Ownership Verified: Meet Luigi DeVito! That's right, another MX-5! Sorry.

Went to Beni's garage today and met some friends:

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On the way back after some pretty epic roads with the black MX-5 and mine blasting through the valleys and forests near Limburg we hit the autobahn. She ain't got no more, Captain!

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I took some other pictures with my good camera, but cbf organising them tonight, maybe another day!

SO, on to the stuff we did:

  • Pulled out the throttle position sensor and had a look inside... it looks fine, but I have no idea how these are supposed to look. Anyway we unplugged it and it had no effect, unplugged the one in Beni's car and saw almost identical results. I will order a new one ASAP.
  • Fixed the window as someone had failed to clip the winding cables into their runners so they were catching when putting down and up the window. Also, Tim and Beni fixed up the trim that had been poorly pulled apart by the someone in the past.
  • Had a good look under the car, and it is indeed fine, a bit of surface rust but otherwise excellent!
  • Pulled the airbag and wheel off to have a look, I think I will just order the bits to put on a non airbag wheel and see what the T?V says when it goes in next time :p, but that is something I can order at a later stage.
  • Replaced the coolant, the old stuff actually looked fine - there is a lot of silt like shit in the radiator which is probably from the coolant deteriorating at some stage, but gave it a good flush and chucked some new stuff in.
  • Had a good look for the oil leak, found it's coming from the front of the engine near some pullies, possibly the crank seal or bearing or something? Not sure. Given that all the belts need replacing, I am tempted to take it to my friends turkish garage to get the cambelt, alternator belt, aux belt and all the pullies and seals done on it ... I could do the work myself but lacking a garage to do it really close by can make it a bit of a pain.
  • Oil and oil filter change was not done due to the leak, no point putting fresh oil into an engine that will spit it out after 200km.
 
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After some spirited driving in the Netherlands today (for the second day in a row) the car started overheating quite badlyon the way home. Managed to keep it from being a major problem though through good management and luck, so it shouldn't have done any damage. I suspect, after flushing and replacing the coolant on Saturday that it has dislodged some of that silt that has been sitting in there for however long and is now clogging things up... I guess pulling and cleaning the whole cooling system is the next step, great.

It's also idling very high which is new, it seems to change depending on how hot the car is, I am not sure exactly why this is - We were pulling bits and pieces off though, so I will have a go at reseating everything and seeing if that helps, when I get the throttle position sensor, that is.

Still, had some fun today, did around 200km of driving with the roof down... I found Earplugs the best thing to make it bearable at 140+kph, fortunately I keep a stash of them in my back for no reason.

I ordered the new throttle position sensor and air filter today, so I will install them ASAP!

Here is some video of today:


[video=youtube;GY-U6Brxt4E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY-U6Brxt4E[/video]
 
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Do you have a picture of your "new" steering wheel for the nice people at home?
 
Remember that the MX-5 coolant temperature gauge is far from linear. So after it gets above the "12 o'clock" position, your engine is seriously warm. I think it show's 12 o'clock between 70?110?C or something. So you should be very careful letting the temperature rise above that, or it will lead to head gasket replacement. Does the cooling fan work?
 
Love how the M5 just... disappears. Then you catch him by the corner :D
 
Do you have a picture of your "new" steering wheel for the nice people at home?

I have it on my camera at home, I will grab the photos tonight and throw some of them up!


Remember that the MX-5 coolant temperature gauge is far from linear. So after it gets above the "12 o'clock" position, your engine is seriously warm. I think it show's 12 o'clock between 70?110?C or something. So you should be very careful letting the temperature rise above that, or it will lead to head gasket replacement. Does the cooling fan work?

The gauge varies wildly, it was going from just below center to 3/4 towards the end then dropping by 5mm then going back up again. If the head gasket needs replacing I will just buy a new engine, with the oil leak I had already started considering that as an option. And yes, the coolant fan works fine.


Love how the M5 just... disappears. Then you catch him by the corner :D

As Adunaphel said, both of them had very limited experience with their cars - but on a purely twisty road with some half decent tires the MX-5 would be more than capable of keeping up IMO :D
 
That's also my grandpa driving in the 330d in front. On a very narrow road in a car I've owned for just one day, I tend to be a bit careful :)
I read that as it being your actual grandfather himself driving it, not grandpa-style driving. I was confused for a minute.
 
Yeah, same here. I had a mental image of a Ferman version of Gandalf with beard blowing out of the open window.
 
You really were pushing the little car hard. :)

I wish I'd filmed the driving from the day before - that was unbelievably awesome and we were pushing the two mx-5's really, really hard!
 
So yesterday evening I went to see what I could see with the car, check teh coolant etc ... Well, the coolant was around 1.5L down on where it should be, the expansion tank was at the correct level though - so I topped up the coolant and fired up the engine - when suddenly...


Looks like it is coming from the water pump. Not good. Having no facilities or tools to get it apart and work on it - and given that it's not driveable in this state, I am really stuck with what to do. There are a few options, but either way it looks like the car will sit there for at least the next two months before we have enough money to do something about it.

I think I will just borrow some money from a bank and buy a motorbike :-D
 
A SKF water pump is 55 Euros at kfzteile24.de - and you can easily change that on the parking lot.
 
A SKF water pump is 55 Euros at kfzteile24.de - and you can easily change that on the parking lot.

Yup, but it's pissing oil out also, and all the belts need changing, and I don't have adequate tools to do any of this work anyway - I have an ikea tool set and a ?10 toolkit from bauhaus and literally no money available for the next two months :-D
 
In that case I think I should kick off a crowd funding exercise to get you mobile again.

Put me down for 10 bucks to start things off if someone in 'Schland can sub me until Ringmeet.
 
In that case I think I should kick off a crowd funding exercise to get you mobile again.

Put me down for 10 bucks to start things off if someone in 'Schland can sub me until Ringmeet.

The Emergency Finalgear Miata Fund - for all the ultra reliable Miatas out there. Now I'm worried about mine.
 
I did put oil in mine yesterday and the water pump was renewed at the cambelt service... Maybe all the FinalGear Miatas could be combined into a really nice one.
 
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