Round 2 - Back in an NB8B after 5 years.

[SileNceR]

Got my genuine radiator, upper and lower hoses, coolant and distilled water ready today.



Cost me $455 for the parts; the hoses were much dearer than I expected, but hey - factory parts have the best chance of lasting for the long haul, right? Plus, I figured no point cheaping out on hoses/coolant if I'm spending on a genuine radiator instead of another china one.

[IMG]http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i269/silencerrh/7977B2BA-808D-4796-A132-6A361190B971_zpssvhhzk8y.jpg[/IMG[

Unfortunately my drip tray locating skills were found a little lacking.



The lower hose was actually far easier to get to than I expected. My previous car was a BMW E39 540i and I may as well have been jamming my fingers in a meat grinder working on that, this is a dream by comparison. I'd attribute that to Japanese cars in general, but I once had to remove the ignition module and a rocker cover from my wife's R33 to change a heater hose.



New Rad installed and "burped" - that took a bit of doing and made a bit of a mess. I think the car will smell of coolant for a few weeks while it cooks off the outside of the radiator, despite my best efforts to flush off the overflowed fluids.



I've not idea how long the china rad had been on the car, but this is why I didn't want to get another. If anyone knows someone who can repair it and wants it, send me a PM and we'll work something out. It actually still works OK and hadn't used any coolant (that I'd noticed) in the 1500 or so km's I've owned the car.

[SileNceR]

Got literally fifteen minutes with both the MX-5 and the DSLR (5D & 50mm f/1.4 EF if anyone's interested) to grab a photo. Drove through a spot of rain on the way (roof down, because why not?) and didn't have time to really set up the shot, the car was dirty, it was still raining (you can see it on the windscreen) but ultimately I came away with a shot I'm relatively happy with for all of the two minutes I spent snapping.



Also noticed the drain tube on the driver's side was blocked so pushed through some 4 gauge power cable to clear that out, runs nice and freely now, and gave the leather a good scrub with megiuars interior quick detailer. They look like they're screaming out for some sort of nourishment now but the finish is much more consistent.

[Okibi]

Looking fantastic, great work.

[SileNceR]

I swear sometimes I shouldn't be left to my own devices

The night before last I gave the seats a good scrub down with some Meguiars interior quick detailer, which did a wonderful job of removing all the oil deposits left on the leather, but also left the seats looking a little dry. I haven't fully committed to a particular leather treatment regime yet, so grabbed some Oakwood Leather Hydrating Cream from the local supermarket to at least put something in the leather to stop it cracking from being too dry. It's got a few oils and waxes in so it's not really the right thing for a PU leather but it'll do for now - I can always remove it with whatever regime I decide to use down the track. It's also not too shiny which is the main thing I wanted to avoid.


The application process - Here's the passenger seat after cleaning and the driver's seat with the cream applied:


Both applied and looking very oily. I left it like this for about half an hour to soak in a little before buffing it off as parts of the seat were very stiff before starting the process.


Driver's side with the seat buffed to a more matte finish (just using a towel)


Both done.


Then, because I had the door open...


Factory speakers can't handle going loud very well - they're not a bad speaker - but they just don't really keep up when doing 100 with the roof down. Ultimately 8" mids in the door are planned as that's what I did in my green NB8B back in the day and the bass reproduction was similar to a 12" sub in the boot (I tried both) but I have four of these Jaycar Precision Response 6.5" splits lying around. I'm sticking with the factory tweeters for now.


Cutting adaptors out of the sub box I hacked together to fit a 12" in the old MX-5 boot (yes, I've had it sitting around all this time)


Not a terribly complicated job - made much easier by using a quality jigsaw with good blades.


The speaker fits... that's a good start.


I didn't have any long screws to affix these to the door, so I had to improvise - counter sinking the holes


Aaaand done. Amazingly these both fitted perfect first try - especially since I just eyeballed and roughly traced/transferred the holes and dimensions from a speaker.


Because these are only temporary I'm not going to bother painting the adaptor rings. Ideally you'd seal them with something (resin?) so they don't get waterlogged. I also had to trim the back of the door trim to clear the adaptors - this is no big deal; as I recall needing to do this to fit 8" door speakers anyway. They don't rattle without the foam/with the plastic cut back so no harm no foul.


