MX-5 (NB) Ownership Thread

Dorje said:
The number plate bracket costs £15, and the plate cost me £10. There were 2 holes left behind. Luckily someone decided to reverse into my front bumper, so I got the plate and holes sorted at the body shop.
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Yeah it does look good. I think I will get my holes filled and sprayed when I get the respray work done. Although I am also quite tempted to go the same route as a friends very nice old MK2.5:



Dorje said:
The OEM front lip thing isn't really visible from the front, I could only notice when the car was jacked up. I think it helps with high speed stability, but I'm not sure. I actually didn't need to remove it to the fit the GV lip, but I did as I assumed they shared the same mounting holes w/o checking.:o No harm done in removing it though. Not done anything with it, although I've seen people sell them on ebay.
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Well if you are up for selling it I would definitely be interested :)

So how are the new shocks bedding in? Have you noticed much improvement in handling / ride compared to the standard sport ones? I have always been very happy with mines handling (also a 98 1.8iS) and in a way I am a bit apprehensive of changing it, however it would be nice to be a bit lower!

Also what size are your Volks? Will you be staying with 15's? I have set of the official Mk2.5 Sport 16" 5 spoke twin spokes in the shed again waiting for me to get them on the car. However, as with the suspension, I am a bit concerned that going from 15 to 16 may be detremental, as I imagine they are a bit heavier?

Cheers
 
mark66 said:
Yeah it does look good. I think I will get my holes filled and sprayed when I get the respray work done. Although I am also quite tempted to go the same route as a friends very nice old MK2.5:



Well if you are up for selling it I would definitely be interested :)

So how are the new shocks bedding in? Have you noticed much improvement in handling / ride compared to the standard sport ones? I have always been very happy with mines handling (also a 98 1.8iS) and in a way I am a bit apprehensive of changing it, however it would be nice to be a bit lower!

Also what size are your Volks? Will you be staying with 15's? I have set of the official Mk2.5 Sport 16" 5 spoke twin spokes in the shed again waiting for me to get them on the car. However, as with the suspension, I am a bit concerned that going from 15 to 16 may be detremental, as I imagine they are a bit heavier?

Cheers
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Yup stick on plates suit the Mk2 very well, more so than the other years. The only thing that put me off was that it would be hard to get in position first time, unless you know what you are doing. Also with the offset bracket I can remove the whole thing w/o leaving a mark on the bumper.

The main reason I chose to get the Eibach's was to remove the large arch gap. Handling is still great and there is less body roll, it 'reacts' quicker I would say. I'd say the ride is largely unaffected except for potholed surfaces where the standard suspension is more compliant over bumps, but still very acceptable.

Yup the Volks are 15", they'll actually be slightly heavier than stock rims as they are 7J rather than 6J. The stock Mk2 1.8iS rims are actually nice light rims, I'll be keeping them and probably respraying them gold/bronze for winter use. I wouldn't worry about using 16" rims at all, lots of people use 16/17" rims successfully on Mk2's. I think 15" is generally accepted as best for handling, also 195/50/15 is very cheap for tyres which is one of the main reasons for me staying 15". People running 16/17" rims do tend to change the suspension fully with kit like that from P5 though.
 
Right, finally got the Rays Volk/Mazdaspeed MS-01's refurbed last week.

Went to fit them and found that the stock nuts were too large for the holes! So had to order some slim line ones, last couple of days have been atrocious weather. So I got my window of opportunity today, and here they are:

Side on pic:
kd33w6.jpg


Another angle: (This picture came out surprisingly shiny, sun was nice and bright then, car is actually bit dirty from the rain)
2s16sg3.jpg


Quite happy with it, shouldn't be any more changes for a few months. :)
 
Really nice, can't believe how much car you get for 2.5k. Like the mods you've done too. For some reason the wheels weren't quite what I was expecting, but look good nonetheless.
 
There are some decals which I can put on, but I'm not decided on that yet.

I wasn't sure when I first got them, mainly bought them for the new tyres on it :p Was £200 delivered for the set with new Michelin Pilots.

I think MX-5 prices this winter pretty much hit rock bottom. Although there is a mk2 MX5 on mx5nutz.com for £1200 which is fine apart from loss of compression on one cylinder, replacement engine for it is about £300 afaik.
 
DrDee said:
I really like what you have done with the front of yours, is this the lip you have?

http://www.mx5mad.com/product_info.php?cPath=23_38_54&products_id=61
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Not quite, it was on that site. As recent as a couple of weeks ago actually, it seems they are out of stock now as they have reduced prices.

The only other place I know of is here, but with the exchange rate will be more expensive.

Alternatively as I'm sure you'll know, the mk2 OEM air dam/lip can be found be on mx5parts.com. But again more expensive and I think needs spraying.


Ohh and your mk2 is actually one of my favourites, mainly because you have TE37's iirc :p I'd love to have some in the future, but I'm not feeling flush enough to do that atm.
 
Freefaller said:
How does it fair going over bumps? I often had a bit of scrape scrape :( situations, you must have that a lot!
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Actually not much problem for me surprisingly enough!

Iirc you live near/in London which may explain your troubles, how much was it lowered?

I have 2 quite large speedbumps on my road, but they have nice gradual slopes and can still be taken at 20mph very easily.

It's the smaller ones which are have a steeper gradient which I avoid. Although to be fair I tried to avoid them before as they bottomed out my suspension then, nevermind now. With these ones I just have to slow right down, and so far I've only scraped once on an unfamiliar speed bump.
 
It's the straddle ones I had trouble with, I had to go 1 wheel on 1 wheel off and slooowly! The sleeping policemen just needed to be attacked slowly and they were fine. It wasn't lowered by much it was a by product of the improved suspension. :)
 
Fortunately I don't encounter any sleeping policemen in my normal routes/journeys, I can imagine them being a night mare. I've only ever experienced them when I first learnt to drive, and found them near city centre residential areas.

I'll probably upgrade the suspension fully to something from P5 or from WIM in the future, but so far I'm not having any problems as of yet :)
 
Dorje said:
Ohh and your mk2 is actually one of my favourites, mainly because you have TE37's iirc :p I'd love to have some in the future, but I'm not feeling flush enough to do that atm.
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Thanks bro, I cant take any of the credit for that, the previous owner (who has now moved on to a boringmobile :p) did all the modifications. I keep getting pulled over for the front number plate though so I'm thinking of sorting the front end with a lip and moving the number plate like you have done.
 
why are you getting pulled for the front number plate? As far as I can see it is present but just over on the left hand side of the car?

I've driven around with a stick on numberplate for mine on the front for the last 3 years and I've never been pulled or had it questioned at MOT.
 
mattpc said:
why are you getting pulled for the front number plate? As far as I can see it is present but just over on the left hand side of the car?

I've driven around with a stick on numberplate for mine on the front for the last 3 years and I've never been pulled or had it questioned at MOT.
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Mine isn't to the side.


 
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