When I bought my Mk2 back at the end of September, I had stopped at a local washdown point to have the car vacuumed inside as a previous owner had transported a smelly white dog in it. Fifteen minutes later and she refused to start. I walked home, fetched a can and collected some petrol from the local filling station. The car started on the button so I put it down to an inaccurate fuel gauge. But then it happened twice more, once in France. After reading of similar stories on here, I took the car to Freelance Mazda in Chatham where Mark attached his diagnostic equipment to the car. (£60 jeez!) Within five minutes he was able to confirm that the problem was the crankshaft sensor. He has since ordered from Mazda both the crankshaft sensor and the camshaft sensor - these expensive items ‘talk’ to each other and to the ECU. It seems the crankshaft sensor detects the position of No1 piston, and send ‘messages’ to the other sensor and to the ECU telling the engine to start. Lots of money but at least I’ll have a reliable car.
Hello Paul
I hope the white smelly dog got you a significant discount 
your car is a MK2, not a facelift MK2.5?
If so diagnostics are a little more complicated as require old skool technology, bent out paperclip and LED + someone who knows how to quickly interpret a four stage error code…or possibly two. £60 for that is steep but hey ho, prices have sky rocketed with all that inflation caused by UK government money creation.
If the code was a P1345, likely correct but genuine Mazda parts? Hate to think what that cost. Obviously worth it if the problem resolved and you can sit back and enjoy the ride without any worries.
Yes I knew she was a Mk2 especially after reading every damn thing I could find on the models. I am over the moon with the car, so nimble, so responsive, and contrary to what I’d read, ample speed to keep my driving licence. Our recent trip to Ypres and Reims with the obligatory roof down was a joy. Cost of the sensors from Mazda was about £250. Still I’m a pensioner, what else shall I spend my pension on. Certainly not trinkets or bling. I love her as she is. 
Wow, a very, very late, 2001 MK2, not too many of those around…and I see a 1.8, raw power 140bhp, good on track too, if you are ever tempted. Looks very clean and perhaps smells of your dog now and no, I do not mean the wife:-)
It sounds like you are appreciating the logic of MX5 ownership.
I got the impression from your first post that you were a little money conscious but as you point out money well spent on a car you are clearly enjoying and now a niggling problem is hopefully resolved.
Being a little tighter and dare I say younger than you, I would have done the diagnostics myself and probably fitted used genuine Mazda parts for about £20 or less each…but then after penny pinching on such items about to embark on getting a new kitchen fitted at humongous expense.
Horses for courses, all the best:-)
The parts were ordered from Mazda as Mark suggested sticking with the OEM parts.I removed the soft top roof latches to take a closer look at them. As I’d read, they must be made from cheese. I carefully filed the tags as recommended but they still don’t remained closed with any confidence. Today I’ve ordered a pair of replacement tabs which should snap shut as intended. It doesn’t bare thinking about the roof suddenly flipping open at speed.
From my experience of the cam sensor and crank sensor, you can’t go wrong with OEM parts, unless of course they are used and have stopped working after xx years. Cam sensor takes seconds to change, crank is a little more involved.
I would have recommended changing cam sensor first to see if that resolved the issue and then the crank sensor but replacing both with new OEM, expensive but very likely to resolve any P1345 error code.
To be fair, I don’t hear of many complaining about the cheap aftermarket sensors available at the usual source and I guess that is what most are fitting. Failure of these is very common now as the parts are getting long in the tooth.
There are a lot of posts on here about worn roof latches and I have contributed to some, including. I believe, yours, so won’t repeat myself. The cause took quite a while to work out and nowadays I spend time refurbishing ones that are not stretched and repairing those that are. As you say, you certainly would not want both of these to let go at speed. It has happened and obviously a shocked owner/driver; best avoided.
If you look up MX5 diagnostic on ebay, you will find a cheap(£8.49), easy to use tool sold by boundville(autolink UK). Worth buying one of these and playing with it on your car. The hard part is interpreting the flash codes when they occur but they all start with ‘1’, so you get used to it.
Your car looks cool alongside the pit wall at Reims. 
I have to get over there before long and do the same with mine.
Glad you got your starting problem sorted.
