Steve-O

Yep she was not happy! LIke most things the more you use them the better they behave. I'm going to start driving her into work a bit to keep the usage up. Always tricking though as i sometimes work odd hours and firing her up in the garage would probably annoy the neighbours!! The power steering leak was topped up but its leaking at quite a rate.I am hoping its just a split hose or something thats worked loose. The screw was bang centre of the tyre so it was straight forward for Gareth to repair. It took all of 15 minutes and they was all over it immediately with no fuss. Reminds me why i keep going back there they can't be beaten. The touchless machines are also a must as i dont want my powdercoat finish damaged. If they're good enough for the various supercars they see then its good enough for me

Frankenstein bolts are the two crosshead things on the rear deck. The hardtops slide onto them as a means of securing them! Yeah I think the best way is a hose on a dry day and sit in the car to trace where it's coming in. It should be obvious when you hit the weak spot!

wow i cant believe i haven't updated this for near on 14 months! So i thought i'd post up my adventure today. After 4 month stint sat in the garage the car is due for an MOT this month. I thought i'd better rouse her from her pit and see where i stood with things and what was likely to bite me on the ass. It took the best part of 30 minutes to finally get her started. It was 0-1 degree out and she had been stood which she never liked anyway so it was a real battle. My freshly charged Bosch S5 was beginning to scream for mercy so i knew i was running out of time at which point i'd have to abort the MOT test, which would be massively annoying as i took the day off to get it sorted. Connected my Anker jump pack and it was teasing me with a splutter and a brief moment of ignition but she still wasn't having any of it. I think it was her way of punishing me for leaving her alone all that time Anyway off came the air filter and a liberal squirt of carb cleaner down her throat. Sure enough after a few more goes to get the spray in her chambers she fired into life! Got her out and let her idle for 10 minutes then moved her around the front to see how she was looking : Looking a bit sorry for herself and in dire need of a good clean. So thats what exactly she got. I noticed that the handbrake didnt work very well and somehow had picked up a power steering leak which was dripping on the ground. The reservoir was empty so i knew that this and the handbrake would be issues at test time. And what seems to be my nemesis at the moment - emissions. Makes me sad just thinking about it. Anyway took the car out for a nice long drive after topping the power steering fluid up, to blow the cobwebs out and could find nothing else wrong, supercharger was happy and was running well! So chucked some injector cleaner in and went off down to see Stuart at Japex. Stuart has recently done an oil change on my Clio and i hard warned him he will be seeing my mx5 soon. Today was judgement day! After Sturart kindly sorted me out with a coffee she went on the ramps went and straight into an emissions pre-test. He knew i was worried about it. First pass it failed on the idle but passed the fast idle which a couple of years ago was the problem so that was encouraging. 2nd pass and and all came into spec and passed! Massively happy! Seems we have turned a corner with that issue. Brilliant. Then the bad news came. My rear tyre had picked up a screw on the drive over to Japex And the handbrake and powernsteering leak meant that the car failed despite the emissions win. So its going back to Stuart to get the latter 2 sorted and then we should be good for another year! In the mean time once i had finally got the car back home (against the clock before the tyre went flat) i removed the wheel and headed over to my favourite tye and geo place - Black Boots / Wheels In motion Marched in there like a damsel in distress and within 25 minutes i was back on my way again with a fixed wheel in my boot after talking tyres with Mick and a very brief wave to Joe who was busy on a MK3 mx5 on the ramps. Great service as always and a pleasure going in there. Well worth the trip to make sure my wheel didn't get damaged on the tyre machine! Great Guys. So some more work due for the old girl to ger her back on form and i can't complain as she hasn't really asked for much mechanically for years. Although my tyre has been repaired i could see they are all getting on a bit so i am now looking at replacement rubber. At the moment Bridgestone RE002 are looking favorable at around £64 a corner fitted - thats the sweet spot of price v performance for me and they last years! So there we go a long overdue update - i am really going to try and use her more this year. Maybe not track days but some nice road trips around the UK. Might try and get to the fabeled 'EVO Triangle'. Hopefully i can get some good photos i can share on here! Cheers! Steve

Hello mate I'd fit one of those isolation things on mine if it wasnt for the alarm/central locking! That said the best thing would be to remove the battery completely so theres no build up of any potentially corrosive atmosphere in the boot. In normal operation the boot gets opened and ventilated so its not an issue (assuming you dont have a gel battery). I am going to rouse mine tomorrow after 3/4 months of being sat in the garage - taking it to Japex for a MOT and see if the emissions pass! The battery was flat also but brought it to the house for re-conditioning with my C-Tek charger. Brilliant kit. So water ingress in the boot.The condensation will be from the water in the car. The water in the battery tray and wheel well will be from one of the following : Rain rail that sits at the base of the roof inside the car. It can become brittle and split. The tiniest of splits can create a tricky to detect leak. Rear light clusters - the rubber/foam seal can perish and allow water in. Vaseline around the seal is a trick to test the seal. The frankenstein bolts and the surrounding area on the rear can sometimes ingress if its worked loose The rubber seal around the entire boot lid There might be more but thats what i can remember. The best thing i can suggest is get a dry day and run a hose on the back of the roof and be inside the car and watch/listen for water. On mine the rain rail wasnt secured quite right and some water came in on the rear deck and rolled into the boot. There are routes for it to make its way into the boot Also - check your drain holes!

