Miata Service

Wasted Leap Second

Changed the oil and rotated the tires today at 38,500ish, or about a hundred miles overdue. And for the second time in approximately 50 Miata oil changes I used a non-OEM filter. I realized I needed to change the oil somewhere on the road home from FLA last weekend, but the fact slipped my mind until like Friday night. By then it was too late to order it from my usual on line haunt and I just can’t bear to travel the 50 mile round trip to the nearest dealer (for several reasons) to buy one. On our Saturday morning shopping trip we went in to Advanced Auto and picked up 4 quarts of 10w30 Penzoil and a filter. Some schmo was monopolizing the jumbo book of filter compatibilities, so I asked at the counter. I gave the man the particulars and he asked which brand I wanted, “Fram, Puralator, Mobile1…” I said, “Whatever, they all filter oil, right?” I got a Fram, I think because it was first alphabetically.

After the Miata servicing we had just the right amount of daylight for a walk in the Woods. To change things up we drove to the other side of town to enter at a different spot. We had walked this particular section a couple times or more, but when the trail turned right to head further into the woods, Donna said, “Let’s go straight.” To which I replied, “That’s no a real trail, it ends right there.” But as I spoke she kept walking and I had no other choice but to follow her down the rabbit hole. The map I carry showed no trail, but sure enough, what looked like the end, merely resembled one as it turned into a narrow, windy, little used path down a hill. I was no too worried about getting lost as we were traveling along one edge of the woods and the railroad bed that was to our left was still there, just that it was now 30 feet above above trail level when it was once slightly below it. The map showed if we continued only this route we would come to a trail spur that would lead us back into the woods proper or if we continued past that we would come to the eastern edge of them and several officials trails. When we hit the spur we thought in for a penny, in for a pound and continued along in the uncharted territory. Unfortunately after only 50 yards or so we were confronted with an ugly 20-25 foot drop-off to a stream with a corresponding steep climb out on the other side. We quickly returned to the spur trail and finished our walk in a civilized manner.

Had I realized the Top Transition count was going to end where it did I just might had gone out in the garage and put it up before calling it a night.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 399

I Can See Quietly Now

It has been raining lightly all day. I put up with it on the way to work. I suffered through it on the way home from work, but couldn’t take it anymore so I dropped Donna off and headed to Advanced Auto. The squeaky windshield wipers just had to be replaced.

I had contemplated buying some made out of silicone in hopes that I could get some that would last more than 6 months before starting to squeal, but the high cost was holding me back. It would cost a little more for one silicone blade than it would for a set of regular rubber ones. Plus there is lingering doubt in the back of my mind about their effectiveness. Admittedly it was 6 years ago and they have probably worked out the kinks, but I didn’t have any luck back in 1999 when I was given a free sample because I was the MMC President at the time.

Started up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 372

Shade Awning Mechanic

Did the 30k service this morning. Donna and her mom went out to a couple local festivals and I put the Miata up on jack stands under the awning where mom’s MSV usually resides.

Changed the oil and filter. I have been changing these items in my Miata every 3 months or so for nearly a decade and a half and it never ceases to amaze me how much oil will drain out of a horizontally mounted filter. Even more puzzling is that I try and place an old t-shirt in the same spot in an effort to catch this flow and occasionally I succeed and others I stain the concrete driveway in several, sometimes large, spots.

As usual I rotated the tires while I change the oil. Checked their air pressure and topped off at 29 psi (60 in the spare) where required. I even sprayed the tires with some ArmourAll foaming tire cleaner. As an experiment I sprayed the inside of the wheel wells with the foaming stuff too. Worked a lot better, blacker, than when I use a sponge in there when washing the car.

Changed the air filter. It was quite dirty. The manual says clean it at 30k, but I think the 8 bucks for a new one is the least I can do for his highness.

Changed out the spark plugs. The old ones didn’t look too bad, I probably could have re-gapped them and put them back in, but a fresh set of NGKs is, like the air filter, cheap medicine. I also installed 2 new spark plug wires. That’s right two. On the old Miatas there was a coil pack with the typical 4 wires running to the 4 spark plugs and the OEM ones were notorious for starting to break down after 20 to 40k. The 2001-2005 Miatas have a coil directly mounted to two of the plugs and a standard wire from those coils to the other 2 plugs. Recently I have been noticing a slight bit of engine roughness in the mornings when the car is cold and it seemed like new wires were called for.

I also dumped a half a bottle of fuel injector snake oil into the gas tank.

For good measure I “washed” the car using some Quik Detailer and a towel.

Tonight when Donna and I went out for a drive and some clothes shopping, the rough running was gone. Was it the plugs, wires, fuel injector cleaner or a combination of all three?

