Life and Times of My Mazdaspeed Miata

GETTING THE CAR BACK IN ORDER

2012-02-03T20:23:00.000-08:00

Several things have needed attention lately, some for quite a while.

An oil leak developed a while back, and I determined the leak was coming from my aftermarket adapter at the oem filter location - it's part of my oil filter relocation kit. Finally got around to dealing with that. To get the adapter off the block, I ended up having to disassemble virtually the whole kit, but it wasn't too bad of a job, especially since my friend who owns an auto service shop let me use one of his lifts: sweet! The o-ring in the adapter had flattened against the block. Considerately, Jim Thompson (maker of the kit) included an extra o-ring in the kit and I had saved the box. New o-ring in, and the engine is dry again.

That of course required draining the oil, so that's an oil change, at 60,310 miles.

The front brakes had begun whining, and the rear pad on the front right was about paper thin, so this morning I had my friend put new brakes on the front. First new brakes since new.

The car has had an issue with the idle for a few months now, anywhere from 1400 to 2500 (should be 850). Advised that the problem was likely a dirty solenoid which also causes the infamous bog, I cleaned that solenoid, and the problem went away immediately and completely! --for a few days. This week I cleaned in the throttle body, and it was better for a couple hours, but then came back once again. Then today the Check Engine light came on, so I was excited that maybe it would tell me the problem. Read the code, and it said, "Engine idle too high." Oh thank you, thank you so much. Still working on possibilities. I was hoping to have the idle in good order for a week from Saturday for....well, that will be another post. :)

FIRST AUTOCROSS

2012-01-19T12:09:00.000-08:00

If you have a sports car, and you haven't done an autocross yet, DO IT!!!

This past Saturday (Jan 14) was supposed to be the day my roll bar got installed. But one of my helpers remembered he had a SpeedVentures autocross event to work, so he wouldn't be able to come. He did say, however, that I ought to go and do the autocross event. It was in an infield parking lot at the Fontana Autoclub Speedway. I had been meaning to do an autocross event at some point but wasn't real familiar with what goes on - but since my friend was going to be working it, this looked like a good opportunity.

The day before the event, I cleaned the solenoid again, hoping to rid my car of the aforementioned high idle. Starting the car afterward I found a check engine light. A little investigation showed that I had knocked the other end of one of the little hoses loose, so I fixed that up. Didn't really cure the high idle though. I cleared the CEL, but it came back on later.

Anyway, I caravaned with two Miata friends for the 50-minute drive to Fontana: the guy who's gonna help with the roll bar (very skilled driver/racer, owns a heavily modified, one-of-a-kind Mazdaspeed Miata; and the other owns a nice looking NB, and writes on the web for Motor Trend).

Fifty to sixty cars showed up for the SpeedVentures event: Miatas, S2000s, Camaros, Mustangs, a Lotus, an old Datsun Z car, BMWs (including a sedan), a '69 Camaro, a Hyundai hatchback, etc.

My friend working the event walked me around the course before it all started, showing me the lines I should use, and also let me ride with him for a run in the first session; great help! The fastest drivers were running the course in the 39-second range (including my friend who was working the event), and I think I saw a 38 or so at some point in the day. My first few runs were in the 45s, and then I had a long string of 44s. Occasionally I would have a really sloppy run, but otherwise I was consistently improving, by a tenth of a second or two, each run. About the time I had gotten under 44.1, my said friend rode with me for a couple of runs. The first was more or less in line with what I had been doing, a low 44. He pointed out a couple things for me to do differently, and we headed out again. Coming to the timing sign this time, he pointed to the time without words, and I looked to read it as well. I mainly saw the .4 at the end, and as I had held no anticipation of getting that deep in the 43s, I was thinking it wasn't a good run; that I was back up in the mid-section of the 44s. So my response to him was pretty was underwhelming.....until I finally realized it was forty-THREE point four. It's pretty obvious in the video when I finally realized, hahaha. Here's that run:

Pretty excited to have finally smashed the 44.0 barrier and gotten so far into the 43s. Went out on the next run by myself, attacked the slalom much better, and got a 42.8! I was ecstatic! Unfortunately I had to leave the event early at that point, as I had other obligations that day. But I am SO looking forward to another autocross event!

CATCHING UP

2012-01-17T15:44:00.000-08:00

I see that my last entry was July 2010. Life got off-kilter and complicated right after that, and suddenly a year and a half has gone by. Time to catch up and get back to my car's biography. The 'Speed has gone from just under 35k miles in mid 2010, to hitting 60k during this past weekend.

Going back to what was last mentioned, I installed the new antenna. Easy install, but you need a helper just for the second pair of hands.

Right after that is when things got complicated, and I ended up moving clear across the country - from Georgia to California, metro Los Angeles. I've lived in Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, but I've also lived in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City, in metro Washington DC, and in the Chicagoland area (not to mention the Czech Republic), so LA is no culture shock as some might expect in a move from Georgia to SoCal.

However, it WAS a culture shock for the Mazdaspeed. Previously, it was always garage parked and never driven in the rain. The first few months in Long Beach were a rude awakening. For one thing, I left my old Isuzu Rodeo SUV in Georgia to be sold, so the Miata would be my constant transportation here (for several months anyway; then I finally bought a '94 4Runner to replace the Rodeo). For the first five months in Long Beach, I was in an apartment with no parking except on the street, and it was the rainy season. Of course how bad can the rainy season be in Southern California? Well, in 2011, horrendous. I have never seen more rain, more consistently, in my life. Ever. Anywhere. Very strange weather for SoCal. And so much for not driving this car in the rain.

