White Is Alright

Tonight we put a new bit of carpet in the dining room. To do this we needed to move the sideboard and so while we were at it, it was time to dust off all the photo albums (kids, go ask your parents what photo album means to them) that sit on the middle shelf. Whenever we do this, it always leads to several hours of traipsing down memory lane.

One of the albums was from stuff that happened in 1989, which included us moving to SC from NJ, buying a house and most importantly, buying a Miata

The purchase of the 1990 “Smurf” Blue Miata happened on November 7, 1989. We traded that car in 6 years later on a 1995 Lauguna Blue in November of 1995. The ’95 was traded in on the Garnet Red colored Emperor in November 2003. As you you can see, there is a pattern here, so any talk of buying a new Miata now is premature. So this will be the last post you see here that includes any 2016 ND Miata discussion.

The new Miatas are available in the the three levels, the Sport (AKA: the base model), the Club (AKA: the boy racer) and the Grand Touring (AKA: the Luxo Version.) All I want is the Sport model because I don’t need any of the geegaws on the upper models and I don’t want to spent the three to five thousand dollars more. The Sport is available in 4 colors. I wanted black so I could vinyl wrap it in a non-standard color and be the envy of all those driving just regular color Miatas. Donna didn’t like the black color and she didn’t like spending $25k on a new car and then spending an additional 10% more just to get a different color (hard to argue logic with desire.) Donna looked at the stock colors and offered up the red which I said no to for un-understood psychological reasons, so that left white and something called ceramic (a satin metallic very light gray.)

Right now, white is the winner, but come back in November to see what happens.

Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 188

Thank You For Your Service

Yesterday morning we drove the Miata to lovely downtown Trenton, SC. We were with 9 other Miatas from the MMC and we were on our way to drive in the 46th Annual Ridge Peach Festival parade. This was the 13th year the Club has driven in the parade. Donna and I were among the 8 cars that first year, and while we haven’t done it every year, but I bet this was the 8th or 9th time.

During the parade you are allowed to throw candy to the crowd and we always spend about $20 so that we have enough to last the entire 2/3 of a mile route. When we could drive 2 abreast we would and Donna would throw candy to the crowd-side herself, but when the crowds thickened and we had to drive single file she would throw to the right and in between, hand me candy so I could toss some to the left. It was during this time when I tossed a few Starbursts at a couple of kids that I happened to make eye contact with the mother and she said to me, “Thanks. And thanks for your service.”

That woman at the parade was thanking me based solely on the hat I was wearing. A month ago when we toured the USS Midway I bought a hat in the gift shop to commemorate our visit and my time aboard almost 40 years ago. This has happened a couple other times too, once in Barstow, CA and once again here in Aiken, both times it was just because of the hat. Not that I don’t slightly deserve it having spent 10 years in Uncle Sam’s Yacht Club, but any schmoe who’s toured the ship or spends around twenty bucks can get one from Amazon or eBay and that weirds me out because they’ll get thanked for possibly no service at all. I’d like to wear the hat, but I’m going to have to only do it when there will be little chance of interaction with people and definitely not on Memorial Day or Veterans Day.

And then again maybe it is probably just me who has a problem with this, but when I joined the Navy in 1973 people were still into calling servicemen returning from Vietnam baby-killers and now after the middle-east conflicts it has become fashionable to call servicemen (and women) heroes and to thank them for their service and I am of that era, not this one.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 186

Fun With A Scan Tool

So I answered Steve’s last email:

Steve,

There are a couple of plugs/sensors back there, not sure which is which, but both connectors seem intact and the wires look OK.
…
Worth trying to swap that Engine Temp sensor back there? What other signals is the ECU relying on to actuate the VVT system that might provide a cheap troubleshooting method?

Brian

He replied:
I don’t really believe the VVT stuff is tied to the temp sensor, just that if it were out of whack, it may default to some other map. Do you have a scan tool? It would show the timing advance real time if it’s a decent one.

