Rants

Another Tale of Woe

Before the Emperor went into exile I removed several bits that I wanted to transfer over to the CTBNL. One of them was a aftermarket little box that allowed music playback from a USB stick (among other things.) Ever since it has been in the silver car it would randomly stop working. After paying attention to when it wasn’t working it seemed to only be after the spent several hours out in the hot sun.

The unit is past its 1 year warranty period, but the manufacturer’s site has a support area where you can fill out a form and start an email conversation with one of their techs. Let’s give it a go:

Me – Sun, Sep 11 2016 8:14pm
Car make: Mazda Miata 2002
Invoice: 77311
Seller: Grom Audio

MAZN2 unit worked flawlessly for over a year in my 2003. Moved to a new to me 2002 and it fails to turn on sometimes after car sits during work.

Will turn on after home in garage after a few hours. Almost seems to me to be heat related. But just the other day on an evening drive it just quit working. Radio display shows CD CH at bottom like normal, but no disc-track numbers and no sound.

Them – Mon, Sep 12 2016 6:42am
I would double check the installation wiring and make sure everything is plugged in secure and solid.

Are you able to move the GROM module back to the 2003 model vehicle?

Me – Mon, Sep 12 2016 10:02am
As expected, it did not work when I got in the car at the end of the work day. This time when I hit the CD button instead of getting no music with a display of CD CH, nothing happened at all.

The 2003 is long gone.

Just to cover all the bases I pulled the Mazda radio out when I got home and unplugged and then re-plugged it back in. I then unhooked the Grom and re-hooked it back up. Then of course it worked fine. But was that because it had cooled off in the hour or so in my garage or did the re-seating of connectors fix it?

I will let you know tomorrow.

Them – Mon, Sep 12 2016 10:27am
What is the batch number to the GROM module? This will be on sticker bottom of the unit.

Please also check what firmware version is on the GROM module currently.
To check firmware version switch to USB mode of the GROM. While playing music from USB connected device i.e. USB flash drive, Android or Ipod/iphone (USB3/MST4 only).
Unplug from USB port. The track number will change and show current version number of Firmware.

Me – Tue, Sep 13 2016 11:02am
Amazingly enough when we got in the car this afternoon the unit worked. It only got into the mid 80’s today. But halfway home my passenger objected to the song playing so she pushed the track up button, the display changed, but the track stayed the same. Tried track down with the same results. She turned the radio off and then back on. Now the unit didn’t work at all. No sound accompanied by no disc/track display and the CD CH display on the bottom of the display.

Tonight after dinner I went out into our air conditioned garage and turned on the radio. It started playing MP3s right where it left off. The track up and track down responded normally. Something is going wonky due to heat…

The number on the sticker on the bottom is: 03-18-031314

The firmware is: 49

Them – Wed, Sep 14 2016 7:02am
Could you share with us a clear photo of the front face of the stereo for us to view?

Does the stereo have a CD changer built in to it?

If yes, does it have its own Mode or does it show up as “CD CH” as well for function?

Me – Wed, Sep 14 2016 10:14am
Radio has single CD, no built-in CD changer.

Attached are three photos:

We had a nice little daily email chain going there for awhile, then they stopped responding. Tonight after not hearing anything for 6 days, I poked them back.

Me – Tue, Sep 20 2016 10:16am
Hello? Did I stump the band? I attached pictures as requested and have not heard back since last Tuesday.

Do I have another option besides buying some sort of replacement?

What do you want to bet I’ll get another corporate speak “Sorry Charlie” email? Then I’m not sure where I go next especially as the unit I have was $99 and is discontinued while the replacement gizmo is $130. Guess if that happens I’ll try and find a cheaper option somewhere.

Our Customers Are Important Us1

Received a response from the fine folks at automotivetouchup.com today:

Subject: RE: Color Code Help
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2016 08:34:10
From: skip magas
To: me

Unfortunately I cannot replace the paint because we mixed to the color code placed on your order. On top of that page states If do not see your color listed Call us (888-710-5192) & we probably have it.

