Crap!

To quote another famous person1 whose personal work included the words ‘Life of’ in its title, “What a revolting development this is.”

I followed Donna back home from Wayne’s Automotive the other day and when I turned into the driveway, she said to me, “The Miata sounds horrible.” She’s right. For the past couple three months there has been a metallic scraping sound that directly corresponds to the car speed. It started out very light and has slowly gotten louder. To me it was getting to the point where it was becoming really annoying, but when Donna noticed, that was the signal that it was time to get it looked at.

Having eliminated Wayne’s as a place to go, I wondered where to try next. I vaguely remember someone in the MMC saying they had good luck with the Automotive Workbench, so I called them and made an appointment to bring the car in on Wednesday.

I already like the owner as he came out and shook my hand, instead of just letting the desk clerk check me in, plus his name is Brian. We went a few miles down the street, he drove while I rode shotgun. He actually owned Miata for a while in the past and still has a 1.6 to 1.8 engine conversion in a 91 going on in the background. After the drive he had a couple of ideas what it might be, but needed to get it on a lift the next day to really troubleshoot it.

At the end of the workday yesterday I noticed a message light on my phone. It was the mechanic and he asked me to call back and he’d let me know what the repair would be. I tried calling, but got their answering machine. The place is practically on our route home, so I didn’t try and call again, we just stopped in.

Of course, of all Brian’s possible reasons that the noise could be, it had to turn out to be the most expensive one. The bearings are going bad in the limited slip differential. Used ones, if you can find them, run $800 to $1200 while new ones go for $2500.2

This morning I called the shop to let them know there was a place in Florida parting out a 2003 Miata and had a bunch of stuff listed for sale on Miata.net, including an LSD. I gave them the phone number and they said they’d check. Late in the day the mechanic called and let me know it had already sold. He had a line on one for the $1200, that came with a six month warranty and he would try them and let me know. I said if you can’t get that one, just go ahead and order a new one. He never got back to me today, so I guess we’ll find out the verdict on Monday.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 159

1. Chester A. Riley.
2. This figure does not include the multi-hundred dollar installation cost.

Jeepers Creepers

I can’t make up my mind on my next set of peepers.
When we last left our indecisive hero he was trying on five different pairs of glasses from Warby Parker…

While, I still really like the idea of the crystal frames, Donna thinks I need some color, so of the 5 tried on back then the Haskell with blue trim is the clear1 front runner. When I look back at those pictures I still like the all clear Chamberlain best.

Then the other day I was watching a video review2 of the new Miata by a French auto journalist and he had on clear frames with bright red temple arms. Whhaaaat?!? Me likey, but not red. Maybe blue? Coutless internet searches have garnered no results worth anything. This got me thinking, what if I could create my own by mixing two different frames. Off to Paint Shop Pro.

You can’t tell from the photos online if any of the frames would be compatible with swapping arms, so I dashed off an email to help@warbyparker.com: “Is there any other frame with blue color temple pieces would fit on the Haskell frame?” Their answer: “The only temple pieces we carry are silver and you can find them on our Winston frames here. We do not carry frames that come with blue temple pieces. Sorry about that!”

I’ll save you a link click, the Winston are black and look like the frames Steve Reeves wore as Clark Kent in the old Superman TV show. Ain’t no silver there.

Maybe I’ll do another Home Try On and order those 4 frames, plus a 5th wild card, and see if I can can get any of those blue arms to adapt to one of the crystal frames…

1. See what I did there?
2. I can’t remember where it was or I’d have linked it.

4 Years Later

McLeod Museum

We took a drive on Saturday to scout a route for a future MMC event, but we didn’t take the Miata, it was just a little too cold (and windy) for a convertible drive. The picture above is from the destination, the McLeod Farms Antique Museum.

It was even colder today. We got up this morning for our usual Sunday morning breakfast bike ride. Our first stop was downtown at the ATM because we didn’t have any cash and after were going to go another dozen miles or so before eating. The temps were in the upper 30s with the wind chill near freezing. We both felt uncomfortably cold in the 15° below normal, so after the ATM we just rode home and got in the car to drive for breakfast. Post breakfast we did the weekly grocery shopping and we have not been outside since.

