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vex posted:If you truly think you need a quiet cockpit there's a sea of Chrysler Sebrings out there for you. Funny thing about that, at least before our NB top developed holes - I've had the displeasure of riding in a Sebring a few times and top up, the Miata is quieter. The Sebring I constantly was turning my head to see if there was a car next to us making all that noise - just the wind.
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Dec 5, 2007 16:39
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Ooh, that's tempting. My wife pointed out that the top on our '99 is developing pinholes around the glass.  That said, I loathe the idea of putting a new top on the old frame, just from the pain-in-the-rear end aspect of it. We're seriously considering just getting a hardtop for it since the bodyshop that keeps putting my sister-in-law's '95M back together would be able to repaint any top we get for cheap...and walking out of the mall yesterday afternoon, not three cars away from ours was another silver early NB, but with a hardtop on it. For a second we were hoping the hardtop fairy had been kind to us  Of course, if we get fresh paint on the top, we'd be getting the front and rear touched up as well. Both have some scuffs and paint chips from the previous owners being lovely drivers. And the outside mirror covers would need a touchup too since both have decided to start flaking. Also, it looks pretty simple, but how hard is it to swap the accessory belts out? I suspect both are original and one is squealing / smelling of burnt rubber. IOwnCalculus fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Dec 10, 2007 |
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Dec 10, 2007 18:55
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grover posted:'04 Corvette Yeah, that's the C5 so you're looking at the 1997 interior. The C6 is a good bit faster (+50hp, Z51 suspension handles as well as the C5 Z06) but the driving dynamics, as far as I know, is not exactly a night-and-day deal since the underlying chassis didn't change too much. The C6's interior is vastly improved, though, and IMO the C6 exterior looks much better too.
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Dec 14, 2007 21:39
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Schwack posted:I would just like to take this opportunity to say gently caress YOU AND loving DIE to everyone at Robbins tops. If any other piece of equipment was this poorly manufactured, people would be making GBS threads bricks over it. Ive never seen so many holes misplaced (by up to more than 1/4 inch) or such poor initial fitment. It took three god damned people almost an hour just to get the loving thing latched for the first time, even with the latches adjusted all the way out. I hope everyone at Robbins gets AIDs, cancer and maybe kidney stones and dies. gently caress them all. Aaaand this is why I am trying to look for good NB tops on the frame already
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Dec 18, 2007 15:26
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I spy AZ plates I think I've seen maybe one hardtop NC driving around, plus the one parked at the dealer when I had to buy some of the clips that hold the drat underbody together.
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Jan 11, 2008 08:15
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Another '99 question: I have noticed that as of late the interior cable release for the trunk doesn't work as well as it should. Is it a matter of adjustment or some other problem? You can pull it and get a 'click' but unless someone is pulling up on the trunklid at the same time, it doesn't release all the way.
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Jan 14, 2008 04:36
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There's a guy locally who advertises doing Miata top installations for $150. If I can get photos of his prior work I may take him up on both my sister-in-law's '95M (rear window is toast) and our '99 (rips in the corners) with some Robbins tops.
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Feb 3, 2008 06:04
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mobn posted:Is it possible the battery dying reset the ECU and it just needs to re-adjust itself? It's quite possible - I know GM ECMs need to do an idle relearn if they've been completely wiped out and it takes them a while sometimes. Depending on the engine it can be bad enough that it won't even hold an idle at all initially. No clue if the Miata's does.
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Feb 21, 2008 03:12
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brosef deluxe posted:I'm still curious about the headlights preventing the idle problems, though. Longshot, but (again) with GM ECMs when the computer turns the fans on, it also bumps the idle to compensate for the increased alternator drag. (I actually need to tweak this on mine since it ramps up hard enough that I creep a few inches even if I'm stopped!) Perhaps the Miata has something for if the headlights are on? And at least with the GM stuff, the 'Italian Tuneup' won't do you any good on the idle learning. It needs some solid time sitting there trying to idle to get itself figured out.
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Feb 21, 2008 06:30
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I have nothing to offer than a question: is the market for used MSMs as depressed as it was for them when they were new? If I were you I would suggest putting the car up on the market as soon as you feel able to - if the answer for the above is anything close to "yes", you should be able to get your price but you may need to be willing to wait. Really, by all accounts the MSM is a car that should have no problem commanding a premium over other Miatas, yet the market doesn't seem to agree.
