mx5cartalk.com

Castrol Synthetic will do the job perfectly, but put a sacrificial cheap one in first to 'cycle' out the crap into it, and then put in the Synthetic.

good tip craig. i might do this too .

is there a particular type / grade of castrol synthetic to use for different cars, or is it the same regardless?

Castrol Syntrax SAE 75W-90 - Full synthetic API GL5 works great in my car.

excellent

and in the meantime just use the cheapest crap i can find, for a week or 2 ?

If you can get it cheap enough just use the Castol Synthetic, not sure on pricing myself.

Run it for 5000 klms to really cycle the grit and muck out. In my NA I ended up flushing it 4 times in total to get rid of the notchy/grinding and at the last attempt it was like a hot knife through butter...Matt can attest to that!

Done it twice on the NB8B and will do it again at the 50K service.

great tip, i gotta remember to do this!!! thanks.

so you mean 5000k in total, changing oil a few times along the way?

or change oil every 5000k, meaning a total of 20,000k ?

sorry for all the questions, i just wanna get this right.

I don't think there's an exact science really but I think 5000klms is a good point to pull the oil and do it again, it's what I just happened to do as I'm a fussy bugger and pondered that if the first time improved the shift, what'd happen successive times after that? I just stopped at 4 as it was mint after that.

Bear in mind I'm no mechanic but!

cheers craig, i'll give it a go. it's really not that bad at the moment anyway, but i reckon it could be better than it is. will try it out and report back in a year or so once i've changed the oil out a few times

Change the turret oil too and the bushing at the bottom of the gearstick as well!

I had the Redline oil, for the gearbox and diff, rags, coffee, cola, snackes,etc and ready to jump in......

Man, this car is seriously low......can't even see where the drain and fill plugs are!!!

How do you guys raise the car high enough (safely) to crawl underneath? You may not appreciate how difficult it is if you wear glasses as they keep falling off! B*sta*d !!!!

So I've finished the coffee and cola and the snacks but done f-all !!!

I'm a good DIYer, but not good if I can't get to the plugs!!!!

Cheers

franjae

franjae wrote:How do you guys raise the car high enough (safely) to crawl underneath? You may not appreciate how difficult it is if you wear glasses as they keep falling off! B*sta*d !!!!

a jack and some proper stands generally does it for most
if the cars too low then
http://www.graysonline.com.au/lot.asp?LOT_ID=1398293
and stands
http://www.graysonline.com.au/lot.asp?LOT_ID=1398284

Never work under the car that's just supported on a jack always have it on proper jack-stands

I wonder if the missus will notice an inspection pit in the garage? Should I start digging??

franjae

franjae wrote:I wonder if the missus will notice an inspection pit in the garage? Should I start digging??

Yes but do your own grave first!

Cycling the fluid makes sure all the rubbish is gradually removed with each subsequent oil change. With every change I did on the NA the less gunk/metal shavings there were floating around in the oil and it could do it's job properly without grinding and carrying on. The first oil change was done at 43,000klms and the oil on removal was putrid and gluggy...scary huh for such low klms!

The bush on the bottom of the shifter looks like this



Good reading found here >>> http://www.miata.net/garage/trans/everything.html

P.S. Replace both the rubber boots. Mania can source them for you as well as the lower bushing if you don't have one.