Miata Service

I Don’t Want The $40 Back Rudy

After driving the Miata around on a few trips this past week I have come to to the conclusion that the muffler itself is not the cause of the harsh exhaust note at high throttle levels. Maybe we didn’t notice it so much on Donna and my short test drive last weekend because of the already slightly louder note of the Borla. But now it seems to me that it really comes about once the car has gotten totally warmed up.

So while the sound of the Miata at start up in the garage with the Borla muffler is positively sublime, kind of barks a little like the half of a Ferrari V8 it is, I pulled it off and put the Racing Beat back on.

At full operating temperature not only does the sound get ugly, but my uncalibrated butt dyno is telling me that I’m not getting the power I once was at lower RPMs. I’m not sure whether this is an outlier or a further symptom of the Emperor’s problems, but at the last fill-up the gas mileage was just under 21 MPG, which is the second lowest figure ever since I started keeping track back in December of 2012.

The problem has got to be in the VVT system somewhere. A clogged filter or line I’m already working on with the addition of the Italian (Rotella) oil. On the Forum I’ve found some instructions on testing the oil control valve to see if it is working. While I don’t think this is it, because I do get the telltale rev surge at 3500-4000 the first couple of times in the morning when just starting out, it still needs to be done to eliminate it as a possibility.

Started up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 170

Out with the New, In with the Newer

Red Sox vs Yankees

This post is coming to you from “Mexico.” The Red Sox-Yankee game is being broadcast on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball which means it is blacked out nationally on MLB.tv. Unfortunately I don’t get ESPN, so normally I would be out of luck, but thanks to PIA I am virtually not in the United States right now.

This morning I drained out about a quart of last week’s fresh oil and poured into the Emperor’s crankcase about a quart of Marvel Mystery Oil. I had purchased it during the last century from a guy passing through town on a wagon being pulled by a mule. The can of MMO has sat on a shelf in the garage since then because the folks on the Miata Forum back then swore that adding a quart to three regular quarts of oil, running the car for 100 miles, then draining it and doing a full oil change would cure sticky hydraulic lifters. I guess I intended to use it on the ’95 Miata, but never got around to it. Never needed the trick on this car as in 1999 Mazda switched over to solid lifters.

Didn’t have time for a hundred mile drive, so I ran the car for about 5 minutes and ran it through the rev range a half dozen times. Drained the engine entirely this time. Poured the last two remaining quarts of regular 10w-30 Pennzoil from my stock into the car and ran it for a few minutes at idle with only a couple of blips of the throttle into the 4-5,000 RPM range. Drained that stuff out, changed the filter and poured in the whole gallon of the Forum recommended Shell Rotella1 T6.

Donna and I then took about a 40 mile drive around the wilds of Aiken County to really work that cleaning action around. No CEL, but I really wasn’t expecting one. It’ll happen like it did on Saturday, just rolling along on a random road.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 168

1. I can’t get over the name of this oil, sounds like shape of pasta.

P0012

or: “A” Camshaft Position – Timing Over-Retarded (Bank 1) (Powertrain, Generic)

Earlier in the week we were planning on going over to the Augusta Coffee & Cars thing this morning. By yesterday afternoon after the bike ride home from work we had pretty much talked ourselves out of going there. It used to be enough of a drive when it was in Martinez, but now it is in Grovetown and it is 40 miles one way to get there. To make matters worse the trip includes about a dozen miles of Interstate travel. After dinner we came to the decision deadline point and decided we’d go to the June event (check back in a month to see if we make that one.)

So instead of weekly grocery shopping on Friday night we did it this morning. Afterward we went over to a friend’s house for a visit. Besides the amiable chit-chat, I had a small job to do there, putting together the last two chairs of her new patio furniture. That was all that her niece and husband didn’t have time to finish putting together before they left to go back to Indiana. I was amply rewarded for my minimal effort by Jackie buying Donna and my lunch from Jersey Mike’s. Which we enjoyed while sitting at the new table and chairs on her back deck.

A mile or so from Jackie’s house on the way home today the Check Engine Light illuminated again. Car was running just fine, just a light. My guess was it was going to be the same code that prompted the Automotive Workbench the week before. Since that visit and since the usually reliable Emperor has become spastic I decided to buy one of those little Bluetooth OBDII scanners and download a free app for the Kindle Fire. Sure enough, P0012, Cam Position. I had followed the AW guy’s advice, I changed to some new fresh oil last Friday, but I guess that didn’t really solve the issue. So instead of taking the car back to the certified real mechanics, I’ve decided to see about fixing this myself. What the heck, we’ve got a second car to rely on and hopefully I won’t screw this up too bad.

