Month: October 2003

Didn’t need to buy any plug wires. A friend had his old ones in his garage he could lend me. At noon when we got back to the car I lifted the hood and in the day light I could see that the wire wasn’t broke, but the metal end was recessed into the rubber boot. Carefully reseated both ends of all 4 wires. Tried to start the car, but it wouldn’t go. To double check I used all four of the borrowed wires and got the same results. I removed the borrowed wires and before I replaced them with my original wires I ohmed out the coil pack per the Enthusiast’s Manual and they checked OK. Replaced the wires, but left #1 off the plug. I put a screwdriver in the wire and held it near the strut bar and asked Donna to crank the engine. There was a good strong spark. I then checked the under hood fuses, especially the fuel injection ones, they were good. I took off the oil filler cap and had Donna crank the engine again, I could see the cam moving, but it didn’t sound right after the first few rotations.

I called for my friendly tow truck. The Miata was going back to Rader. I called Kelly and told her it was coming. She called me when it got there. 30 minutes later Kelly called to tell me the bad news, that my new timing belt was broke. The even worse news was that they didn’t have one in stock. As a matter of fact the one I got 2 weeks ago came from Andy Jones and it was their last one. Bad news was on a roll because apparently the timing belts were on national back-order and they weren’t sure they could get one, but the parts guy was working on it.

A little while later Kelly called to say that Scott Rushton (fellow Club member and a pre-owned salesman at the dealer) had offered up his nearly new one that was on his car but the car wasn’t going anywhere until he had some head work done. Or I could wait until next Wednesday when the one they located in North Carolina would be in, meaning the car should be ready on Thursday. Thanks Scott, but I said I’d wait.

Now the news gets better. Because the broken belt was only two weeks old it was under warranty, so I wouldn’t have to pay for this repair. They also said they would pay for the towing charge for today. I tried for Tuesday’s, but they wouldn’t do that. Can’t blame them, when they got the car that day it was working fine. They only had my word there was something wrong. If I’m really lucky, I may get a loaner car on Monday if one becomes available too.

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1809.37
Started up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 248

When I emailed everyone in the Miata Club with what happened with the car on Tuesday, Jim Creer emailed back and said it was a plug wire. So on Wednesday morning before driving to work I unhooked each plug wire and reseated them. The drive to work was just like the drive home, underpowered, with some surging, so at work I called a tow truck and had the Miata taken to Rader.

This morning I called at around 10 AM and was informed that she had just got my paperwork and the technician couldn’t find anything wrong with the car. Riiight. Donna and I took a half day off and went over at noon to pick up the car. The cynical side of me thinking that they haven’t fixed anything or if it is running right now, they fixed something and just don’t want to tell me. As soon as I get in the car I know it is fine, so off we go home.

At the Miata Club meeting tonight I was explaining this all to the gathered throng and Rudy says, “When was the last time you changed the fuel filter?” I guess it was a couple years ago at the 90K service. He explains something about a sock getting plugged, all very plausible considering that it started after a kinda hard left turn. Maybe it was cleared by the angle of being hauled up onto the flatbed tow truck. No matter, everything is fine now.

On the way home from the meeting we stopped at Bi-Lo for some OJ for tomorrow’s breakfast. When we started to leave the parking lot the car stalled. I though, gee, I didn’t think I engaged the clutch that badly. The car would not restart. Donna and I (with the help of a nice man) pushed it back into a parking spot. As Donna went off to call her mother to come get us, I remembered what Jim had said as we ate dinner, he said that I needed to check both ends of the plug wire. Sure enough the wire on the far right of the coil pack (#3 I think) came off too easy. There wasn’t any metal plug under the boot, it was still in the coil, the wire was broke.

Tomorrow I guess I’ll be buying a new set of plug wires. Hope that fixes it. I can understand one broken wire causing the low power with some surging, but not starting at all?

Purchased Today: $0
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1809.37
Started up, went down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 248

Limped to work this morning and called a tow truck to have the car transported over to Rader. They did the timing belt change just 2 weeks ago and I think they mucked something up. I called the “service advisor” and let her know it was coming. Nothing was said other than my describing the symptoms. It should have made it to them around noon. At about 3 PM I called and got her voice mail. At 3:45 I called and held on the line until Kelly actually answered the phone. The car wasn’t going to be ready today. I can only guess that they are tearing it down and starting over. Or maybe they just didn’t have time. I’ll call in the morning and see if I can get some more information.

Purchased Today: $62 in towing
Money spent since 03/03/03: $1809.37
Started down, went up, still up.
Top Transitions since 02/02/03: 246