Then came the day I'm sitting at a traffic light and, too late to do anything, I spot a woman in the rear-view mirror who had slowed, but not stopped. Bam! -and my mint Miata now had a marred rear bumper. It's just surface damage, and it isn't so bad, but it was the first damage on the car. While I was examining the scrape, she took off. I jumped in the car and pursued, but she had gone immediately around a blind corner with another blind corner just beyond that, and I wasn't able to spot her. So the bumper will remain that way until I move from LA.

Then a few weeks later, I noticed someone had scraped the paint off my front bumper, apparently while trying to parallel park outside my apartment. This time the damage is much more noticeable, and I've found the shop to do the re-spray. More on that in a later post.

I now live in a house, with a garage, and I have the aforementioned 4Runner. So the 'Speed is very happy to be once again in it's favored circumstances: never being driven in the rain, and parked in the garage with its Mazdaspeed banner hanging over it. :)

And then there are the good things about my 'Speed Miata living in the LA area: canyon roads and KINOD. There are a lot of good roads in the mountains in and around LA, and they've provided a lot of fun: the Ortega Highway, Angeles Crest Highway, Rim of the World Highway, Mulholland Drive, Topanga Canyon Road, Tuna Canyon Road, etc. And then there's Turnbull Canyon Road, which I discovered because it's on the way to KINOD. KINOD is a group of Miata owners who began meeting every Friday night back in 2006. That's every Friday night for over 5 years now. They're mostly young (with exceptions), mostly Asian (with exceptions), and most of the cars that show up are modded and tuned much more than mine (with just a few exceptions!). Mine looks pretty bland in the KINOD meets!

Two mechanical issues have come up in the past months: a high idle, and an oil leak related to my oil filter relocation kit. Both of them are still to be resolved. The idle stays normal until I get into the turbo, but after I do, it will often go to 1500 to 2000 rpms, and stay there until the engine cools to ambient temperature. Informed that I should do the "bog fix" since a high idle is characteristic of the bog (which thankfully I've never had), I did so. It's an easy process of cleaning a solenoid, for which there is a great tutorial on the Mazda-speed.com forum ( http://www.mazda-speed.com/forum2/index.php/topic,21621.0.html ). Immediately, no matter how much or hard I got into the turbo, the idle behaved itself perfectly. I was thrilled. Until a few days later when the high idle returned. It's not as consistent as before (a good thing), but still sometimes shows up.

The oil leak is at the adapter on the side of the block, where the oil filter would normally be. I've tried simply tightening it with the car on the ground, but it's hard to get to (the whole reason for the relocation kit!), and I couldn't get good pressure on it. I need to get the car up on a lift and go at it better.

Well that about catches me up to date. Well, there is another good thing about having the Miata here in LA..... Another post to come, from this most recent weekend.

OIL CHANGE

2010-07-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

Man, I have neglected this blog. Need to get back to it. For example, the garage door was at half height the other day and I began to back out as I've done a bunch of other times (hey, it's a low car!)....but the radio had been left on, so the antenna went up as soon as I started her up. Yeah. So, a new antenna mast is sitting on my desk right now waiting for installation.

Anywho, changed the oil a week ago (7-5-10), mileage 34,739. Miles are adding up much more quickly than I planned with this car. The old Isuzu Rodeo just looks so boring when I step out into the garage!

OIL CHANGE

2010-03-24T23:39:00.000-07:00

Miles: 32,282. Going to Atlanta tomorrow to have new tires mounted, and new alignment with Flyin Miata's alignment numbers. Was approaching 5k miles on this oil, HAD to change it tonight!

NEW INTAKE ETC.

2009-11-06T22:15:00.001-08:00

First, an Oil Change to record:
October 28, at 27,565 miles.

I've installed Flyin Miata's Complete Intake Package, and a larger intercooler, which by the way looks much cooler!

The Complete Intake Kit
Drove to Indy to have my cousin's help for all this. The Intake package consisted of the intake itself, a stronger throttle body inlet pipe, (the rubber oem unit is reported to expand and even blow off under increased power), a manual boost controller, a new blowoff valve, and an 02 signal modifier.

I delayed installing the 02 signal modifier, so that I could see the results of the rest by itself, and then see the change the modifier makes. Big difference. Okay, with all the rest installed, I CLEARLY had more power! But not all of those additional horsies were working until I hit about 5000 rpms. To test the difference before and after the 02 signal modifier, I did several identical runs starting from 4k rpms in 4th gear, both before and after installing the modifier. Before, I would have nice power from 4k rpms, but then at about 5k it would really start laying down the power. After, I had all that additional power immediately, from 4k all the way up. :)

BEFORE
AFTER
Then it was time for the intercooler. Flyin Miata has a very nice one available for over $500. A more popular solution among 'Speed Miata owners are the units available on eBay for around $50-60. The typical choice is 28" long, 7" tall, and 2.5" thick. Installing it requires a bit of a rearrangement of the power steering lines, and the top couple of inches is not in the direct air flow through the mouth of the Miata. So instead of that unit, I bought a similar unit on eBay that was only 5.5" tall. No rearranging of the power steering lines, the whole thing is in direct air flow, AND I just feel a little more comfortable with the radiator not being quite as blocked. Intercooler cost was $37 plus shipping, plus some silicone couplers and clamps. The front end looks MUCH nicer now, with this wide aluminum intercooler instead of that little factory unit.