Well of course I don’t have a scan tool, so I asked the MMC and I got several replies, but the first one was from my new best friend David. He had one and seeing as he was going to be in the neighborhood this afternoon he would drop it by my house. And that’s right, it is the same David who tried to give me the muffler off his back and made a trip to see me to let me drive his car to see what a real NB2 Miata should drive like. I think I need to add a codicil to my will and cut him in on some of that Bogardus thousandaire wealth in the event of my demise.

When I got home, sure enough, there was an Innova scan tool in between the storm door and the front door. I opened up the carrying case and David had thoughtfully included the manual. I read through it real quick to see how I go about recording some data, thinking I had it down, I backed the Emperor out of the garage and promptly spent the next 5 minutes idling in the driveway to get to the right spot on the menu. I backed out and headed to the 4-way stop at the end of my street, turned right, then took the next right and I was on a street with a half mile straight that has only two horse racing tracks and one driveway on it. Perfect, all I could do was scare a couple horses, so I stopped the car and launched it. Shifted at more than 6000 RPM in both 1st and 2nd gears before easing to the stop sign. I turned the corner, found a spot to do a u-turn and got back on my nice straight away to repeat the run in the opposite direction. Pulled back into the driveway and hit a couple buttons to go see my live data. “No Live Data Stored.” Hmmm.

The small guide included with the scan tool’s case was not much help, it told me how to get to the Live Data Recording menu and how to choose from one of the three styles of data collection and how to start recording, but was vague on how to stop the recording. It did tell me that if I went to innova.com I could get the full manual. So I did. It was a lot more in depth and after reading its section on Live Data Recording I was sure I had it, I needed to hit the return key instead of the LD/M button. Re-ran my same course, returned home hit the return key a second time and it still continued to record frames. Huh? Pushed the LD/M key to get out and sure enough, “No Live Data Stored.”

Back to the manual. This time I read the Live Data Recording section forward, backward and upside down. It said it records 100 frames several times in that section, I thought that meant it could record up to 100 frames, but as it turns out it needs to record 100 frames before it considers itself through recording. So back on the road I go. This time instead of u-turning after the first high speed run I turned right and ran thru 1st & 2nd again with anger before cruising to the stop light. I check the frame count on the display and it reads 48. So I do the u-turn before crossing the road in front of me and head back while repeating the way too loud and too fast for regular street driving towards home. As I cruise into the garage the Innova 3130c beeps on the passenger seat. Success!

Inside the house I start to review the data I just recorded. Because I recorded using the default settings there were like 50 data points per frame. But because the small display shows only a half dozen lines it takes awhile to read all the info by scrolling, and there are 99 more to go. Obviously the folks who made this know that this is not acceptable, they make it easy to download the info to your PC. All you have to do is download a program called “Innova_V02.03.12_PCLink” and install it. In less than a minute I am double clicking on the .exe file. Not so fast pardner, to run this program you also need to install “Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP ENU” & “Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 SP x64 ENU”, still, in short order the link program self starts and a window opens mid-screen with a fancy graphic background and two buttons grayed out.

The left button reads disconnected, so I use the supplied USB cable to hook it into the computer and the unit turns on and the button shines with the word Connected. The right button lights up with the word Diagnose, so I press it. My browser opens up to the home page of Innova, the same place that led me to the manual and the software. I’ve seen this sort of behavior before when you run a program for the first time, so I close the window. Nothing else happens. So I hit the diagnose button again, and the browser opens again. Oh, this is rude, they are going to make me register to download this data.

Oh, well, after all the work it took to get the data I’d like to see it, what’s one more login and password? So I fill out the form with name, address, phone number, email and make up a password. I am informed to check for a confirmation email. Its there, I click on the activation link and I’m back on the Innova website saying thanks, go ahead and sign in, I do and I end up at some sort of dashboard. I now go back to the PC Link software and tap the Diagnose button again, another browser tab opens and before I can go further I am presented with another form to fill out (which you can’t bypass, I tried.) The first thing they want is the year make and model of the car(s) you’ll be using the tool with. I select 2003 and Mazda, but there are only four models listed, none of which are a Miata! So I pick one at random. I use the same strategy for the next few questions by selecting random radio buttons, so when I hit submit this time I’m advanced to the next page. This one has three more blanks that need filling out and one of them is the VIN number. I don’t remember what the other two are because right here is where I decided I didn’t really want that data after all. I closed the browser and uninstalled the software.

