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Hey all, just a few quick pictures of my new toy. Bought this on the 14th of June 2013. Spent all day washing, polishing and waxing.
Hope you enjoy the before & afters of my first car!
Being my first car, also means i know very little about cars in general, so any help is greatly appreciated!
This is also a personal log for reference to see the progress of the slow and small steps being made.

Brandon

Before wash


The level of the headlights weren't flush with the bonnet, so i forumed and found out you could just pull them up a bit and worked like a charm!


After wash


Rear tire blew from the sides (no idea how) so i got some new Kuhmo kh17s for the back two wheels and changed them over so that the new ones were on the front.






I tried scrubbing these stains from what i believe to be water marks from these wheels but they just wont come out. Suggestions?
I used wheel polish (forget which one as they were my friends) and i used a normal car soap and a microfibre towel to scrub..




What to do with this oil leak?


One of the first few things i did were clean the wheels and the pop ups


Started on the polish. Body's got quite a few dings and scratches


A few white marks still present, but looks 100 times better than before. Reflections & all


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzkiB3RW-nc

I also waxed the car, most of the panels were done pretty well, but obvious white stains have appeared after the wax, especially on the bonnet, and you can see the circular motion that my mates and i used on it. We're thinking that maybe we left the wax on for too long..?
Can't see bonnet in this photo, but this is after wax


Cheers guys, I'm very thrilled to be part of this forum

Congrats! Looks like quite an original NA8 LE.

You might want to use this thread as your Garage thread - if so, just ask a moderator to move it to the Garage Chat section:
viewforum.php?f=57

93_Clubman wrote:Congrats! Looks like quite an original NA8 LE.

You might want to use this thread as your Garage thread - if so, just ask a moderator to move it to the Garage Chat section:
viewforum.php?f=57

Thank you!

and yes cheers for the heads up!

Blip wrote:What to do with this oil leak?

The part with the 9BK written on it is the PCV (positive crankcase ventilation) valve.

The first thing to do is to fix the valve's hose fitting by opening its hose clamp up by squeezing the lugs on the clamp with a good sized pair of pliers, then pushing the hose fully onto it and slipping the clamp properly over the hose.

If the leak is more from the base of the PCV valve instead then the valve could be blocked or the rubber grommet it sits in could be cracked. It's a routine replacement part with a life anywhere between 20,000kms and 200,000kms, depending on what sort of trips the car does. If it's blocked then it can do some serious damage but it's dead easy to fix or replace.

Google "testing PCV valve" or "testing PCV valve site:miata.net" and you'll get the idea. It comes out of the engine cover with a firm straight pull. Basically it should rattle inside if you shake it and it should allow a small amount of air flow from the engine to the intake manifold and it should not allow a large flow from the engine to the inlet manifold and it should not allow any flow from the inlet manifold to the engine.

You can get a replacement valve and grommet from Mazda for about $30 or for much less from a Repco or Supercheap or similar.

Very nice looking NA8 LE there too. I hope you appreciate that the NA8 is by far the finest car ever built. Welcome.

93_Clubman wrote:Congrats! Looks like quite an original NA8 LE.

You might want to use this thread as your Garage thread - if so, just ask a moderator to move it to the Garage Chat section:
viewforum.php?f=57

-I suggest that you rename it too, "My NA8" makes no sense to anyone else but you.

Also, try a steam cleaner on those wheel water marks.

The Blipmobile!

Hell of a first car, you is gonna have a lot of fun. A big advantage is that it is not powerful enough to kill you.

That was the only saving grace of my first car, a LC torana 4cyl POS. At least it was also reasonable on petrol, a big thing if you are still in school.

manga_blue wrote:

Blip wrote:What to do with this oil leak?

You can get a replacement valve and grommet from Mazda for about $30 or for much less from a Repco or Supercheap or similar.

Very nice looking NA8 LE there too. I hope you appreciate that the NA8 is by far the finest car ever built. Welcome.

Thanks so much for that detailed response manga!
Do you suggest buying genuine parts from mazda, or do you think repco/supercheap parts would suffice?
I've heard that some of the cheaper parts such as leads have popped off while driving ect..

I'm more than pleased with it! Cheers!

Aussie Stig wrote:The Blipmobile!

I like!

Aussie Stig wrote:A big advantage is that it is not powerful enough to kill you.