Factory Intercooler
New Intercooler
More info still to be added.....
(some special touches in these installations, and before/after dyno runs)

COSMETIC CHANGES

2009-11-04T00:31:00.000-08:00

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1. COMPLETED '04 INTERIOR

As I commented in my first entry, I bought this Black '05, planning to install the '04 red interior accents: red insert seats and red insert door panels. IT'S DONE! I bought the seats soon after I bought the car, and just recently ordered the door panel inserts from Online Mazda Parts, out of Montgomery Mazda in Charlotte NC (better than average parts prices). Mike aka Droptopdrifter/Doppelganger had done this same installation a couple years ago in his car (different colors), and since he has a heating tool that proves helpful for a factory-like installation, and since I also knew I'd like to meet him and his awesome car (260 whp and Garage Vary front bumper), today I went up to Atlanta. We got the job done and just enjoyed talking Miatas and modding. And man does his car move.

Anyway, I wonder if my car is now the only Black Mica Mazdaspeed Miata with the red/black interior. Quite possible since that arrangement was never offered. That would be kinda cool. Whether or not, I think it looks great.

2. HEADLIGHT & TAILLIGHT BEZELS

For a long time I wasn't sure if I thought these were an improvement or not, but I was sure that (to me at least) the Black Mica cars are the only ones they look really good on. Well I just came across a Black Mica set for $25! -normally $70+ for new, and painting costs on top of that. So they're mine! I'll get them mounted in a few days and see what I think.

FIRST DYNO

2009-11-02T15:32:00.001-08:00

I recently ordered and received Flyin' Miata's Complete Intake Kit. It will free up the car's breathing, allow me to raise the boost a couple pounds, prevent the ecu from seeing a rich condition under boost (in which case it would pull fuel), and solve a problem with the throttle body inlet pipe. Installation comes later this week!

Before doing the install, I took the car today for a dyno test: a first for the car, a first for me. Without any power mods, the car shows 151 horsepower at the wheels (as opposed to the factory number of 178 at the engine). Those are smallish horsepower numbers....until you remember they only have to push 2500 pounds down the road. :)

I'm looking forward to feeling the change my shiny new car parts will make....and to posting new numbers when I dyno the car again after the installation!

Odometer: 25,626

UPGRADING THE SIDE MARKERS

2009-10-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

Most (or just many?) cars have turn signals visible from the side, but the side marker lights on the Miata are just that. No blinkage happening there. And then there are the rear side marker reflectors - no actual light at all (but of course the tail lights at the corner are perfectly visible from the side).

Tonight I finally got around to doing the side marker turn signal mod on the front side markers, as per the tutorial at Miata.net. The side markers now blink with the turn signal and hazards, in addition to shining with the lights. Improved communication to cars on my flank! And it just looks good. With the lights on (as I always drive this car) they blink alternately to the front signals, with the lights off they blink simultaneously.

There's another tutorial for adding lights to the rear side reflectors, and instruction is included in that first tutorial to add the turn signal feature even to the rears. I'll be adding the rear lights sometime soon, and I'll probably incorporate the signaling also.

Miles: 25,418

TAIL OF THE DRAGON, CHEROHALA SKYWAY

2009-09-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

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All kinds of Awesome on these two roads!

Returning from a week of study near Crossville Tennessee, I picked up my "nephew-in-law" in Knoxville and headed down the Alcoa highway for the Dragon on Friday afternoon. It was my first visit there. For any who are sadly uninformed, the Tail of the Dragon is an eleven-mile stretch of US Highway 129 south of Knoxville, as it approaches and finally crosses the North Carolina line at Deals Gap. Those incredible 11 miles are blessed with 318 wondrous curves and turns. The mountain road is a mecca for bikers and sports car enthusiasts alike, though the bikers clearly outnumber the rest of us.

It’s a great road for sport, mainly (obviously) due to its twists and turns, but also since there are no side roads from which unsuspecting cars might enter the highway, and because everyone on the road knows it’s used for sport, which means everyone is driving with the knowledge that a car or bike is likely to be flying around the next curve. Predictability, and the awareness not to venture across the yellow line, makes for a good degree of safety.

Diving into hairpin turns and accelerating out: pure bliss. Exactly what Mazda designed this car for (unfortunately this is best seen in the long video I can't seem to upload). Watching the sport bikers dragging their knees on the curves, and keeping pace with them: more bliss. It’s easy to find videos of cars driving the Dragon faster than I did (my runs are better described as merely “spirited” than truly “fast”), but during my 3 runs it was only bikers (and only a few of them) that outpaced me. I’m sure on other days I’d see faster cars there.

A couple of my videos, but not the one with the best hairpins and best driving
That one is too long for YouTube or Blogger to accept :(

I made my third and final run on Saturday, as I couldn’t resist taking this route home to middle Georgia, even though it would add 2 or 3 hours to the journey. Another good run, and exiting the Tail of the Dragon I continued on 129 southward, seeking the Cherohala Skyway which I had seen mentioned on some Dragon sites.

