1990 MX-5 NA Miata

[007]

Here is my 1990 Mx5 with 1.6L engine with 5 speed gearbox with 210,000 kms on the clock.


Its all stock apart from a cat delete and a large exhaust tip.
I got it for $3,650 and it came with a red hard top and a good condition soft top with the glass rear window. I have all of the paperwork for it up until 20,000 kms ago and it has been well taken care of. At 160,000 kms it had an engine swap with a rebuilt engine. There is some oil sweats around the rocker cover gasket but the previous owner over filled it with oil so im not surprised.



When i first got it it had a coolant leak and it was running hot. I noticed that the bra + central number plate was blocking about 90% of the radiators airflow; so i took that off and relocated the number plate to the left side of the car and now it runs cooler.(still a bit hot)


Then i decided to have a look underneath to see any hidden problems, firsly the engine floor cover was cracked; so i stitched it by drilling holes and cable ties.(turned out well)

I had my fingers crossed that I wouldn't need a new radiator, and when i got underneath i found the cause of the coolant leak. All i had to do was move the clamp about 2 inches back and now there is no drip.

Apart from a ripped steering column boot it looked ok.
There is a small dent in the front quarter panel that was painted over with a scratch fix pen in the wrong colour.


My plans in order(a checklist for myself):
-fix the rust along the rocker panels
-fix the dent and some small scuffs
-Swap the antifreeze to water and water wetter mix(to make sure it runs cooler on hot days)
-change power steering, clutch, break, diff, and trans fluid.
-new bushings
-new clutch and break pads
-Oil flush+ sparkplugs, fuel filter
-Front lip
-metal door sills
-15x8wheels and about 1.5 inches lowwer
-racing seats, floor mats, new shift nob+boot, race steering wheel
-real roll bars and tow hooks

If I don't have an AWD by the end of summer I will plastidip the stock rims black and get studded ice rally tires.

[Wegzyzz]

love these. No other manufacturer has made a car quite like this!

[siren676]

Looks awesome man, congrats on finding one with a hardtop

[007]

Looks awesome man, congrats on finding one with a hardtop

Thanks, yeah, I got lucky with the hard top. When i was looking at different mx5's most didn't have hardtops and i couldn't find any for sale. I found one for sale 11 hours drive away, I offered him $850 for it(it was a grey primer colour) and he said he was insulted I would offer so low.

How hard was the clutch change?

(p.s; I stole your idea of linking sig cars )

[siren676]

I took mine to a mechanic as i didnt have a clue how to remove the gearbox, if you are doing the clutch on yours i can send you some pics out of my haynes manual on how to do it.

I just figured that linking cars in my sig was a heap neater than a wall of text rattling off mods on each car

[chrinsx]

Nice Miata, hope you have fun with it! Your garage reminds me of my original garage in Gran Turismo 3, always started out with the Miata, than won the FC right away afterwards :P

[007]

My parents poped over to my house today to see my car(dad hadn't seen it), he got a new pickup truck; It cost an extremely bad amount(I honestly thought they didn't make pickup trucks that were that expensive) but it has 400hp and 1085 NM torque in stock form, it weighs 6500 kg's and can carry 9500kg's in the bed(back bit). He looked at the mx5 for about 30 seconds then spent the next 30 mins telling me about his pickup.

I gave the car a quick detail today and put the under tray and hardtop back on.





I cleaned up an old oil spill when i changed the 300's oil.
(liquid soap+ water and a stiff brush)

I took mine to a mechanic as i didnt have a clue how to remove the gearbox, if you are doing the clutch on yours i can send you some pics out of my haynes manual on how to do it.

Thanks for the offer, I will probably get a haynes manual when i get closer to it(fun fact: I used to live 5 mins from the Haynes manual HQ in england, they have a fair size motor museum with some really rare cars)

[007]

Pic update

The weather has been crazy here and the MX5 is doing amazingly. When it gets consistently above 0 Deg C at nights im going to flush my coolant system and swap out the antifreeze with water.

My neighbor brought an NB, he has been eyeing up my NA for some time and I think the hot sunny evenings and his desire for a cool car(he drives a honda CR-V) made him pull the trigger.

Spy shot of my neighbor's blue/green NB


Morning weather

Evening weather


Cleaned the soft top with water and a cloth and it worked quite well



This was taken 3 days ago, the Rx-7 FC is gone now

I have had it for a while now and its still a hoot to drive. I got complimented by an old woman the other day so I think all age groups like the car.
I sorted the wonky rear licence plate and will be buying rubber floor mats and a new shift knob soon(shift knob is really small and since I unscrewed it its been on backwards).

[007]

I saw a red OEM MX5 rear spoiler for fairly cheap and I was seriously considering getting it. On my way to my exam today I saw this in the car park

so now I think the MX5 will remain wingless.

[Cmon43]

Holy shit that truck is big, will the mx5 fit in the back?

