Interior

First - just an opinion. I don't know how Mazda managed to remove both leg room and head room between the NA and NB series but this car feels really cramped inside. I have the seat at its rearmost notch, and my legs are just comfortable. Likewise, my hair is brushing the soft top, and I haven't pulled a helmet on yet... I don't think I'm all that tall. 185 cm isn't excessive. But I really need a different seat in this thing. The only option seems to be a race seat but that's not a good option in a daily driver.

Now...
I pulled apart the centre console this weekend for some inspections.

Rubber shift boots are torn as expected (top one only a little, but the bottom one's completely gone).

I pulled out the dash trim to check the radio as it's had an annoying rattle. Tightened up the DIN bracket which has helped. I had hoped to install something less ugly (eg an OEM stereo), painfully it appears that the last installer cut out the OEM stereo plug... idiots.

handbrake

Tyra spent a couple of hours at Tony's the other night trying to get the handbrake sorted out. It is not holding properly, and will be totally useless if it's like this when it comes to DECA (reminder - gotta get my entry in soon!)

It appears that a previous mechanic nuffnuff who didn't know what they were doing has wound up the adjustment in the handle as far as it will go, and then some, seizing the cable adjuster screw onto the rotating barrel. So now it can't be backed off. Morons. The only adjustment that should ever be done is inside the rear calipers.

Will be back there in a week or so to get it sorted properly. Likely to need a new cable, as it looks quite frayed from all the twisting.

Otherwise things are all good. The entry for Sandown sprints (and a new CAMS licence) have been posted off - can't wait to get out there again! The Bimmer has landed! duty and GST paid, unregistered vehcle permit done, and it' in our hands. Needs to go down to the garage to get complianced though.

diff oil

Dodgy Steve and Lilla came round for coffees and dinner, so we drained the diff and refilled it in the driveway. Someone still has my hand pump after the last Dodgy Day, so we had to squirt it from the bottle. This is next to impossible with the car as-is. The solution was to drop the muffler to gain line-of-sight access to the filler hole. Luckily the rusty exhaust nuts came off without a murmur.

Of course, theres only one thing you can do when the car has no muffler on it. Yup. BRMMM BRMMM! Sounds awesome. Almost as loud as Craig Healy's exhaust.

Diff oil used was Castrol SAF-XA. Full Synth. Still have the gearbox to do but that's a bit trickier and we were out of time.

more stuff

a few miscellaneous maintenance things...

I checked the soft top drain pans behind the seat belts, and found the plastic stoppers that were missing from the convertible top frame. Cleaned and reinstalled.

The soft top drain holes were badly blocked up so I stuck an old wiper blade down them to clean out the crud.

And the headlight aim was awful so I tweaked it up to a normal level.

Have been shopping for fluids for the diff and gearbox next, want to get all the maintenance sorted before the first event.

Battery

More work last night! The battery in the car (probably the original, as it was a factory Panasonic) was struggling - particularly on the cold mornings - to turn the engine over. Alas the MX-5 is a hard car to find batteries for, as they are mounted in the boot and vented so the boot doesn't fill up with corrosive or explosive gases.

After some research I found a local supplier of Odyssey batteries, a brand of compact sealed units - perfect not only for the enclosed mounting environment, but also good for shedding a couple of kilos! I chose the PC680MJT model, which is quite small and therefore lacking in some capacity, but I never really run the accessories with the engine off, so that shouldn't be a big issue.



The alarm has been false triggering constantly since purchase (and before apparently) - the previous owner said it was due to the movement sensors but the code said it was due to the bonnet switch. So a trip to Jaycar found me a new pin switch, which was installed and the wiring fixed up (a twisted joint soldered properly) at the same time.

Lastly (for today!) the idle dip (to about 400 rpm) was fixed. The usual method was used - earth the TEN pin to GND in the Diagnostics box, and adjust the TB bypass screw.

Brake Fluid

I'm getting lazy when it comes to taking photos. This isn't good because I actually washed Tyra today (as well as my parent's car which has been on loan to us, and has probably not been polished since... ever?). She looked very nice in the morning sun with the blingy wheels flashing in all their glory, but the sun was showing up some swirls and scratches.

I flushed the brake fluid and replaced it with PBR BF-600 - the best stuff in stock at the local Repco. A bit pricey (cheaper than Castrol SRF though), but worth it for when I get to the track. I also flushed the clutch fluid, which was typically grungy in the reservoir. I even pulled the clutch reservoir off (needed a damn good yank!) and cleaned it out inside (poke a finger in there and wipe liberally).

Next will be the diff and gearbox fluids! Some good pads would probably help. Should be just about ready to hit the track after that.