A couple of weeks back i read a thread from an owner on here that needed to get to the earthing block that is in the best of places under the headlight units,it was mentioned in that tread that a re-route might help in the future,well i hit this little sod with a burnt out bulb and melted bulb block,so light units out,which can be done without removing the full nose cone/bumper by simply undoing the 4 x 10mm head bolts that hold the alloy air guide/slam panel,and then the 2 x 10mm head bolts that hold the headlight units,and with a bit of pulling ,pushing and wriggling it will pop out.
There is no need to extend the wiring on the earth block to do this improvement to make life easier for that next time.
The only things you will need is a new nut and bolt, the hole that as been drilled on the drivers side is a 6mm hole.
Don’t forget to hoover the iron bits up,and a lick of copper slip
If you have any questions please feel free to ask and i hope this will help other owners.
Pics’ to help…
Drivers side…
Passenger side…
Thankyou Mazdamender for taking the trouble to post these pictures. It was me who suggested extending the earths to a different point. What you have done did occur to me but without seeing the layout I was not sure if it would be possible. Your pictures make everything clear. But what a ridiculous place to make an earthing point, whoever designed it must have a perverse sense of humour!
Regards Geoff Peace.
I decided to check the earth points under the headlights yesterday. As a result I thought I would add to mazda menders post. The car in your pictures Wayne I assume is a Mk2. Mine is a Mk2.5 the headlights are different, they have three plastic darts 30mm. long , part of the headlight lens which fit under the front bumper. I urge extreme caution in removal as these can easily break. I assure you Wayne it is impossible to remove the headlight on a Mk2.5 by your method. I did not remove the front bumper completely, I removed the four bolts on the alloy top panel as you said, then removed the front wheelarch liner, part of the top one to release the bumper from the wing, one screw, one clip [very tight ] three small self tapping screws at the bottom, to be able to move the bumper forward and downward to clear the three ‘darts’ even so it took some manoeuvreing to release the unit from two spiggots, plastic one underneath, metal one on the outer edge. So yes it can be done without removing the bumper completely but it needs to be released from the wing as well as the top with the Mk.2.5 type headlight. The earths and setscrews were corroded, this is on a six year old car 20,000 miles dry miles and garaged. All is well now with these points cleaned up, just slightly nose heavy with all the grease on the terminals! The blighters won’t corrode again. I thought I would post this to help anyone with the same problem on a Mk2.5 To make things a little clearer the differences in the headlights can easily be seen on the MX5 parts website.
Regards Geoff Peace.
Hey fair does Geoff did you not move the earth blocks while you had her in bits, only this is the second and last time for me to mess around with these earth points by removing half of the roadster.
But the next 2.5 i have here i will have a look and see what you are talking about buddy, and it’s all about sharing to help others to make it easier
No I did not move the earth blocks Wayne. The earth connection was very poor from new.The paint had not even been removed from under the connector, it relied on contact from the earth tab to the bolt thread which was rusty. I cleaned everything back to bright metal and greased liberally, very liberally! They will not dare to corrode again. I tried to 'pop them out for about half an hour following your insructions, but when I released the wing and saw the setup with the plastic darts under the bumper it was immediately obvious that the only way was to release the bumper from the wing enough to pull it forward about 30mm. and down again about 30 mm. to avoid breaking the darts. After the initial struggle I have to be honest and confess. I did say to my wife Mazdamender! where is he? I would like to see him pop these out! No offence intended at all Wayne, as you so rightly said it is about sharing information to make life easier. I just thought I would add the post to try to avoid anyone breaking a light unit, in the future. Bearing in mind the price of them!
Best Regards Wayne, keep sharing the information! Geoff Peace.
Geoff and Wayne, you may remember my fairly recent posting on this self same topic when my left hand indicators staring playing up. Like you, Geoff, try as I may I couldn’t wriggle the headlamp unit out and came to the conclusion that the Mk 2 and Mk 2.5 headlamp units had subtle differences.
I gave up and took it to the garage (local to me and run by an ex-Mazda Main Dealer Technician). He removed the nose cone and headlamp unit and found exactly the same thing as on your car Geoff. He cleaned and liberally greased the connectors on both sides for the princely sum of £60.