The only thing I can do is place a new order for.

Thanks
Skip Magas
Customer Service Ext 109
504-818-2334
1-888-710-5192
Mon-Fri 8:00 – 5:00 CST
www.automotivetouchup.com

Like us on “facebook logo”
Check us out on “youtube logo”

Our customers are important us, let us know what you think.
http://www.automotivetouchup.com/feedback.aspx

I didn’t actually expect then to send me a new can of paint, maybe a 10% discount on my next purchase, I did at least expect to get a bit of concern about the confusing options on their order pages. Nope, all I got is a thinly disguised, “Should have paid better attention there bucko.” It didn’t take long to draft my reply to Skip:

Subject: RE: Color Code Help
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2016 17:14:51
From: me
To: skip magas

Skip,

I’ll be keeping this can of custom mixed paint on the shelf in my garage, so that if I ever need to order touch up paint again, I’ll remember who not to order from.

Brian

I know there are a couple other companies out there that sell custom color touch up paint (I’ve even used one), so I went out to see if I would have had better luck there.

At paintscratch.com the only choice was Miata and it returned 11 colors. There were 7 standard colors available in the US and two special edition colors, a blue and a yellow. They had all seven of the regular colors, but called two of them by some other market’s name and both of the special colors. The other two colors were Garnet Red which was a 2003 only color2 and a color called New Green with a very green color block next to it. It’s color code? 24V. You can bet I wouldn’t have picked that one, especially seeing as the had 22V Sunlight Silver Metallic listed.

At touchupdirect.com there were two choices. When selecting Miata you get 10 choices of colors, the exact same as from paintscratch except it was missing the blue special edition color. When you pick MX-5 Miata you get just the seven standard US colors. Couldn’t have made a mistake here either.

1. The omission of the word ‘to’ is intentional. It is a direct copy of part of the tagline in Skip’s signature block.
2. I found Garnet Red listed as a 2002 color on all three web sites, while Mazda swears it was only available in 2003. The only way I can possibly explain it is that my 2003 Garnet Red car was built August in 2002, so if I looked at the door tag and didn’t know any better, I would think my car was a model year 2002.

Well, That Explains That

24V on 22V

24V on 22V

Washed both cars this morning. Started with the Sonata because I knew if I did the Miata first, I’d look over at that big car and just put away the hose. After drying the Miata I was struck by how the license plate frame, painted with the same silver paint as the patch on the bumper, looked sort of greenish too. I was fully prepared to believe that the silver paint I ordered from automotivetouchup.com was the correct shade and I screwed it up with the off-brand clear coat I used, but I never clear coated the plate frame. So I looked at the information sticker inside the driver’s door and found the color code of the car, 22v. Then I went over to the shelf where I had the touch up paint stored and looked at the can, it read 24V!

There was only one silver on the Miatas in 2002 and it was 22V, AKA Sunlight Silver Metallic. How could I have gotten the wrong paint? I went back in the email and looked at the order confirmation I received and sure enough there at the bottom was “Description: 12 oz Aerosol Spray Paint, 2002 Mazda MX5 Miata: Cerrion Silver Metallic 24V.” I went to the paint web site and found out what the problem is, you can choose MX5 Miata or just plain Miata and each page has a different list of paint codes.

I went to the contact page and filled out my name, email, phone and this is what I put in the text area:

I believe I was led astray by your web page color selection process. On August 15th I ordered a 12oz spray can of silver touch-up paint for my 2002 Mazda Miata on Order #9167888. The paint code for that year Miata is 22V, but I received 24V.

Admittedly I probably had several chances to realize I had the wrong color paint, but I didn’t notice it until I had painted a portion of my rear bumper (and license plate frame.) My fault was my trust in my knowledge of Miatas in that I knew there was only one silver offered on the Miata in that year.