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 347

Car Morning

Changed the oil this morning. As always I took this time to rotate the tires too. Jacked up the car and put it on 4 jack stands. This makes it easier to get to the drain plug and the filter. When spinning off the filter I always tuck a rag under where the filter is so the oil left in the filter will drip into it and not on the ground. Well, today I learned that khaki pants don’t do well when used for this job. The old cotton t-shirts absorb the oil, while khaki pants absorb a little and then act as a conduit for the oil to pour all over the underside of the car and then drip on the driveway. At least the tires rotated without incident, even the semi-mangled lug stud and lug nut cooperated fully.

After I put the car all back together, I went ahead and washed it. Had to use some bug remover on the nose to get off the stubborn bug guts off, so a quick bit of wax applied to the area. I keep reading about using a clay bar on the car and wonder if that would completely clean everything off the paint. But because it seems like such a production, maybe an all day affair, that I have been avoiding it. Maybe a fine fall Saturday could be set aside for that project.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 256

Bad Bulb

I’m not so sure how long it has been out, but someone told on my way out of the work parking lot tonight that one of the fog lights was unlit. I thought I was pretty conscious about checking to see if I could see two lights reflected in some surface of the car in front of me, but I guess I took it for granted that both lights were working in recent times.

The fog light bulb are standard 55 watt H1 bulbs, but for some reason the first two places I checked (Advanced Auto & Walmart) didn’t have them. Oh, they had the expensive Sylvania Silverstar bulbs for $18-20 each, but I wanted no part of them. Not only have they gotten a slightly bad rap on Miata.net, but if I bought just one the light from the fogs would be different from one another. I just wanted 1 plain ol’ halogen bulb for around $5, not 2 hoity-toity bulbs for $40.

Store number three, Autozone, was the answer. They had one left on the self for $5.99. They only fly in that ointment was the counter help was overwhelmed with customers and no one could break free to check me out. After several minutes a clerk asked if she could help me, but when I said I needed to check out, she said, “Oh, I can’t use the register.” About this time I was tempted to walk out, but considering what I went through to find this bulb, maybe the last one in town, I stuck it out a while longer. Cooling my heels I even considered tossing a ten spot on the counter and walking out, but before I could do anything rash, a certified register professional appeared as if by magic from the back and rang me up.

It took about 45 minutes to replace the bulb because you have to jack up the car, remove the front wheel and unfasten a half dozen screw and bolts to peel back a plastic wheel well liner to allow access to the bulb. If they had 2 bulbs I would bought both of them and changed out the passenger side as well. In my experience they usually go in pairs because they each are on for the same amount of time. Plus because I use the fogs as daytime running lights they are on whenever the car is on during the day, so they get quite a bit of use.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 239

Half Rotated

Decided to go ahead and do my own 22,500 mile service today at 22,204. The Owner’s Manual lists 3 items for this interval, replace oil, replace oil filter and lubricate locks and hinges. Done, well all except for the lock lubrication, I don’t have the correct lube for them, so they will just wait until next time.

As I usually do, I rotated the tires while changing the oil. Well I got them half rotated. One of the lug nut nuts on the right rear tire must be stripped. I got about 5 or 6 turns out and it started to be hard to turn. I applied a little muscle, but after about another turn I feared for breaking something, so I stopped. Tried to spin it back on, but it wasn’t going that way either. Funny thing about that wheel, that is the one I thought I had a slow leak in about 6 weeks ago, and my friendly neighborhood tire store had it off and on a couple of times during that visit. The ever cynical me figures they mucked up the stud and/or lug nut, so guess where I’m going during lunch tomorrow?

Started down, went up, back down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 90

Finally, A Nice Day

It made it to the middle sixties today. wOOt! It had clouded up by quitting time, but it was still warm enough for a trip home with the top down – no coat required. On the way home I stopped in to Autozone and picked up 4 quarts of Penzoil 10-30. Rotated the tires and changed the oil at 18,813 miles. Grandpa Mazda recommends changing the oil every 7500 miles, but I like to do it halfway between as well. This way the Emperor gets some nice clean blood every three thousand seven hundred fifty miles. I lifted the car up and put it on 4 jack stands, this way after removing the front right tire I can get to the drain plug easy enough. While the oil drains I go ahead and get 3 of the 4 tires rotated. Before putting the right front back on I swap oil filters. Takes about an hour and a half from start to finish.

I think my friends at Rader, they changed the oil last, used the impact wrench on the drain plug, as it was a bear to get off. Because the car was full hot I expected a little resistance in removing the plug, but my usual ice cube trick didn’t seem to help much. Even after melting 2 cubes on the head of the drain plug it still wouldn’t come loose. I had to resort to gently tapping on the end of the wrench with a hammer to get it off. I wonder what the torque spec for the oil drain plug is?

The answer is 22-30 foot pounds