The Miata

[Rich]

[giant_mtb]

"A greeting." 

[MrH]

That's brutal.  What are you going to do? 

[Rich]

Get it fixed and keep the thing.

The frame is pretty rust free actually. It was coated with some kind of black sealer. I have some more sockets and stuff on the way and will start doing some of my own maintenance.

I do want a 4dr I don't have to worry about as a second car. I might wait until I get settled in SC for that though. It would buy me time to work on the Miata when I need to

[AutobahnSHO]

Get it fixed and keep the thing.

The frame is pretty rust free actually. It was coated with some kind of black sealer. I have some more sockets and stuff on the way and will start doing some of my own maintenance.

I do want a 4dr I don't have to worry about as a second car. I might wait until I get settled in SC for that though. It would buy me time to work on the Miata when I need to

Dooooooooo it.   Plus having the luxury of picking which car to drive to work is pure bliss.

[Rich]

Got the car back.  I keep smelling coolant when I back it into my house parking spot.  It's a sweet smell.  There's not loss of coolant from the reservoir, though.  Maybe it's the coolant that splashed out from the leak?  I've been smelling it for 2 weeks now...

I refurbished my eyeball vents





Lined the ashtray (coin holder) with felt, since I had it for the vents anyway.  I'll put some on the back of the seats when the rain stops.. the seats make leather on plastic rubbing sound when it's cold.

Installed new top lock caps, which quieted down the wind noise on the highway 200% (science)


And today finally finished all the sanding on these babies.  All that's left is to polish.  What a job this was.  Holeeeeey fuck.  I'm not sure if the wheel cleaners I used tore up the clearcoat on them, but I recommend to anyone to not use that shit on wheels.



Before:




I've decided I'm not going to put clearcoat on them. I've just gotten some strong wheel wax/sealer and will try and keep up on them without any harsh sprays.  If they turn south, I may powder coat them or junk them (some painted parts of the wheel are starting to corrode a little).

[FlatBlackCaddy]

I don't know if you have it where you're at, but colinites insulator wax(power companies used to use it to insulate for flashovers) is a pretty heavy duty car/fleet wax. I use that stuff on high duty/exposure areas(door jambs, rockers, wheels).

[Rich]

I don't know if you have it where you're at, but colinites insulator wax(power companies used to use it to insulate for flashovers) is a pretty heavy duty car/fleet wax. I use that stuff on high duty/exposure areas(door jambs, rockers, wheels).

Yeah, I'm not going to find it in Spain   Maybe when I get moved into South Carolina.  For now, I have some chemical guys MAXcoat Wheel Guard wax

Not the best but way better than before... The good news is that when I get time again, it won't be hard to touch them up and get them closer to new

[Soup DeVille]

I don't know if you have it where you're at, but colinites insulator wax(power companies used to use it to insulate for flashovers) is a pretty heavy duty car/fleet wax. I use that stuff on high duty/exposure areas(door jambs, rockers, wheels).

I had no idea that could be used on cars.

[FlatBlackCaddy]

I had no idea that could be used on cars.

Works great on cars, huge following in some detail/shop circles.

[giant_mtb]

I'm gonna have to order a bottle!  Always good to be able to offer truly tough coatings around here.

[FlatBlackCaddy]

It's the 845 insulator wax.

Some of the over the road guys claim that they only have to wax their truck twice a year with it. Thick stuff, when the bottle sits, it looks like candle wax until you shake it and it turns to liquid again.

[giant_mtb]

Interesting. Thanks for the tip.

[Rich]

I went to go take the strut tower brace off so I could fix the intake manifold, and those shock tower nuts are not budging.

[MX793]

I went to go take the strut tower brace off so I could fix the intake manifold, and those shock tower nuts are not budging.

Have you tried the candle wax trick?

[Rich]

Have you tried the candle wax trick?

I haven't (googling it now), just the WD-40 trick.  No PB blaster here (not that they are really rusted out...)

[Eye of the Tiger]

I think you should try the 845 insulator wax trick.

[MX793]

I haven't (googling it now), just the WD-40 trick.  No PB blaster here (not that they are really rusted out...)

Check the garage chat thread, I posted a video.

[Rich]

I've taken the bolts for the intake manifold out, am I going to totally hose myself if I don't put anti-seize lube on them before I put them back in?  (I don't have any and I don't think I can find it easily)

[MX793]

If not anti-seize, can you find any other type of automotive grease?  Axle grease, red grease, bearing grease?  Also, loctite can prevent bolts from seizing, if you can find that.

[Eye of the Tiger]

I've taken the bolts for the intake manifold out, am I going to totally hose myself if I don't put anti-seize lube on them before I put them back in?  (I don't have any and I don't think I can find it easily)

Clean the threads on each bolt with a wire brush. Run them in and out of the holes a few times to clean the holes out. Blow holes out with air. Clean, dry threads are good.

[Eye of the Tiger]

If not anti-seize, can you find any other type of automotive grease?  Axle grease, red grease, bearing grease?  Also, loctite can prevent bolts from seizing, if you can find that.

BLUE loctite will work. Don't use the red 

[MX793]

BLUE loctite will work. Don't use the red 

Yeah, don't use the "remove with heat" grade stuff, obviously.  Loctite 222 (purple) or 242 (blue).

[Rich]

Thanks for the quick reply guys... an ass pucking moment for me

Will either of these two work?

[MX793]

White grease would probably work OK.

[MX793]

Another option, if you're worried about galling threads, is to put a dab of motor oil on the threads.  May not hold up as well as loctite or anti-seize over time when you go to take the bolts out again years from now, but better than dry threads.

[Eye of the Tiger]

Go easy on the torque if the threads are lubed.

[Rich]

And so it began.

In October my car started throwing a P402 code, excessive EGR flow. Finally, yesterday I had the tools/parts/time to fix it.  Googling Miata forums, this code stems from the EGR passageway in the upper intake manifold clogging up, backing up deposits into the EGR valve.  I wanted to do this on my own since I'm sure a shop would have just replaced the super easy to replace EGR valve and not cleaned the manifold, just delaying the code again for some months. I cleaned the throttle body a bit, and the lower intake manifold very lightly/carefully, too



Some have cleaned out the old EGR valve, but I didn't want to take a chance and have the code still popping up, so I bought a new one.  I'll probably try and clean the old one out and keep it around just in case.


http://vid92.photobucket.com/albums/l21/iamrich17/ED943543-1059-4524-BEB9-8B7BACCF8C18_zpserz6zzo2.mp4

http://vid92.photobucket.com/albums/l21/iamrich17/BE71E3AB-CD3E-4F96-96F2-922A000E246E_zpsjuxcslvo.mp4

Just full of nastiness in there


I put it back together and she runs!  No code either!

[Rich]

New plugs and plug wires swapped in. She started stumbling on Thursday. It amazes me that there was no consistency in the stumbling. Temperature, time of day, RPM, speed, throttle, engine run time...

.... and it runs!

[Soup DeVille]

EGRs are dirty bastards by nature; almost always they just get too dirty and don't actually "fail" fail.