This afternoon we sat glued to the couch watching the only golf tournament we ever watch, the Masters.

I have been seeing Dr. PCP twice a year forever for him to run my cholesterol numbers and I can’t believe it has been 4 years since I put up the numbers…Maybe because they looked pretty much like this latest batch of results, cholesterol & LDL within limits and my triglycerides too high with my HDL not high enough.

  Chol HDL LDL Trig
Goal 80-199 40-110 30-130 30-150
03/31/16 170 37 95 180
10/10/12 196 36 128 160
04/10/12 193 39 121 166
10/10/11 162 43 88 155
04/04/11 155 38 96 107
12/06/10 176 41 114 105
05/18/10 151 38 91 109
12/15/08 167 41 92 171
03/21/08 164 37 104 115
12/12/07 175 38 104 165
07/17/07 185 36 117 162
03/05/07 195 39 123 167
09/19/06 167 37 103 135
04/06/06 168 37 106 126
12/08/05 182 35 120 137
07/28/05 177 30 113 169
06/17/05 164 31 85 238
05/06/05 174 27 108 194
01/10/05 176 33 110 167
09/21/04 209 24 131 271

The Emperor Returns

New Pedals

The Cam Angle Sensor wiring harness was rubbing on a serpentine belt until it shorted out.

I was hoping to find a more local shop than Panic to take the Miata to when it needs work and it turns out Wayne’s won’t be it. Not that the quality of work is a problem, the car drove home just fine, but the intangibles sunk their chances.

When I got in the car to drive it home I noticed they had nicely laid one of those paper floor mats down to keep greasy footprints off the mats, but they had forgotten to put the fuse box cover back on and it was laying on the passenger seat. Back home I snapped the fuse cover back on and pulled up the paper floor mat. It had done its job because it had collected a couple greasy prints on it, but when I pulled it up, there were a lot more greasy areas on the real mats than on the paper. Good thing I still have some of that old carpet that I made these mats from. The topper came as I walked around the back of the car to go get that piece of carpet, there were four big greasy hand prints on the trunk from where they had pushed it into the shop.

Finally spent the $50 Gift Certificate we won for 2015’s Motoring Challenge. There was not really anything in the catalog that I really wanted. The only thing that I needed in there in the right price range were some replacement rubber pads for the brake and clutch pedals, but what would I do with the remaining twenty bucks. Plus I really didn’t like the ‘Roadster’ script on them. The fancy I.L. Motorsports aluminum ones were $15 over the sum of the GC, so what the heck, I bought them. They of course arrived on Thursday while the Miata was off at the shop. Put them on Friday night while I was cutting a new mat and wiping off the trunk lid.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 159

Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution1

In Case of the Removal of the Favored Car from the Garage, or of its Death, Sale, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Garage, the Same shall devolve on the 2nd Favored Car, and the Household may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Sale or Inability, both of the Favored and 2nd Favored, declaring what Vehicle shall then act as Favored, and such Vehicle shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a New Favored Car shall be purchased.

I have had a business card for a local place called Wayne’s Automotive in my wallet for like 15-20 years. A co-worker had given it to me way back when her sister got the job as the dispatcher for the towing portion of the business. She was giving them out to everybody she talked to, so I took one just to be polite. A few years later when I got a new wallet I transferred the card. At the next new wallet the card moved again right along with everything else, I had became superstitious about it. I just knew that if I discarded it, I’d need it the very next day. And it was a good thing I still had it.

Yesterday on the way home, about 1-1/2 miles from work, while accelerating through 3rd gear, the acceleration just stopped happening, the check engine light illuminated, followed by the battery light and because we were on a slight uphill slope the Emperor slowed to a graceful stop along the side of the road. No sturm und drang, the engine just quit like somebody flicked a switch.

I reached into the little compartment behind my driver’s license, slid out the dog-eared card and called Wayne’s for a tow truck. We originally were going to have it towed home, but during the wait we changed our minds in consideration of my very limited mechanical knowledge and abilities. Decided to have it taken to their garage portion of the business instead.

As we stood watching the Emperor being winched onto the back of a flatbed, a different co-worker pulled over to see what was happening. He offered to drive Donna home so she could swear in the Sonata as Favored Car and come get me at Wayne’s.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 158

1. We had to cite Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution in elevating the Purple Whale’s status because South Carolina is one of only three states that never ratified the 25th Amendment.