First step was to tap in the hive knowledge that is the Miata Forum. Apparently this issue is not that uncommon and I found numerous threads to read about it there. This failure code, in spite of my disbelief last week when Holley told me about the low oil thing, is directly related to VVT oil starvation issues. The first fix to try is to drain the current oil and replace it with some Rotella T-6 full synthetic oil because of it high detergent content. Drive for about 500-1000 miles and then change back to your regular oil. That is on the agenda for tomorrow.

If that doesn’t work there is supposedly a small mesh screen in the VVT system that can be removed and cleaned which appears to be not too technical of a job. After that, the next step is not for the faint at heart, rebuilding the VVT Actuator, but if you mess that up, lookout as it is a $500 dollar part! Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. I suppose before attempting that procedure I should opt for replacing the recently replaced Cam Angle Sensor in case it is bad for a tenth of the cost.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 167

Modification or Maintenance

I say a little of both.

Neither Donna nor I were happy with the suddenly somewhat louder, uglier exhaust note, so I marinated on what to do for a couple of days. The shop had checked for leaks and there were none, so it was one (hopefully) of three things: muffler, catalytic converter or resonator. The easiest thing to check would be the muffler as it separate and held on by only two bolts and some rubber hangers. I sent an email to everyone in the MMC asking if anyone had a stock muffler for a 1999-2005 Miata laying around.

I got two replies. One person’s car was torn apart in the middle of a roll bar install and would gladly pull his to let me test with it. And Clunk, of the famed wrenching and auto advice duo Clunk and Thunk, had a used Borla muffler he would sell me for a mere $40 and even help me install it. The second sounded like a winner because if the muffler was in fact the issue and it sounded good, we were done. If the muffler fixed the noise and I didn’t like the exhaust note I could decline the sale and then pick up a used stock one somewhere or make the investment in a new Racing Beat.

At the last minute, Thunk volunteered a stock muffler, plus a whole mid-pipe (the piece with the cat & resonator) off a ’99 that he had inherited from a fellow racer. He said he’d give it the Clunk to bring over and if that was the way I went we could haggle over cost later.

I had doused the nuts holding the muffler to the mid-pipe flange with Liquid Wrench Friday night and then for good measure squirted some more on Saturday morning. I got the back of the car up on jack stands and with a bit of percussive persuasion I got the nuts off. About then Rudy arrived and brought out his foot and half long 1/2″ breaker bar and a can of silicone spray to get off those pesky rubber hangers. Ten minutes later we had mounted John’s stock muffler on the two exhaust side hangers and the flange. Started it up and revved the engine a few times. It sounded like, surprise, a stock muffler. This confirmed it must be something broken with the Racing Beat.

Because we missed the sportier sound of our previous Miata, one of the first modifications we did to the Emperor was adding the Racing Beat muffler. So knowing that both of us would be unsatisfied with the stock sound, I said to Rudy, “While we have it here, let’s go ahead and mount the Borla.” Even though they had recently been stretched and coated in silicone, those 2 rubber mounts were still a hassle to get lose. Got the Borla on there and revved it a few times – much more sports car-ish. I liked it, but I needed to get my co-driver to actually hear it too. We dropped the car off the jack stands and I collected Donna from the living room for a short test drive.

Overall it is a little louder than the Racing Beat at neighborhood throttle and when you stomp on the go pedal hard it is a little more than a little louder than the RB, but it is quieter and less ugly sounding than the Racing Beat had become. Donna pronounced that she could live with it. I paid Rudy for the muffler and both Donna and I are happier that we didn’t have to drop 10 times that cost on a new muffler.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 165

Back Home Again

The Emperor is back in the garage again tonight. The original theory of a timing issue because of the previous shop needing to get under the timing belt covers to change the Crank Position Sensor didn’t pan out. Turns out that sensor sits outside the cover so there would be no reason for them to be inside the cover.

Yesterday evening’s new theory was the fact that I was a quart low on oil so that the VVT was not working all the way and that would have caused the CEL, the slight hesitation and possibly the louder exhaust sounds. When they suggested this to me I tried, maybe not to successfully, to hide the incredulous expression on my face. Their plan for today was to test drive it before adding oil and then afterwards to see if that had any effect. I said, “Go for it.” I mean, what the heck, can’t hurt.

I didn’t get any phone calls today from the folks at AW, so on the way home today we stopped in. They had gotten busy and didn’t have a chance to get to my problem, so when I showed up Holley said let’s try it. He added a quart and off we went with him driving. They had cleared the CEL and I have to admit I felt no hesitation and maybe the exhaust note was a bit less. At the halfway point, we swapped places, and I drove it back to the shop. No light, no bogged down feeling, but still just a little louder than this old fogey would like at wide open throttle. Holley said, “Let me run a full bead all the way around that resonator and you can take the car home. The exit prescription was to change the oil and if the CEL comes back on, bring it back.

