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Time to get ready for autocross!  Wait, what's that?  God drat it. Seriously though, what is this? I'm guessing a bump stop, but I am no mechanic. How important is this? Would my suspension be destroyed if I went to autox without fixing it? 2011 NC2 PRHT, rear right wheel, if that matters. GOD IS BED fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Sep 19, 2014 |
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Sep 19, 2014 15:13
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The Miata is designed to ride the bump stops. RIP GOD IS BED.
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Sep 19, 2014 15:59
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That looks more like it might be part of the strut mount than a bump stop to me.
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Sep 19, 2014 16:39
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Struts on a Miata.  http://fatcatmotorsports.com/igallery/graphics/FCM_NC_RX8_front_and_rear_susp_diagrams.png
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Sep 19, 2014 16:51
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It looks like most of 34-342 to me. Top left. I just can't picture a bump stop getting tangled inside the coil like that.
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Sep 19, 2014 16:53
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http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/products/CASING%2C-STOPPER-%28F151%252d34%252d778%29.html That's 34-342.
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Sep 19, 2014 17:11
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I also see this marked as 34-342 / F151-34-778. That metal piece doesn't look like the right thing. http://www.tascaparts.com/oe-mazda/f15134778 From here: http://forum.miata.net/vb/showpost.php?p=6918535&postcount=44
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Sep 19, 2014 17:21
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Phone posted:Struts on a Miata. part 34-342 on this diagram you posted is that rubber thing.
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Sep 19, 2014 17:24
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34-342 is for the front, I need the rear part. Thanks for the help, guys.
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Sep 19, 2014 17:35
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Looked at a Miata today, wanted to get goon consensus (we're meeting up at my mechanic's place Tuesday morning for him to give it a final going over before I fully commit to buying it) on whether it's a good deal or not. I like the car and am strongly leaning towards it, but mostly just wanted to make sure price was reasonable, since I've got to sell it in the not-so-distant future when I move. This is also the most I've spent on a vehicle by a factor of at least three. Growin' up  Bit of background about myself: I'm not really a car guy (to be fair, never owned anything particularly fun), but I just got back to the US and need transportation for the next few months, until I leave again in Feb. (I also really need to learn how to drive manual, as they're a lot more common in Australia and at 29, it's getting pretty embarrassing.) I was looking at joyless econoboxes, but realised this was probably my last chance for a while to own something fun and not-wholly-practical, and it's not really all that much more expensive. Miata's get a ton of love from basically everybody, so I figure if I can't enjoy this car, I should just stick to motorbikes  Previously I was daily driving a motorcycle for a year (in an area of Japan that gets about 2x the rain of Seattle…), so even a Miata is a huge step up in utility and creature comforts from where I'm coming from, heh. In all honesty I don't plan on driving it a ton (bought and fixed up a road bike as soon as I got back), but I do need something for longer distances/bad weather. If I need more space for something I can always borrow a car from my parents here in town. The ad:  I brought my dad with me (this would be my first manual car, so I let him do the test drive) and we checked out the car. I got a pretty good vibe from the owner, he works at an oil change place (religiously changes it with synthetic every 3k since it's free for him) and is going to school to be an airplane mechanic. Previous owner was first owner (old guy), and the current owner says he has a folder about an inch thick with all the dealer receipts from him. Current owner has had it for about a year and a half, said it'd been sitting in the garage for a while when he bought it. Car was very clean and ran/drove perfectly, did the 45mph/rev +2k/disengaging and engaging the clutch, felt snappy. Handled well, didn't pull to one side when braking or if you took your hands off the wheel. Has a few options: ABS, cruise, Bose system w/ factory radio, power windows and power mirrors. Proper Mazda battery in the trunk (mentioned it was replaced just before he bought it). He seems pretty firm on the price. Possible issues (mostly "is this car still worth $3600 in this shape?"): -as mentioned in the ad, two patches on the top. Grey on a black top, if I wasn't going to replace the top (I'm unemployed at the moment so have all the time in the world, and my dad's retired/has a lot of experience working with canvas from sailboating, so it's on the table if it's worth it from a resale perspective) I suppose I'd get black ones. Patched on both the interior and exterior, he says they don't leak and interior doesn't show any signs of