[007]

Holy shit that truck is big, will the mx5 fit in the back?

Ha, it can almost fit. The inside wheel arches on the pickup are a bit too wide.

Just spent $150 for a tuneup of the MX5:
-Differential oil
-Transmission oil
-Coolant(already had)
-Coolant additive
-Oil +filter
-Oil flush
-Injector cleaner
-Power steering fluid(ATF)
-Windshield washer fluid

Its more than I thought it would be but its still not bad,. The single biggest cost was the $60 75W90 oil.
I will change all of the fluids myself tomorrow and add some additions to the "How to" thread, i will do it at my parents house which is a 2 hour highway drive(1 way) and with the engine running hot i flushed out 2L of the old antifreeze. As cars run cooler on water than antifreeze i will run a mix of 30% glycol, 67% water, 3% coolant additive. This should allow the car to run cool home and then i will flush the system with a 45:55 coolant mix.

This is the colour of the coolant I drained. It looks like a mix of red and green coolant with a bit of rust.(not good)

This is the coolant additive "super coolant" graph + the car today @ the local car shop on a 26 deg C sunny day, it was amazing to drive.

I got a rubber floor mat(i thought i was buying 2 but i just got a really good one instead lol(LHD for the win).+ If your not sure if your air filter is good: if its a bit darker than mine or lighter than mine its good.



Hanging out with friend and his GTR and his GF's friend's S5. My car looks a bit rubbish in this pic but im getting a 911 soon (Wrapped of course) so I should get some nice pics. Some more friends have a ferrari 430 and some others have gtr's(R35) so I will get some pics of our cars together.


My friend with a GTR(He is the same age as me) and here is an exhaust size comparison he has 4 of those and I have 1(which is big enough for a coke can to fit in)

[007]

I Changed the coolant, diff oil, trans fluid, engine oil, and p steering fluid. It was all pretty easy except the rear diff bolt; I had to use penetrating oil, a blow torch and a huge breaker bar to get it loose.
Jacking a car up on hard packed mud is extremely dangerous, it slipped off the jack once when I was lowering it but luckily it caused no damage. When I did the rear diff I decided to just make some ramps out of some logs and the car trailer ramps. It was easy, good fun, and I saved a few hundred dollars so if anyone is sitting on the fence about changing there fluids I would suggest giving it a go.

Trans drain bolt with an alarming amount of metal on it. (Transmission fluid doesn't smell that bad, I think old engine oil smells worse)


Unstable Jack setup

Diff bolt from hell(the one with yellow stuff dripping off it.)

Ramp setup(i will be using this method from now on because of how easy and effective it was)


My helpers:
(Italian Maremma)
(Pyrenees mountain dog)
(Turkish Akbash)
(Barn cat that also keeps mice away from my cars )

My parents live in the mountains and naturally I went drifting up some amazing mountain roads(downhill is too hard for me at this point). I will shoot a vid if I can be bothered. It was really fun, and the Mx-5 feels unstable but stiff so it slides with ease and pinpoint control.

(new deck being built)


Some people may have seen on my other thread im looking to trade my Old B.C Canada licence plates with some foreign ones. If anyone is interested let me know.

[SirSharky]

That looks a lot like Switzerland! Beautiful!

[007]

That looks a lot like Switzerland! Beautiful!

Yeah, the mountains look good, that pic is just of 4 mountain ridges. Im hoping to go on a bike trip through Switzerland in the next few years.

There was a parade I took some pics for today and after the group went past I blasted back up the route with envious onlookers giving me thumbs up
When I went to get petrol the guy on the pump next to me complimented the car and asked if I imported it from england. I have the only Mx5 within 150km in any direction.
An s2000(rare where i live) came and parked next to me.


I took some pics on the way home:
The road to an old train station


This is at a Ski hill in summer.

Drivers view

Fast straight

Drift stage



Congratulation to Marty for his new purchase.

[007]

When I brought the car the owner said that it used to have a sub and amp in the boot with new speakers all around. Only 1 of the 6 speakers was working and it sounded rough. I got cracking and this is what I found:

Both headrests had nothing inside. I was quite annoyed because at the least I was expecting the stock speakers.

In the door there were some good larger speakers, and all i did to make them work was fix all the dodgy connections.

I played around with the settings and even though there is only 2 speakers it sounds good.(Mainly running aux setup)

I found out that the door card was attached to the top bit with duct tape.(spot the frog on the door for extra power)


I wanted to clear the drainage tubes so I needed to raise the car... Too steep ramp angle, i had to readjust.(damn muffler)

(I won't be picking any one up with all that dirt)
I cleaned it, caution for anyone living in a sunny country(not england ) I used a dash clean/protection product and the glare blinded me.

the best part of cleaning: the end product (mid wheel cleaning)


Now I have my sound system and interior fully fixed im ready for my 7 hour sun filled road trip to find parts for my subaru.