Speakers fitted. I don't have a photo with the door trims back on because we all know what NB door trims look like. Sound wise, these go much louder but I actually think lack a bit of bass compared to the standard 5x7" - I could be wrong - it may just be the lack of distortion that's fooling me - and the Alpine headunit currently in the car is pretty basic in terms of EQ adjustment so I can't quite get it how I want - but it definitely goes ear-hurtingly-loud now with the roof up (it was raining last night) so should overcome wind noise at 100kmh just fine now

And lastly, another shot taken the other day.

[SileNceR]

I found some Mother's convertible top cleaner in the cupboard so ripped into cleaning the top. I've ordered some 303 protectant which should be here soon enough.


Then I washed the car and took a couple of quick shots with the SLR. It's so hard capturing photos of a black car at dusk, especially when the camera wants to try and over-expose the shot to neutral grey!


It comes up lovely with a wash now thanks to the polishing work I've already done. I still have more work to do in that regard - I've got some poorboys world black hole glaze on the way to try and give it a bit of a boost in the areas that are a bit worse for wear.


I've also got a dent on this front quarter to get looked at - you can't even see it from some angles (such as this one)


I usually hate reflections/things growing out the top of cars in photos but in this case it's allowed the car to at least partially look black on the upper surfaces. I'll try the polariser and tripod next time.

[SileNceR]

Factory Alarm... ugh.

When I got the car it came with a remote with nothing written on it, that didn't do anything. The car didn't seem hamstrung by this though, it appeared to have a mazda branded siren in the engine bay which was switched to off.

While trying to find the issue with foglights I discovered the main unit and at the time assumed initially that it was to blame, when in fact it was as simple as the globe holders not working correctly.

Today I received from boyracer a genuine keyless remote, as I discovered the keyless controller behind the glovebox (again while trying to sort the foglights).

I followed the programming instructions on here and miata.net with no luck - the locks didn't cycle. I tried the process ignoring the "locks will cycle" step and the fob paired and was triggering the indicator flashes per normal... hmm.

Tried pairing the remote from the alarm the same way - no luck - there's probably some other way of doing that but I don't have a book!

So I cut it out.



Actually not too difficult, two ground connections (one in the footwell, one in the engine bay), 2 wires to the flashing LED indicating that it has an alarm, cut the wire running to the siren and put a bolt wrapped in tape in the grommet to keep the footwell sealed from the engine bay. Unplugged the alarm unit itself, and cut three wires running to the boot.

Tried again. Lights still flash, passenger door unlocks as factory (including re-lock timer) but the driver's door does not. Boot clicks but doesn't unlock when pushing the lock button. Passenger door locks when hitting the boot button.

Removed boot trim, the boot connector has been cut and intercepted with one of the three wires run from the front. Cut that off and soldered back to the original - boot now opens with the lock button. Ok, I can live with that (and resolve later) - but the driver's door not unlocking is a pain!

Operating the driver's lock manually or using the lever on the inside handle locks and unlocks both doors, so the wiring connector is ok.... but it's a five wire connector. Two of the alarm connectors dissapear into this loom, right up inside the kick panel. My hands aren't small, but on about the tenth go I manage to unwrap the loom and discover two connectors taped back into the loom. I determine after looking at the other side of the car that the wires are the door lock remote trigger wires. The two wires added are pulled out of the connector and these plugged in. Whoops. I had a 50/50 chance of getting them right way around, but now the driver's door does the opposite of the passenger door. More cramped work and a few minutes later and they're swapped around.

Bam. 3 hours later and I've got a working keyless remote system, no more alarm, although confusingly reversed boot/lock buttons on the remote. Anyone with any insight there would be very helpful; otherwise I'll work out how it's all wired and swap over the signal wires for boot vs car I guess... how are the lights supposed to flash? I don't remember from my last NB8B. I get two flashes for "unlock" which does as it says, one flash for "boot" which actually locks the car, and no flashes when I push "lock" (which opens the boot).

I think I'm also going to use the boot lid trigger pin as a number plate light switch same as NB8C have standard, perhaps not straight away, but eventually. It's handy that the battery is in the boot as I'll only need to run a relay, fuse, and power wire from the battery to the light loom, switched to ground with the boot pin.

[SileNceR]

Well that was way more obvious than it should have been. Pulled the remote apart and rotated the circuit board 180 degrees. The top and buttons work as intended now

[joshuam]

Well that was way more obvious than it should have been. Pulled the remote apart and rotated the circuit board 180 degrees. The top and buttons work as intended now

Bahahahahahaha, just lost it!

BTW, which version of the 5D do you shoot with?

