I’m sure we can find you a cheaper starter motor than that! The alternator & PAS pump use direct pulleys without tensioners, so the only tensioners that are on the car are for the cambelt which might be what he refers to? The cambelt tensioner is about £25.
As for bushes you’ll probably find that not all are gone, my experience with new Mazda ones is that they are very good and give you much less NVH than some poly bushes.
When you go to MiesterR coilovers you’ll find the car gains a lot more body control with less movement when switching direction, hence the need for uprated ARB’s is a lot less on the road.
I know you can buy them from breakers for about £25-40 but if I’m changing one old part for another then it doesn’t necessarily help, definitely not in the long run. Also I could go for a reconditioned part for about £100 but generally they want my old one in return which would mean I have to pull the old one out first which I don’t really want to do, I want to see the old one in place for reference on the same far a try to change it.
On the bushes, do you recommend Mazda bushes instead of the mx5 parts pro kit? Also what does NVH mean?
Appreciate your thoughts on a new anti roll bar, would it make the ride more choppy?
Sorry, NVH means Noise Vibration Harshness. The bushes are a personal preference but I’ve always been happy with the OEM bushes even when on track, but they are more expensive.
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Status update
Car: won’t start
Owner: frustrated
So I got stranded on the weekend because my starter motor died. At least I think it is the starter. Once or twice I have had to bump the solenoid to start it and the tuner who sorted out the misfire mentioned he thought it was on the way out. Had to bump start the car twice to get home.
Has anyone changed the starter motor here? It took me and a mate two hours to get the old one out last night, access seems to be a huge issue. I am not sure I am capable of removing an engine but was on the point where if I had owned a hoist I would have considered it when I was 3 out of 4 bolts deep with no certainty on the last!
As an aside, universal joints on ratchets really aren’t as good as I would like. This is the first time I’ve really had reason to use one and I didn’t love the experience.
I ordered a replacement from mx5 heaven last night but I’m genuinely nervous about getting it back in as I won’t have long. Part due on Thursday and I am intending to take the car to Japfest on the Sunday! I have tickets for the owners club stand and really don’t want to miss it, especially as ‘Phil’ will be there. Absolutely bricking it.
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Fingers crossed for you
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Starter motor arrived today. Upon initial inspection seems to look rougher than the starter motor I took out. Concerning.
Anyone know how best to test a starter motor before I go through the heartache and misery of putting the newly received one back in?
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I’ve tested one before exactly has they do here: How to test your starter motor & solenoid - Starter troubleshooting - YouTube
jump leads to the main body of motor for earth, other to the live terminal on the solenoid. Then a jumper from live to the signal terminal. It’s a good idea to get someone to put their foot on the starter when you do this or it jumps all over the place! (ask me how I know 
) You should see the solenoid push the cog out and spin then retract back in when off.
Simples…
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Great success!
Starter motor went in on Saturday afternoon, car starts on the button again(albeit with some throttle feathering still) and since then the car has been a trooper.
Almost 100 miles each way to Silverstone and then blatting around the track up to around 100ish mph on Wellington straight.
Impressions of track driving:
The car leans! I need better anti-roll bars and better coilovers badly.
The brakes were cooked in 3 laps. Until that point I was keeping pace with more exotic machinery quite easily but then the bowl-loosening lack of brake peddle reared it’s head. At least new pads and disks, probably big brake upgrade.
Either way a fantastic experience! 
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You fought the good fight until you ran out of clips.
Excellent.
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Another day, another new and exciting problem.
Went out last weekend for a bit of a blast and when I came back I was getting a bit of a metallic squeak on idle. I was guessing that a bearing on a pulley or for alternator or whatever was going.
Got sad. Left the car for the week.
Came back to it today and the noise is gone. I have noticed that the alternator belt is not as tight as the serpentine belt.
Could this be an explanation?
Could be that or could be coming from the clutch slave cylinder push rod and clutch release fork contact point.
Thanks for the response Robbie but honestly I’m not sure that I understand anything you said! Some Googling needed I think! 