The Cherohala runs east/west, crossing the mountains to connect Robbinsville NC to Tellico Plains TN. Like the Tail of the Dragon, it’s park land, so there are no homes and businesses, and only the rare side road leading to hiking trails etc. It differs from the Dragon, in that it lacks the hairpin turns and concentration of really tight curves. But curves it has, some of them long sweeping curves, as it takes you along the tops of the mountains, offering views that can only be described as spectacular. Truly a Skyway. The run is 35-50 miles long, depending on what you call the endpoints. With its proximity to the Dragon, there are bikers and the occasional sports car enjoying the opportunity for speed in non-linear form. Best of all, even though it was a Saturday, there was little traffic.

Cherohala Skyway
It looks like my trips to Maryland and Pennsylvania will be longer in the future. They’ll now include a detour via the Cherohala and the Dragon, probably every time. Well, every time I’m in the Miata. Maybe not so much, if I’m in the Rodeo. :)

SMOOTHER SHIFTING

2009-08-24T11:22:00.001-07:00

Earlier this year I removed the console and shift lever to replace a torn shift lever boot, and to remount the bushing on the bottom end of the shift lever (incorporating a washer to prevent the bushing from detaching itself again - I was happy to see today that the washer has done its job well). While I was in there that earlier day, the ball at the bottom end of the shift lever got cleaned of its grease; while a little bit remained, it has probably been lacking some smoothness ever since. So today I took it all apart again, and lubed up the ball and bushing with a spray can of white lithium grease. Much faster disassembly and reassembly this time, after having done it once before. And the shifting seems to be smoother and more accurate! :)

(odometer 23,265)

OIL CHANGE #4 AND TIRE ROTATION #1

2009-08-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

I've waited a bit longer than I wanted for my current oil change and tire rotation, but just finished them both, with the odometer reading 22,570. That's 4639 miles since my last change of the Mobil 1 synthetic. Of course folks say you can go 5000 miles with synthetic anyway, but I don't want to make that a habit. As for the tires, it comes to 6007 miles between originally mounting these tires and this first rotation. But it was not without drama. On the third wheel, I broke the locking lug nut key.

locking lug nut:locking lug nut KEY:
I'm not going to record here the depth of my stupidity at that third wheel, which resulted in the ruined key - though I will say the piece of the lug nut key that takes all the pressure was made of plastic(??!!). Got out the original accessory papers that came with the car, and had a new key FedExed to me overnight from the company that made them, and finished the rotation.

STRIP WASH - CLAY - WAX, and PICS FROM FLORIDA BACKROADS

2009-02-14T12:38:00.000-08:00

It was time for a general clean-up, before traveling to the Florida College Lectures last week. I addressed the paint finish first...

First step: strip the old wax from the finish by washing it with Dawn liquid dishwashing detergent. Second step: clay the car to remove fine, embedded dirt particles that normal washing can never ever get (never used a clay bar? see this discussion). I use "MOTHERS California Gold Clay Bar Paint Saving System." I HIGHLY recommend using a clay bar on your paint. It went much faster than it went the first time (last May?), since the first time was less than a year ago. And then third, fresh new wax:

Then I moved to the interior with my bottle of Armor All: not an overdone wet shine, but just the nice clean sheen of a new interior. The neglected area behind the seats -the windblocker and the rest of the area where the top folds down- benefitted especially. And man, the combined result of all the general clean up was sweet!

En route to Tampa, I ditched the Interstate in favor of the back roads of rural north Florida...and had the camera along for some pictures. Just north of I-10, I got off I-75 at Exit 439 for a route I had already planned out. I chose roads that missed towns for the most part, and which had curves when possible. Not that there are many curvy roads in flat, flat Florida. A few miles south of Fort White the road crosses the Santa Fe River: a beautiful little river and photo spot. Toward the southern end of my route it was pretty much impossible to avoid cities like Dunellon, Hernando, and Inverness. I rejoined I-75 at Exit 314. The backroads detour, with photography stops, added about an hour and a half to what would have been maybe an hour and forty on the interstate.

Above, and the next few photos:
At the Hwy 47 crossing of the Santa Fe River, south of Fort White

Above and below, in Bronson: These two houses were on a very short street called Main Ave., just off the main road Hathaway, and appeared to be preserved rather than currently lived in. Just thought they made a nice backdrop.

SHIFT LEVER: TWO ISSUES RESOLVED

2009-02-04T21:59:00.000-08:00

Working the gears in this car has been pure pleasure compared to the other sticks I've driven, so much better than my 5-speed Camry for example. But a couple things weren't quite right.

1. When one of the guys at a Miata shop drove my car months ago, he knew by the sound that the shift boot seal was torn - that's the smaller and lower of the two boots under the decorative leather boot. As far as I know, a torn seal doesn't cause any likely problems in shifting or transmission performance since it's under a second boot, but it can certainly stand being replaced.

I've removed the console;
the upper boot lies in the passenger footwell;
the lower boot ("shift boot seal") is still in place, at the bottom of the shift lever.
2. At the bottom of the shift lever is a bushing. It's been somewhat common on Miatae for that bushing to come off and rest at the bottom of the turret in which the shift lever stands. When it comes off, the shifting feels notchy: finding the next gear doesn't have a real smooth feel. I had read about this on the Mazda-speed forum, and about a solution as well. While my Miata transmission shifts better than any stick I've owned, and while the actual shifting of the lever also feels better than any of those others, I could feel that notchiness.