Cheers,
Guy
Rob, I mentioned the cheap diagnostic device you mentioned and was told by the Mazda specialist that would not have been suitable. Oh well I could simply have gone along the route of changing parts one at a time until the fault was identified which would have proved costly to.
That is interesting Paul.
I am an MX5 specialist and that is the tool I would use to interrogate the diagnostics on your MK2 car. It is the way that most owners MK1/Eunos - MK2/Roadster(1989-2000), keep an eye on their own cars and save £60 each time and a garage visit.
The only caveat is if your 2001 car has OBDII, onboard diagnostics which would make it a MK2.5 car? This would require a plug in reader, so much, much simpler and a little over £12 to buy. You just plug it in, turn on the ignition and it spits out the code(s) and an explanation. £60 for that, I would hope not but perhaps Mark or likely Mark’s wife/kids, needs your money more than you do, you are happy with that?
Looking at the pictures, it has a MK2 bumper and looks like a very tidy MK2 car.
Does it have coil units on top of the cam cover or in a pack on the back of the engine?
Is there a post cat lambda sensor?
Is the MAF marked FP39 or FS1E
Is there a scart socket type port for diagnostics just above the internal fuse box location, so by the driver’s right knee as it goes under the dash?
Does it have variable valve timing(VVT)?
Forgive me for putting you right on these things but I am finding the way this has been handled and the cost quite annoying. You should be grateful and accept good advice free, on here, rather than paying through the nose for something quite different, it seems?
Not everyone is in your position where money can be, for want of a better word, wasted, so important that my opinion on this is visible.
Just to add, you mentioned £250 for the two sensors…
Camshaft Position Sensor, Genuine Mazda MX5 Mk2 2.5 (mx5parts.co.uk)
Crankshaft Position Sensor, Genuine Mazda MX5 Mk2 2.5 (mx5parts.co.uk)
Says £170. It is MX5Parts and there is a discount for original new parts and to be honest I have never known anyone buy these before, hence the lack of reviews(1 in total) on MX5parts. The only reason I am bothering to pass on information is for others benefit and because you have intimated in earlier post(s) some dissatisfaction with the cost, now for proven good reason.
I hope my job here is done?
Rob, Is it Firework Night already as you seem to have gone off on one. I think the initial payment was for the two sensors and the test carried out, so about £220ish. I took the car in yesterday when Mark replaced them both and fixed the jamming drivers door window so a further £99.
Whether my car is a Mk2 or a Mk2.5, I don’t know. Yes the front bumper is a Mk2 but whether it’s a Mk2.5 with a Mk2 bumper I’ve no idea.
I’ll have a go at answering your many questions although the terms you use are foreign to me. A lifetime of tinkering with Citroen 2CVs and Renault 4s means I am expert in feeler gauges and litmus paper.
The coils are on the bulkhead behind the engine. An MAF - no idea. Scart diagnostic socket - nowhere near my right knee but in the engine bay roughly behind the N/S headlight over the wheel arch. Variable Valve Timing - haven’t got a clue. A Post Cat Lamda sensor - pass.
I hope I haven’t ‘wasted my money’ but Mark was recommended to me by the chairman of the local branch of the club. Yes it was a bit expensive but the work has been done and I’ve since collected the car. It let me down again on Sunday when I visited Tescos. I returned to the car and she declined to restart so I returned to the cafe, had a hot chocolate, then returned again and she restarted.
You seem to think I am ungrateful and ignoring free advice on here but it is essential that I have a reliable car all of the time. When the chairman of the local branch highly recommends a local MX-5 specialist, should I ignore him? Of course I am grateful but when there are various solutions to a problem, I hope I take the best one for me.
The replacement roof latch buttons should be in the post - one solution of filing a mm of the tags didn’t work for me - so I look forward to fixing the latches.
The standard alloy wheels I like very much, simple in design and to keep clean other then the surface of the alloy resembles fine sandpaper so I may get these painted by a local specialist or powdercoated. Ive read online nonsense about powdercoating alloy wheels damaging them, well I’ve had two sets of alloy motorcycle wheels powdercoated and these have failed to fail yet.
Thanks for your advice Rob.