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 163

This Has Now Become Commonplace

The Emperor is spending the night at an auto repair shop.

We got the Miata back on Friday evening and Saturday we drove to Augusta in it. Within the first couple of miles we both knew something just wasn’t right. There was zero rear diff noise, but under heavy throttle the exhaust sounded crazy loud and slightly under powered. Donna mentioned the noise right off and while my butt dyno felt a little power lag, I couldn’t be sure.

We made two trips to Augusta over the weekend and when I kept the throttle levels at neighborhood driving levels the car felt fine. But putting your foot in it, as they say, resulted in increased exhaust volume. A quick search on Miata.net on the issued resulted in several hundred not on point hits.

Monday we drove the Miata to work, but about a half mile from home the Check Engine Light came on. It was running fine and felt fine, but I pulled a U-turn and came home to get in the Sonata.

My first thought was I needed to find out exactly which things they changed at Wayne’s, so I could let the folks know at my new favorite shop know. This turned out to be harder than you would think it would be, but not surprising considering my actual repair experience there.1

At a round cubicle discussion with co-workers discussing my continued Miata woes someone posits that maybe the new shop had to remove some part of the exhaust system to replace the differential and poked a hole in a pipe or cracked a gasket or something. So I called the Automotive Workbench and spoke to Holley and he said that they didn’t have to touch any exhaut components to do the swap, but please bring the car in and we’ll run the code.

After work Donna followed me over to the AW and Holley and I went for a test drive. The first thing he said to me once I buried my foot was, “A lot of people pay good money to get that sound.” I told him, “If I was 20 years-old, I wouldn’t be complaining. But the sound level is almost twice as loud as what it normally is.” When we got back to the shop he took it out back to put it on a lift to check for leaks and run the code.

With Holley’s code reading of Crank Position Sensor Issue, my description of symptoms and some spitballing with Brian the owner we have a possible problem (timing belt off a notch, possibly when Wayne’s installed the new sensor) and a plan of attack for them tomorrow, pull the valve cover to see if that is it and also re-weld around the pre-silencer on the mid-pipe that Steve at Panic had spot welded on a while back.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 162

Motoring Challenge Points 2, Approx Miles Driven 60
Totals So Far: 56 points & 970 miles

1. Finally at 4:30PM I got the email with the correct info.

Beefed Up Butt

Political Yard Sign

The Emperor is back home this evening filling up the our garage after us filling up the coffers at Automotive Workbench.

Not really wanting to spend what it would cost for the new LSD for the Miata I did a little research over the weekend and came up with a couple options. The first was a new aftermarket unit from Flying Miata and a used unit from Treasure Coast Miata. I called them up on Monday and asked them to try and get the used unit first, failing that, go for the newer more expensive one.

In the afternoon the mechanic1 called back and said the used unit was still available and on its way. After we hung up I went back and looked at the Treasure Coast Miata ad again and I noticed it was from a Mazdaspeed Miata. That is when I thought I remembered seeing somewhere that that model LSD was beefed up some to accommodate the increased power from the turbo. I did some research and discovered I was right. The axle used with the Mazdaspeed unit are a couple millimeters larger in diameter at the differential end. My stock ones wouldn’t work. Ruh-roh! Am I going to have to buy some axles? How much is that going to cost? Then I went back to the ad and saw that they were including the axles in the deal. Phew.

On Tuesday Holley called me again. This time to tell me the Emperor needed a new battery. He had to jump start it both days when he needed to re-position it around the shop. Seemed like I just bought a battery. Yep, did, but it was for the Sonata. This is the third battery for the Miata in its lifetime. The OEM lasted 5-1/2 months The genuine Mazda replacement lasted two months longer than its 2 year warranty. This one was from Autozone and it equaled the longevity of the OEM at about 5-1/2 months.

No call on Wednesday, but Thursday afternoon Holley called again to tell me that my rear brake pads were getting low and did I want him to change them while he was in there because it would be cheaper than if I brought it in later. I declined because that is something I actually can do myself. But his question got me to ask, “Does that mean the differential is there?” Holey said, “Yeah and I should be done tomorrow afternoon.” He was and Donna and I stopped by on the way home to pick it up.

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 06/25/15: 161

1. The fellow’s name is Holley and I wonder if he was predestined to become an auto mechanic after being named for the famed carburetor company. I didn’t ask, so it could just as well be an old family name.