it. -shallow, roughly fist-sized dent in driver's side quarter panel, coulda been a softball or something, was like that when current owner bought it. Paint looks OK and it's not super obvious. It doesn't really bother me too much personally, just wondering about resale value. -quarter-sized hole kinda low in the front bumper. I assume not easily fixable for cheap, I don't really care, just noting. Other than those two things not really any noticeable cosmetic issues that would be atypical for a fifteen year old car (little bit of curb rash on the alloys, a small amount of light rust in a few places, etc). It's a clean Florida car otherwise, in great shape aside from the stuff I'm noting here. -main issue/only thing I was that concerned about : the original owner had gotten in a front end collision, the left headlight assembly is new, and front bumper is a respray (upon really close inspection, can see it doesn't *quite* match the hood/quarter panels, and you can see the paint sorta beginning to crack). It's not awful and it won't personally keep me awake at night, but I'm not sure how much it would scare off potential buyers or get them to try and haggle the price down. There were some rub marks in the paint on the driver's side door sill which had my paranoid internal alarm wondering if the frame got tweaked… drove and braked true on the test drive and frame rails seemed straight (I barely know what I'm doing when it comes to cars so that was all I could think to check), so I'll leave that to the mechanic. -front brake pads need changing soonish, I can do this with a buddy and/or Youtube. Rear tires I can probably get away with leaving for the next owner, front are newish. -other semi red flag (I don't really know enough about the nitty gritty of how engines work to really say) is that I think the PO told him to fill it with premium, so that's what he does. Said he guessed it might get worse fuel economy on regular but I don't think ever tried it. I knew from looking up NB's before I got there that was weird for a '99 (didn't start until like 01-02, right?), could it be hiding any symptoms of more serious trouble? Would it be bad to switch back to regular? That's about it, really. I don't want to make it sound like I don't like this car, I do and want to buy it, just want to make sure I'm not gonna lose my shirt when I re-sell it. My mechanic is good and I trust his judgement, although English isn't his first language (Korean dude literally named Bruce Lee), so wanted to go as prepared as I could. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Sep 22, 2014 |
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Sep 22, 2014 02:41
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Don't worry about the next buyer, worry about yourself. If you like it, get it. The bumper hole might be fixable with a fiberglass repair kit and some bog. There are a few tutorials online about how to do it. Worst case, you could look at what it would cost to throw a new bumper cover at it and spray it, but that might be expensive. The quarter panel dent might be fixable by a decent paintless dent repair shop. Those guys are magicians and they work cheap. See what the mechanic thinks about the car, and also look around to see if you can find a bodyshop that would be willing to inspect it as well. Bodyshop guys have seen hosed up cars of all descriptions so they can probably identify a bodge job from a mile away. Switching down to regular octane fuel won't hurt anything. I doubt premium did anything other than waste money. I have a feeling that the body/top damage is going to be the primary problem with reselling it - you want as wide a net as possible, and "beater sportscar" isn't as wide as "everyone who might want a convertible." Luckily it doesn't sound like anything's particularly difficult. Seat Safety Switch fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Sep 22, 2014 |
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Sep 22, 2014 16:56
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It could be due for a timing belt so that'd be useful to look for in the receipts to find when it was last done. It won't hurt the engine if it breaks but it will leave you stranded and is a significant expense.
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Sep 22, 2014 17:50
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Switching down to regular octane fuel won't hurt anything. I doubt premium did anything other than waste money. Can you adjust timing on that year? If the PO advanced it then going down to regular octane might produce knock until he brings it back to stock.
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Sep 22, 2014 19:46
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Hikaki posted:Can you adjust timing on that year? If the PO advanced it then going down to regular octane might produce knock until he brings it back to stock. Ah yeah, poo poo. Good point. I keep forgetting that it's a common Miata mod to advance timing because I haven't gotten around to doing it on my 97 yet.
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Sep 22, 2014 19:56
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Ah yeah, poo poo. Good point. I keep forgetting that it's a common Miata mod to advance timing because I haven't gotten around to doing it on my 97 yet. It's easy to advance the timing on the motors from the NA, but they changed the CAS for the '99 onwards meaning it's not an 'easy' mod like it is on the earlier models. Also, the engine maps are better and don't respond as well to timing advances.