Nice catch on the boot water, i'd wirebrush that off and treat - you could rattle can it with a paint match. On the rear light sills in the mean time - try a liberal smearing of vaseline on them - might be enough to close them up whilst you source now seals. I know on mine they are a foam that can flatten off over time.

have a watch on this I have been guilty of using a few of these back in the day. I'm still convinced back to black ruined my bumpers and accelerated the fade to white I use all the posh stuff now

Very well i imagine

Thats a fair amount of labour for something that might expire soon anyway. Each to their own...

probably just enough to stop them eating themselves which is a stroke of luck. I wonder if they ran some engine flush through it a few times or just put regular oil in and give it an italian tuneup I can imagine it will yeald massive lumps of crap for some time to come.

that car was on 136k i think with a only a couple of changes in its lifetime....

I love watching these kinds of videos. Shame we didn't see it firing up and then the next drain

You definitely have to shop about. Loyalty is a lost concept so you have to vote with your feet. Have you tried the comparison websites?

why do i never get thread notifications any more!? lol Late to respond here - but if you wanted to coat your coilovers with a wax i would personally get in there with a very soapy sponge and warm water and wash it all off (a TFR or snow foam might work wonders), wait till dry then go at it. I'd only do the threaded areas

Haha! My old man had one almost identical to this early 80's! Quality.

Fair play to them. I am assuming this is in mainland china - the culture there for most is quite self absorbed in that they do not give zero s**ts about anyone other than themselves. They have over inflated levels of self importance and status (their social standing amongst family/fiends and the public is a priority) which makes them think they can do whatever they like. Got no sympathy

Its odd :# Go to an empty car park, in 1st gear and floor it. - Straight Does it pull one way when the power is applied? - not that i have detected When braking which was does the car go? - straight When on lift off which way goes the car go? - left basically drives fine and when you run through the gears as the car dips momentarily between gears the nose wants to pull left very so slightly. The harder its driven the more pronounced it gets.. Doesnt make sense ??

i'll try swapping wheels - the diff bushes are fairly recent (3 years old) and are poly. The symptoms are new. I suppose its possible the bushes have gone again if they were crap! might take her over for joe and the gang to have a poke about and get their persuasion bar on the case.

Hi all Just throwing this out there to see what people think it could be. It seems recently the MX5 has started to pull slightly to the left when you lift off. The more urgent the lift off (just after accelerating) seems to make it more pronounced. As far as i know the brakes are not binding on any corner (gonna get them checked though). It was in at WIM for an alignment a while back and everything was tip top so i am confident everything is pointing in the right direction. Could crap rubber be having an effect here? Possibly bushes seen better days? Cheers Steve

On my Meisters i have used a Spray wax from Toolstation for £3 odd. Having coated my old BC's with copper slip on the threads and the subsequent grit that stops the collars i have learned my lesson. http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Automotive/d60/Lubricants+%26+Sprays/sd2795/Protection+Wax/p41925 This seems to do the trick!

I had a couple of silica boxes i put under the seats and they worked in the fact they turned from blue to red when they had absorbed moisture. Microwave for 30 secs on low and put them back in. That said though you shouldnt really need them really. Of course there will always be a bit of condensation but nothing the blower can't over come. I've not had any major issues really and the above was only a precaution whilst it was sat in the garage and doors not opened etc etc.... On a related note i only use Autoglym hood cleaner and protector with the sponge supplied. Its a great product which cleans the hood up nicely and beads up for a long time. Probably only need to do it every 3 months or so but i do it whenever i clean the car.

Yep thats done the trick Thanks again everyone ! Cheers Steve

Hi All Thats brilliant thanks for all of your input. That video from Paul looks especially useful! I reckon i'll have that gone when i drive home tonight! It was just odd that it came on on the motorway and i haven't smashed the wheels anywhere - unless the standard issue mini holes are doing it!! Didnt even realise it was clever enough to know it had low pressures to be honest - you learn something everyday! Will let you know how i get on!

Alright there! Randomly a tyre pressure light came on whilst going down the M1 at the weekend. I didn't even know my Civic had one!! I checked the pressures and all were around 30psi (so no puncture as the cars not been topped up for a whlie) and normally they are 32-34psi. I topped them to 32psi and its still on. Anyone got any ideas how to reset this light!? Cheers Steve

I bet that shook them up a bit!!

I'd agree they become quiet useless in the snow - primarily due to lack of weight over the rear wheels. A couple of years back i was defeated in the snow by an almost flat road (the tiniest of inclines) as i had to come top a stop i think it would fare massively better with narrow winter tyres and a couple of paving slabs in the back