Miata Service

Squeak Removal

I made an attempt to eliminate a couple of unwanted sounds that the Emperor has been making tonight.

First up was a high pitched ringing or whine that it seems that only I and possibly certain breeds of dogs can hear. I’m hoping that this is what it was in the past, a singing clutch actuation fork. A bit of grease needs to be applied on the fork where the slave cylinder rod touches it. It seems like there was still some grease on there, but I applied some more and worked it around a bit.

Second was the annoying belt squeal, mostly brief when the AC kicks in and occasionally long, loud and embarrassing on damp morning start ups. I’ve been treating this issue with belt dressing with limited success and decided it was time to attempt to tighten the offending belt. I have been avoiding this because I didn’t think that I could manage it without making it worse. Turns out in the intervening 25 years since I last tried tightening an automotive belt they have made it easy. Once you’ve loosened the mounting bolt, there is now a fancy screw that you can tighten with a wrench which increases the tension. Heck, if I’d known that, I wouldn’t have had to listen to that squeal for the past year.

When I finished the maintenance I pulled out Meguiar’s Quik Detailer and gave the car a sponge bath.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 326

Bike Cam

My first attempt with Version 1.0 my new Photojojo BikeCam. They advertise it as all it takes is $10 + 10 minutes to make a camera mount for your bike. The cost was free because I actually had all the bits and pieces laying around, but it took about 15 minutes to find all the bits in my *20-year draw.

Half way through the ride I found a bug that I will have to fix for Version 1.1, the camera started to rotate because the vibration of the ride had loosened the nut on the clamp. The fix should be a simple matter of swapping out of the plain washer for a locking kind.

I want to take a sort of strobe movie of our commute to work, you know take a picture every couple of minutes and make a little animation out of it. May have to do it on the way home though because the ride in is on the ragged edge of dawn.

Changed the oil and rotated the tires on the Emperor tonight about 800 miles past my usual maintenance point (oh well, better late than never) in preparation for a possible trip to Charleston. We were going to leave in the morning right after the MMC July breakfast, but we are now going to wait to make a decision until after the Tour de France coverage around lunchtime. It is going to depend on what happens with a storm that is just off the coast.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 256

Oil Change

The floor is back in the second bathroom. The tub is in and the backer board is up around two sides, but the third side will have to wait until some plumbing work gets done. The new tub is about 4 inches taller than the old, so the old knobs just barely clear the new tub.

Came home from work and changed the Emperor’s oil. Rotated his tires too. 75,576. Yesterday when I decided to change the oil, I looked under the shelf in the garage where I keep a stash of OEM Mazda oil filters and didn’t see any, so when I bought the oil I picked up a PureOne filter (somebody was supposed to remind me not to.) After changing the oil, as I was putting away my drain pan and funnel, I noticed that stacked just to the left were three Mazda filters. Normally I keep the stock of filters inside the oil drain pan, when I checked yesterday, I didn’t see any in the pan, so I figured I needed one. Wrong.

Someone remind me next time that the filters aren’t in the drain pan (somebody other that the person who was supposed to remind me not to buy a PureOne oil filter…)

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 124

Emperor’s Christmas Present

Agusta Commons Christmas DecorationsI headed over to the closest LTS this morning to get the tire plugged. I walked up to the unmanned desk and spun the tire to get the nail facing up. When I did this I noticed a tear in the sidewall of the tire right to the inside of where the nail was. Yikes. The nail was a long framing nail and after puncturing the tread area (the initial clicking that went away) it must have gotten bent and worked its way over and punctured the sidewall (the squirming and rapid deflation.)

When the desk guy came out and asked if he could help, I told him, “Maybe not any more.” I showed him the sidewall and told him I realized that eliminated the easy fix. I asked if he might have a used tire in my size to tide me over ’til after the holidays. He searched and couldn’t come up with anything, so I asked what he had in stock in 195/15 x 15. He had a Michelin Raptor for $75. I thanked him and said I’d let him know.

When I got home I checked the Michelin website and could find no mention of a tire called Raptor. Searching the web led me to a Riken Raptor made by Michelin, but it doesn’t come in 15″ sizes, so what was that guy thinking? Next up I started calling the other 5 tire stores in town and discovered that 195/50 x 15 is not a popular size in these parts. I guess if it doesn’t fit a pickup truck or an SUV… Two of the local tire stores had something in that size, first place had some Kuhmo AST tires for $65 a piece and the second had some BF Goodrich g-Force Sports for $82. A little research let me toss out the Kuhmos as the AST is an all-season tire. The BF Goodrich’s were listed as an Ultra High Performance Summer, much better.