The torn shift boot seal;
the white bushing that had fallen off, now back in place.
So last week I used a great how-to on the forum to guide me through removing the console etc., and upper shift boot, and confirmed that the lower boot seal was indeed torn. I ordered a new shift boot seal from Jason at Montgomery Mazda in Charlotte NC (half the price quoted by my nearest Mazda dealer). Today it arrived, and I went to Lowes and bought a 3/8" washer. Removed the shift lever, and sure enough, that bushing I mentioned above was just resting in the bottom of the turret rather than on the shift lever. Put it back in place, and removed the old shift boot seal and put the new one on. The 3/8 washer is to keep the bushing from falling off again: placing it in the bottom of the turret, under the bushing, does the job.

Put it all back together, and SWEET!! -the notchiness is gone, and the shifting is better than ever. I love this car. Cost for the boot seal, shipping, and washer: $30.73.

The car is still under warranty, but I wanted to do this myself. First, I'm sure they wouldn't put the washer in there even if I asked them to, and second I just don't want dealers touching my car if I don't know enough about them to trust them...and I haven't had occasion yet to have to get acquainted with any Mazda service guys. Well, not here anyway. The service manager in Joliet IL was great with my MX-6 some years ago...but that's a few states away.

OIL CHANGE #3

2009-01-27T14:37:00.000-08:00

Haven't been careful about documenting my oil changes. Time for reform. Changed it today, @ 17,931 miles. That's the third change since buying the car with just under 7000 miles on it: once at a 15-minute joint, once when I added the oil filter relocation kit, and today.

Last time and this time (and into the foreseeable future), I'm using Mobil 1 synthetic 10W-30, and Mobil 1 filter. Instead of the Mazda prescribed filter size, I'm using the filter prescribed for the Mazda Millenia. Same diameter, but longer. More capacity can't be worse, and I figure it's better. Mobil 1's number for the filter is M1-110.

CLOSE CALL

2008-12-05T13:13:00.000-08:00

I bought this car, planning to keep it for decades. It's the first car I've really loved in quite a while. I care for it well, and I want it to remain unmolested --except for the tasteful mods I'll carefully make-- throughout its life.

Yesterday, I pulled up in the Checkers drive-thru (although food is usually persona non grata in this car). In front of me is one of those uber big pickup trucks. He decides he wants to leave and starts moving in reverse. I gave the horn a quick blast but he's still moving -slowly, thankfully- so I lay on the horn without let-up. I've considered this scenario before, and thought that I would react quickly to throw mine in reverse and get out of the way instead of just laying on the horn -- in reality, my mind wouldn't allow me to focus on anything that might distract from sounding that horn as loud as I could, I had to stop that truck!! Interesting how the mind works. Anyway, he had to be within a couple inches of crushing my hood with his bumper when he finally heard my horn and stopped. Leaned out his window (my left side was farther left than his), and said, "Sorry - I didn't see your little car." Man. In the future, that scenario will be on my mind more regularly, and reverse will be at hand.

GAUGE REPAIRED, TIRES REPLACED

2008-11-19T19:12:00.001-08:00

It's been months. Sent my boost gauge back to Speedhut, and they repaired it. There was a solder connection that wasn't a good connection from the factory. They re-did it, sent it back to me, and it's worked perfectly ever since. But of course I had the job of mounting it all over again. Speedhut sends a threaded ring, which the installer should place on the gauge from behind to hold it securely in place, after having placed the gauge in its mounted position. With the A-pillar pod though, there just isn't room to work that ring onto the back of the gauge. So I used some double sided tape around the gauge, and crammed a little extra in, and so far it's stayed put. I had the tape on hand because I was hoping it would hold the pod

in place on the pillar without the use of the plastic screws. Sounds unlikely? Well, I would have thought it unlikely for BMW to depend on double sided tape to hold body panels in place, but they do. Or at least did on the E30. I guess their tape is a little better than what I got down at OReilly's Auto Parts. After a few weeks, the tape between pod and pillar starting letting go, so I had to use the screws after all. All's good.

At 15,000 miles, my stock tires were shot. Yeah, I had a lot of fun the first few months I had the car (bought it with 7k on the clock, and perfectly good tires). So I started shopping - I wanted to move up at least a little in terms of performance, maintain decent performance in the rain (although I'm in the rain only rarely, I'd still prefer to avoid even the rare accident!), and maintain a decently low noise level, all for a low price. And I guess that's what I managed to do. I bought a set of Sumitomo HTR-Z II's from Tirerack.com at 79 bucks a pop. Moved up a size, from 205/40/17 to 215/40/17 - gives me a tad more sidewall to increase speedo accuracy, fill the wheel wells just a bit better, and maybe smooth a bump or two. Fast delivery via UPS. The performance, I think, is slightly better -stickier- than the stockers. Maybe next time I'll be ready to invest in significantly better tires. :)

all loaded up to go get them mounted!new tires mounted at 16,563 miles

The weather has turned decidedly cool (it's November!), and the 'Speed Miata is getting less drive time. I want to keep the miles from accumulating too quickly, so while it's too cold to enjoy top-down driving, I'll drive the alternate vehicle, my '99 Rodeo, and save the Miata fun for Spring through Fall.

