I’ve been lurking on the forum for a few months now and spending a fair amount of time in the garage on the MX5. I’m Lee, based up in Durham - North East England. I finally picked up my 10th anniversary 1999 reg from another enthusiast in June’19. The car has been an absolute joy to drive and the sharpness/responsiveness never ceases to amaze! I’ve wanted an MX5 for as long as I can remember. Here’s a little chronological update of progress / developments so far.
A few drives into ownership, I noticed coolant leaking from the under tray, turned out to be the thermostat cover. Which in turn lead to replacing the thermostat cover, thermostat and coolant hoses.
When burping the fresh coolant through the system, noticed the radiator was slowly leaking and the air condenser was rotten (air con didn’t work anyway). It was at this time I also heard what I suspected to be failing water pump (a few google searches later I was confident it was the pump). In went a new rad and out with the old - the air condenser was ripped out too.
Next job was to tackle the timing belt…
Ended up changing the following: -
Timing Belt
Water Pump
Camshaft seals
Crankshaft seal
Woodruff key
Crankshaft bolt
Both aux belts
Please to say the replacement water pump did the trick and was the source of the 'washing machine' sound I could hear.
Oil and filter change and she was ready for the road again.
With the maintenance complete for now, it was time for the modifications to start, 25mm IL Motorsport spacers fitted.
She sits nice and flush with the arches… managed a total of 60 miles (albeit over a few weeks) with the spacers on before looking at other wheels!
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Ordered new Ultralite wheels from Bofi Racing (couldn’t justify the price of Enkei that I originally wanted). Loaded up and the car wouldn’t start!! Quick check of the battery and it was reading 11.3 volts - as good as dead. Ordered a Optimate 4 charger from Amazon and re-charged. Turned out the battery had a parasitic drain of 0.2amps. Checking of all the fuses later, turned out to be the room fuse and specifically the after market radio! Later found out the drain dropped to normal levels by just removing the old skool pop off stereo front.
New alloys and wider rubber on, very happy with how the 5 looks… arch gap aside!
Which brings me up to present day, HSD Dualtech coilovers arrived from Driftworks and with a few weeks off over Christmas, hope to install them then
Nice wheels too! I settled on some Japan Racing wheels myself, same style (Enkei reps) suppled brand new from Drift Works - I went for 15x7, 4x100 15" as didn’t want anything tooo big or wide on my Mk1 but an improvement over standard at the same time.Â
Thank you, plenty plans in the pipeline! Not much over winter apart from the coilovers but very tempted to move the number plate - or at least get rid of the big plastic plinth!
Don’t forget to check your chassis rails before you get too carried away on spending money on other improvements. It looks a very nice car and well worth cherishing but as we all know a lot of salt is used in the North so be prepared for eventual rust. The sill trims may be hiding a potential problem. I have had my NB nearly 6 years now, they are lovely cars and somewhat underrated as emphasis is on the NA but are more refined and improved.Â
Thoughts of rust are never far away unfortunately but I should be ok for a while! The rear sills, arches and boot lid have been replaced along with a full respray. I also have a receipt to say the chassis rails have been done and from what I can see look ok (haven’t went to the extremes of a bore scope). Hopefully by keeping her away from the salt I can prolong her life!! The jacking points (pinch welds) are rotten though, hopefully that is not an MOT failure!
Here’s a few pics of the work carried out before I bought the car around 2016 and it’s been garaged doing very little miles after the work was complete.
Nice looking motor you have there! I recently got my first five, and look forward to the inevitable tidying up and upgrading that will likely soon follow!
Managed to get my hands on a very good condition hard top last week, very happy with how the car looks
Noticed wind noise from either window and water leaks between the glass and door rubbers when washing it, yet to play about with the latches though. Hopefully that will help!
