Miata Service

53,000 Things It Could Be

Yesterday we filled up the Miata with gas. I came home and checked all the other owner serviceable fluid levels, they were all nominal. I washed the windows inside and out. We are headed down to Florida for the Celebration of Life for Sandy. The Miata was our transport of choice so we could score some more Motoring Challenge points.

One of the categories this year is Moss Motors Distributors. One point each for the first three and two points for numbers 4 & 5. There happens to be two of the distributors on the same street in Stuart which is the next town over from where we are going to be. Plus we had in mind a certain place just off I-75 in Micanopy, Florida for our Adult Playground Destination – Cafe Risqué!

After a few minutes creatively loading the trunk of the Emperor with probably more stuff than we really needed for a 4 day trip, I backed out of the garage and headed down the road. Three houses away I noticed a pretty orange symbol mid-dash that was unfamiliar…
check-engine-light_8D0206E867F895F0

Pulled over, shut the car off, then started it back up. The check engine light stayed on, so we u-turned back home. Unloaded everything from the trunk and cockpit, tossed it all in the respective places in the Sonata. Then added some more stuff, because we could, and got back on the road. Total lost time 5 minutes.

The light could mean any of 53,000 things could be wrong, from major to minor, but no sense taking any chances. I’ll get the code read at the corner auto parts store when we get back to see what it says. I have been watching all chatter about the new Miata over on the Miata Forum with a gleam in my eye recently, much the chagrin of the family CFO, and she even went so far as to suggest that this light might a subtle ploy towards getting one. She told me to forget about it, even if we need a whole engine, we’ll be getting that before we take up car payments again.

About 5 miles north of Statesboro, GA the Purple Whale passed through the 53,000 mile mark.

The Emperor Returns

I finally had a chance to go get the Miata back from Panic Motorsports yesterday. About a month ago when coming back from some around town errands in the Miata it started making some ugly groaning/growling noises under the hood. A fellow MMC member came over and listened (thanks Kurt) and figured it was the water pump. Kurt was right. The water pump that I had prophylactically changed at 120,000 miles when the timing belt was changed, failed after 20,000.

Not only did it fail extremely prematurely, but it did so in a weird manner. Steve emailed me a photo of what it looked like inside the pump housing and asked what I was putting in the cooling system because it looked like there was green baby poop in there. He’d never seen anything like that before. And when I told him I put nothing but 50/50 antifreeze in there he had no explanation for the sludge.

Both cars in the livery needed washing. The Purple Whale from the trip to Florida and back and the Emperor from sitting outside for the last 10 days or so. Because of someone’s idea of saving time and the tilt of the planet’s axis, the sun sets pretty early this time of year leaving little time after work, so the Miata by virtue of being smaller, got the bath tonight. The Sonata might just get run through a car wash because by the weekend, when there is more time, it will be too cold for doing it by hand.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1429

Just Can’t Stop

In a Barn

After racking up about 560 miles on Saturday and Sunday chasing Motoring Challenges today we promised to just take it easy and not drive too far. And we didn’t. Our neighbor across the street is the wife of a local horse trainer, so when I saw her outside this afternoon I asked if she could find me a barn. When I explained what for for, she had just what I needed right up the street.

Because the Miata is only a two-seater I could only take her and not my usual photographer, so Vicky agreed to take the pictures. While we were messing around in the horse district I mentioned I also needed a horse track photo, so we went over to the Aiken Training Track. She suggested maybe parking on the track right in front of the gates and I thought that was an awesome idea. But as we got on some of the dirt approaching the track we could feel how soft and deep it was, so opted out on trying to drive on the track. It would have been extremely embarrassing to have to have some horses pull the Miata out of getting stuck. So I pulled up next to the rail on the grass. As it turns out the Horse Track photo required a sign, so good thing we didn’t get stuck for nothing. Maybe I will use the picture for a Sneak Peek entry.

The Purple Whale got a nice wash this afternoon and I gave The Emperor a sponge bath (AKA Mequier’s Quick Detailer) too. I also changed the Miata’s oil, after all with all this Motoring Challenge stuff we have traveled nearly 4,000 miles in the last couple weeks.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1362

MMC Tech Day

Tech Day
The Emperor with his hood up prior to getting his fix, Rudy’s Mazdaspeed Miata and some joker’s car with a Ferrari body kit.*

Today was the annual Miata Club Tech Day where some of us head over to Kurt’s Garage-mahal and do some maintenance type stuff, that some could do in their own garage (not me), but would rather have help, have someone kibitz over their shoulders or just have an audience. Some show up to offer to help or to just hang around and talk Miatas or just cars. There were doughnuts in the morning and lunch was going to be wrangled later.

