Miata Mileage

19,000 Miles

On a totally uneventful trip home from work today the “Emperor” passed through the 19,000 mile mark. That is averaging nearly 1,500 miles a month. The car is dirty and I thought seeing as it was in the 50s this evening I would wash it. Parked in the driveway and looked at the car and it wasn’t as dirty as I thought, so instead of buckets and sponges I though maybe I would give it a Quik Detailer and towel cleaning. When I looked under the cabinet in the garage I realized I was out of the Quik Detailer, so I gave up on the whole thing and pulled the car in the garage. New Year’s Day is supposed to be in the mid 70s. I’ll wait until then and I will be able to wash it in shorts. Maybe even wax it if I get ambitious enough.

18,000 Miles

Right after work we went over to the Aiken County Treasurer’s office to pay our yearly personal property tax on the car. Good thing that it is deductible off our income taxes…

Passed through 18,000 miles this afternoon in the same fashion a lot of the miles on the car were driven, on the 25-mile long way to the store 3 miles away.

17,000 Miles

Passed through 17k on the way home from work tonight. Because there is a Master’s Miata Club event with an early start tomorrow I broke out the Quik Detailer and “washed” the car in the driveway before parking for the night. We meet at 8:00AM for the drive to Newberry Street to see the inaugural Aiken Exotic Car Festival. There were supposed to be over a hundred cars, but this morning’s paper said just over 50 are registered. You have got to start somewhere, so I hope there is enough attendance to prompt another one next year.

16,000 Miles

On the way home from work today we passed through the 16K barrier.

Dropped of the spoiler at the paint shop at lunch today. It will get painted tomorrow and then I’m going to let them do the mounting on Wednesday. I’ll pick the car back up Thursday, just in time to…

Mount the new tires on Friday. Donna and I have the afternoon off so that will be a convenient time for getting them mounted. Even though the FedEx website didn’t say out for delivery this morning, about 5:30 this afternoon a white truck pulled up and out came 4 Toyo T-1S tires.

Comet Incubation Period: 10 days

15,000 Miles

Sometime during the 5th run through of Deal’s Gap this past weekend the car turned over 15K. One of the other couples we were with had their 2002 Miata reach that milestone a few days before the trip. I got there at least a year quicker than they did, but to be fair our car is the Family Truckster and theirs is a weekend fun toy. I guess I’ll schedule a maintenance stop at Rader for next week. I’ll give them one more shot, but three strikes and they’re out.

The clutch shudder was very noticeable this morning backing out of the garage, so much so it was audible. As usual it is almost completely gone by about the 3 mile mark of the 6 mile trip to work. If it does it like that 2 or 3 mornings more before the service next week, I may just say something.

Comet Gestation Counter: 49 days

14,000 Miles

On the way to Rader to postagize the Master’s Miata Club newsletter the Emperor passed through the 14K mark.

Thanks to Jim Mullan I now have a Honda S2000 stubby antenna mounted on the left rear of the car. The existing stud was plated brass so it was easy to remove and then drill and tap for mounting a longer M5 x 0.8 stud. All we have laying around work was a black oxide coated stud. I would really like to find a brass one because that is what is inside the antenna and that is what the mount threads are. I suppose brass might help reception, but mainly it should prevent any galvanic corrosion.

I haven’t even tested the reception yet. Maybe tomorrow on the way to work I’ll try and listen to the radio…

Comet Gestation Counter: 30 days

For Future Reference

Just turned over 6,000 miles on the car today, so we are getting close to the first Mazda recommended service at 7,500.When I do take it in, probably after vacation, don’t let me forget a couple things. Have the them oil the trunk hinges as they are starting to creak when opening and closing the lid. Also, I noticed a couple of those plastic pins that hold in the splash liner in the right front wheel well are missing when I washed the car the other day. Nothing is going to fall out or anything, but hey some engineer thought they ought to be there and he must have had a good reason. The driver’s top latch still feels way to easy to close, no leaks or wind noises or anything, but something is not exactly right (maybe the passenger side is too tight?)