Added a bit more Dinitrol in normal vulnerable braces.
I had half an hour free this morning and squirted both the perforated braces, after sealing the perforations with gaffer tape for long enough to get the Dinitrol in and dried.
I also checked the penetrating oil had reached all the alignment bolts and nuts. I still can’t quite believe this little car is nine years old.
Wax injected the rear subframe.
After a few days on IT duty I’ve been able to catch up on the car. I jacked up the back and made it safe with the axle stands before venturing further underneath.
I notice both rear tyres are more worn on the outsides, unlike on my old Niseko where it was even across them. When I did the DRLs on the 25AE I found the driver’s side front was about the same as these two, but the front passenger side tyre wear was so badly uneven it could not stand up like the others and always fell over. Ergo, four wheel alignment is essential.
The two back tyres are touching at the floor but gapped at the top, and only 11k miles.
After that distraction I found all the best holes thoughtfully provided by Mazda to insert the Dinitrol wand and now the rear subframe should not rot from the inside. I repeated the gaffer tape trick on the two perforated braces I didn’t notice the first time.
While I was under the car, I refreshed the penetrating oil on all the alignment nuts, bolts, and inner surfaces where the bushes will be moving to and fro, and on the drop-links because I think one is a bit noisy.
Some pictures showing only a little bit of wasted dripping goo.
Today we (25AE and me) braved chilly dampness, fog, spray and rain on the M1 to Northampton to allow NickD to work his magic in making sure the four new 215/45 R17 87V Continental Premium Contact 6 gained the best start in their operational life with new TPMS sensors.
I got there only just in time because the existing (almost past end-of-life!) TPMS system warned me about ten miles short of Toddington Services there was a problem, and the weather was hissing down.
Aarrghh!
I couldn’t feel anything wrong with steering, or hear the tyres doing something horribly familiar, so kept on going at reduced speed hoping to reach the services.
And there actually was a problem. Three of the tyres had warmed up to around 34psi, but offside rear was only 27 (ie about 22 cold). The valve passed the spit test, so then hoping it would last to Weedon I boosted it to 40.
Fortunately it did, still near 40, and I could not see any sign of a puncture later when it was off the wheel. Puzzle, as all four had checked as not needing air at 29 when leaving home an hour before the timely warning.
I am now a fan of TPMS systems.
Straight away I could feel and hear the difference with the Contis while driving on to Northampton Motorsport where guru James updated the wheel alignment to a better, more modern setting, and reduced the already improved wander to almost non-existent.
While I was waiting, listening to the tunes of dyno runs from the workshops, I sampled a pile of motor-sport and custom car and kit related magazines, and lusted over this Jag engine evoking fond memories from five decades ago.
Except the previous old-from-way-back-then standard enhancement of triple SUs has been replaced by what looks very much like a cluster of three twin-choke Webers. But hidden in, under and behind them is a full fuel-injection system. Truly brilliant engineering!
The run home through twilight and more grotty visibility on M1 and M25 should have been more stressful, but relaxed shoulders made it much less so, and noticeably quieter and softer tyres allowed a more comfortable and better critique of the music quality.
Alas, I’m going to have to change the speakers to a pair with lower Fs (Free-air resonance) and adjust/modify the “cabinet” (door cavity) because the Alpine set seem to honk at around 80-90Hz with not much useful below. I’ll need to plot the response curve to find out what’s actually going on, but I’ve done enough for today…
what’s the process for the boot and rear vents noise reduction please? = Update 10, 17/11/23:
A few things really.
First, and most importantly, ask a hyper-critical passenger to come for a sunny drive top up, and top down, so she can discover what she can hear and where it might be, and give her a proper engineers stethoscope to cast around in the void behind the seats. Lots of possible noise spots!
“What do I need this tube for?”
“Oh I see.” (see? hear?)
Careful, say nothing except an enthusiastic “Excellent! Thanks! That’s really useful, now we can sort it.”
Now back inside the garage with the old cylinder vac with long hose and its noisiest narrow crevice nozzle.
She sits in the seat as before, top up, windows closed, but now you move the vac nozzle around under the car and along the shut- seals while she listens in the places where it was worst on the sunny drive and directs you. She is the master now, the expert ear, and it’s so satisfying for both members of the team when achieving positive results in pinning down noise hot-spots.
That’s the diagnostic side, and well-nigh impossible to do quickly and safely on your own.