[speed]

Well that was way more obvious than it should have been. Pulled the remote apart and rotated the circuit board 180 degrees. The top and buttons work as intended now

I almost suggested that as a joke. Haha

[SileNceR]

Well that was way more obvious than it should have been. Pulled the remote apart and rotated the circuit board 180 degrees. The top and buttons work as intended now

Bahahahahahaha, just lost it!

BTW, which version of the 5D do you shoot with?

5D MkI (or classic, as I prefer to refer to it ;) ). Most of my work is online, rather than printed so 10megapixels is more than enough and it's got that lovely creamy full frame look

I also put some 303 aerospoace protectant on the soft top which has come up well, a nice sheen to it and a bit darker so it doesn't look so out of place on the shiny car.

Still waiting for my poorboys black hole glaze and more EX-P layerable sealant to see just how good I can get this duco

[SileNceR]

Well that was way more obvious than it should have been. Pulled the remote apart and rotated the circuit board 180 degrees. The top and buttons work as intended now

I almost suggested that as a joke. Haha

The only reason I hadn't worked it out when I did the rest of the job was that it was 3.30AM and I had to be up for work at 7AM. I figured spending any more time trying to work it out would mean absolute lack of functionality on my part the following day.

At least I thought it through before trying to re-wire the control module to account for the upside down button operation

[joshuam]

5D MkI (or classic, as I prefer to refer to it ;) ). Most of my work is online, rather than printed so 10megapixels is more than enough and it's got that lovely creamy full frame look

Yeah, I have a 7D which on paper is superior in every way...... but still can't get that full frame look

The oldies are just as good, as long as you don't need to turn up the ISO, then they show their age

[SileNceR]

5D MkI (or classic, as I prefer to refer to it ;) ). Most of my work is online, rather than printed so 10megapixels is more than enough and it's got that lovely creamy full frame look

Yeah, I have a 7D which on paper is superior in every way...... but still can't get that full frame look

The oldies are just as good, as long as you don't need to turn up the ISO, then they show their age

I've got a 7D as well, I actually had it before the 5D. The full frame sensor is actually suprisingly good at higher ISO's although not as smart at automatically correcting any noise as what the 7D is. I find I barely use the 7D since it doesn't give the look and I shoot a lot of large aperture stuff (I have 50/1.4 USM, 16-35/2.8 L and 70-200/4L and use them in that preference order)

[SileNceR]

Fitted a pod filter to the car (for the noise, and no other reason - I had pretty well the same setup on my last NB8B and never really noticed any heat soak issues anyway - basically retain the factory airbox lower and the cold air that feeds from the front grille, but lose the airbox lid.



As last time, I threw the IAT sensor under the filter. The air there will be similar in temp to the actual intake air anyway and never gave any grief with my last one.



A couple of quick videos (for audio only) taken with the iPhone 6S+ in the cup holder

In gear on-throttle in 2nd gear


1-2 pull


Nothing ground breaking but a little bit more visceral and helps with the emotional attachment to the car when the roof is down (probably when it's up too, but thanks to the lovely weather we've been having I haven't had a need to drive with the roof up lately.

[SileNceR]

On my green NB8B, I had a mazdaspeed rear muffler (I think originally from an SE) fitted - my recollection of that is that on a non-turbo car it gave a bit of a sound increase under throttle but very little change at cruise. I still have a photo of the exhaust tip as I quite like the etched Mazdaspeed logo.



Because the car is still a daily at this point, it needs to remain drivable, but I just wasn't feeling the engine sound with the standard exhaust an intake; the pod filter was the first step to resolution, and a new muffler was the second.



Enter this, from Keith:



A little corroded from use and from sitting, nothing some autosol (on the tip), some prepsol (the paint) and a wire wheel (the flange) won't fix!



Lots of staining/pitting, plenty of elbow grease required to get this cleaned up!



The original exhaust tip (I'm sure most of you know what these look like)



The Mazdaspeed/Yumex muffler compared to standard. Note there isn't a lot of difference, I think maybe mandrel instead of press bends - I assume the internals of the muffler are done differently though.



Mazdaspeed muffler fitted and bolted up.



This tip is different to the last one, a bigger diameter and no rolled lip. I still like how it looks though.

Sound wise, it's a bit deeper at idle and decelerating. Under load it's a bit louder but you can't hear a lot of it over induction noise, it balances the sound out between the front and rear of the car. It's doubtful that it's made any appreciable difference in power although that part of my brain that wants to help justify purchasing decisions would like to think it's picked up a tiny bit of power down low.