What have you done to your MX-5 today? (Part 2)

Not much today pre checks and a quick wash getting ready for a double round of javelin sprints at the weekend at Anglesey … coz clean cars go faster right?


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That’s my old MK1, wot I sold in the spring, in the background of your photo. Wonder what exciting work the new owner was having done…

Its been a busy day on the car today. First job was taking it to a windscreen company to try and get some scratches polished out but despite him trying for an hour sadly it didn’t work (we didn’t think it would) but very kindly he didn’t charge me anything and gave me a free bottle of glass cleaner.

Next job was changing one of the fog lights which had filled with water and looked like this…

When I took the wheel off to get better access to the light I spotted a small nail so I had to go to the garage to get the puncture repaired.

Tomorrow I clean the soft top!

Personally expressed my heart felt thanks to my non specialist mechanic/MOT’er after putting Bullit in a month early for MOT

She passed [so 13 months MOT]

But what I thanked him for specifically is that INSTEAD of putting ‘works to be done in next few months’ under ‘Advisories’ on the MOT Cert which he could have done

He just advised me ‘face to face’ …'Rear Brake Caliper drivers side plus new Handbrake Cables both sides …£411.00 approx

Meanwhile she’s safe to drive and indeed ‘Performance Wise’ she passed all her tests !!

What a gentlemanly thing to do me thinks

Guess he’s got to know me as well as Bullit and knows that I’d stress if works were on the Advisories but now chilled and one happy bunny

And of course brake work will be done long before her next MOT !!

It may be due to the fact that Bullit and I did a magnificent 255 miles since her last MOT
It could be due to the fact that she’s classed as my Disability Vehicle
Or other variables like Cost of Living Crisis

I just know that my ‘Mental Health’ was Brill due to his decision to give Bullit a Pass with no Advisories on the MOT

Thanks Nate at Springfields Garage ST4 [don’t think he reads these threads]

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Contrasts my (last week) recent H4lf0rds experience, where they flagged two missing split pins as a fail, and suggested I might like to have two brand new wishbones fitted so that the split pins with have some nice new holes to pass through. I declined, and disrepected two shiny new split pins and put through the rusty old holes.

Would it be worth having a “MoT fails” thread, in which we could post the suggested work and get a quick feedback on whether one is about to be taken for a ride?

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Interesting thought Stevegilkes :thinking:

Having owned Bullit since 2007 and she’s been MOT’ed in numerous Stations as we moved a lot

There are times when I’ve thought ‘Are you kidding me’ to ‘Phew …she passed…were they rigorous enough’

:exploding_head:

And needless to say times when I fully understood why she failed [e.g. severe corrosion and she needed to be welded and undersealed] to times when I thought…‘Hmmm…bit nitpicky’

But perhaps if you started a Thread on MOT Fails

We could all share and hopefully learn from each others experiences

Suspect it might become a ‘can of worms’ though as every Owner and MX-5 different

But I’d follow that Thread :smiley:

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Fitted a catch-can to relieve a bit of crank-case pressure the other day as well as fixing a leak from the rear of valve cover with an OEM gasket. Also increased the size of the breather ports on the valve cover and the internal port too.

Tested at Cadwell park yesterday and the car performed perfectly.


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Put these on instead of the door handles… Much easier to have a drink in the drinks holder now.

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Spending a few days cleaning and tidying the engine bay of my project Mk1 BBR. It all appears to be there and is intact . There is a GF98 relay near the front of the engine (passenger side). Can’t find any information on what it does. Please PM if you can help. Thanks

PM’ed you as requested!

NC1 power steering fluid changed at 106,000 miles. What a difference! Didn’t think it would be as noticeable. Steering is definitely lighter, feels smoother in operation and seems to be much more positive and less prone to being deflected by rough surfaces. It wasn’t all that dirty but something hasn’t felt quite right recently so wish I’d had this done a while ago. I was beginning to think it was the track rod ends or possibly suspension bushes but these were given the all clear at the car’s MOT last week.

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Regreased the rear arb poly bushes with some ceramic grease. Hopefully it will last a bit longer than the silicone grease I used last time.



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New/ old FD wheels fitted. Gone down a size in alloys, up a couple of sizes in tyres. They weren’t in the best of condition I only had time to rattle can spray them. A few imperfections and had two nos tyres fitted on the rears unfortunately the tyre fitters have marked the soft paint :man_facepalming:

I’ll get them powder coated in the winter.

I’ve got to blame my late father for the tyre lettering as back in the day he had a Mustang and a few Jags amongst other cars some of which had the lettering painted.
From my childhood I’ve always wanted a car with tyres like this I could paint…hope Dad likes it🙏


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What width and offset are the FD wheels? And what tyre size did you choose?

16x8 ET50 tyres are 225 50 16.
I haven’t had the chance to give them a good run yet but, one of the main reasons for going down a wheel size and upping the rubber was to stop wheel damage from potholes and gain some comfort in the cabin with the bigger tyres

Washed it. For some reason, there was quite a lot of brake dust on the wheels. Can’t for the life of me think why! :rofl:

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Insurance time again for me £325 fully comprehensive with spots exhaust and full Air Dam kit declared.

Slightly less than last year. Cost is part of a multi car policy.

I reduced the annual mileage down from 7k to 5k which might have helped a bit.

A quick check with the Meerkats gave me the green light to stay with LV for another year.

I am comfortable with that :+1:

That’s there or thereabouts Mine is £282, part of multi-car policy, 2017 2.0L ND RF, 7,000 miles pa, clean record, no mods. However mine is UP on last year (£205 last year). I am convinced that they work out the actuarially-correct figure then add a random number, being prepared to negotiate on that if challenged. Most folk just don’t have the time or energy.

Admiral multi policy - ND2 Gold cover £305

Broken the white up on the car a little, 496 is the number of my 20th AE, I designed the stripes to flow with the 20 AE badge Black, Red and Silver the bonnet bulge has been done before.
The work was done by Natasha at Vinyl Destination Barnsley, I can highly recommended her work.
It wont be to everybody’s taste but, as the saying goes my car my rules





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