Miatatude

Didn’t You Check That?

Last night on the way home in the loaner Tribute, about 5 miles out, the low fuel light came on. I had just jumped in and didn’t think to look at the gas gage, it still read about an 1/8 of a tank, but nNot knowing which one of these indicators were more correct, I decided to put $5 worth of gas in it. The 3 gallons approximate, sent the needle to just below a 1/4 tank and ought to be enough to get to work and then to Rader the next day. The car/truck is filthy too, I think the last person to borrow it was testing it’s off road capabilities. Not only do they not check to see if there is gas in it, they don’t even take enough pride to wash it off or vacuum it out before some else gets in it.

About 8:15 AM this morning Kelly, my service “advisor”, called to say the car was done. Seems as if the technician finished up just before going home yesterday. I told her I’d be over as soon as I got off work and mentioned she should get five bucks from petty cash to reimburse me for the petrol. I made it over to Rader a little after 5 to get my car. Kelly went off to get someone to bring it around. While we waited I popped upstairs to run the Master’s Miata Club newsletters through the postage meter. When I came back down the car was there, but she didn’t have neither the $5 nor the paperwork. She couldn’t find the paperwork because the tech who did my work was not in today (no wonder he finished up yesterday, he knew he wasn’t coming in.) She also said she would have to talk to the service manager on Monday about getting the money to me. We ran through this routine when I wanted to get reimbursed for the tow charges on the 95 when the timing belt broke. I wonder if it will take nearly two weeks again? Walked over and chatted with Scott, my salesman, for a bit, he’s planning a membership drive for the Club to be held at the dealership in November. He is writing a letter to mail to the 30 or so Miata buyers in the last year and a half at Rader and invite them over to meet the crew.

It was finally time to go, so I got in the Miata, dropped the top and crept out of the dealership lot, the clutch felt real smooth. Hung a right onto busy Washington Road and sped off the 1/2 mile before turning off. A short stretch and then right on Riverwatch Parkway to head home. As I got up to speed and shifted into 5th I looked down to check my speed and discovered I was going ZERO MPH! The speedometer cable is hooked to the transmission, I bet my just finishing up in time to go home technician had forgotten to hook up the cable correctly (or not at all.) Hang a right and then another and pull back into the service area. It is 5:35, they go home at 6, so I figure we can get this done and I’ll be on my way. Wrong. The advisors stay until 6, the techs go home at 5:30, so there is no one there to fix my speedometer. Luckily, they work on Saturday morning, so it should be solved tomorrow. I put the top back up on the Miata and Kelly gives me the keys to the Dark Teal Metallic Tribute, again.

I get 5 miles from home and the low fuel light comes on, again…

Comet Incubation Period: 7 days

Dark Teal Metallic

I guess I was wrong about this being a money making proposition for the Dealer. They told me 6 hours, yet they had the car all day and it was still not finished when I went to pick it up. Seeing as I went into this with low expectations, this just reinforces my bad feelings. I’m sure the optimist would say that the extra time is a good thing because the technician wants to get it right. I’m sure this means that he doesn’t know what the heck he is doing so it is going to take twice as long as specified.

Because they were keeping the car overnight, they gave me a loaner vehicle. A 2005 Tribute in Dark Teal Metallic which kind of brought back memories of Splash Green Metallic. It took about 15 miles before the feeling of being on stilts subsided enough that I just felt too high up. The drivers foot well seems narrower than the Miata’s so I never got my left foot comfortable. In typical Mazda (and maybe all Japanese car) fashion the seat bottom is too short for my thighs, leaving me feeling unsupported even with the more upright position. Remember me whining about the cheap plasticy feel of the Mini’s interior? Well the inside of this is worse. It is silver (really more gray) I guess to simulate aluminum, but it comes off more like a plastic scale model of a navy battleship. The only good feeling was from the steering wheel, a little from the way it handled (not really zoom-zoom worthy) and a little from the texture, hard to describe, but felt very grippy and comfortable.

Brian returned with is estimate from the folks who painted his car, $200, that is painted and mounted. They felt that they would want to add some pop rivets to go along with the silicone adhesive. This is all well and good, but they have not seen the spoiler. I’m having a hard time explaining that the construction of this thing just doesn’t allow for adding anything else for securing it to the car. I’ve tried to take a picture of it, but can’t get one that will convey the shape right.

Comet Incubation Period: 6 days

25F

Got my first estimate for painting the spoiler today. Kelly Paint and Body is right down the street from where I work, so it is convenient, but also they did some painting for me on the ’95 Miata and I was pleased with their work. $63 bucks to paint it. For grins I asked about installation, $76. Total would be $139 for the whole works. I’m considering it. I’m not the most mechanical person in the world and I probably could install it, but if they put it on and it falls off with out me hitting anything, I might have some recourse. My co-worker Brian is getting the folks that painted his truck to give me an estimate as well. I get the feeling I’m about a week off from getting the spoiler on the car.

I’m a little closer to getting the new tires on the car. According to the FedEx site they are due to arrive on next Monday the 4th.

Comet Incubation Period: 5 days

Wie ist Ihr Deutscher?

Or, How is your German?