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Feb 27, 2008 17:40
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There's some guy locally on CL who keeps advertising an install for $150. No clue how good the work is though.
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Mar 3, 2008 22:08
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ManiacMatt posted:So is it possible to find a NB miata in the Golden Horshoe area of Ontario for under 3-4k or will it be about dying when I get it. I don't think I've ever seen a non-wrecked NB for that cheap. Closest I know of is JimmyJars' '99 at I think $4500. The problem for a Miata buyer is that low-mileage, super-clean NA's are still not that uncommon (even though the newest one is over 11 years old) and so it helps prop up the resale of the early NB cars, which in turn helps prop up the resale on late NBs.
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Mar 11, 2008 04:31
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WT Wally posted:Not to derail your question Mo Hawk, but someone once told me that the Kia Sephia's 1.8 was the same 1.8 that's in the NB Miata. Is there any truth to this? For some reason I really don't think so, maybe he meant that they are swappable? I don't know what he was talking about. Kia used a lot of old Mazda designs for quite a while in that timeframe so yeah, they can be a good source of cheap Mazda parts 
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Mar 17, 2008 06:47
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So I keep seeing people recommending stuff other than the super-sticky Azenis as of late. What's the tire du jour for those of us still running stock 14" wheels on a Miata? I've got no real problem with the Kumho 716's that were new when we bought the car but I wouldn't mind trading a bit of tread life for traction - these tires aren't down to the wear bars completely but they're so hard they're just about dangerous and one has a decent cut in the sidewall going on too. I live in Mesa, AZ, so snow and super-cold weather performance is of no real concern to me. I do not, unfortunately, get to autocross the car as much as I'd like - so if there's a tire that is perhaps a step down from the RT-615 in outright grip but is also a step down in price, I'm listening.
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Mar 17, 2008 23:11
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Thanks for the suggestions. So far, it's looking like it's coming down to the Sumitomo HTR 200 (cheap), the Falken RT-615 (super sticky) and the Hankook Ventus RS-2 (grippy but more treadlife, but costlier).
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Mar 18, 2008 23:25
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Phone posted:Does the RS2 even come in 14"? Tire Rack lists a 195/60VR14 in the R-S2.
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Mar 18, 2008 23:35
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Phone posted:Oh, wow... something new to consider... Yup, it's not a huge difference in price but the Miata is primarily my wife's car and she apparently takes after her father in both her taste for cars and her aversion to spending money.
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Mar 19, 2008 00:06
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Yar. Looks like my sister in law, in finding ever inventive ways of killing cars, managed to kill a headgasket on her 95M. I have no idea how long it was driven with water in the oil but I suspect it's shorter than longer since it quickly lost enough coolant to get really, really goddamn hot. How likely is it that the bottom end is wiped out versus just needing a headgasket and a onceover of the head to make sure it's still straight? For what it's worth when running it still seemed to run well enough, and I didn't hear anything outside of some noisy lifters.
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Mar 23, 2008 06:53
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iscariot posted:black smoke out the exhaust? Does the Miata have a vacuum-controlled fuel pressure regulator? I know my Volvo does and when it failed it was pouring fuel into the intake through that.
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Mar 23, 2008 16:29
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IOwnCalculus posted:Yar. Looks like my sister in law, in finding ever inventive ways of killing cars, managed to kill a headgasket on her 95M. Update: Mike's Place in Phoenix, AZ, apparently kicks some major rear end. They called her when it was towed in to confirm they had it, and in the space of one day they did the head gasket, threw on new radiator hoses, and did an oil change, all told for about $430 including the tow. Sure, the Miata is a simple car to work on but I don't have time to fix it for her and that seems like a hell of a deal to me.
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Mar 26, 2008 05:02
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deafmute posted:Yeah Mike's Place is very awesome and if you pay with cash they give you a discount. Good to know...not that she had cash for it but I just think they were more than reasonable. That '95M has had a rough life Are you local? Another AZ goon with a silver '99?  I'd say that one could go either way, depending on the value they decide to assign to it and how deep the damage goes.
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Mar 29, 2008 05:08
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deafmute posted:Yeah I'm in Phoenix; do you have a hardtop too? Nope, we've got the awesome "holy softtop" option
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Mar 29, 2008 07:56
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The size issue - you really just need to sit in one and find out. Price - yes, by all means you should be able to find a very good example of a mid-'90s NA, or possibly a high-mileage '99-'00 NB in slightly rough (but functionally fine) condition.
