Miatatude

To alleviate the close your eyes and gun it strategy of crossing between the Aiken Mall and Publix, our thoughtful city planners placed a small traffic circle at the 4-way intersection. We are rarely there because I hate the traffic on that end of town, but tonight we needed something from a particular store so there we were. We also needed a few small items from Publix so the traffic circle would get run.

On the way in I only got to do 1/4 of the circle because we were just turning right. I threatened a 450 degree turn, but thought better of it when I got the look. After some shopping I did get to finish the circle on the way out. To make up for the ho-hum entrance I wound it up to about 5000 rpm for the 270 degree exit thereby cramming all the groceries into the right side of the trunk. The lateral G portion of the ride was fine, but I got another look when I accelerated from 5k to near redline upon straightening out. I then had to just coast the last 50 yards to the traffic light at the main road.

I’m sure if there was anyone else around they would have smiled at my idiocy of rushing through the circle to have to wait 3 minutes for the light to change, but who cares I had fun. And in spite of the second look, so did my passenger.

I thought I had a possible slow leak near the end of February. I took it to the LTS (Local Tire Store) and they couldn’t find any leak. They had the tire off and submerged but found nothing. They took the tire back off when I told them I thought I found something and marked the tire.

I went to rotate the tires in the middle of April and when the LTS put the tire back on earlier they must have stripped a lugnut because I could get it off. When I returned to the LTS with my tale of woe they replaced the lug.

When we were chasing the Tour de Georgia we both noticed a faint chirping noise that is coming from that wheel area. It sounds like a brake squealer, but it doesn’t seem to be brake related. It happens when braking or when not. It is not constant, but random and frequent. Seems to occur going over bumps and or rough road, but it is also present when turning corners. This past Thursday I returned to the LTS and mentioned the noise. They pulled the wheel and looked around, but couldn’t find anything wrong. One of the counter guys took it for a ride and couldn’t hear anything, so they gave me back the keys. I got halfway home and the noise returned. 🙁

Friday while washing the car I noticed that the brake pads on the offending side were facing a different direction than the other side. AH HA! So Saturday morning I went back to the LTS and got a counter guy to come out so I could show him that somebody had put the brake pads back on wrong. We looked at one side, then the other. We went back to the “bad” side and he said, “They are on right.” I felt about as tall as a valve stem.

The brake pads are shaped like fat C’s, they have wide middles and tabs on the ends. Well on the passenger side the tabs face to the right. On the driver’s side they face to the left. But that is correct, the calipers are on the back sides of both wheels, so the pads may be facing in opposite directions, but they are both facing the front of the car. Duh! The LTS guy was polite and told me to bring it back another day and they would re look at it.

This afternoon I decided to take a look myself. Put the car up on jack stands and removed both rear tires. The first thing I noticed on my noisy wheel was that the W springs that move the pads off the rotor when the brakes are released were not there. Eureka! But when I checked the other side they were not there either. So maybe that isn’t it. The caliper slider pins were both pretty dry so I greased them good, but a short test drive revealed that wasn’t the problem. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted.

The car is filthy. From 10 yards away it looks alright, but unfortunately I have to get a little closer to drive it. Not just the outside, but the inside needs a vacuuming. It is also about time to clean and treat the leather seats. Just did a quick search of my electronic memory and found that it was March of last year when I did the seats. Yikes! It is also time for a waxing because that same memory (this blog) tells me the last waxing occurred on December 31st of 2004. Well let’s not get too ambitious, a wash and vacuum for sure tomorrow.

There is a 60% chance of scattered strong thunderstorms on Saturday, I’ll just have to make sure the car is inside the garage during that 60%.

Well not mine really, but the three sons of Bob Hall. Mazda has got a special edition of the next generation Miata traveling the country. At selected cities they bolt it to the top of a fire truck and drive it around that city. A stop is made at a fire station where money is donated and they unload the new Miata where people can get a close up and personal look and feel for the new car. At a stop in DC some of the enterprising Miataphiles parked one each of the first two generations of Miatas next to the new one so we could get a feel for how they all looked compared to each other. The red new one was in the middle with a silver 2nd gen to the left and a black 1st gen on the right. Well yesterday in Tampa they went that one better. They lined up all three gens in red and in order and snapped a few pictures. I asked the photographer for a higher resolution image and he sent me a copy at 1600 x 1200. I promptly turned it into my new desktop…

The folks at the neighborhood tire store were nice enough when I stopped in after work with my problem. I had to wait about an hour to get them to fix the cross threaded lug nut. When they tried to remove the seized one, the lug busted off, so we had to wait for them to get a new lug delivered. No charge.

Of course when I got home and finished the rotation job I had to use a breaker bar on two of the four lugs on the wheel they just worked on. Next time I go in there I will ask them if they know what the torque specs are for the lug nuts on a Miata. The answer is 66-86 foot/pounds.