Putting some hair on the chest of a nice lady's car

[WesternPacific]

Cheers guys, I have pretty much committed to replacing the rad and intake but I would like to see if you have any of the other little bits.
Geofiz, pm me your address and I will roll on over Sat arvo if that suits?

[green_comet]

Do yourself a favour and do some reading before trusting any auto parts store people. Buy yourself some Carpro Perl for dressing when you have fixed/replaced the damaged plastic parts.

[Okibi]

I killed the finish on an almost brand new rim listening to a car shop person, it's even worse now each shop is more like a supermarket and the people serving you haven't owned a car yet.

[WesternPacific]

I debuted the SE at the RAC sprint round for the WA MX5 club, and what a HOOT! I must say thanks to all that organised the event, I had a great time, met some fellow forum members and got my freak on behind the wheel!
Prior to this I had no track or driver training experience, other than Gran Tourismo (thank you Sony!), so it was all a HUGE learning curve. Thanks to same helpful tips from Okibi and Swordfish as well as some friendly rivalry from Kenson, Richard (is he a forum member?) and a bunch of other people I made steady progress throughout the afternoon. In fact my best time ended up being more than 20 seconds quicker than my first time! I was quite chuffed to say the least.

So how did my car perform? Well, it was pretty awesome I must say. Given that I was running the original tyres, it performed much as I expected. It was super loose (the car and me both ) but in a controllable (kinda) way. I found that I was sliding through most of the corners and the car was reasonably tail happy. To be honest I think that the lack of grip added to my enjoyment as I spent most of the afternoon trying to get a predictable slide going on corner exits (yes I know that isn't the "right" way to do it).

Kenson (who also had crap tyres) and I had a good battle that came down to only a couple of seconds over 3 runs. I was happy just to be competitive and not last!

[WesternPacific]

So the day after the first track outing for the car and I notice that it isn't the same to drive as it used to be. The gear selection was sticky and the clutch felt different. The worst of it was the gear selector was sticking to one side when in the neutral gate. By this I mean if it was pushed to the left while in neutral it would stick there, the same if it went right. After work I took the shifter boot off to inspect the gear turret and it had NO OIL IN IT! In a way I and happy because I thought I had found the problem and part of my was pissed off that there wasn't any oil in there! After a heap of looking around and asking questions I found out that the SE turret isn't supposed to have oil it D-OH! The boots, both upper and lower are torn which I guess doesn't help the matter.


Please note the safety boots!

I still have the sticky gear shifter....

I did however service the gear box today!! It was pretty easy in the end but the hard part with these cars is how tiny everything is! I service mining equipment for a living so the scale of things is quite different . Instead of swing off huge breaker bars and 3/4inch drive ratchets (at work) I am having trouble fitting my hands into tight spaces and burning myself heaps!
On the test drive, the box was much quieter than it was before and smoother, so that was a bit of a win. Next up is the diff!

[Okibi]

I should have let you have a drive with the MiataRoadster Short Shift Kit, makes a great improvement in the shift feel.

http://www.miataroadster.com/miataroadster/miataroadster_short_shifter_kits/g-63251.aspx

[WesternPacific]

I should have let you have a drive with the MiataRoadster Short Shift Kit, makes a great improvement in the shift feel.

http://www.miataroadster.com/miataroadster/miataroadster_short_shifter_kits/g-63251.aspx

Yeah that is exactly what i have been looking into. Good then i take it?

[Okibi]

I highly recommend it, after the NA and NB 5 speed the NB 6 speed is really disappointing, this kit makes a great improvement.

[WesternPacific]

So I am back in town and chomping at the bit to do some modding to my car. My AEM intake arrived while I was away. A small lob like that was just about perfect considering how knackered i was from the previous 15 consecutive 13 hours shifts out in the desert. So I hopped straight into it. Now I won't bore you all with the little details, especially because just about everyone else in the WORLD with an SE has done this mod. So I thought I would mention the things that i did that made the job easier.

The first was unbolting the strut brace to allow easy access to the bolts underneath.


Confession time.... I bought this to take out to work with me but love it too much to waste on work!! For anyone looking for a supra high quality and heavy duty impact wrench, this has GOTTA be the one.


This is where the rubber elbow from the OEM intake joins the turbo. As others have said it was melted on making cutting it off with a stanley knife necessary. Basically what I did was cut the elbow off just past where it is connected with the turbo. From there I made a lengthways slice along the elbow rubber and used a blade tip screwdriver to prise the rest off the metal. It was a little bit tricky but simple enough in the end.




To be able to position the heat shroud in place (I tried for about 20 minutes before I modified it with no success) I had to cut an extra section out of it to accommodate a hose that was right in the way. It was a simple case of cutting away at the shroud with an angle grinder and finishing it with a flap disk. After the mod the bolt that fastens both the shroud and the power steering reservoir went in very easily.


The end result. It isn't pretty, I have pretty much just left everything where it lay. I will tidy it up after I am sure that it is all working as it should.


I ran the car up to check for issues and it all looked ok. The engine note already seems better so I am happy

[WASP]

How many hours do you estimate it took to fit it. I am expecting delivery of my BEGI CAI tomorrow.
Cheers
Steven

[WesternPacific]

How many hours do you estimate it took to fit it. I am expecting delivery of my BEGI CAI tomorrow.
Cheers
Steven

Hey Steven, It took right on two hours including the mods. It might/will take a little longer if you are trying to be neat with everything.

[WesternPacific]

Finally after 3 and a half weeks lost in the Startrack Express ether..... they arrive!!

[Nevyn72]

Just curious.....

Why did you go for HSD over the alternatives in the same price range, ie. BC Racing & Yellowspeed?
Did you get the factory offered spring rates of 8/6 or go for something different?

[WesternPacific]

Just curious.....

Why did you go for HSD over the alternatives in the same price range, ie. BC Racing & Yellowspeed?
Did you get the factory offered spring rates of 8/6 or go for something different?

To be honest there wasn't any one thing that made me go for the HSDs. It was a combo of recommendation, reviews, availability and wanting something a bit different I guess. I went 8/6

[MadMikey]

You'll definitely be happy with them I installed them myself but got the alignment and height adjusted at Wheels World in Osborne Park (recommended from the forum) If you feel like taking the drive they'll look after you.