issues I will eventually get around to addressing:

The speedo can sometimes drop to 0 and stay there for an indefinite amount of time. It’s not such a huge issue and also gives me the chance to roughly mentally calculate the speed I’m going (on a flat road at least!)
The engine likes to burn/leak oil at times. A few weeks ago we went for a drive down to Mt. Tamborine, and after a day of spirited driving the oil dipstick read ¼ between empty and full (down from ¾).
The wheel centre caps are going that lovely shade of yellow (again). I just have to find the motivation to respray them; I have to get the right paint code this time, however, as last time I didn’t (I got a slightly darker shade of silver, which irks me).
I did an admittedly shoddy job of using touch up paint to fill out the stone chips on the front, which I want to clean up.

There are many other small niggles I’m sure I could think of, but what do you expect from a 14 year old car?
Thanks for viewing!

[KevGoat]

Hey El Jay ... welcome, and nice photo

Nice thing I've found about the 5's, they don't need much. Great car as they are and sounds like you are enjoying it just that way

Most minor mods creep up on you. Mine certainly have!

Even though you may not mod much, any small improvements you make and posting about your drive experiences is still interesting to many on here.

Enjoy ....

[El Jay]

Thanks Kev. The photo was the product of practice using our new camera we got over the holiday break. While the wife got practice on nature, I decided the car was the best subject
You're certainly right, this is the best car that I've dríven out the small pool of vehicles I've sampled. In regards to modifications; they will definately stay minor and non-adventurious. I spend time lurking here and on product websites, looking at the most common/popular changes and basing my wants from there. I won't be walking down any untrodden paths!

In other news, I've booked the car for a service next week. I pulled the bonnet open a few days ago to check fluid levels and noticed small amounts of oil appearing around the rocker cover, so I might be needing a new gasket. In any case I'm confident the guys down at Automotive Plus will figure out and fix the issue!

[Kev05]

In any case I'm confident the guys down at Automotive Plus will figure out and fix the issue!

They will and you won't be disappointed.

[El Jay]

So the car has been in for a service and the oil problem has been rectified! Turns out that the gasket was leaking as well as one of the head plugs both have been replaced now. Hopefully there is no more complete top ups every 1000kms.
I'm now considering one of their rollbars, since the price of them is coming down. We'll see what happens in the coming weeks...
Next on the list is a nice bath. I have a voucher for a car wash that I got for Christmas (that's what you get when you're hard to buy for and people remember you have a cool car) which I have to use by next week, but I'm out of state then. I'll have to find someone to take it in for me... shouldn't be too hard to do!

[El Jay]

Thankfully I did find someone to take the car off my hands for this week while I'm in another state. There was a problem when they went to pick it up however; it wouldn't start!
Turns out that the battery went flat; I knew I would need to replace the battery soon, since it was getting harder to crank over on cold starts. They called RACQ and got a replacement one for me so it's all fine now, but I feel kind of guilty that someone else had to take care of my problem

Let's see how this car wash goes...

[El Jay]

So it's been a few weeks since I used that car wash voucher I got for Christmas. While the car looked quite nice and clean, it unfortunately was running like crap I asked the car wash company to clean out the engine bay and I reckon some degreaser has gotten into where it shouldn't The car now sounds like a lawnmower at low revs, feels down on power and sometimes likes to run only on two cylinders
Yesterday I resolved to clean up as well as replace spark plugs and leads to see if that would help. While I was at it I thought I would trim a bit of plastic off the weather shield around the intake to further shove it in to stop any vibrations. It was late at night, I only had an unopened packet of scissors with nothing but a pocket knife to open them; I was getting impatient so guess what happened...
I managed to slice my finger open and spent until the wee hours in the morning at the hospital waiting to get stitches. The worst part is I didn't even get around to the spark plugs! So the car still runs like crap and I only have 1.5 hands for a week If only I wasn't such a clot...

[Black_Penguin]

If water has been used to clean the engine bay water has likely gone down the spark plug tubes.
Blow it out with some compressed air, this should solve the rough running problem.

[El Jay]

Yeah I thought water might have gotten down there, but I think they only used degreaser as EVERYTHING had a thin coat of it when I checked. I'll definitely see if there's water but I thought it would be good to replace the plugs anyway (since they are so cheap).

[PaulF]

Hahaha El Jay, I had a very similar experience a couple of months ago changing my shift boots. Was cutting the old bottom boot off with a Stanley knife and managed to get myself in the forearm. A lot of blood and three stitches later, I had to enlist help to finish the job because I wasn't allowed to get the wound dirty. I think I'm the only person that has ever had to go to hospital from trying to change their shift boots. Hope that makes you feel a bit better about your mishap.

[El Jay]

Yeah Paul I figure if I'm going to stuff up I'll at least try to make a good job out of doing so I'm definitely not the best person with using my hands or doing any physical activity really.

The culprit is number 3 and water does actually seem to be the problem:



These pictures suck, but you can sort of see the water (which dripped from the boot). Bits of the rubber end were left down with the plug as well.



And it seems we have a terminal situation here!
Just have to make a trip to Mum's and borrow the air compressor now. I'll see if that fixes the rough running without replacing plugs and leads. If so all the better!
This is a fine example of my skills; making such a drama out of a simple task. Guess it's how I'll learn best.