BACK FROM THE BACKROADS TRIP TO INDY

2008-07-22T10:02:00.001-07:00

When I was in college, I bought an '85 Buick Skyhawk (a Cavalier dressed up evening style). Nothing special as a whole, but at least it was a 5-speed, and I enjoyed the car - especially due to its little pop-out glass sunroof. It was my first open roof. I can still feel what I felt driving along Highway 72 between Athens and Florence in the late cool evening of a summer's day, with the pop-out glass banished to the trunk. The night air, the moon and stars above me, the rolling landscape that made even 60 fun. Ah, yes.

None of my later sunroof-equipped cars have quite matched it, maybe because the more modern low sloping windshields push the sunroofs farther back, leaving less of the opening forward of the driver's head. Or maybe it was just the novelty of having it for the first time that made it special.

Well, I've certainly enjoyed having the droptop Miata, and I have the top dropped almost everywhere I go...but most of my driving has been in the cities or on the interstates. Getting off the beaten path on my recent trip (see previous post), back on the little country roads of Tennessee and Kentucky with the whole roof banished all day long -- it was that old memorable experience of my college days, and then some. Then a LOT, actually. It was just great.

I rigged (and I do mean rigged) a camera setup to do some video as I drove. No fancy suction mountings, or clasps onto a rollbar...no, I got out my full-size tripod, extended the legs part of their length, and placed it behind the passenger seat, the top angled over to just between the tops of the seats, and slammed the passenger seat all the way back to hold it in place (visible in the picture above, if you expand it). It actually worked really well as far as holding the camera steady in a pretty good position. But I've got to incorporate a method of eliminating wind noise and highlighting the engine/exhaust sounds instead. Next trip.

Specifically, the video was for the twisty sections of the roads I took. The car is so much fun on the twisties. Fortunately some of the roads had two lanes for the uphill side --on other roads I eventually got stuck behind slower cars.

The Rock Island area was indeed cool. The river that flows underground, under a road and structures, and then remerges from the rock above the other riverbed as a waterfall, well that was just eminently cool. Aside from the main flow of the falls, the water at the edge of the falls descends over many little terraces of rock before finally joining the rest of the flow in the riverbed. And a walk downstream along the rocks brought me to a pair of river otters playing in the shallows. Just cool.

Work Accomplished

Another purpose in taking the Miata on this trip was to get some work done on it with the help of my cousin Tim, and of the lift at the shop of a friend of his. These plans were only partially realized. We mounted the Thompson Oil Filter Relocation Kit without problem. Why did I choose this mod? Let's just say that knowing the issues beforehand, I took the car to a 15 minute oil change place for the first change, and the workers could not find my filter until the manager came over, who had done Miatas before. Even then it took them some considerable time to actually get the filter off. Doing it regularly, I'm sure I could beat their time, but I know I wouldn't look forward to the oil changes what with the difficulty and the way oil spills over everything from the filter's factory location. Thus, the Relocation Kit.

oil filter at center
We installed my Speedhut boost gauge (w/ silver face, red lighting, and a Mazdaspeed logo, all to perfectly match the factory gauges) in my A-pillar pod from Flyin Miata , and it began operating flawlessly…that day and throughout the evening. Upon being started the second time on the following day, however, the needle was reading a quarter of the dial off from where it should have been. I was getting 5 pounds of boost just idling! –and >20 pounds under WOT. Sometimes it reads correctly, sometimes not, but whichever way it’s reading upon startup, it keeps it until I kill it and restart, at which time it may or may not change. The gauge has a little calibration-like action at each startup, and that’s apparently the function that’s not operating well. Speedhut has agreed to take the gauge back; let’s hope a new one operates as it should.

Finally, we also got the trans- mission and differential fluids changed. Redline MT90 now fills my tranny, and 75w90 NS lubricates the differential. I bought the fluids online from Jegs, and they threw in a nice yellow Jegs cap with the oils.

When the boost gauge issue gets resolved, I can think about the further mods: a manual boost controller, intake kit, and new dowpipe and exhaust. Those will greatly increase my power, make the boost more linear and accessible at lower rpms, and even give me a couple more miles per gallon. Unfortunately, I don’t have the best financial situation right now, so those may have to wait a while.

An Update on my Wiperless Windshield

I’ve been very happy with this mod…but. In my travels out of town since doing it, I’ve been caught in the rain several times, some heavy, some light, and been quite pleased depending on Rain-X alone. Returning from Indiana, though, I ran into a new situation that presented a problem. Beginning in Kentucky, all the way to northern Georgia, the sky held separated pockets of rain clouds. I’d go through a rain shower for a mile or two, or maybe even 5 to 15 miles, and then it would clear again for a while. Each shower left the thinnest of dirt films on my windshield. Didn’t even notice it until after 4 or 5 showers (and 4 or 5 layers of dirt-film). But then it started raining again in busy downtown Nashville, and I noticed the water drops were not moving very quickly at all. They weren’t in good contact with the Rain-Xed surface anymore, and visibility suffered a lot by this point. I had to stop and use a gas station squeegie, and all was good again. Hit maybe 3 more showers, but the Rain-X held its own. Couple more, and another squeegie stop would have been likely. So: repeated, separated showers are the downside of this mod, but overall I’m still very happy with it.

