Month: September 2004

There It Sits

The front spoiler looks pretty much like the Mazda OEM unit that was for the 99-00 cars, but doesn’t fit the slightly modified nose of the 01 & up cars. This is perfect because that is exactly what I was looking for. It is sitting on the work bench in the garage. It is mocking me, I know it. Like the countdown until it arrived, I will now count up on the bottom of each day’s post until it is mounted on the car. I guess I will ask at the body shop where I planned on getting it painted about whether to paint it first and then installed or vice versa.

Love the 15″ wheels, but I think I may swap back (as long as Russ didn’t sell the car this weekend.) The tires are a bit too worn down for my tastes. When I first looked at them in the parking lot there seemed to be a bit of thread wear left there. Upon closer inspection, there is hardly anything left at all. He thought he would go until the first of next year before he would buy tires, but Russ is a very frugal person and would go until the tires are hitting every wear indicator. Me, I feel a lot better if there more rubber under me, especially when it comes to driving in the rain. There is not enough tire for me to go until the first of next year, when I could possibly swing the cost of new tires. The 16″ wheels have enough tread to last me until late summer next year. By then I might be in a better position to get some new tires and new 15″ wheels.

Comet Incubation Period: 2 days

Der Komet Ist Gelandet

Which if Babel Fish is correct in its translation, means “The Comet Has Landed.” The spoiler arrived at work at 3:20pm. Trouble was that I had the afternoon off with a ton of things to do so I couldn’t get back to the plant to pick it up. I called buddy Russ up who I was to meet later and asked him to bring it with him. The spoiler made the trip from Germany to Canada to Aiken inside a heavy plastic bag which was wrapped in bubble wrap and then covered with a layer of thin cardboard mostly unharmed. There is one little scratch on it, but it is no matter as it is getting painted body color before mounting anyway. Speaking of mounting, I put the Mazda OEM front lip and rear skirt on my ’95 and they used numerous screws and clips, but for mounting this one, the folks at ATH have given me hot dog sized tube of some sort of adhesive. I wonder just how secure that will be? Well if worse comes to worse I’ve got a nearly full roll of burgundy duct tape…

I was meeting Russ later where I could pick up the spoiler from him because we were swapping wheels. I now have a set of Mazda 15″ wheels with some fairly worn out Michelin Pilots and he has a set of Mazda 16″ wheels with some half-worn Bridgestone Turdanzas. Amazing the difference in looks of the automobiles. I’m thinking that maybe it would be cool to work a wheel swap every 3 months so you could get a fresh look. You would have to work it out so that everyone had about the same kind of rubber, otherwise someone (probably me, with my luck) would be buying a lot of tires. While we were swapping, Russ went and got his bathroom scale at my request, so I could weigh the different wheels. First I weighed myself, 195lbs. Then I stood on the scale with the 16″ wheel and the total read, 227. Then I hoisted the 15″ wheel and the scale blinked back and forth between 223 & 222. Best guess is I lost 4-1/2lbs of unsprung weight. My sophisticated butt-dyno tells me the car accelerates a little quicker, I haven’t had around any turns at speed or had it long enough to feel a major change in handling yet. I get the feeling that this change to the car will be just like when I added the Strut Tower Brace on the ’95. The change in the characteristics in the car was very noticeably positive right up front, but after a few weeks they melded into the overall feel and were quickly gone. Not that meant it was all for naught, it just meant that you got used to the increased performance and took the new found road prowess as a given.

You Want How Much?

$183.15 is what Rader Mazda charges for a 15K service on a Mazda Miata. My owners manual says that at 15,000 miles you change the engine oil and filter, you inspect and clean if needed the air filter and you inspect the A/C level and compressor. I guess my mistake was going in and just asking for a 15,000 mile service, because then they were free to do the Rader designed service and not just the plain old Mazda recommended one.

This sounded a little high to me so I called around to a few other Mazda dealers in the area. Andy Jones Mazda, which is about 15 miles closer to me wants $169.88. When pressed for what they did for that much I got the Mazda list, plus rotate tires, service the (maintenance free) battery, and some other quasi unnecessary stuff. Next up I called Wray Mazda in Columbia which is about 20 miles further than Rader and the quoted me $133.00 for the 15K service. Cheaper, but still sounds like a lot. Then I tried one in Orangeburg, SC, Whatley Mazda. When I got through to the service department the woman who answered the phone said, “Oh that’s an oil change and rotate the tires, $40.87.” She forgot the other inspection items, but even when you add those in it is going to be well less than $100. Guess who might get my business when 22,500 miles rolls around?

Enough negatives, the good news is they agree that my car needs the TSB for the clutch shudder and will replace the disc at no charge to me. (It was so easy that it is probably costing them less to do it than Mazda reimburses for the work.)

Comet Gestation Counter: 58 days

15″ Wheels

I’ve mentioned several times here that I want to get some lighter 15″ wheels to replace the stock 16s. I’ve mocked up about 4 or 5 different styles to see what they would look like. This is all in anticipation of when I wear out the OEM tires next fall sometime. Well I have a line on some 15″ wheels now that the price is right (free) and I know they look good on a Miata. Russ, of new Boxster fame, is trying to sell his Miata and he has agreed to a do a trial wheel swap this weekend.

Donna is not too sure of this, she likes the 16″ wheels (I do too) and can’t figure out why I’d swap tires with 15,000 miles on them for some with 25,000. I want the, minimum, 2-1/2 lb drop in unsprung weight at each corner. The fact that I might be getting some Toyo T-1S tires sooner is just a bonus. I know Russ is just being nice, but I don’t know whether the bigger wheels will help or hurt his trying to sell the car. I’m getting something for nothing, I’ll be OK with that, as long as he doesn’t lose anything in the deal.

Comet Gestation Counter: 57 days

Only in…

Only in Aiken (or Lexington, KY or Ocala, FL, etc.) would they name an apartment complex Trotters Run. In a horse town, both of those words can be seen in a horsy context and not as two words that can be mistaken for a couple of euphemisms for diarrhea.

Only in South Carolina. I remember where we first moved here, I was totally perplexed by the meaning of the front novelty tags on so many cars that read “GO COCKS.” Now after 15 years I no longer think of the male member and visualize the banty rooster mascot of the University of South Carolina, a gamecock.

Safety Warning – Hard Candy Can Cause Choking

Who knew the sugar, corn syrup, cream, artificial and natural flavors of a Creme Savers candy could be so dangerous? What is our government doing standing by idly while the folks at Kraft Foods of East Hanover, NJ are manufacturing potentionally lethal objects of singular destruction (OSDs)? I hope both candidates address this issue in the upcoming debates.

Arrrr. Avast Mateys, I Missed It

Yesterday was International Talk Like A Pirate Day and it totally slipped right on by. Had I known I probably wouldn’t have talked like one much. Mainly because I pretty much used up all my known pirate talk in the title of this post. But I might have watched the Pirates of the Caribbean on DVD.

Captain Barbossa, I am here to negotiate the cessation of hostilities against Port Royal.
There be a lot of long words in there, miss. We’re naught but humble pirates. What is it that you want?
I want you to leave and never come back.
[crew laughs]
I’m disinclined to acquiesce to your request. Means “no.”