Today I took the train to the West Midlands and bought an immaculate 25th Anniversary MX-5 from a fellow Club member.
The car only had 11,111miles on the clock when we exchanged money and docs. It was so easy, and I never fail to be amazed at how quick modern IT tech is.
Gone are the bad old days of waiting on the DVLA to send out bits of paper or queuing at a Post Office to have the doc stamped and new tax disc issued before resting easy.
Of course there are a few things that need doing.
The Bridgestones are nine mostly garaged years old (week 22 in 2014), and it needs a four-wheel alignment as proven by the somewhat twitchy drive back to London along the M40. This will be in the next week or so.
Update 23/11/23: alignment bolts etc soaked in penetrating oil, Contis etc now scheduled for 5th Dec.
Inspect the grommets!
Update 10, 11/11/23: sealed.
General fettle of all the rubber seals.
Update 20/11/23: Gummiphlege on door, boot, bonnet and PRHT seals, Gummi second coat to do
Condition the leather seats.
Update 20/11/23: driverās seat no longer sticky, but passenger seat still to do.
Plumb-in my dash cam again.
Update 08, 10/11/23: done
Add the usual parking sensors and a reversing camera. Being used to their help on the old Niseko and the Mazda3 I felt very insecure easing the 25AE out backwards at an angle on a tricky tight drive with kerbstones threatening the immaculate rims.
Update 15/11/23: camera done
Update 19, 21/11/23: sensors done
Investigate the Alpine head unit, can it be persuaded to show reversing pics? Does it need the usual software change? Not yet, but the old Garmin now shows the reversing pics.
Investigate the drain-tubes, passenger side is very noisy.
Update 10, 17/11/23: Both drains were OK, boot and rear vents noise reduction worked.
Plug the engine noise pipe.
Update 10/11/23: Done
Dinitrol spray in all the cavities, rust free at the moment, and I want to keep it that way.
Update 19/11/23: partially done, passenger door and sills and inner/outer seam on both rear wheel arches from inside boot.
Update 24/11/23: driverās door and sills.
More to do before wet wintry drive on 5th Dec.
The brake/clutch fluid needs a change at the next service, last time is about five years ago but only 2.5k miles ago. Diff oil and Gearbox oil changes needed too at nine years old.
Sadly the Alpine head unit doesnāt allow the inclusion of a reversing camera. Apparently Mazda specified a ābudgetā unit from Alpine.
I went for a Sony unit with Apple Carplay and the USB lead was routed through to the centre console storage for my phone.
Thatās good to hear and it didnāt take too long to find the right one. I believe the 25AE has a blueprinted engine, which makes it a bit more special. Well done and enjoy!
Checked the battery. It was the original 2014 Panasonic. Now nine years old it has 274Amps CCA left out of 325. Good enough for now.
But the earth terminal looked grotty so I took a closer look.
I cleaned up the battery, and did some preventive maintenance on the base of the battery box, clean with soda bicarb and then WD40 spray on the bolt heads. Notice that the middle of the battery box is held down to the base by four tabs.
Congratulations on the new car . The anniversary editions are lovely. I looked at them but my intention was to modify and I couldnāt possibly justify doing it to one of those along with the premium for them being special.
Dean, that was my initial thought too, and out of my budget. But when this gem popped up I could not resist it.
However it is now nine years old and I think my undo-able mods are justified for easier and safer drive-ability. I hope it will continue to look and sound exactly the same.
Iām now a bit concerned about the TPMS tyre valves. At nine years old with a normal life of five to ten, either they or their batteries must be replaced along with the tyres. Prices Iāve seen suggest as much as Ā£60 per valve, even though some types merely need a new watch battery.
I think Iāll be visiting Blackboot/Protyres in Chesham to try and negotiate a package; 4-wheel alignment and four tyres and four TPMS fixes. Last time I was there (nine years ago when it was WIM) I got 10% O/C discount. I wonder how much has changed since then? Is Joe still working his magic?
If you are using protyre, I recently got a set of 4 goodyears from them, it worked out 30 pounds per tyre cheaper going through asda tyres than going direct and the same branch still supplied and fitted them