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED

2008-06-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

I'll soon be making a trip to Indianapolis. While there, my cousin and I plan to get some things done to my car. But those details can wait for a post after the fact. This post is about getting there. Like most folks, I have normally taken the Interstates to my various destinations. Shorter travel time = more fun time (at the destination). But now I have this little car that is so much fun on the twisty backroads. The equation has changed.

Instead of taking I-24 from Chattanooga to Nashville, and I-65 from Nashville northward through Kentucky, I'll ditch the Interstate for part of my trip, climbing Signal Mountain out of Chattanooga, and not rejoining the masses until Cave City Kentucky.

click for larger version
All new roads for me. I'll go up and down mountains (well, what we call mountains back east anyway), wind along rivers, and cross the Cumberland on a ferry. I'll go through places named Mount Airy, Mount Crest, Bone Cave, Rock Island, Boiling Springs, and Nameless, with the ferry crossing at the point where Turkey Neck Bend Road has never had a bridge.

I love to drive, even on the Interstate. These twisty backroads with the 'Speed Miata should be memorable.

(If anyone's interested enough to care, the roads are:
US27, US127, 30, Bone Cave Road, Rock Island Road, 136, 135, Ditty Road, 56, 290, 53, 214, 100, 63, and 90)

SEAT ADAPTATION

2008-06-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

In choosing a 'Speed Miata to buy, I preferred an 05 because I wanted the Black Mica paint. But I wanted the red/black interior available only in 04 (05 interior is all black, except for red stitching on the shift lever, hand brake, and steering wheel). Thus the plan was born to buy an 05 Black Mica, and then to later buy the red/black cloth seats and red/black door panels from an '04 car. The all black interior just doesn't quite do it.

Well, I found a good pair of red/black seats!

Fortunately for me, Mark in Arizona takes great care of his 04 Mazdaspeed Miata (often places it in car shows), and makes lots of modifications. He had 12k miles on the clock, and decided to install racing seats, and was looking to sell his factory red/black cloth seats. After all the details of what would be a long story, I bought the seats and he DHL'd them to me. They're in great condition except a couple minor deformations that happened during shipping to 2 metal parts on the bottom of the seat --I saw the DHL guy drop the first seat just 20 feet before handing it off to me-- but they're blemishes that don't matter at all.

When I took the original seats out, I saw all the grit and litter and leaf bits that had accumulated on the floorboard under the seats. Hmmmmm. Yeah, I think I'll make it. I drove the car seatless to the car wash a couple miles away to vacuum out the floorboard really well. A folded up blanket to sit on raised me just enough to see and drive well, and the two cops I saw didn't notice or didn't care that I had no seats in the car. Vacuumed, got it back home, installed the new seats.

I wonder: could mine be the only Black Mica 'Speed Miata with the red/black seats? I kinda hope so. But no matter -- I think these seats look even better with the black paint than with the Velocity Red or Titanium Gray (the only two exterior colors they came with from the factory).

In fact, I'm now satisfied enough with the look inside that I may never go to the trouble and expense of the door panels. If it happens fine, but I'm not looking hard.

To complete the red accenting of the car, I plan on painting the brake calipers red when I get around to it. Already bought the paint, now I just need to get it done.

HEADLIGHT HAZE: CURED!

2008-06-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

This deserves a post all for itself.

When I bought my Miata, I noticed that the headlight lenses had begun to haze over - though it wasn't really bad yet. You've seen cars where the lenses get horribly hazy. Couldn't let that happen to this car (new lenses are bound to be a bunch of money!).

Once again, mazda-speed.com had the info I needed. If your headlights are hazy, get yourself down to your friendly local auto parts store, and purchase a bottle of Meguiar's PlastX!

It's an easy application that polishes those lenses clean, even if it does require a little persistence in polishing. There is just a bit of haze still on one of the lenses, but it's so little that I don't even know which lens it is -- would have to get down close to spot it. And if I worked a little longer, maybe I'd have gotten that little bit also. But the main point? Now my headlights make the front end look great! :)

WINDSHIELD WIPER DELETE

2008-06-05T20:39:00.000-07:00

Before my purchase, I determined to find a very well-cared for example, and give it equal care, and keep it until it's basically antique (and I will be too, by that time). That means keeping it out of the rain. I just don't want all that defilement mucking up the underside of my car! The original owner of this car had driven it in the rain once while he owned it, and then the day he drove it to work when I bought it from him, it was in the rain once more.

My rule is: never drive it locally on days when rain is possible, but go ahead and take it on trips, and if I get caught in the rain on a trip, so be it. I do want to enjoy having the car after all.

Then I noticed a fellow-member's comment on the forum mazda-speed.com, talking about how much nicer the view out the windshield was when he temporarily had the wipers off for a day. And wow he was right! Further, I'd used Rain-x a lot, and was completely comfortable relying on it alone for the few days I'd ever end up in the rain, so.....

That's right, my car is now wiperless! And looks great.

Having removed the wipers, I was then confronted with the bright bolts and plastic surround that stick up where the wipers mounted. Well, that doesn't look good. I needed to cap them with something that would fit perfectly, and not look like some garish add-on -- like the end of the actual wipers, for example. So I got a couple wipers from a Miata salvage company (partsgroup.com), and cut off the end pieces that cap those bolts, and mounted them. Kept my original wipers in case I ever decide to put them back on.

visible here: the cut side, pointed down toward the engine bay

From the driver's seat, I really like seeing the contours of the hood that had been partially obscured by the wipers, and the view of the car from the outside is great too. It just looks much cleaner inside and out!

