Theo's silver NA8

[theo]

Evening all,

Figured my first post here should introduce me and my recent acquisition - my silver 1993 Mazda MX-5 Clubman.




Picked it up from Toowoomba this morning. Turned into a bit of an all day road trip. Managed to leave my phone at the petrol station in Gatton. Didn't notice until I got home 2 hours later. Turned around drove straight back, then decided I'd had enough highway for one day, and came home the fun way. An awesome late afternoon top down run over Mt Glorious and Mt Nebo.



First time driving an NA in anger. Was very happy to find out it's easily the best handling car I've ever owned. Even with the original bilsteins and rotted tyres. These things must be razor sharp with motorsport tyres and coilovers. Have ridden those roads heaps of times on my motorbike, so have a good idea of what's coming next, etc. which just made it more fun.

Observations so far... hopefully someone can chime in and help me out here...

There is an obnoxious rattle around between 3500 and 4000 rpm. Sounds like a loose exhaust heat shield. What should I look at first? Any regular offenders?

There is a bit of a 'wobble' that happens around 3500rpm @ 100-105kph. Can't notice it in the steering wheel. More like the soft top is vibrating. Doesn't happen constantly, or every time. But often enough to be annoying. Goes away when on really smooth tarmac, and if I speed up or slow down. At first I thought it might be the prop shaft, not i'm not sure. Bad tie-rod end maybe? Any ideas?

Struggling to find tyres for the 14s that aren't motorsport tyres. This car will be a weekend toy for me, so I'm happy to buy them, but if I can get something that might last a bit longer on the street, and isn't a 'cheap ditch-finder' I'd probably give them a try. Happy to hear suggestions. I want to keep the factory 14s!

Future plans...

Pretty much bought the car as a project car. Something to tinker with and spend some time working on with my kids and my Dad.

Will probably try and emulate lolmx5's ideas - be a little OCD and do a bit of a restoration and some subtle improvements along the way. I really want to get some more seat time just driving the thing.

Definitely needs and new steering wheel, new tyres and maybe an extended gear shifter.

My kids are still little (4 and 5) so I have to look at getting a child restraint anchor point fitted somehow, so I can add their booster seat and take them for some father-son time. Happy to get some advice on this as well.

About me...

34. Father of two. I do website stuff and think yoga is pretty cool.

[93_Clubman]

Welcome & congrats!

silver 1993 Mazda MX-5 Clubman.
viewtopic.php?f=76&t=30041

Even with the original bilsteins and rotted tyres.
Heasmans, the NSW distributor of Bilstein, advised Bilsteins allow for 5% wear in their product for every 100k kms. Jonosx, on here, who works for Heasmans has similarly indicated that they'll be close to fully effective after many kms as long as they aren't leaking:
https://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic. ... 30&t=48651


There is an obnoxious rattle around between 3500 and 4000 rpm. What should I look at first?
Yeah, exhaust heat shields - the two that usually rattle are the header shield & the near the rear bullet resonator shield.

There is a bit of a 'wobble' that happens around 3500rpm @ 100-105kph. Can't notice it in the steering wheel. More like the soft top is vibrating. Doesn't happen constantly, or every time. Goes away when on really smooth tarmac, and if I speed up or slow down. Any ideas?
Is the black OEM seat belt tower brace & black OEM lower sub frame brace still fitted? Wivvix on here had a similar issue he chased for ages.

Struggling to find tyres for the 14s that aren't motorsport tyres. Happy to hear suggestions.
Yeah, this has become difficult as there's really nothing in between.

have to look at getting a child restraint anchor point fitted somehow, so I can add their booster seat. Happy to get some advice on this as well.
As you're in QLD, think it was Magpie (on here & also in QLD) that did a lot of research on this.

[theo]

Spent a heap of time last week cleaning up. Rented one those rug doctor carpet cleaners and went to town on the interior. Made a big difference to the interior aroma - you can still tell its an old car, but no where near what it was.

Put a few other bits on this week as well...

New steering wheel, new floor mats, new gear shift gaiter


Radio and interior lights weren't working. Turns out there were two blown fuses - one in the engine bay panel, another in the foot well panel. Replaced the interior light bulbs with some LEDs and cleaned up the contacts on the switches.


Now the radio works, but the power antenna was stuck. The plastic tail that retracts the mast was in two pieces. So removed it completely and put on a 1 inch blind grommet while I wait for the replacement mast to arrive from eBay.


And... 15x7 +40 Konig Rewinds with 195/50R15 Bridgestone RE003



The new wheels and an alignment have pretty much cured my 100kph shimmy.
Haven't had much chance to test the grip of the RE003s, but they certainly feel better already.

[lucmor444]

Looking very nice Theo.

What LED globe did you use for the interior lights?

[theo]

What LED globe did you use for the interior lights?

Used a Narva 31mm festoon. Day white (4000K). P/No. 18020BL

Had to 'adjust' the terminals a little with some fine pliers to fit these in. They're a couple of mm longer than the factory bulbs.