When I selected my color I must have chosen from the drop down boxes “2002 – Mazda – MX5 Miata” because the generated list of colors shows one silver, so I selected it. Unfortunately that was 24V, a color not available on the Miata in 2002. To get the right color you have to chose “2002 – Mazda – Miata” to get to a list that shows the right color code, 22V. Why 2 different selections anyway?

Attached are screenshots of the two different pages. And now that I look at them closely I see several errors on the two pages, both in omissions and additions.

Could you please ship, at your expense a replacement 12oz spray can in the color I really need – 22V?

Thanks for your consideration,
Brian

After I sent that off I did a little research over on the Miata Forum and found out that 24V actually was a Miata color in 2002, it was used on some Special Edition cars in Japan and Australia. Ahh, maybe that is the reason for the two Miata options on the touch up paint maker’s web site. If they are using MX5 Miata for non-US cars their chart is still wrong as there was 22V silver available in both those countries as well…we’ll see how they respond.

Third Time’s Not The Charm

Gray Mats 2

Our first two attempts at floor mats came from the cheap throw rug aisle at Wally World. Both the red and the gray didn’t look as nice in the car as they did in our heads while looking at them in the store. Plus they were a bit flimsy and moved around when they were stepped on getting in and out of the car.

Last weekend we were in Home Depot looking at their in-stock commercial grade carpet because we had so much success with the remnants from the Valve Store’s office remodeling. No luck there as everything was browns and tans with nothing in gray. But over in the rack with some other stuff we thought we had the perfect solution to our mat desires. There was something that might have been an outdoor mat or an internal dirt catching carpet protector that was a solid gray, not too dark and not too light with a nice square high-low texture, so we bought it.

When I got home I used my usual procedure to turn carpet into mat: Trace the upside down OEM mats onto the back of the newly purchased mat material with a sharpie. I cut out the new mats using a utility knife and a retired pair of kitchen shears. Then the finishing touch, running around the edges with my butane charcoal grill fire starter to seal them. They were just the right weight and stiffness, plus the back side was covered in a rubbery #10 grit sandpaper-like stuff. They seemed perfect. After several days of use the mat’s Achilles heel showed itself though, the fine fibers it was made from started to shed like the fur of an Angora cat in the summertime.

So, we’ve now tried three different times to find a floor mat that would meet all our stringent criteria, spent around $50 and are nowhere near happy. Might be time to go ahead and bite the bullet by spending the $130 on the Zeromotive Checkered Floor Mats in black/light gray I’ve been eyeing for a while now.

Hindsight Is 20/20 (Part IV) Third Time’s A Charm

Read Part I, Part II and Part III first.

Thursday after work when we arrived at the glass shop there wasn’t a silver Miata sitting outside waiting. While one of us was saying out loud, “Uh, oh, that’s not good.” The other one was simultaneously thinking the very same thing. As I open the front door I can see through into the shop floor and the guy waving us back. Donna and I go through the second door and see the CTBNL in the middle of the shop. They are just finishing up.

Owner guy says, “I put those rubber pieces on the blocks and you can see how everything is tight.” So I reach over and peel back the gasket at the top and sure enough it feels just like the one on the Emperor did when I blacked out the windshield surround. He then points over to a small bench that has a windshield face down on it. “I went ahead and bought a new windshield to put on your car.”1 “If you know someone who needs one, I’ll make them a good deal on a used one.2” Then, “They’re just finishing up, so give us a minute and we’ll bring it around front to you.”

Donna reluctantly leaves me behind and drives home in the Sonata. After a few minutes I hear a Miata fire up and circle the building. I step outside and there are two strips of blue tape across the upper corners of the windshield. Owner guy asks if I’m going right home or do I think I’ll be driving it around. “Two miles home is all,” I tell him. He says, “If you were going to drive a bit I’d put the tape all around, but this’ll hold you for just that.” I think for a second and say, “Why don’t we just go ahead and tape around the whole thing. Just to be safe.”

Because we rode the tandem to work on Friday I didn’t even pull the blue tape off until Saturday morning and with a couple of drives on Saturday plus a short one today, so far so good.