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Sep 22, 2014 21:57
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Thanks for helpful responses so far guys! The timing belt has been recently changed, so that should be OK. I'll swing by a painless dent repair place if I buy it (it's not really make or break for me) and see what they quote, if it's within shouting distance of a hundred bucks or so I think might go for it. If it's more… well, I'll see about getting a job before I start worrying about minor cosmetic stuff. Do you guys think it would it be relatively time-consuming for the mechanic to check the timing? No idea how well he knows Miatas yet (gonna call tomorrow morning), but he does specialise in imports and has been in business for a long time. edit: Did some googling, found this thread about a guy getting pinging on his '99. I'm wondering if it's being run on premium to mask a timing issue (none of which I'd want to mess with, from the looks of it). For the OP it was his thermostat, which the current owner actually replaced not too long ago… I wonder if he's tried regular gas since then. If the issue was fixed, would running it on premium when it didn't need to be have produced any telltale signs? edit: seller says his manual is the original one for the '99, and specifies no less than 91 octane…  Wondering if these are better deals, pain in the rear end to drive to Orlando to check them out though. http://orlando.craigslist.org/cto/4679674696.html ($100 less, has more miles, better exterior [top is fine] but slightly worse interior) http://orlando.craigslist.org/cto/4680336716.html ($600 more, but much lower miles, has a similar dent to the original one I looked at) Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Sep 23, 2014 |
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Sep 23, 2014 00:13
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Thanks for helpful responses so far guys! The timing belt has been recently changed, so that should be OK. I'll swing by a painless dent repair place if I buy it (it's not really make or break for me) and see what they quote, if it's within shouting distance of a hundred bucks or so I think might go for it. If it's more… well, I'll see about getting a job before I start worrying about minor cosmetic stuff. Checking timing takes like two seconds with a timing light. Honestly though, although all of your concern would be well warranted for a car you were planning to keep, it's overkill for a car you will own and infrequently drive until February. $3600 is pretty good for an NB, offer like 3200 maybe and see if you can get it for 3400 just for the hell of it, but it will run fine for 5 months, the patches will hold for 5 months, and you can likely resell it in 5 months for more than you bought it for, or worst case a few hundred less than you paid. If it drove fine when you checked it out, and it sounds like it's been relatively well taken care of, just buy it, drive it, don't worry about the minor imperfections, and sell it in 5 months.
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Sep 23, 2014 01:08
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Last major storm to blow threw showed that my car isn't keeping water out like it should. Heavy rain only will get water inside the car. To me this is saying that things are draining, just not like they should. The top itself looks water tight as it should be and there doesn't look like any water damage or wet spots where the top would be letting water in. Besides the two drain holes, would there need to be anywhere else to check? 06 NC; water in footwells after heavy rain.
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Sep 23, 2014 01:32
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Viper915 posted:Honestly though, although all of your concern would be well warranted for a car you were planning to keep, it's overkill for a car you will own and infrequently drive until February. I agree. If I were you, I would buy the cheapest and ugliest (but reasonably mechanically sound) car I could get my hands on and then just beat the hell out of it. As an owner of a beater Miata myself, the freedom to not give a poo poo about your car is amazing, and that is something that you will really appreciate if it's not going to be your problem anymore in 5 months.
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Sep 23, 2014 01:32
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TrueChaos posted:It's easy to advance the timing on the motors from the NA, but they changed the CAS for the '99 onwards meaning it's not an 'easy' mod like it is on the earlier models. Also, the engine maps are better and don't respond as well to timing advances. Is it even worth the extra fuel cost though?
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Sep 23, 2014 04:58
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oh god i joined a local miata facebook group or two and they're full of ricers and now i am unclean
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Sep 23, 2014 05:13
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I joined a local Miata forum, I use it mostly for finding parts, but everyone seems pretty cool so far. I'll probably end up going to a meet just because my son would love it
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Sep 23, 2014 06:12
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blk posted:oh god i joined a local miata facebook group or two and they're full of ricers and now i am unclean Yup. That's the same here 33% hella flush, 33% drifter/ricer/tool bag bros, 33% old as people who I poo poo you not post things like a multi paragraph discussion on hand signs for miata owners to throw up at other miata owners like its a gang or special club or something.
