MX5 Owners in here....bring your curling tongs

dirtychinchilla said:
That's a beauty! I should be picking up my NB Jasper Conran edition on the 18th! I'm bloody excited. I'm going to see it tomorrow, but I think I've already made my mind up. It's owned by my cousin so I trust that it's in good nick anyway.

The bodywork on his car is fine, but in terms of the engine, could you please let me know what sort of checks I should be doing to see how it is?
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Only issue I've had with mine in ~10 months engine wise are coolant leaks.

All cheap repairs but a 2 out of three we're a pain in the rear.

The heater hoses that go into the bulk head are both common. One is a 3 minute job to replace the other depends how nimble your hands are, the other one I replaced runs near the oil filter housing and took the best part of 2 hours shouting and swearing because without stripping the half the left side of the engine you get very little room to move
 
dirtychinchilla said:
Hah wow, OK! How would I check those out? If you think I need to that is...
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You can't really check the one by the oil filter. I just keep an eye on coolant level and temperatures (MegaSquirt ECU so my phone goes into a brodit holder showing various data when I'm in the car) but the heater hoses you'll see white staining below or around them.

But to be honest mine is a 98 model so its fair to say cooling system parts will need replacing due to rubber not lasting forever
 
dirtychinchilla said:
OK cool, I'll try and look!

Do you have any advice for things to look out for on the car when I go and look at it tonight? It's the MK2.
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Rust. Find some photos etc of where to look. At the end of the day it's a reasonably old car and bits and bobs will be coming to the end of their life and need replacing, but parts are reasonably cheap and the car is still one you can work on yourself relatively easily.

If it's rotten though it gets expensive fast.

On a side note, I've booked mine in for a week at BBR to get the supercharger install sorted, clutch sorted and handling sorted.

Hoping it's going to be a 90% labour bill given the parts I've had put on (badly) so BBR will hopefully just iron out all the niggles.
 
I don't think rust is an issue on this car, I'll check it though, of course. I'm more concerned about the engine, whether there's anything in particular to check out? I'm not a mechanic so I'm not entirely sure what to look for.

Thanks mate :)
 
That's the thing though, the bits that rust that cause serious issues are where you have to look for specifically and they're well hidden.

If you know the guy and trust him fair enough, but does he know how to check the chassis rails himself is the question.
 
He did tell me that he'd "had some welding done to correct some rust", so perhaps that could be what he had done?

The guy's my cousin and I trust him very much, but at the same time, he is also not a mechanic and only knows so much about cars. I'm searching around now to find some buying guides or something.

Very very very excited to go and check this car out and take it for a test drive though!!!
 
They're a pretty bomb proof engine to be fair.

They'll take close to double the standard power with a Turbo for starters.

Mine is on 108k miles its rev'd to 7k rpm most of the time I drive it (Now 7.5k with an increased limiter) and it doesn't smoke/rattle or use any meaningful amount of oil
 
I fitted Vmaxx Coilovers last night but they are utterly horrendous. Bouncy and rock solid.


Looking to either buy HSD's or MeisterR's.

Car will never be on track, just want to go lower and still have comfort.

Anyone have any recommendations?
 
I've got Meister R and though I'm having handling issues I don't think that's the coilovers fault, it's the installation.

But the adjustability makes them brilliant IMO, from reasonably OEM feel to very stiff in a couple of mins, perfect for me as it's a daily that I drive 200 miles to my folks in occasionally.

My daughter can sleep no problem when they're on soft settings but a quick tweak and I'm ready to chase my bro in law across Northumberland in his Focus ST.
 
So, I drove the MX5 last night, and it was brilliant! I spent ages inspecting the bodywork and it all looks great. There are some minor bits of damage to it, but they're purely cosmetic and I think I can fix nearly all of them. There is a bit that I'm slightly concerned about where apparently a repair job was done...it looks a little ropey, but I think it's just some lumpy welding.

The drive was fantastic. I've only driven an MX5 once before at it was very restrained and the 1.6. This was the 1.8, and my good it feels rapid! The engine purrs like a beast, acceleration is superb, handling feels absolutely crazy. That was also my second time driving rear wheel drive, and it's really really strange. Feels like it will spin out on every corner...but it doesn't!

So, I bought it. £1,725 all in. We flipped a coin on the £25 and I won. I don't get it until the 18th, but I'm so bloody excited!! It's done 104k miles, and is the Jasper Conran edition btw.

A few pictures!

IMG_1261_zpsmf5wp5gx.jpg
 
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very nice, loved my (platinum) conran, unfortunately i ended up having to change the wheels as one was buckled and they are nigh on impossible to get replacements. £1725 sounds like a good price, can't believe how much these have dropped.
 
That looks really tidy. I want your gearnob, steering wheel and handbrake lever. The polished ally/stainless looks no much nicer than black plastic.

Not a fan of the luggage rack though

Edit: I paid £950 for my early Mk2 with 105k miles last Xmas. Body work needed a little attention though
 
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Anyone know how hard it is to change the light/indicator stalks? mine is v loose and super easy to knock onto high beam when indicating.
 
Hxc said:
Anyone know how hard it is to change the light/indicator stalks? mine is v loose and super easy to knock onto high beam when indicating.
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IIRC it's fairly straight forward. There's a guy on Nutz that does some lovely billet aluminium ones too
 
LiamC said:
I fitted Vmaxx Coilovers last night but they are utterly horrendous. Bouncy and rock solid.


Looking to either buy HSD's or MeisterR's.

Car will never be on track, just want to go lower and still have comfort.

Anyone have any recommendations?
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HSD monopro are excellent, got friends with them fitted on NA and NB. Excellent roll stiffness with almost no detriment to ride comfort and bump compliance.
I've not tried one on Meisters, but would absolutely recommend the HSD.
 
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