164,000 April Fools Day Pranks

Well, Yesterday was April Fools Day and it used to be kind of fun, but now not so much for a couple of reasons. One is just me, like a lot of things, I’m too old for that stuff anymore. And two every Tom, Dick and Harry business and internet site has got in on it has sort of saturated the prank market.

So now I have become sort of immune to the whole thing, jaded even. Which I why I thought nothing was amiss in an email I received from the folks who are producing the Bernie Sanders Action Figure at FCTRY promoting a Trump Vader Doll for free. Just click on the link. Bait dangled…

April Fool

Free? I’m in. Click. Hook set. I’m taken to a cool page, there is a big red button that says reserve yours today with a little notation that reads ‘193 offers remaining.’ There is a big image of the figure, a list of features, further down the page is a video with a Star Wars like opening crawl, three buttons with Trumpisms in a Vader voice, and at the bottom is another red button to reserve your action figure with a notation that there are ‘192 offers remaining.’ …reeling in. Oh, man, they are going fast I better get in on this. I enter my email address and click on the button. I check my email…and…I’ve been had.

April Fool 2

The page is still there, go check it out – http://trumpvader.us/

The Emperor ran past the 164,000 mile mark somewhere in the northwest section of Aiken,SC.

Bamboo Dog Repellent

 

3

What started out as my usual Tuesday evening post-work rollerblading excursion about a month ago1 turned exciting a mere 50 yards from my driveway.

From my left came a barking blur. Closing in on me fast from about 8 o’clock was what looked like a collie based hybrid mutt about 2-1/2 feet high. As he2 got close, he leapt trying to grab my left arm. I managed to raise my arm just out of his reach. When the dog missed, he stopped, barked a couple more times and ran back towards the house it came from.

Good thing it didn’t get me, the dog probably weighed 30-35 pounds and had it got my wrist my forward momentum would have come to a sudden stop. I would have hit the pavement hard. I wear my bicycle helmet while rollerblading, but that wouldn’t have been any guarantee it would been in the right place to totally protect my noggin as it impacted the pavement from 6-1/2 feet up.

Another 50 yards down the road with my heart rate returning to near normal, a Honda CRV eased on up next to me with mom driving and her high school aged daughter. They were obviously not too far behind me and witnessed the near miss. The passenger window glided down and the girl asked, “Did he get you?” “No,” I replied, “but it was close.” The window rose back up and they drove off.

I reached the halfway point of my trip and made a u-turn to head back home. Knowing I would have to pass right by that house again, I started to think about how I would handle that dog if it took another run at me. I needed some sort of stick. Just then I noticed at the edge of the road, as if my Fairy Godmother had heard my thoughts, lay a tree branch about 3 feet long and as big around as my thumb. I did a quick spin around and picked it up. Now, armed, I was ready for my return trip.

Sure enough as I got near that house the dog repeated his earlier run at me. This time he was approaching from the right and that was the hand I had my stick in. When he got about three feet away I swung the stick at him. I didn’t see because I was looking forward and continuing on my way, but I felt a thwack and heard a yelp plus the receding doggie paw steps. Yikes! It worked!

Two days later as I got suited up to go rollerblading again, knowing that I would be traveling that same dog protected section of road, I looked around in the garage for a suitable piece of something to use as protection. I found in the dusty corner behind my tool box a 3′ piece of bamboo probably left over from an old matchstick blind from Pier 1. Perfect. I wrapped a little duct tape around one end as a sort of handle. I have skated this route literally hundreds of times and have never seen a dog at that house before. I have now skated that route a half dozen times since then, carrying my piece of bamboo dog repellent and have not seen my attacker again.

Come to think of it, I haven’t seen the mom and daughter in the CRV again either. Coincidence?

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 157

1. Since then, this title (and nothing else) has been sitting in my drafts folder just waiting…
2. Didn’t really have time to look underneath.
3. Seeing as I didn’t have a relevant photo for this incident I searched Google Images for bamboo dog repellent and that bottle is what I got. Click on it and it will take you to a website where you can buy dog and cat repellent made out of bamboo vinegar.