The data is still in there and if David wants to read it he can have it. The Emperor hasn’t thrown a CEL in a couple weeks and after changing the last Cam Position Sensor it feels like it is running right. It still sounds crappy at higher RPMs with your foot heavy on the gas, so I wonder if John (Clunk) Haff would still let me try out that stock midpipe and muffler?

Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 185

Maybe I Am Crazy

This morning on the way to work the Emperor felt his usual self (VVT kicking in at 3400 RPM with a solid pull up the rev range) until he got fully warmed up, then he reverted to the off tune style acceleration (VVT hitting at about 4500 RPM and sluggish acceleration.)

Thinking I have another another clue to my troubles, I emailed Steve at Panic at Panic Motorsports:

Saturday I put a new Cam Position Sensor in and now the VVT seems to act right – for the first few miles. Once the car is fully warm the VVT “surge” moves from ~3200 RPM to around 4500 and becomes almost unnoticeable and the car feels out of tune.

Is this warm/cold thing a clue or another red herring? Should I tackle the actuator itself even though it appears to be walking a high wire without a net?

His reply:
mmmmmmmmmmmaybe. There is a temperature sensor on the back of the head, sometimes you can grab on to them and twist (gently) to see it if moves. It shouldn’t. Fishing here, via emails obviously, but always happy to help you fix on your own if possible.

Today after work it seemed like the VVT would kick on at the higher 4500 RPM, but then it would solidly pull to 6000 RPM. I’m waiting now for the motor to cool off enough for me to reach between the firewall and engine to see about those wires. My logical, but ignorant mind, thought for sure he was going to say it must be that actuator because it is so oil pressure dependent and the change is due to the multi-viscosity oil thinning after it heats up. But no.

I still think it is the ACTUATOR, VARIABLE VALVE TIMING Part #BP6D-12-4X0D, but no where near sure enough (remember logical & ignorant from above) to just pull the trigger on one. Let alone know how to change it out. Trouble being that what resides inside that actuator remains a tightly held secret, no wait, I forgot Google, I’ll be back in a couple of hours, wait here.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 182

What Color Is The Miata?

Bright Sun

Fortunately we can agree on all the important stuff…

In what may or may not remain in the realm of a thought exercise, we can not seem to agree on what color the new Miata should be. Let’s recap: the sport is available in red, a couple shades of white and black. Donna would pick the red and I would pick anything but.

My ideal solution would be the black then wrap it. So we ordered some sample colors of the vinyl. They were all here by last Friday night and Sunday I got around to sticking them to the trunk lid of the Emperor. I liked the middle blue on the left and Donna chose the middle copper color on the right.

Below are the three OEM colors, my best photoshop versions of the colors we picked and someone else’s ‘shop of our compromise of a white with a blue stripe.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 180

Second Opinion

Calling Dr Kildare
Whenever there is something that just doesn’t seem right and you get an opinion as to what it might be it is always a good idea to get a second opinion, have someone else take a look.

Well, the Emperor is sick, he’s just not right. The check engine light is off (for right now anyway), but I swear it seems slightly out of tune. Worried that maybe that is just the way it has always felt and the slightly off exhaust note has convinced me that it is not running right. I needed an another expert for a different butt dyno measurement. Because I have been working on the theory that it is VVT related, I needed someone who had the same year range car, 2001-2005, as our Miata. There are two that match that criteria in the MMC and one was the clear choice, David ‘Dr. Kildare’ Adcock.