In hindsight, maybe we should have learned to live with that little divot.

Hindsight Is 20/20 (Part III) But Weirdly Distracting

Read Part I and Part II first.

Wednesday morning I carefully peel off the blue painter’s tape. The windshield still looks a little low, but the gasket fills the gap in the corners. Donna took the afternoon off, so I took her home and drove back to work uneventfully, if you don’t count the weird look out the back through the magnifying squared off mirror.

After work about a mile from the Valve Store, on my way to the glass shop, I start to hear a slight whistle. What the heck could that be? Then I notice a thin line of black peek above the windshield header on the passenger side. As I’m cruising along at 45 MPH the line turns into a loop growing in size and starting to flap around like one of those inflatable wacky waving arm tube men, now, with whistling sounds. As I slow while approaching a stoplight, the flapping and whistling decreases until at around 20 MPH it stops. But of course as soon as I get back above 20 it starts all over again. To limit the distraction, after I’ve shifted into 3rd I drive along with my right hand up above the header holding down the gasket. I have no idea if that looks even remotely normal, but at least the whistling is stopped.

When I enter the shop, a fellow I haven’t seen before (the owner?) is there and he greets me with, “How you doing?” “Not good,” I reply, “My windshield still isn’t right.” He picks up a box and says, “I can fix that, got your new mirror right here.” I tell him, “That’s just the half of it. Come outside, I’ll show you.” He takes one look at the car and says, “The gasket has come unstuck. We’ve had a rash of that happen lately. Its the cheap glue they’re putting on them now.”

Now that the gasket is out of the channel I can see that the glass itself is still a 1/4 inch low all around the top, so I ask owner guy, “Is this the right piece of glass? When I blacked out the windshield surround on my previous similar car I had a hard time getting the vinyl under the gasket here at the top glass because it was way up here.” “Or considering your little mirror trick,” I say, “Maybe you lost the two blocks that support the bottom of the glass and put something else in there.” “Oh no,” he says, “Those two are in there. What I’ll have do is pull the window back off and cut a 1/4″ thick piece of rubber to place on top of them to lift the glass.” “Can you leave the car with us?”

So for the second time in three nights the CTBNL spends the night in the shop at B & B Glass.

to be continued…

Hindsight Is 20/20 (Part II) And Squarely Magnified

Read Part I first.

Tuesday after work we drive back to the glass place and there is a silver Miata in the same spot as yesterday, so it is probably finished. We park the Sonata right next to it again. The sides and top of the windshield has a line of blue painter’s tape around them. I peel back a corner of the tape and there is the OEM (or an aftermarket replacement) gasket. That’s more like it. I go inside and give the guy a check for the work and he says, “Just leave the tape on until morning to let the sealant dry.”

We head back home in our little two car caravan. The first time I look in the rear view mirror it seems different, but I can’t place it. I shrug it off to the fact that I’m still adjusting looking through the 2 cross braces of the roll bar. The next time I glance at it, my brain registers that the view is seems magnified. By the third look I come to the conclusion that the mirror is not the same mirror that was on the car before I took it to them. It is too rectangular, it has square corners. Because at this point I was close enough to home, I figured I’d call them up and ask.

But first I wanted to pull up one of the pictures of the car I had taken over the weekend, just to be sure that that mirror was in fact not right. It wasn’t. I call up the glass place and say, “That’s not my mirror.” “Huh?” “The mirror you guys put back in the car is not a Miata mirror. It is too rectangular,” I tell him, “It looks like it belongs in that 1964 Ford Thunderbird that was in your lot.” Dude says, “Hold on, let me check.” When he gets back on the phone he tells me, “When they were removing my mirror they broke it, so they just put another one on it.” “That is not acceptable,” I say. “Don’t worry, I’m going to call Gerald Jones (the Mazda dealer in Augusta) right now and get you a new mirror.” “Just stop in after your work tomorrow and I’ll pop it on.”

Did they think I wouldn’t notice the random mirror?

to be continued…