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Apr 12, 2008 07:07
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GoblinBomb posted:I drove up SR87 (Beeline Highway) to Payson today Ha. Yesterday I did a run up I17 / SR89A through Jerome and Sedona on the way to Flagstaff. I absolutely love that road, as long as there's no traffic - unfortunately on a weekend there is almost always traffic. The one time I managed to hit the 12 miles of 89A North into Jerome with no traffic...we came across a biker who had obviously very recently taken a nasty spill, but was at least being tended to already with an ambulance approaching quickly from the town.
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Apr 14, 2008 06:42
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GoblinBomb posted:I never have any reason to go up there, maybe I should just do it for fun one of these days I don't have work or class. By all means do. At the absolute least, Jerome has a couple of decent restaurants, and if you have the time (since it's much slower than running up I-17 to 179) it's the most fun way to get to Sedona by far.
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Apr 14, 2008 15:00
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XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX posted:or you can do it from inside the engine bay. If you turn your hand so your palm is towards the engine (while standing on the passenger side) you can fit your hand (BARELY) between the intake manifold and body to reach the filter. The space is very tight and I recommend mechanics gloves so you dont burn the poo poo out of yourself, but its not undoable. This is the method I use on our '99 - for whatever reason no matter how I crank the wheels I can't seem to get at it through the fenderwell, but I can do that fine on my sister in law's '95.
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Apr 16, 2008 14:52
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Considering my sister in law picked up a '95M (which was - at the time - absolutely pristine) for $300 more than that '90, with less miles, and a couple years ago - $5500 for a low-option '90 is loving insane, regardless of condition. Enjoy the test drive but don't have any hope of talking them down, in my research the people asking those prices for very early Miatas are generally the first or second owner and think that since the car is old enough to smoke it's some sort of rare classic. Additional content: This morning, instead of sleeping in to work on a cold that's been nagging me for the past few days, one of our neighbors was kind enough to inform me that my wife's Miata had been vandalized in our driveway. Some douchebag kids decided that it needed a quick coat of home-canned raspberry jam, ranch dressing, yogurt, and baloney with mustard. Only now do I wish I had the foresight to pick up the leftover bottles with gloves - a part of me hopes that if I could have convinced the cops to come out they could have gotten some prints off of it. Luckily for us they picked a day to do this that started out remarkably cool and lacking in sunshine so I was able to wash it all off before it baked into the paint and damaged it - all it did was de-wax a few spots, so ultimately I'm not out any money. The reason for this long post is that where the ranch got on the top, it did a better job of picking up the embedded dirt than Meguiars car wash soap and microfiber wash mitts did. While ultimately we need to bite the bullet and buy a new top, tires are due first - so what cleaners do you guys recommend so I can remove the last evidence that some bored douchebags took advantage of our recently gateless gated community? (Part of me suspects that these kids may be the same ones who are repeatedly ramming through the gates and driving up the HOA fees.)
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Apr 20, 2008 06:07
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einTier posted:If Ranch did such a good job on removing the dirt, why not coat the top in Ranch, let it sit, then rinse? Just a thought. Hahaha. Given the...porosity of the top we've got (aka two big holes and pinholes around the window...10 years of AZ sun has hosed this thing good) I wouldn't want to have to deal with any that managed to seep through to the interior. I like the Simple Green idea, though. I thought you had sold your last Miata? Guess not
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Apr 20, 2008 20:58
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Phone posted:Crappy examples of Miatas get picked up and even wrecked ones, too. There's a reason why nobody will buy that flaming turd of a car, and frankly, it is because it's a flaming turd of a car. Yup. I've even seen some cheap Miatas sit forever - one locally was for sale for $1700 for months on end. Usually, at that price, no matter how terrible the car is it gets bought - so something had to be SERIOUSLY wrong with it.
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Apr 21, 2008 23:52
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Savington posted:Times are datalogged confirmed. Both pulls made on a closed circuit. The speedo and tachometer are both off; 7400rpm=7000rpm and 130mph=136mph. Why are both gauges so far off? Got some Hankook RS2's coming my way, in 195/60/14. Should be a nice upgrade from bald Kumho 716's.
