Ownership Verified: That time FinalGear bought a Munich Roadster (MX-5) to drive from Germany to Finland

[LeVeL]

Common guys, two lever's to choose, "how hard can it be?" Try driving LHD, UK RHD and JDM RHD and not use wipers. UK and LHD have blinkers on left hand side and JDM on right side. Today drove UK RHD and at least windshield did stay clean.

Wait, JDM cars have signals on the right and wipers on the left?? Tehfuq is that? I'd be so utterly confused :lol:

 

[RdKetchup]

Same thing in Australia.

How to recognize a tourist? Is the one with the wipers on...

 

[Matt2000]

I used to have a UK RHD car with the indicator stalk on the right. That wasn't a problem though because it didn't have a wiper stalk, that was a rotary switch on the dash.

 

[Hbriz]

Same thing in Australia.

How to recognize a tourist? Is the one with the wipers on...

Most cars have the indicators on the right here only because most cars on the road are Japanese or Australian. Pretty much all European cars still have the indicators on the left, 'UK style'. You get used to it, I would swap between my Renault and my parent's Holdens and only wipe the windscreen unnecessarily on occasion when I was tired.

 

[loose_unit]

On the way to Frankfurt to pick up this little car and fart in it.

 

[loose_unit]

So, I picked up the car today!

First I took a test drive in this black MX-5, a 90hp one:

Now, on with the first job, replacing the o-ring on the crank position sensor! The internet said "The aim is to have this replaced in 10 minutes without removing the cam cover." ... Well, we failed at that!

The old o-ring, it's not really round anymore...

Aaaand the new one, looks good!

Time for a quick wash after some burger king to remove the rather large amount of salt buildup on it, (See pic 1)

Once that was all done I headed back to Cologne... About half way home it started to cough when putting my foot down then it would pick up, it even happened when I slowly increased the throttle. I dropped my speed from 120 - 130 down to 90 - 100 for the rest of the journey but the problem persisted on and off (Intermittent faults! woo!)

I couldn't really pin down any consistent way of reproducing the fault, it was either there or not...
Tomorrow I will check MAF and air filter. New plug leads will be organised also as the old ones are probably close to EOL anyway.

I might look at getting some injector cleaner or something like that? I will need to talk to Public first though! More pics and tales to come!

Edit: Forgot to add, I jumped onto the autobahn leaving Frankfurt and suddenly, surprise cabrio soft top opening!!! Luckily I managed to grab it and hold it down, pulled off the motorway and fastened it properly and all was good - the clip attached to the windscreen seems to be worn and should be replaced, but as long as you know it's like that you can get it to stay shut.

 

[Lastsoul]

You can adjust the clip. In the middle of the part that clips to windshield frame is a plastic cover. Open it and turn the metal part to adjust the length. Sadly no ideas what could cause the random coughing. Fuel filter changes are often neglected, even though it's not a big task in the MX-5. But I'm not sure what kind of issues it should cause.

 

[Beni]

It's a typical case of never change a running system I guess

 

[public]

The Sierra necessitated a fuel tank flush and filter change, but that was due to sitting for years...

 

[loose_unit]

You can adjust the clip. In the middle of the part that clips to windshield frame is a plastic cover. Open it and turn the metal part to adjust the length.

That's not the issue, the issue is the c holder thing for the clip is horribly worn so it is more of an r clip instead of a c clip

 

[Lastsoul]

Ah, somebody has enjoyed open top driving a lot then

 

[loose_unit]

And now for another update!

This MX-5's natural state:

Aaand an engine shot:

First job, out with the old head unit as it has been poorly glued together when the clip that holds the removable face on broke:

And the new one that was donated for to me for the E30 I borrowed from Beni, now it's going back to Finland! The speakers are comically bad, but at least now there is an aux connection and a CD player - Also, bonus, the CD changer thing in the boot seems to work with the new stereo, I don't own any music CD's so I haven't been able to check it yet though.

Then, time to open up and check the air filter to see what it's condition is in, looks not bad:

But then you turn it over and HOLYGODWTFBBQ how is this car even running???

Seriously, what the actual fuck!!! I hit it on the ground a few times and this is all the shit that came out of it:

So, we ordered a new air filter, leads and an oil pressure sensor. The filter and leads will go on as soon as I get them, the oil pressure sensor will likely wait until I visit Beni's shop this weekend.

The car is still coughing and spluttering, but I think we are getting close to having it running smoothly!

 

[public]

Good thing there's no longer a loose_head_unit on the car... All signs point to bad plug leads, sources say the have a renewal interval of 40 000 km.

 

[tquattro]

And now for another update!

This MX-5's natural state:

At first I thought there's a clothes iron on the rear luggage rack :lol:

Now I also want a cheap MX5 like this one and to fix it up.

 

[loose_unit]

First I took a test drive in this black MX-5, a 90hp one:

I made an offer on the black car and it was accepted, soon I will be an MX-5 owner too!

 

[samulis]

I made an offer on the black car and it was accepted, soon I will be an MX-5 owner too!

Public, please tell me that the black one isnt the one you were lookin earlier.

 

[Adunaphel]

It's not the MoldX-5, if that's the one you mean.

 

[LeVeL]

The more Miatas, the merrier!

 

[CraigB]

 

[samulis]

It's not the MoldX-5, if that's the one you mean.

Huh, cos that was rusty and I've seen few rusty Miata's.