Headed off to Miata.net for more in depth research. A few tires got the best reviews, my current, but holy, Toyo T1R, The General Exclaim UHP and the Bridgestone Potenza RE750. I widened my search area and started calling Augusta tire stores. Nobody had any of those top three or anything else in my size. I checked in at TireRack.com for some reviews of the g-Force and was pleasantly surprised, it ranked 7th of all the Ultra High Performance Summer tires they sell

Merry Christmas your Highness – four new BFGoodrich g-Force Sports.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 497

Sixty Eight Two Seventy Eight

At 23:30 hours last night, 68,278 miles from Earth, we lost contact with the Luminix probe after it’s last pass of the moon Bownce. All attempts to re-establish communications have failed. It is a great loss for the scientific community and we won’t be seeing any more of those cool photos.

Tonight in my driveway, just beating the darkness, I transfused the Emperor’s oil and did a kidney transplant. I also swapped his gloves with his shoes. Coincidentally the car’s odometer read 68,278.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 458

Alton, SC

Or Robert Parker’s name for my home town of Aiken, SC. At least that is what he calls it in Spenser novel number 20, “Paper Doll.” Not nearly as exciting as the movie “Who’s Your Caddy” (which opens this weekend) that was filmed in Aiken I know, but it ranks right up there in my little life.

–> Bloggus Interuptus < --

Early in Chapter 12, “Never go unarmed on a murder case.” This one was not numbered and was just called one of Spenser’s best crime-buster tips. Guess I’ll just add it to the list at the top. and see what happens.

Took the Emperor back to the doctors as much as I hated to do the traveling, but they didn’t do something right, so they ought to fix it. Besides as Donna said, “This way I don’t have to cook.” We spent almost more time doing paperwork than the technician did adjusting the belt and about a half an hour later we were gone.

I had picked a Japanese place, Tsunami, off the web as a dinner spot for something different. We were off course early (5:30ish), which is how we like it, but apparently that is not a good time for the restaurant. Walked through the door and stopped at the hostess station. After less than a minute a Paris Hilton look-alike with a white top and black skirt came our way. Good, we were thinking, this must be the hostess. She walked right behind us and shouted down to a couple of waitress types, “Can I get a server up here.” One of the waitresses shouted back something like, “I told Name to go to you.” Dona and I looked at each other and said, “Guess we won’t be eating here.”

So we went across the street to Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches. We wanted to eat at a place that we didn’t have in Aiken and this was it. Turns out it was just a sub place, good and just a little different. We split a Vito, some chips and a Sprite.

Meal Cost: $7.48
Tip: 0
Spent Today: $7.48
Year to Date: $1561.64
Meals out, 90 of a possible 609.

We we left the car I locked it up. I have been doing this ever since we went up north a month ago. I’m hoping someone will slit the top to steal something out of the interior, so that the insurance company will buy me a new top. This one is going to develop a hole soon and if I can get them to foot the bill it would be nice. Donna says, “Why don’t I just cut it myself.” I can’t do the crime, facilitate a little I’m OK with, but I can’t commit it.

Started up, went down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 290

Not So Busy Sunday

ConnecticutChanged the oil in the Emperor and rotated the tires. I did it a little early in preparation for our driving trip to the northeast starting next weekend. Then later in the day we changed our plans for the trip for the 8th and final time. We’re now flying into DC and renting a car. I say final because we are now locked in to some non-refundable airplane tickets. Two days in our nation’s capital, two days of who knows what, two days visiting my family in CT and two in NJ, before driving back to DC to get on a plane for SC.

I may get a second chance to sign the Ultimate Drive northern fleet’s signature vehicle that I forget about last Thursday in Columbia because they will be in Sterling, VA on Monday, April 8th. Its a mere 30 miles from where we are staying in DC.

We went for a tandem ride after I got done with the car. Cruised through some neighborhoods and hit a couple places to shove some bills into slots and then the Post Office to mail the rest. We ended up tallying over 15 miles, which is about 5 more than the last few rides and it felt pretty good. A few more weeks of 2 rides per and we’ll be ready to tackle a 25 mile loop. We have gone so far as thinking of adding some rack to the tandem so we can try to ride it to work some Fridays.

I re-upped for citizenship in the Red Sox Nation tonight. It was supposed to happen automatically, but they had the number on file of my comprised card that is no longer valid, so it didn’t happen. Tomorrow is opening day for the FRS in Kansas City, but the real season doesn’t start until Friday the 20th when the Bronx Bombers come to Fenway.

At approximately 9:40 PM my wife made the mistake of flipping through the channels and pausing long enough on USA for me to recognize what was showing – TDPM.

Will Turner: This is either madness… or brilliance.
Jack Sparrow: It’s remarkable how often those two traits coincide.

In other exciting news, with the 20% off coupon from Bed, Bath & Beyond that was in today’s paper, I got a new pillow for sleepy time. We bought a new one for Donna too.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 106