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Apr 24, 2008 16:35
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Phone posted:Transmission + tires/wheels are not stock. His speedo's only off by 4.5%. I take it there's no easy way of recalibrating it with speedometer gears and/or reprogramming? Doesn't explain the tach either
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Apr 24, 2008 16:52
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Savington posted:All Miata tachometers read high, as well, by 300-400rpm at redline. Go run your car into the rev limiter sometime; it's set at 7000, but the tach will read like 7200+. This I have noticed, I figured the tach was accurate and that the limiter was around 7200. Go figure  I don't have any serious datalogging tools for the Miata to confirm that for myself, anyway - best I've got is an ElmScan 5 since I doubt HPTuners will scan the Miata. It's better than nothing but it's far slower than a setup like HPT.I know some tachs are more accurate than others. Fourth-gen F-Body tachs have the opposite problem, they're hilariously low - they can be behind as much as 600-1000 RPM in a very fast first-gear pull. Wild-rear end guess - how much tire expansion (if any) is there at 130MPH? I wonder if that is affecting your calibration at the extreme high end.
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Apr 24, 2008 23:20
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Cenuji posted:It's either 2000 or 2001. I have a '99 and it takes regular, so it was definitely after that. Yeah, it was part of the refresh in 2001 - they also got some rudimentary variable valve timing. Annoyingly the changes they made to require premium also resulted in what amounted to a very small horsepower bump - on the order of about 5hp. So if you're going to cringe every time you have to hit the 91 octane button, just get a '00 or earlier. The '04-'05 MSM, as far as I know, goes back to the '99-'00 setup, but obviously needs premium for a very different reason 
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Apr 25, 2008 18:06
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Phone posted:Hey, I have some RS2s coming my way, too. Just got mine on the car today. Very nice improvement overall even if they are a decent bit taller than the stock 185/60's, and as a bonus the shop that did them balanced them dead-on. The last set (installed by the dealer before we bought the car) had developed a pretty annoying case of the 65MPH shimmy over the past 40,000 miles.
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Apr 28, 2008 02:09
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Dicker posted:someone with expericence can do the fronts in around 45 minutes.\ I'd peg that at all four wheels in a bit over an hour. My dad and I did the pads all the way around on my '99 a year or so ago and it was literally the fastest brake job I've ever done. As long as you know how to properly retract the rear calipers it's really, really easy.
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Apr 29, 2008 14:44
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Dicker posted:it lasts a long while as long as you maintain it (oil change every 5k miles with non synthetic and a friction modifier, or if you have the money, kaaz oil which is 22$ per change. I use sta-lube GL5 75w90 with equitorque friction modifier) Jesus, 5k diff oil changes? Does that thing just poo poo clutch material every two seconds?
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May 6, 2008 16:27
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mobn posted:The short nose crankshaft issue is almost as overblown as "boost in apex out" is with rx-7s. Some people have problems, plenty of others don't. As long as you take care of the car, don't worry about it. Just do like any normal person does and make sure you have enough insurance or cash put away to take care of any problems that arise. Seconded. If the engine has held up to 180k so far, it's not likely it will explode tomorrow...so as long as you don't do a timing belt and botch the reassembly (which is the number one problem, the short nose crank lets you put it together incorrectly) you should be fine near-indefinitely. And if you do have a problem? It's not like a 1.8 longblock is pricey
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May 10, 2008 13:57
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Ulf posted:Ugh. Yeah, I'll be paying someone to put a new top on the '99...which just got accelerated greatly due to a jackass knifing the existing holes to make them big enough to reach in through
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May 12, 2008 17:08
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Ulf posted:drat. At least it wasn't an intact top. Bonus points for getting almost all of the poo poo stolen back within minutes...the jackass hit the garage door opener he was lifting while we were inside so the cops were on the scene in no time flat. I think they may have caught the bastard, too...they actually spent a good two or three hours collecting prints.
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May 12, 2008 18:17
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Ziploc posted:Can't you sue the guy for the new top? 1) It will be a few days before the prints come back - since nobody was actually stabbed / shot / threatened / etc it's not exactly high priority. 2) If the 'person of interest' they talked to (who claims he found the stuff on the side of the street...which is a stretch BUT they did find some of it scattered elsewhere) does have any prints on the car they're going to charge him, but I doubt there's anything there to sue - the kind of guy who rides around on a bicycle and rifles through a car for anything worth selling is not the kind of guy with $500 to sue for. I'm not terribly bent out of shape about the top since it's been something we've been putting off as is, but now with these larger rips it's basically unusable. Kinda wish I could find a complete late NB top and frame to just swap over though
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May 12, 2008 21:31
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