[Daffy]

The paintwork looks like its still in great condition as does the interior, looks like you got a great buy mate- The Konig Rewinds are spot on too- they look great on silver. Heres to some happy motoring theo (take caution though, that modding bug can bite hard )

[lucmor444]

What LED globe did you use for the interior lights?

Used a Narva 31mm festoon. Day white (4000K). P/No. 18020BL

Had to 'adjust' the terminals a little with some fine pliers to fit these in. They're a couple of mm longer than the factory bulbs.

Thx Theo

[theo]

take caution though, that modding bug can bite hard

Thanks Daffy. Too late to avoid the modding bug. Was infected in my early 20s, and have learned to live with it

[theo]

Got a chance to drive up to Malaney via Dayboro, Mt Mee, Woodford then Malaney via Malaney Stanley River Rd. Same in reverse on the way home. Warm and dry all the way.

Very impressed with the grip offered by the RE003s. The roads traveled today have a nice mix of slow and fast corners, up and down hill. Had to be quite aggressive inputs to get the tyres loose. Even getting them to make any noise at all was a challenge.

Dropped the cold pressures to 32psi front and rear - much nicer than the 36psi recommended by the shop. Will keep an eye on the tread wear.

Also had a Covercraft Noah custom fit cover turn up this week. Very nice thing to have. Nice and soft on the inside, and the multi-layered fabric is quite substantial, so should stand up being outdoors without drama.

Lots of trees at my place, and the car will need to sleep outside from time to time. Does a great job of keeping the crap off.

[lolmx5]

awesome looking car man, Re003s are one of my favourite tyre have them on my golf atm and i cant say one of the best bang for buck tyre!!

[The American]

I have clubman envy - nice find!

[theo]

Added an I.L. Motorsports short shift kit today. Picked it up secondhand from a young bloke on facebook. He'd installed it, but didn't like it.

Since getting the car, I've wanted to extend the shift lever. So with the short shift, the throw won't be crazy long once I add an extension.

Replaced the upper and lower boots at the same time. Turns out there wasn't much left of the upper one...


The lower one was pretty sad also.


Here's the new lever alongside the OEM one.


And one of everything back together.


The throw is VERY short now. Definitely more resistance changing gears, but got better as the new oil in the turret warmed up and splashed around.

I can see why some people don't like these kits. The short throw, extra resistance and the knob sitting lower make it feel a bit odd. Personally, I think you'd get used to it in no time.

Looking forward to adding an extension and a new knob once it gets here.

[theo]

Have done a bit since the last post...

Had one of these arrive in the mail


In the form of a Kraftwerks kit.

Installing it was going to mean a pretty substantial amount of disassembly, so I ordered a bunch of seals, a timing belt kit, CSF alloy radiator and a Flyin Miata stage one clutch to make a day (month) of it.

Hit a bit of a snag early on


Ended up doing this


Turns out the crank had been out to fix the keyway as some point, so was out of spec. Had myself a new gear from Mazda and got a local chap to machine a tiny amount from the inside. Worked like a charm.

No pics of the clutch install. Not very interesting besides the pink pressure plate.

Finally got all the seals, timing belt and clutch done - on to the supercharger.

Install went slowly, but fairly easy in most respects. Hardest part was priming the supercharger oil circuit. Since my car never came with power steering, I needed to source a power steering pump bracket, as the rotrex mount relies on those two bolts. Also removed the A/C, as the lines were in the way. May regret that later...

Was pretty grubby most of the time, so no progress pics really. This one was taken just after first start with the rotrex.


Cleaned up some wiring. Adjusted and tightened all the intercooler piping, and zip tied the fuel computer in its temporary home.

Finally got it all put back together this afternoon, and went for its first drive this evening.

[theo]

Thoughts...

On the kit itself - it really is ALMOST everything you would need to get up and running. Everything is well made and considered. My only complaints are minor:
1. The 350cc fuel injectors supplied needed modification. Had to replace the lower seal with one the appropriate size, and add an adapter to the fuel rail end to make it long enough.
2. The piping on the inlet side of the intercooler is probably a little too long. The piping is a little too close to the lower radiator hose.
3. The fuel computer is rather crude. It works, but on cold start, there is a little hesitation, and part throttle is a tiny bit jumpy.

Driving with the rotrex - it's better than I'd expected. It's awesome. I know there are plenty of people who have tried them and don't like them, and I can understand why (have had a couple of turbo cars). I was after a linear throttle pedal, stealthy appearance and NA(ish) exhaust noises. I'd say mission accomplished.

Here's a pic from the shakedown drive this evening. Still have the stupid grin on my face.


Next up is an adaptronic ECU, some ev14 injectors and some dyno time.

[bear2230]

Great looking Clubbie, I've always wanted a white one.
Rethink the Adaptronic. Haltech, Motec or Ms3 in that order or whatever your tuner recommends as long as it's not an Adaptronic.

Richard.