Miata Service

When The Going Gets Tough

To Mr. Fletchers RideWe went for a nice little hike in Hitchcock Woods this morning, that is until we were stumped for the second time trying to find the Crazy Creek Cache. We tried three weeks ago and trampled the heck out of the hillside where this thing is located without finding it. Today we were confident that it wouldn’t elude us again, unfortunately all we did was delude ourselves. Also we didn’t know it at the time, but it set the tone for the rest of the morning. We tried two other caches more near downtown Aiken after we exited the woods and were stumped by both of them.

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping, so we went to Kroger to get our weekly supply of groceries (at least there we found everything.)

I changed the oil and rotated the tires on the Emperor after shopping.

This evening we drove with some friends to Lexington for some deep dish goodness at the Uno Chicago Grill there. This is the very antithesis of last weekend’s pizza in Hendersonville. Donna and I knew better, sensing a large meal, we split a salad and a pizza for one. That was just enough, but regrettably when Rudy and Patti offered me a slice from their large pie, the still lingering great taste in my mouth overruled my common sense and I ate the tendered piece. It tasted great but sat heavy with me for the next couple hours.

Started down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 221

Finally

The correct parts for the Emperor’s brakes arrived at work this morning and within an hour and a half after getting home, major stopping power was returned. The first time I stepped on the pedal during a circuit of the block for testing, it was eerily reminiscent of the first time I drove a car with power brakes, an unexpected demonstration of Newton’s First Law of Motion.

More madcap ways to place a photo of you inside different images – Fun Box Photo.

My favorite:

 
Although this one is more appropriate because the photo I used is from my 1978 passport:
 

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 156

Maybe I’m Not Ready…

…for baseball season. At least the FRS may not be. Last night I posted that they were tied with the MFY 1 to 1 in the 8th inning, well in the bottom of the inning the Yankees scored 6 runs, unearned runs mind you, to win the game 7-1.

I am ready for tonight’s episode of TDTVS.

I am also ready to get the brakes fixed, but that ain’t happening until at least Friday night now. The parts got to the dealer on Tuesday, but I decided I didn’t want to deal with driving 60 miles with the last 8-10 in hectic capital city traffic, so I had them ship the stuff to me. Parts arrived today and wouldn’t you know it, they were the wrong ones. I called the part’s guy back and he said, “Oh yeah, there are two kinds of brakes for your year car, you must have the hard suspension. I’ll get the right parts and ship them right to you and they should get there Friday.”

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 152

Disappointing

We rode the tandem in to work today, and with Wednesday’s trip on it as well, this is the first time we have commuted by bike twice in one week in a looong time.

That bike ride was the highlight of my day. I managed to only finish half of the front brake job I had planned for the Emperor this afternoon. The left front went fairly easy. I say fairly because after 6-1/2 years and nearly 90,000 miles the brake rotor and wheel hub become very fast friends. The folks who make cars know this and they put a nice threaded hole through the disc so you can separate them by cranking down on a bolt screwed in there. But, it takes a scary lot of torque on that bolt before you hear that satisfying pop when the two pieces of metal finally separate. Also one of the caliper slider pins took a bit of coaxing to go back in because with the lube spread on it, the little noise abating rubber sleeve tended to slide out of it’s groove, preventing the pin from fitting in the hole.

On the driver’s side I got the pads off, pulled the caliper and then the bracket off, the second rotor came off easier than first, but then I hit a snag. The top caliper pin was frozen solid in the bracket with corrosion. I sprayed some penetrating fluid on it. Cleaned and lubed the other pin while I waited for the magic. I hammered on the pin and tried backing it out with a 17mm wrench with as much force as I felt comfortable with to no avail. I might have upped the force level by 50% or more, but I didn’t want to break the pin or bracket because we are a one car family and I needed to at least be able to put the car back together and have it operational.

Calls to the Augusta Mazda place, a Miata.net sponsor dealer and Advanced Auto asking about a replacement caliper netted me quotes of from “Can’t Get It” to $185 and we can order it. I then tried the Mazda dealer in Columbia where they still have to order it, but they will sell me just the bracket and pin for less than half the other guys wanted for a re-manufactured caliper and bracket.

I reinstalled the old parts back on the right side and took a drive around the neighborhood to set in the new stuff on the left. The car stops fine, but there is about 4″ more pedal travel. I’m attributing this to the increased travel the left caliper needs to make up for the nearly worn out pads on that side. Still I’ll be taking it easy though until I can get the new bracket and pin on Tuesday.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the motion sensing light quit working again. 🙁

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 147

New Top

We had to wait around the shop for an hour and a half past the promised time while they finished up the top install this afternoon. It is a Robbins Streamline Top and it looks a lot cleaner than the OEM unit because it lacks the top seams and the extra panel around the back window. The top is a different shade of tan, a bit darker and browner, but unnoticeable to probably everyone but me. That sucker is as tight as a drum and it took two guys at the shop to get it closed, so we’ll probably leave it up for a couple days to stretch out. Because the old top had stretched loose over the years it had become easy to ignore the fact that the passenger side top latch is broke, but now it is going to need fixing. The latch itself works, but the locking tab that keeps it shut has worn making it possible to come undone if I hit a big bump or something. Guess it is time to buy a new one…

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 0

Born To Run

Episode #22 is Kate-centric as she tries to get off the island on Micheal’s raft we find out more of her off island back story and just who belonged to that little plane and what happened to him.

Tonight the Emperor got a transfusion and a new kidney. While he was on the table I swapped his gloves with his socks. Friday he gets a new crown.

In one way I’m glad I live in a very red state, no robo calls bad mouthing the other guy clogging up my answering machine.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 388

Squeak Removal

I made an attempt to eliminate a couple of unwanted sounds that the Emperor has been making tonight.

First up was a high pitched ringing or whine that it seems that only I and possibly certain breeds of dogs can hear. I’m hoping that this is what it was in the past, a singing clutch actuation fork. A bit of grease needs to be applied on the fork where the slave cylinder rod touches it. It seems like there was still some grease on there, but I applied some more and worked it around a bit.

Second was the annoying belt squeal, mostly brief when the AC kicks in and occasionally long, loud and embarrassing on damp morning start ups. I’ve been treating this issue with belt dressing with limited success and decided it was time to attempt to tighten the offending belt. I have been avoiding this because I didn’t think that I could manage it without making it worse. Turns out in the intervening 25 years since I last tried tightening an automotive belt they have made it easy. Once you’ve loosened the mounting bolt, there is now a fancy screw that you can tighten with a wrench which increases the tension. Heck, if I’d known that, I wouldn’t have had to listen to that squeal for the past year.

When I finished the maintenance I pulled out Meguiar’s Quik Detailer and gave the car a sponge bath.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/08: 326