David agreed to come over to the house yesterday evening so we could take turns driving each other cars to compare the two back to back. First up was me driving his car. The first thing I noticed was how much newer his car felt than mine even though it is one year older. Turns out the secret to this is to have 120,000 miles less on the car. Where people find these “driven by a little old lady to church on Sunday” cars is amazing! Second thing I noticed was that his clutch take up point was lower than mine so it took me by surprise – one time. Once we got out of the neighborhood and I could put a lot more travel downwards on the gas pedal, it was obvious to me that this is how my car used to feel when under hard acceleration, it responded to your demands.

After 5 or 6 miles and 20 minutes we were back in my driveway and it was David’s turn behind the wheel of the Emperor. Backing out of the driveway the different clutch take up point took him by surprise here too – one time. He proceeded to drive the same loop. David run it through the rev range a few times as well and came to the same conclusion as I did, the car is fine in neighborhood style driving, but once you get above 4,000 RPM using a lot of gas pedal, it is missing something. He also noticed the same thing I did and that is the slight kick when the VVT actuates is a lot higher in the RPM range than normal, around 4500 as opposed to his which is in the 3000-3500 range. And when it does occur in the Emperor it doesn’t seem to make as much difference as it should.

So, let’s sum up. I’m not crazy (at least in this regard) there is something wrong with the Miata. It certainly seems VVT related. David agrees, but Dr. Kildare is a General Practitioner (like me) and doesn’t have a magic pill to make it better. And to continue that analogy, David said he can recommend a specialist, but it is in the upstate about 100 miles away. I told him I’d keep it in mind, first I was going to try one more quick and easy fix, another Cam Position Sensor. It was available on Amazon Prime and will be here Saturday.

P.S. Waiting three days before curing the wrinkle paint on your valve cover by driving around doesn’t work. There are no more wrinkles there now than there were before.

Started up, went down, went up, back, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 178

Wred & Wrinkled

Wred & Wrinkly

A couple years ago I needed something to do at the MMC’s Tech Day and I though my little oil drippings on the garage floor were from a leaking valve cover gasket, so I bought a new one to put in that Saturday. While I had the cover off I figured I needed to paint it red gain about 5 rear-wheel HP. So I headed on down to my local chain parts store and picked up a can of VHT Wrinkle Plus Coating.

It turned out I didn’t paint the cover, too much work, so the can of paint has remained in a cabinet in the garage. Back when I was looking for a muffler to try out for fixing the now ugly exhaust note, one member of the Club offered his stock unit up for the job. I went another way (I’m looking at you Mr. Borla), but I offered him the can of wrinkle paint as a token of my appreciation for his generous offer. He declined.

Fast forward to last Friday and seeing as I had some of the valve cover parts off the car while troubleshooting the VVT issue and I had about a 5 day wait for the o-ring/gasket set to get here from California, I decided now might a good time to try that painting it red thing again. Friday night I used some Simple Green and a toothbrush to clean up the cover. Saturday morning I fine cleaned the rest of it with some brake cleaner and q-tips. Next I masked off the 8 to 10 machined surfaces and oil return connections. Saturday afternoon I painted that sucker red. Instructions said to let it sit a couple hours and it should start to wrinkle up as it dries.

It did start wrinkling, but there were several spots that were still smooth as, well, freshly sprayed paint. Further down the can it said that if it wrinkles didn’t form to hit those spots with another coat. For final curing place in a 200° oven and bake for 1 hour. Somehow I didn’t think that Donna would have taken kindly to me placing that engine part in the same place as she bakes cookies in, so I didn’t even broach the subject. Who cares if I’ve got a few non-wrinkly areas, not me.

Today the o-ring/gasket was set in the mailbox, so tonight I buttoned every thing back up and at least started the car to check for leaks. None were obvious, so I shut the car back down. It was raining to heavy to go for a full-fledged shakedown cruise. Maybe tomorrow.

While researching a link for the paint I was at the VHT web sight and noticed at the bottom of the page for the paint a little blurb:
VHT Wrinkle Plus only attains its unique properties after correct curing.
– Bake at 200°F (93°C) for 20 minutes.
– The inherent heat of engine operation will also accomplish curing.
I wonder if that second one will still work if the paint has been drying for 3 days before I get some inherent engine heat applied to it?