The Comet Spoiler comes from Germany, so the instructions that were included are in that language. There are a half dozen somewhat informative pictures, but there might be something important in the text. So today I scanned the sheet and ran it through an OCR program. I then plugged the results into Babel Fish where I got about 1/2 of the total verbiage in an understandable form. Then I went back and fixed the OCR errors and added all the umlauts onto their vowels. The second time through was a whole lot better:

1. Clean first the front in later edition range of the spoiler thoroughly with silicone remover.

2. In order to avoid a contaminating of the vehicle by positioning the spoiler with adhesive already laid on, the later seat of the part is marked by first provisional fixing at the vehicle.
You found the assembly position if the spoiler rests optimally against the outline of the vehicle.
Fixing and marking know vehicle outline with sticking and/or Krepp volume take place-taking place that.

3. Grind the spoiler within the range of the sticking klebesicke with sandpaper of the granulation 100 and clean you the sharpening places. Here must be removed for a later, optimal gluing, all lacquer and priming arrears.

4. Lay on like illustrated the adhesive in full bulge.
The spoiler can now set on the vehicle in accordance with the position marked before.
Note: in the marked place “X” no adhesive is laid on, so that the wheel arches can be further if necessary opened!

5. The spoiler can be set now on the vehicle in accordance with the position marked before. Examine again the accurate position us fix the spoiler for draining the adhesive as shown with tape.
Impurities by the adhesive remove you please immediately with silicone remover!

Please you consider before processing the adhesive:
For draining the adhesive the vehicle in a dry, area if necessary kept at a moderate temperature should remains (18 – 25 degrees).
The vehicle may not be driven in the first 12 hours to the gluing. (wash road at the earliest after 48 hours).

Comet Incubation Period: 4 days

There It Sits

The front spoiler looks pretty much like the Mazda OEM unit that was for the 99-00 cars, but doesn’t fit the slightly modified nose of the 01 & up cars. This is perfect because that is exactly what I was looking for. It is sitting on the work bench in the garage. It is mocking me, I know it. Like the countdown until it arrived, I will now count up on the bottom of each day’s post until it is mounted on the car. I guess I will ask at the body shop where I planned on getting it painted about whether to paint it first and then installed or vice versa.

Love the 15″ wheels, but I think I may swap back (as long as Russ didn’t sell the car this weekend.) The tires are a bit too worn down for my tastes. When I first looked at them in the parking lot there seemed to be a bit of thread wear left there. Upon closer inspection, there is hardly anything left at all. He thought he would go until the first of next year before he would buy tires, but Russ is a very frugal person and would go until the tires are hitting every wear indicator. Me, I feel a lot better if there more rubber under me, especially when it comes to driving in the rain. There is not enough tire for me to go until the first of next year, when I could possibly swing the cost of new tires. The 16″ wheels have enough tread to last me until late summer next year. By then I might be in a better position to get some new tires and new 15″ wheels.

Comet Incubation Period: 2 days

15″ Wheels

I’ve mentioned several times here that I want to get some lighter 15″ wheels to replace the stock 16s. I’ve mocked up about 4 or 5 different styles to see what they would look like. This is all in anticipation of when I wear out the OEM tires next fall sometime. Well I have a line on some 15″ wheels now that the price is right (free) and I know they look good on a Miata. Russ, of new Boxster fame, is trying to sell his Miata and he has agreed to a do a trial wheel swap this weekend.

Donna is not too sure of this, she likes the 16″ wheels (I do too) and can’t figure out why I’d swap tires with 15,000 miles on them for some with 25,000. I want the, minimum, 2-1/2 lb drop in unsprung weight at each corner. The fact that I might be getting some Toyo T-1S tires sooner is just a bonus. I know Russ is just being nice, but I don’t know whether the bigger wheels will help or hurt his trying to sell the car. I’m getting something for nothing, I’ll be OK with that, as long as he doesn’t lose anything in the deal.

Comet Gestation Counter: 57 days

Ooooh, That Was Fun

Not enough to make me really want one, but I can certainly see how one could be seduced by that siren’s song.

Russ came in to my cube right after lunch and said, “Want to take it for a drive?” We headed out into the lot and after he clicked the unlock button on the key, he handed it to me. First thing that is totally weird, is the key is on the dash to the left of the steering wheel. After the car is running, to lower the top, you undo the center latch and hold down a button until the light goes out. It doesn’t take too long, but it is longer than flopping the Miata’s top. To be fair, when the process is complete, you are done, as the top becomes it’s own boot in combo with the power half-tannau cover. The clutch engages higher than I’m used to but I didn’t stall it. It is not as smooth engaging as the Miata and is a bit stiffer to boot. I just took it for a spin around the long block, all of maybe 5 miles. When you step on the gas the gets up and goes compared to the Miata. Lots of torque and when you get the revs above 5K the sound is just so sweet. Not so much the exhaust tone you get with the Miata, but with the engine right behind your seat, there is this wonderful mechanical whir all the way to redline at 6500.

It was a short drive without any real curves, but I bet it would be fun to take it through some. The shifter is longer than the Miata, but not ungainly and it felt nice and tight with a good spacing. You can’t really put your elbow on the door like in the Miata and I got the feeling you weren’t supposed to in this car, you are supposed to be driving, not cruising. The interior seemed a little fussy. Not unpleasant, but there were a lot of little buttons. Having driven a Z3, a Z4 and now a Boxster, I think the Miata has the nicest looking interior. The exterior of this car takes some getting used to, I don’t find it very attractive, but it does say Porsche. Of the BMWs and the Porsche and Miata, I think the Miata exterior looks better as well. Of course if I was a couple steps further up the corporate ladder and my salary was about 60% higher it would be hard not to go for one of the German sportscars. If I could have the Boxster sound in a Z4….

Comet Gestation Counter: 55 days