INITIAL MODS

2008-06-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

I've never had a car that inspired me to make any modifications to speak of. Not until now anyway. There are a lot of mods I have in mind, the more important ones enhancing the car's performance. But right off the bat, I started making some more cosmetic modifications. The performance mods (i.e. the expensive mods) will have to wait a little longer.

When I flew to Dallas to buy the car, I had with me the visor blanking plates I had already purchased. You see, as low as the roof is, the visors in the car don't serve a lot of purpose except get in the way of my line of sight out the front windshield! Since a lot of Miata owners feel the same way, aftermarket suppliers sell these little blanking plates, that fill the hole left when owners remove their visors. After buying the car, my friends and I stopped for lunch, and after ordering, I went back out to remove the visors and install my blanking plates! Ah, much better! And that ugly yellow warning sticker is gone too!

Next mod was after I got the car home. The car comes from the factory with amber colored front side marker lights. On my Black Mica paint, those side markers just did NOT look good. In such close proximity to the headlights, the new clear side markers look much better, don't you think? The clear lenses came with amber bulbs, so they do shine amber when they're lit.

I still need to remove those clear side markers sometime to smoke them a little - so they'll match the factory smoked headlight lenses.

A week and a half after getting home, I made two more modifications. I removed the little factory meep-meep horn and replaced it with a Nautilus air horn - much better sound, and considerably louder - the latter of which is what justified the expense. I've found that other drivers tend to not see this little car with their quick glances (it's 3 feet shorter than a Camry!), and they come right over into my lane! Thus, the louder horn. And finally, Miatas come with two little hooks in the front "mouth" (where a grille would be if there were one) - they look like tow hooks, but are in fact simply tie down hooks used during shipping, and serve no later purpose. In the Miata community, they're known as baby teeth. Now, they're gone!

PURCHASE (4-1-08)

2008-05-27T14:04:00.000-07:00

I learned to drive a stick as a teenager, on my Dad's 1974 1/2 MGB GT. Later, he had a Pininfarina (Fiat) Spyder 2000 -- a little two seater convertible that I really liked. So my attraction to the Miata came pretty naturally. Appreciated the Miata's innate sporting characteristics and bullet proof reliability as well. Test drove a few of them over the years, but never was in a position to buy one -- needed to retain the possibility of hauling around more than one extra person on occasion. Last year, I found myself owning a couple of cars with no payments, either one of which could continue to serve well as a hauler, so I looked into Miatas again, and learned about the 'Speed edition. Test drove one and... "Oh yeah, baby!" :) A huge leap beyond any Miata I'd driven before!

Began my search in earnest, and trying to decide exactly what form I wanted. They sold in Titanium Grey Metallic and Velocity Red Mica in '04, and then added Black Mica and Lava Orange Mica in '05. Lava Orange is a great color, but I wanted the Red/Black cloth interior instead of all-black, and red just doesn't work inside a Lava Orange, and wasn't available in '05 anyway. Finally settled on the Black Mica as my favorite paint, but it was only used in '05, and the red/black cloth interior only in '04. So that was it: I'd buy an '05 Black Mica (I like the '05 rims better anyway), and eventually buy the '04 red/black seats and red/black interior door panels from elsewhere, and install them in my '05 Black Mica! :) (I don't like being surrounded by all black everywhere I look: seats, carpet, dash, doors, console, underside of softtop...)

So I carried on with my search. Found an '05 Black Mica in Dallas TX with only 6900 miles on the clock, completely stock. Original owner, pretty much mint other than 1 ding low on the driver door. The owner had driven it in the rain only one day. He had saved every service receipt (not that it had required much service), the window sticker, the dealer brochure, and the newspaper containing the ad that prompted him to go in and buy the car. The boot cover was still in its factory plastic bag, never unsealed.

A friend in Fort Worth went and checked it out for me, confirming what the owner had told me about its condition, so for $99 I bought a one-way AirTran ticket from Atlanta to Dallas, trusting I wouldn't have to hitchhike home!

Checked it out, and bought it, April 1 '08, for a couple hundred dollars under trade-in value. The fact that it was April Fool's Day certainly didn't apply to the deal I made, but to how I nearly wrecked it five minutes after taking ownership! I was still in downtown Dallas where I bought it from the guy at his downtown office workplace. The one-way three lane street takes a little S-curve path, with concrete barriers on either side. I figure the left/right S-curve looks fun, so just as I enter it, I drop a gear and goose it -- too much. Back end swings right, and I over correct, throwing the rear end left, with me facing the right-side concrete barriers and still moving at a pretty good clip -- got it straightened out finally. It was fun, but in a scared-myself-to-death-and-nearly-crashed-my-new-car kinda way. Um, yeah, it had been been a long time since I had driven a rear wheel drive stick that had any power.

Got it home to Georgia and took the next days and weeks to grow more gradually into enjoying the power. This is a fun car. Seriously.

That ad is why I don't feel bad for buying it from the guy for less than
trade-in value! :)

Purchase price was $16,700, plus a $25 Groome Shuttle ticket to the airport, $99 Air Tran ticket from ATL to DFW, and gas home.