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Sep 23, 2014 15:02
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blk posted:oh god i joined a local miata facebook group or two and they're full of ricers and now i am unclean Phone stop reading Mia.... oh, nevermind.
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Sep 23, 2014 21:16
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Ahhh I love how cheap things are for these cars. 4 new rims and Z2 star specs for <$1000 shipped. I just found a place that sells their spec miata soft compound hoosier takeoffs for $80/set. I regret nothing about blowing up the S2000 now.Sadi posted:on hand signs for miata owners to throw up at other miata owners like its a gang or special club or something. 
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Sep 23, 2014 23:16
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Muffinpox posted:I regret nothing about blowing up the S2000 now. How could you 
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Sep 24, 2014 06:41
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My handbrake light has been stuck on for a couple weeks now. I crawled around under the rear and as far as I can tell the calipers aren't stuck to the discs or anything. What could be causing this? It initially started while I was taking a hard left turn and thumped through a small dimple in the road.
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Sep 24, 2014 16:09
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Low brake fluid in the master cylinder.
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Sep 24, 2014 16:31
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Phone posted:Low brake fluid in the master cylinder. Which usually indicates that your pads are worn. Don't just fill it back up and keep going.
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Sep 24, 2014 16:40
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And if/when you change the rear brakes don't do the same dumb I did the first time and just try and cram the piston back in with a c-clamp. The brakes worked fine for about a year before I had to replace both rear calipers and rotors. My handbrake still doesn't feel right, but I don't roll away on hills so it can't be that bad right?
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Sep 24, 2014 17:04
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Seat Safety Switch posted:Which usually indicates that your pads are worn. Don't just fill it back up and keep going. The pads don't look worn and I just replaced them a year ago. Could something else cause the fluid to drain? My radiator mysteriously emptied itself a couple months back but has held fluid fine since I refilled it.
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Sep 24, 2014 18:11
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Go check your master cylinder.
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Sep 24, 2014 18:14
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Don't forget to teach up under the dash and feel the carpet behind the brake pedal, all the way up to the pushrod. It could be leaking into the cabin and soaking up. Does anyone have the picture/parts list for the NA turret rebuild? The rubber boot and bushing numbers et cetera. My leg got nice and warm the other day on the drive to work and my rubber boot has split completely.
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Sep 24, 2014 18:15
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http://eugene.craigslist.org/cto/4671321776.html I don't really get what the big deal is with the 10AEs but here's a nice one
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Sep 24, 2014 18:18
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Tactical Bonnet posted:Don't forget to teach up under the dash and feel the carpet behind the brake pedal, all the way up to the pushrod. It could be leaking into the cabin and soaking up. http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=329664
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Sep 24, 2014 18:19
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Tactical Bonnet posted:Don't forget to teach up under the dash and feel the carpet behind the brake pedal, all the way up to the pushrod. It could be leaking into the cabin and soaking up. http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/products/SHIFT-BUSHING-KIT-%28PKMIAD1033%29.html http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/products/BOOT%2CDUST-%28M513%252d17%252d480A%29.html http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/products/INSULATOR-%28NA01%252d64%252d481B%29.html
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Sep 24, 2014 18:23
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Tactical Bonnet posted:Don't forget to teach up under the dash and feel the carpet behind the brake pedal, all the way up to the pushrod. It could be leaking into the cabin and soaking up. I just bought this from Moss, which is a bit cheaper than all-OEM: http://www.mossmiata.com/Shop/ViewProducts.aspx?PlateIndexID=119094
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Sep 24, 2014 18:23
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Tactical Bonnet posted:And if/when you change the rear brakes don't do the same dumb I did the first time and just try and cram the piston back in with a c-clamp. The brakes worked fine for about a year before I had to replace both rear calipers and rotors. Wait what? Isn't that how you're supposed to do it?
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Sep 24, 2014 19:03
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The NA has little hex-key bolts that you use to draw the piston back into the caliper and also adjust the parking brake. I'm ordering the parts from ~my local dealer~ because I get a discount. 
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Sep 24, 2014 19:19
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Tactical Bonnet posted:The NA has little hex-key bolts that you use to draw the piston back into the caliper and also adjust the parking brake. Ohhh, that's right. I was thinking of the front calipers, which are safe to clamp. Freaked myself out for a second there.
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Sep 24, 2014 19:52
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