Curing the noise requires adding another pint of bat’s blood to the magic cauldron.
Sometimes a cure is simply just not possible, but often it can be reduced. Experience and choice of materials can go a long way towards good results with little cost while still allowing ventilation and drains to work correctly.
For example; a few years back I did this with the Niseko, and I put sound absorbing foam wedges on the backs of the trim panels facing the ventilation exits, and then later added more on the body adjacent to those vents. Back of the trim gave a big reduction, but extra on the body facing the trim foams, very little added benefit, so I didn’t bother with the extra in the 25AE.
And of course with top down those rear vents don’t open much or produce significant noise!
I have a sound level meter, it’s simple and basic and not exactly hi-fi, and never comes close to being a lab instrument, but it is excellent for relative measurements in a domestic or car environment. I managed to fix some incorrectly assembled bookshelf speakers (wrong bass units) with help from it and a tone source. It might possibly help with diagnosing the 25AE Alpine speaker system.
215/45 17?
215/45 R17 87V
Date codes are all 4623, ie week 46 of 2023. It is now week 49.
This means Conti began making them soon after we ordered them! They were delivered to NickD fresh from the factory in week 48.
It is also why we waited a month after we ordered them for NickD and me to merge schedules for a date and place convenient for both of us to fit the new tyres.
I could have got Premium5 (not 6) ex stock at Protyre next day, but then would need to add 60 per TPMS valve. I’m much happier with the 6 tread pattern.
I bought the TPMS valve set online for 50.64 sent from China. I notice the Az page price has since gone up 30% but now for immediate delivery.
Car desperately needs a wash now!
Fascinating thst the wedges gave a big reduction.
Could you expand on this and how you did it please?
Washing out the drains with soapy water definitely helped! As far as Ican tell, the simplest way of getting the flaps to seal.
see post 65.
Nice car and enjoy! 
Can I ask where you got the 45mm bung? I couldn’t find as suitable one anywhere when I looked.
Of course, you need the 1.5 inch one.
DON’T get the 2 inch one as it’s far too big, (from experience).
Washed it, properly this time.
Last wash was more of a hurried splash and dash, merely to rinse off traces of salt and make it easier to see what was what underneath.
This morning was sunny but cool, ideal for a thorough wash and a couple of rinses with stored rainwater, after first jetting it down underneath with the hose.
The rainwater wash takes off any hard water residue from the hose, and rainwater rinses dry almost instantly with no marks, and a single microfibre towel is sufficient to take off the last few drops with minimal wiping.
Then I enjoyed a blow dry out to the Chalfonts and back, ending up at our local garage for some V-Power. Except out of V-Power, so Precious went hungry.
I must figure out how best to put more of a gleam on the fog-light’s black plastic surround.
I also re-affixed the front numberplate plinth more securely to stop it rattling.
I’ve seen that Jim Dunlop stuff used for smartening up the wood on guitar fretboards etc.
What tunes can the fogs play?
Interesting. I think I know where some JD65 is. If I can find it I’ll try it on some other smooth matte black plastic I have.
I was considering tyre black, but apparently most versions wash off and make a mess.
But then I’ve never used it, so need to be enlightened.
Meguiars tyre dressing works well on plastics if you apply sparingly then rub with a dry cloth
And it smells like bubblegum, useless but nice 
Yesterday afternoon, after the car was finally clean and dry underneath I did the last major job outstanding, and I really, really should have done it as soon as I bought the car.
I bled the clutch.
With an assistant it’s only a fifteen minute job, and most of those were in safely jacking up the car.
What came out was almost pitch black, clearly never done in the nine years of the car’s life despite a couple of brake fluid changes mentioned in its history.
Clutch now works as expected, no longer an occasional unexpected crunch in any gear.
However, I needed some new unopened brake/clutch fluid, and I only got around to picking up some along with more screen wash on Monday. (I don’t go shopping much!)
Today I tidied up my mini-ramps. These are to drive the front wheels on, so as to lift the car a couple of inches allowing me to push the trolley jack under the front cross-member.
Last year (I think) after seeing a post about this in this forum I hurriedly improvised them from scrap timber, and even the 6.7 x 100mm screws holding them together are left-overs from other jobs
Today I added some “non-slip” rubber sheet underneath so they won’t slide on the floor, and also a tiny up-stand as a “don’t drive off the end” hint. Now they feel so much more secure than last week.
