Miata

I’ve Got A Screw Loose

Because yesterday afternoon was sunny and lower 60’s, when we headed out to run some errands, we opted to do them in the Miata. About 2 blocks down the road a fairly loud rumbling started and the front end of the car was doing a small wobble. Donna went, “What’s that?” I answered, “Might have a flat.” A couple of seconds later I said, “I know what it is,” and did a quick u-turn to head back home.

This post should really have been titled “I’ve Got A Few Lug Nuts Loose.” For what has to be at least the sixth or seventh time in my career I have not fully tightened down the lug nuts on a wheel or two (or four) after rotating the tires or doing some brake maintenance. Including one time in the early 80’s that happened with Donna driving and having to stop at a place to have them diagnose the rumbling sound the car was making.

This is why I was getting the stink-eye from her as we returned to the Pacific Terrace driveway. Because just before turning around I had said, “I forgot to tighten the lug nuts.” On Wednesday afternoon I installed the new front license plate mount, which had caused me to remove the front wheels and I missed the final step.

About the second time this happened in Aiken, I devised a way to make sure not to forget this step by taking the torque wrench and placing it right at the entrance to the garage. There was no way for me to miss it and I sure as heck couldn’t drive the low clearance Miata over the wrench. To my credit, I did something similar here too, but because I was working close to the garage opening, the torque wrench was mixed in with all the other tools I was using, so it got put away with everything else. I think a new safeguard is required. Possibly I should buy a baseball cap from the Lansing Michigan minor league baseball team to wear when working on the car. Or, perhaps putting the torque wrench on the driver’s seat might work.

82 Days Later

Eighty-two days after dropping it off at the Adcock Auto Emporium, just after sunset today, the CTBNL joined us in Klamath Falls.

Bring A Trailer

The fodder for my Track, Daily, Crush posts come from a website called Bring A Trailer, well this past Monday the CTBNL got loaded onto a trailer to be brung to Oregon. It should be here either just before or right after Christmas.

30th Miataversary

Thirty years ago today on a cool November evening Donna & I drove over to Augusta after work in our 1981 Honda Prelude (which looked remarkably like this.) Donna drove the Prelude home alone. I drove home in our brand spanking new 1990 Mazda Miata (which looked remarkably like this.)

Ever since that day we have always had a Miata in the garage. Except for this year. Tonight the Miata is in someone else’s garage. Back in Aiken awaiting our summons. Thank’s for babysitting David.

CTBNL Update

When they got around to looking at the car in the shop on Monday it would not start for them either. The first thing they did was take my trusty backup Cam Angle Sensor out of the trunk and put it in. What do you know, the car started right up. With the car not showing a Check Engine Light nor having a stored code in car’s Engine Control Unit the tech suspected it was the main engine relay or the ECU itself. Because the ECU would be expensive and a nightmare to replace they opted to change the hundred dollar relay first.

After replacing the part they parked it outside and left it running for about 30 minutes and it never shut off. Then in the afternoon the tech drove it around for 25-30 miles. It never quit. He repeated the process again the following morning with the same positive results. I picked up the car on Thursday afternoon and Donna followed me right home.

Since then it has been backed out of the garage and parked out under the awning twice. Once yesterday and once today because we had some looky loos visit the house and we wanted to make our paltry one-car garage look large. Full testing will be on Monday morning. After I do my morning walk, and with Donna at the gym, I’m going to take the car on an adventure tour of about 40 miles. she is suggesting that I just circle our one mile block 40 times, but I’m going to throw caution to the wind and venture out into Aiken County.

Even if it passes that test, both of us, one more than the other, will still not trust the car to get us to Hilton Head and back at the end of the month. There are just too many places while travelling through South Carolina’s Lowcountry where the road is two lanes with no paved shoulders, just maybe a half a car width of soft grass, bordered by water (and possibly gator) filled ditches of indeterminate depth.

We have started doing some of the pre-prep work on our alternatives, tune in tomorrow for details.

Daily, Daily, or Daily?

Ok, here is where we are at, the CTBNL is still in the shop. I don’t know if they are still trying to fix the ‘I don’t like to run in the heat’ problem or they just haven’t got to it yet. Either way, with Donna’s complete lack of faith in the car and her vow never to get back into it, what am I to do?

Option 1) I have actually been given permission to go ahead and price a shiny new 2019 Miata. A base car runs around $27k and comes in 4 “colors”; Black, Ceramic (a semi shiny really light gray), White and Red ($600 extra.) My thoughts would be to get the white and add some stripes, similar to the CTBNL, only red instead of blue. The little negatives are no glove box, unusable cup holders and the droopy looking rear view. The BIG negative is a $400 car payment for the next 5 years.

Option 2) Buy a used NB. There was a nice 2003 Shinsen Edition for sale in Huntsville, AL on the M.net Forums, but between when I looked at it this morning and now, it must have sold. Should I try to recreate the Emperor? There is a very stock looking 2003 Garnet Red for sale in North Carolina on the forums as well. Only $5k. The big negative with this one is it has 108,000 miles on it. But if the ad is to be believed it has been very well taken care of.

Or Option 3) Just keep the CTBNL if the fix turns out to be another bad Cam Angle Sensor or another random $100 sensor and slowly try to get Donna (and me too) used to trusting the car again?