While I was there changing out my leaking valve cover gasket, there was Dave’s car in one bay getting a timing belt changed and Stacey’s car was getting an oil change and tire rotation. Clunk & Thunk doing a bunch of helping and doing and there were at least three other guys just hanging about.

*It is an actual mid 80’s Ferrari 328GTS and is Kurt’s latest toy. We tried to talk him into letting us each take a spin around the block, but he wasn’t going for it.

See You in 2026

On Sunday the Emperor got an oil change and as always, I rotated his tires as well. When I checked over the right rear tire before putting it back on the front, I spotted something shiny, looked like some sort of a spike. I didn’t want to pull it out for fear that it would go flat, so I decided to take it to a LTS to let them pull it out.

I tossed the tire in the trunk of the Sonata and headed over to a small shop around the corner. They were of course closed, so I tried a second locally owned store not too much further away. They too were closed on Sunday. This left me no other option but to pay a visit to the big name brand chain place that had I swore never to visit again after they scratched the heck out of my aftermarket rims installing tires on the previous Miata.

I rolled the tire up to the desk and asked the guy behind the cash register if could they fix it. The fellow asked if I’d been there before and I said sure, but a long time ago. So I gave him my phone number and he asked, “Brian?” I said, “Yep, I guess I’m still in there.” “When was the last time I was here?” “2002,” he replied.

He said, “I’ll have to get someone to see if it can be fixed.” And about that time some moke who worked there was passing by on his way somewhere, so the fellow asked him. This guy eyeballed the tire and said, “I don’t think that goes all the way through.” He spun 180° and went back to get a pair of pliers. Then straddling the tire, grabbed the spike and pulled. He was right, it didn’t go all the way through. It was a small screw embedded in a tire block almost perpendicular to the tire. It looked like a spike because the screw had been worn in half so I was seeing almost a cross section of it.

The guy in the work shirt with his name over the pocket handed me the screw piece, slipped the pliers into his back pocket and continued in the direction he was headed before we interrupted him. I looked over at the cashier and asked, “What do I owe you?” He said, “Nothing, don’t worry about it, we’ll get you next time”

I said, “Thanks. See you in 2026.”

The Emperor’s Triumphant Return

Picked up the Miata from Panic Motorsports today. Drove all the way home and then later back out for a Kroger run and it never stumbled once. I am now learning to use the clutch like a normal person again.

The fix, a used set of spark plug wires…

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1304

41,000 Something Or Others

I apologize, I usually have some sort of cute total of something that may or may not have happened on the day when a car in possession passes through a thousand mile increment, but today I have none. Today after work Donna and I drove both cars to West Columbia and passing through Wagener on the drive there the Purple Whale ticked past the 41,000 mile mark.

The Emperor is going to a warrior’s retreat and hanging with a bunch of Miata race cars for the next few days. The folks at Panic Motorsports have agreed to see if they can get rid of his annoying 1st gear standing start random stumble.

I can’t swear to it, but this little foible seemed to start not long after the 125,000 mile major service about 2-1/2 years ago. At first it was very random, it didn’t seem to matter whether the weather was hot or cold, if it was day or night or even if the car was warmed up or not, but its happening was few and far between. Then the Sonata joined the family and the Miata got driven less, so the little stumble was even less frequent. As time progressed it became more frequent in rearing its ugly head, I became more adept at sensing its arrival and compensating by slipping the clutch and goosing the gas to to avoid bucking at standing starts. I started considering the stumble part of the car’s patina, a bit of character that is the hallmark of owning a true sports car.

For the last few months it was still random, but it was much more frequent, so I finally opted to have an expert look at it. A couple of weeks ago I called Steve at Panic and worked out a time that was amenable to the both of us and of course, since then, the Emperor has been acting up less. Only happened a couple of times on the Savannah trip this weekend and only once today, at the DD drive thru, but it still needed looking at, so look here.

Started down, went up, back down, up again, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1303