It's been a while since I've been on FinalGear and it's been a while since I posted about the MX-5.
It went back to being my daily driver around the start of 2017. It's an older car now, and though it's low miles, it's seen a lot of very intense miles (track time, autocross, etc.). The paint and interior look like a maybe-5-year-old car, but the mechanicals show all of their 14 years, and some components are far more worn than age and mileage would suggest.
It started throwing a check engine light a while ago. I forget the code, but the meaning was that the coolant was not coming up to temperature as expected. This can be caused by insufficient coolant (and resulting air bubbles), or by a failed thermostat. Even with keeping coolant levels up the check engine light kept returning, so it seemed likely to be the thermostat. I'd also noticed the power steering fluid level would get low, seemingly without reason, and the clutch was slipping more than it should. I took it to a Houston area shop (a race shop that specializes in Miatas). They confirmed the need for a new thermostat, gave it that, and got a new clutch master cylinder put in to take care of the slipping clutch.
I was planning to have Brian of Regular Car Reviews get some seat time in my Miata, out at Harris Hill Road, to get more comfortable with cars at speed. A Miata is "regular" enough to not be intimidating for him, but gives a strong sensation of speed and is a good learning platform. I took the car out for a few shake down laps and... the engine failed. It threw a rod out the side of the block:
The guys at the track were kind enough to let us use their track Miata for Brian, so he still got to spend time on track in a Miata. John, my favorite Miata mechanic, works out of a shop at that track, so we left my car there for him to repair. He had a used motor (10,000 miles, removed to install a race motor), and put that in the car. All that clutch slipping from the master cylinder had caused the clutch to be worn down, too, so he got a new clutch in the car as well. I got the car back last weekend.
Monday morning, everything was fine.
Tuesday morning, everything was fine.
Wednesday morning, the power steering was intermittently stiff and noisy. The power steering reservoir was low again, so I dumped in more fluid Wednesday after getting home.
Thursday morning, the power steering was still intermittently stiff and noisy. When I checked, the reservoir was low yet again.
The reservoir level didn't drop as the car sat overnight Thursday -> Friday, but there were puddles of fluid under the car. We'd put down a pad Thursday night and come Friday morning, it had caught quite a bit of fluid in multiple areas. My guess is that fluid is spewing all over the frame, etc. while the system is pressurized, then dripping off overnight.
I still think of this car as "my new Miata". The car seems to be telling me it really is 14 years old, and that I've not been gentle on it, and the results are now being seen. I go back and forth between being really upset that this car with so many memories, that I feel so at home in, is failing on me, and understanding that old cars have failures and it's just time to fix some stuff. It's still an incredibly fun car to drive, so hopefully it can spit out all its old, failing parts, get new ones, and come back to me ready for more.