Sam's 90s red mx5

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2

About 2 weeks ago my wife seen an mx5 locally and it was cheap so she bought it. it has since sat doing nothing so i have pinched it for myself 

this is the day she picked it up.

dont let the pictures fool you as there is a good few problems.

-all the tyres are starting to perish

  • windscreen is cracked

  • Stitching in the hood is coming away.

  • big rattle from the exhaust.

  • brakes are corroded and not the best.

  • radio surround (tombstone) badly cracked.

  • rust starting on the rear sills

and the most annoying thing is that if the car is left over 24 hours the battery is flat and if i disconnect the battery and reconnect it the alarm and immobilizer comes on and both fobs are not working so we need to connect the battery with the ignition on to bypass this. i also believe the alarm is draining the battery. it was however added from new by mazda so may make it tricky for removing!

just waiting for the postie to come! 

3

Well… someone has pop riveted a bit of tin over the crusty exhaust!

new one ordered along with a decat! hopfully be here tomorrow

4

New exhaust and decat have just been delivered!

will hopefully get this fitted today!

5

Welcome to the club.

Whats the intentions, to run it till the wheels fall off of restore it and keep it forever ?

6

Thank you. At this moment in time I’m not too sure what the plans are. I was thinking autotesting and/or track days but will see what happens.

 

7

 

 

Class.

I’ve never seen that done before.

Clearly  a resourcefull bodger.

 

Is your wallet starting to sweat yet…?

 

8

 

well needs must I suppose! its me that’s sweating incase my wife sees what I have bought!

 

anyway this me221 came so thinking of fitting it before I do the exhaust as the rain is on 

 

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still waiting on the wideband and a few other bits.

 

 

9

Hi Sam

Just looked at the MOT history on this - very few miles over the last few years and until recently very few MOT issues.

A low mileage car that seems clean. We have a 1991 Eunos in the same colour, owned for 10 years next month.

I would advise that if this has a crank pulley with 4 slots, it will be a short nose crank engine. Hopefully no oil leak from the crank seal so the main crank bolt can be left well alone.

ME221 - apparently the way to go:-)   

10

 

thanks for the information. think I will have a look at its history and see whats what.

I haven’t had much time and couldn’t be bothered climbing under the car so decided to start on the me221.

Ecu Removed.

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New Vs Old

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I drilled 2 holes for the data cable and the MAP hose. I wanted to be able to remove the ecu without needing to take the cover off first.

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and the finished ECU with sticker added for extra BHP

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back in the car but had issues with the timing and the poor TPS the 1.6s come with. I have also fitted a IAT into the plastic piping at the moment just so I can start removing the MAF

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11

I ended up going to my local car parts place as I wanted a bmw TPS to fit the adaptor I got from ME

I however did find a wideband here since the one I ordered hasn’t arrived yet and I really wanted to know what my air to fuel ratios were!

also I set about fitting the BMW TPS 

12

well I finally got shot of the sticky number plate as its not to my taste so with a heat gun and some mopping and polish/wax its looks much better! now I just need to get the rest of the paintwork up to the same standard…

I found a 1.8 nb engine local for sale cheap so thought I will do an engine swap before I turbo the car.

 

 

 

13

That car is starting to look very well now ! Looking forward to seeing how the turbo work progresses