I'm glad!

Or NA8lip

Congratulations on the first car. I wish my first car was a 5! Nice catch on getting it in BRG AND a NA8. Future plans?

track_addict wrote:Congratulations on the first car. I wish my first car was a 5! Nice catch on getting it in BRG AND a NA8. Future plans?

Cheers! I've been very fortunate, and i got it for a ridiculously good price!

Future plans include (in no particular order):

Roll bar
Coilovers
Exhaust
Extractors
Respray rear bumper
Nardi steering wheel & gear stick
15in wheels for bigger variety of tires (even though i love the stock wheels )
Hard top

Personal preferences/suggestions for any of the above?
I'll be keeping it pretty clean and stock for the time being.
I wont be modifying it for a while, just so i get to learn the car a bit more.

Any (legal) mods people have done that have shown significant differences?

First mod of the car, done tonight on the steering wheel!

The steering wheel that came from the previous owner was from supercheap i think? anyway, the wheel is like a mirror that reflects the sun straight into the eyes, so i did this...





Who needs to sticker-bomb, right?


PLASTI-DIP


"You bought a Jeep?"

Blip wrote:Future plans include (in no particular order):
Nardi steering wheel & gear stick

For info, if you were wanting to return the steering wheel & gear knob to factory spec, the 1996-1997 NA8 had a Momo wheel as opposed to the Nardi of the 1993-1995 NA8. 1996-1997 gear knob was also not the Nardi of the earlier NA8. See below:

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=46765

Sittin on the toilet





Coolant flush & top up



Also had her roadworthied at the MX5 Factory in Ringwood last night. Dick said everything was perfect for the RW!

Getting ready to get her transferred under my name at Vicroads & get Victorian plates.

Been a while since i've updated, so here goes.

Ever since i bought her, there's been a whirling noise that would gradually speed up as we went faster. It was pretty loud and really worried me as it sounded like something was pretty ready to fall off. The sound came from the back of the car, so i thought that maybe it was the wheel bearings or the diff was on its way out. Gear changes also have a harsh scrape noise when changing gears, so maybe that would be a heat shield issue, but haven't really looked into it as of yet.

So after a few weeks, i finally brought her in to the MX5 Factory, and had Dick go for a test drive and analyze the cause. He too thought the whirling noises were either the bearings or the diff. We were hoping it was the bearings as it would have been the cheapest option first, and they would have cost me roughly $300 fitted and labour (as i don't have the knowledge or the experience to do it myself), whereas if it was the diff, he said it would cost about $891 f&l..

So we left the factory and had a think about it. Another few weeks of putting it off, i finally decided that it was time to bring it in and get it over and done with. So my brother dropped her off in the morning as i had uni, and i eagerly waited the whole day for the results.

About 3.30pm yesterday, i rang up to find out if the job had been done. The answer was "yes, and it was a big hassle". I was so nervous about it all and was thinking about how much it would have cost me.. So we rocked up, and Dick explained..

Turns out that the shaft had been completely seized into the hub and that it was a real bitch to get out. It had broken his puller trying to get it separated, they tried with a 50 tonne press, that didn't work, they tried soaking it up, heating it up, but nothing worked. He said that they tried an exercise just to see if they could bash it out, and tried to destroy the shaft altogether just to see if they could get it out, but still wouldn't budge.

So anyway, they ended up pulling out the entire drive shaft assembly altogether and replacing it with used stock that they had in the garage. He had two sets of assemblys in stock, where as one of the other sets were the same and could not be budged either, so, lucky for me that one of the sets that were tested worked perfectly fine, installed, test dríven, and VIOLA! No noise!
Ended up costing me about $803 all up. It's pricey compared to what i was told was going to cost for the bearings alone, but it's more than worth it for the peace of mind.

I'm so happy everything worked out fine in the end, Dick is such a lovely bloke and he's so enthusiastic to let his customers know exactly what went well and what didn't. Highly recommend anyone from Melbourne to take their babies to the MX5 Factory in Ringwood. Job well done Dick Richey and his merry men!

From one happy customer, Brandon

Also, just a quick snap from the Victorian awards run on the 28th of June, including the Blipmobile

So supposedly i've got an NB

If anyone's reading this and knows, what does the Model-Spec NB55-155 mean?
Obviously it doesn't relate to the model of the car itself, right?