The other week, on one of the frequent trips to the north for bagels, we both noticed that the center console area of the CTBNL was hotter than normal. From past experience, I know that it is most likely caused by torn shift boots. Under the console are two rubber boots, one that closes the hole from the bottom of the car and one that closes the top of the transmission. I ordered them both from Jeff Bezos.
I’ve had the parts for a while now and yesterday I finally got around to replacing them. Much to my surprise the top boot was not ripped. This is the usual cause and because a torn bottom boot really has nothing to do with heat I was prepared to ship them both back for refunds. But I figured, as I was most of the way there, I’ll check the bottom one. It was ripped to pieces, so I changed it. It might have nothing to do with the extra heat in the cockpit, but the small boot does serve an essential purpose, to keep dirt and crap out of the transmission turret. Mazda hadn’t just put it there willy nilly.
Seeing as I still had half a roll of reflectix left over from my 2006 quest to reduce cockpit heat on the Emperor I thought now might be a good time to do the interior of the CTBNL. The console was out, so I went ahead and removed the two seats. I then pulled out a gazillion of those Christmas tree style fasteners holding the interior carpet in place. I peeled the carpet back and used the rest of the roll on the rear self, under both seats and around the transmission tunnel. I didn’t have enough to cover every square inch, but I hope what I did use helps a little bit.
In between my ordering the two boots and getting around to changing them, I received a second reason to pull the center console, the back cup holder lid wouldn’t snap closed. It closed, but might open from a slight graze of your arm or a sharp bump. I knew right away what the problem was because I had the same issue with the Emperor several years back. The tab that holds the bottom of the cup holder’s tension spring in place has broken off.
To fix it with the console out of the car, was a matter of removing the half dozen screws holding the cup holders to the underside of the console to free them up. The original fix from the Miata Net was drill a small hole to tie the bottom of the spring in place, but I have been using the Mark Booth method (found towards the bottom of this thread) of a washer and small screw into the boss. While I was there, I prophylactically applied the fix to the front cup holder.
