Saw NickD for some new tyres for Muttley
Having had a great day out in the sunshine I scraped the front offside wheel arch on my stone gatepost in my haste to get the car onto my drive in a gap of traffic. ARGGGGH!
Fitted a Royal (Stoke Mandeville) reworked steering wheel to my RF, Ā£ 225.00 bargain !, anyone else interested in a better wheel for their Mk4 ND/RF I now have a spare standard wheel for sale, donāt have to take your car off the road whilst it is done, just time to get it done before the Rally.
Washed it againā¦
260 miles on the Cannon Bald Run
Yesterday I drove my Mk2 to Manchester City (Barton) airfield to the monthly āCars and coffeeā meet which is held as an informal morning gathering for all types of vehicles. I drove west across the A628 Woodhead Pass. Unfortunately on seeing the terrain, some drivers seem to go into terrified mode and drive at 30 mph along that road (national speed limit applies) and brake for many of the corners, but then accelerate to 45 mph and break the speed limit on seeing the 40 mph limit signs at Tintwistle! Spoils what should be a great drive for MX-5 owners.
On the way back home to avoid the slow drivers on Woodhead I decided for a change to use the M62. Unfortunately boring! 67 miles there and 86 miles home. Despite its recent problem of misfiring and cutting out, the car ran perfectly - fault hopefully fixed having changed the TPS.
The āCars and Coffeeā is organised by a bunch of younger generation MX5 owners in the Manchester area. It began as a small meet at the Veteransā Garage cafe. A year later the event struggles for space. There is a voluntary ābucketā contribution of Ā£3 for parking and this all goes to the armed forces charity at āVeterans Garageā. The Vetsā Garage is all about rehabilitation and mental health support for veterans and is totally run by volunteers.
The meet is all about meeting owners of all sorts of cars. Yesterday, in addition to the usual MX-5 owners there was everything from an immaculate little Polski Fiat 126 to a 1984 Vauxhall Cavalier and a huge American Muscle car with a 7 litre (?) race engine.
Thereās a link here to the charity: https://veteransgarage.co.uk/
Replaced front droplinks. They were very knackered. Much manly swearing, drilling and grinding later and a new set adorns my precious.
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There has to be a better way to link the ARB to the suspension than this. Trying to remove rusted on nuts using only a spanner because you have to hold the bolt with an allen key is not a happy place. The job would be so much easier had they made the other end of the bolt hex shaped rather than round so you can a spanner on it. Whole job would have taken 20 minutes with a hex bolt rather than the 2 hours having to find the special spanner for the angle grinder. Grr!
Car fettling today, engine oil change, diff oil change, checked the gear turret oil and greased the shifter. Also rotated wheels, well front to back.
With all the talk about the Coolant tank issues I ordered a new one from Mazda. MX5 parts do not have stock nor will have for some time.
How easy or not is the fitting ?
Cheers.
As easy as a very easy thingā¦
New Tyres for my 25th Anniversary Special edition. All ready for a new adventure driving the Picos Mountains of Northern Spain in May. Catch up with our adventures on the MX5 OC instagram site. Images will start appearing from 8th to 19th May. Just need to start arranging all the other stuff Iām going to need for the journey. Green card, beam adjustment stickers, clean underpantsā¦I could go on but I wonāt.
Jim Keeley
I felt the need to get the car in tip-top condition. In the past 2 weeks:
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At a local garage:
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Engine Oil change
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LSD Oil change
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Brake fluid change
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New Front Brake Discs
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New Front Brake Pads
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At Wheels In Motion:
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Meister-R suspension changed back to Ohlins
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Ride height increased by 5mm
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New front Tyres
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4-wheel alignment
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At local Car Audio shop:
- Fixed door speakers not working. Crappy oxidised powdery speaker wire (installed by previous owner) replaced with 19 metres of Oxygen-Free Cable.
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Not looking forward to this monthās credit card billā¦ 
Jim, you are going to love those roads! In addition to the amazing scenery, the way the Spanish look after their roads puts UK to shame. Until my son and I did a road trip there a few years ago I had no idea how enthusiastic the locals were about unusual cars. Our group (driving our Lieges) were treated like minor celebrities. Iām looking forward to going again some time in the future
More fiddling today. Took out the old dash cam setup which turned out to be utter rubbish. It was discrete but the pictures could not even make out a plate when parked right behind it.
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Washed & Waxed AGAIN. Why did i buy a black car?
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Fitted a new Viofo A129 dual camera setup. The front camera sits nicely behind the mirror and the rear camera is currently positioned in the driver roll hoop so when the roof is up it can only see the left side of the car. I donāt have to hood up much so it might well remain there. Can post footage if anyone is interested.Ā https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07F27F5CW/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_nv9TCbZ0T7NZS
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While I had the centre console out I decided to eliminate on of the bugbears I have with the windows and roof. Usually the windows will only work when the ignition is on, this is a pain as I mostly switch the engine off then go to put the hood up only to realise I have to put the windows down a notch to get the roof over them. So i have to put the ignition back on, windows down, roof up, windows up. Also I spend an inordinate amount of time waiting outside my sons football practice and having to switch the ignition on and off everytime i want a bit of air is tiresome.
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I have disconnected the live feed from the window switch and replaced it with one from the cigarette lighter. I know the lighter probably is not rated as high as the windows circuit but I left the original fuse in so if the windows require a bit more than the wires can handle the fuse will pop. I might stick a relay in there should this become an issue. As an added bonus I now have a spare ignition controlled power source that might come in handy.
NB California passed its MOT yesterday, by the skin of its teeth! Will need a new cat. For next year.
Itās my wifeās car, but I have enjoyed driving it for the last couple of weeks, whilst sorting out a few issues ahead of the test. I ran some catalytic converter cleaner through it, as it had struggled with the emissions test last year, also replaced the plugs and leads as there was a slight misfire when pulling away, but it still failed the fast idle part on the first 2 attempts. There was an annoying knock from the rear suspension as well which was cured by fitting new shock absorbers.
simon.
Fitted a K&N Typhoon induction kit. What a sound!
My 5 min trip round the block to check all ok turned into a 15 mile blast down country lanes, barely got beyond third gear!Ā
Fitted this yesterday while changing engine oil and filter on my latest 5Ā Ā been threatening to change the oils since purchase a few weeks ago. So, changed transmission oil and diff oil at the same time whilst I had it up on axle stands.Ā
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Barrie
Cleaned the ND hood drain filters, swapped out the winter rubber mats for carpet ones for summer, washed it and had a run out to Malton! Oh looked at the new Z4 in passing! Itās an ugly expensive auto only thing and wouldnāt leave my ND for even if I could afford it! Love my 5 
Touch,
Also cleaned out my drain filters, as per other post. Must have been something in the air!
Went for a short drive out in the sunshine.Ā
Weather 1 - Potholes 0Ā
Looking forward to the Spring rally next Sunday. Hope the weather stays like thisĀ
Yesterday was discs & pads all round, followed today by tarting up an old spare set of Dasieās, so that I can take the ones off the car and refurb a bit.
