Miata Service

Finally, A Nice Day

It made it to the middle sixties today. wOOt! It had clouded up by quitting time, but it was still warm enough for a trip home with the top down – no coat required. On the way home I stopped in to Autozone and picked up 4 quarts of Penzoil 10-30. Rotated the tires and changed the oil at 18,813 miles. Grandpa Mazda recommends changing the oil every 7500 miles, but I like to do it halfway between as well. This way the Emperor gets some nice clean blood every three thousand seven hundred fifty miles. I lifted the car up and put it on 4 jack stands, this way after removing the front right tire I can get to the drain plug easy enough. While the oil drains I go ahead and get 3 of the 4 tires rotated. Before putting the right front back on I swap oil filters. Takes about an hour and a half from start to finish.

I think my friends at Rader, they changed the oil last, used the impact wrench on the drain plug, as it was a bear to get off. Because the car was full hot I expected a little resistance in removing the plug, but my usual ice cube trick didn’t seem to help much. Even after melting 2 cubes on the head of the drain plug it still wouldn’t come loose. I had to resort to gently tapping on the end of the wrench with a hammer to get it off. I wonder what the torque spec for the oil drain plug is?

The answer is 22-30 foot pounds

New Wiper Blades

I’m cheating here. I actually did buy and install some new windshield wiper blades on Friday, I just didn’t get around to blogging about it until Saturday. Through the magic that is post-dating this will appear in its proper order in all things blog-like.

I also applied some Rain-X to the windshield. Bring it on, Mr. Bad Weather.

TSB 05-001/03

Just dropped off the Miata at Rader so that tomorrow they can fix the clutch shudder issue per TSB 05-001/03. Cross your fingers for me and/or pray to the deity of your choice that they don’t screw up more than they fix while doing this. I’m hopeful that things will be swell, seeing as for the 15K service I didn’t have to get out the breaker bar to loosen the lug nuts and I only had to use touch up paint on one little spot near the hood opening.

Comet Incubation Period: 5 days

You Want How Much?

$183.15 is what Rader Mazda charges for a 15K service on a Mazda Miata. My owners manual says that at 15,000 miles you change the engine oil and filter, you inspect and clean if needed the air filter and you inspect the A/C level and compressor. I guess my mistake was going in and just asking for a 15,000 mile service, because then they were free to do the Rader designed service and not just the plain old Mazda recommended one.

This sounded a little high to me so I called around to a few other Mazda dealers in the area. Andy Jones Mazda, which is about 15 miles closer to me wants $169.88. When pressed for what they did for that much I got the Mazda list, plus rotate tires, service the (maintenance free) battery, and some other quasi unnecessary stuff. Next up I called Wray Mazda in Columbia which is about 20 miles further than Rader and the quoted me $133.00 for the 15K service. Cheaper, but still sounds like a lot. Then I tried one in Orangeburg, SC, Whatley Mazda. When I got through to the service department the woman who answered the phone said, “Oh that’s an oil change and rotate the tires, $40.87.” She forgot the other inspection items, but even when you add those in it is going to be well less than $100. Guess who might get my business when 22,500 miles rolls around?

Enough negatives, the good news is they agree that my car needs the TSB for the clutch shudder and will replace the disc at no charge to me. (It was so easy that it is probably costing them less to do it than Mazda reimburses for the work.)

Comet Gestation Counter: 58 days

7500 Mile Service

Today was the 7500 mile check up on the Miata (done at 8010.) An oil change and a tire rotation basically. I had a couple of things I want them to address while we were in there too. The trunk was creaking when you opened and closed it, there were a couple of missing plastic fasteners on the splash guard on the right front wheel well and the driver’s side top latch was looser than the passenger’s side.

We have always been treated right personally by the folks there. We even got a loaner car to do some shopping when the service was taking longer than expected. I’m not so sure about the car. When we got back in the car to drive away there was this almost overpowering smell of solvent or cleaner. We opened the windows the first chance we got and that helped a lot. By the time we got home I kind of figured that it was lube for the trunk hinges. The car is in the garage with the trunk open now hoping the lube will be all dry and the smell gone by morning.

Past experience with tire changing at any place other than my driveway requires checking the lug nut torque. Sure enough, the lugs were replaced using an impact wrench with out any sort of torque limiter. I had to use a 2′ long breaker bar to loosen them up (and on a couple of them I feared for the longevity of the breaker bar.) Good thing I didn’t get a flat on the way home, I’d have never gotten the wheel off with the puny lug wrench in the trunk.

And because tomorrow is a Master’s Miata Club’s TSD Rally, I washed off the car to make it pretty.

One Was Nice, But Two?!?

Got a package from Mazda in the mail today. The Postal Carrier had to put it in the door because the 8″ diameter by 2″ thick plastic steering wheel replica wouldn’t go inside our mail box. When I opened up the package inside was some paperwork, a accessories brochure, a tire sales pitch, a cute little 3″x5″ eight page quick reference guide to the controls and a letter welcoming me to the “Emotion of Motion” (or a thinly disguised sales pitch to have my Miata serviced at the Mazda dealer.) After removing all of these bits of paper, what should I find in the bottom of the thing, but another bottle of touch-up paint.

If one is a very fine flirting act, two makes it an overt come-on and I’m not flattered, I’m frightened.