Lube and rubber

Had some free hours on the weekend, and I'm off to Phillip Island next week, so last chance to get ready!

Got some new tyres fitted - Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212 to give them their full title.
Size is 195/50R15, they look very square on the factory 15x6" wheels as you can see above. As soon as I left the tyre shop the wheels were spinning, but that is (hopefully only) due to the release compound doing its thing. All going well they should be scrubbed in by next week.

With Tony busy today, I jacked the car in the street and crawled under to change some fluids.
First, engine oil - I don't think the previous stuff was too old, but at least I have a starting point now. Shell Helix Ultra full synthetic 5W-40.
Then on to the gearbox oil - good to see the gorilla still works at the Mazda factory - those gearbox fill and drain caps were on stupidly tight. It took a BFH to encourage them off. Refilled with 1 litre of Castrol Syntrax and the remainder (nearly a litre) of Castrol ATF - a strange mix admittedly, but ATF is apparently good for curing crunchy shifts (which I have badly on 2nd gear), because it is less viscous and allows the synchros to engage faster. Will find out how it goes soon...
Lastly, I replaced the shifter boots which were torn (see previous post) and topped up the shift tower (with ATF, because the bottle was open).

Dropped the tyre pressure back from 36 psi that the tyre guys had put in it,to something more sensible. Surprisingly not much difference in ride though. Must be some stiff sidewalls here :o)

I have the Powah!

She's back - at last! Sadly took a week longer than expected, which means I missed out on going to DECA. :o(
Looks good though!

I got her back just in time to go to the club dyno day.
73.7 kW of power, and 1993 Newtons (?) of force (analogous to torque) at the rollers of the Caulfield Jag dyno. This is (as I recall from previous years) pretty much normal for a standard NB, so all is good in that respect.

I have a box full of goodies to fit in the next couple of weeks, I started with some new globes tonight - Phillips BlueVision, the colour seems OK (very white) even if they're not any brighter (which was the aim...).

Are we there yet?

OK, so this isn't the MX, but it's car fun nonetheless. I thought it was about time to pull the DVD navigation unit out of the BMW. It's a Japan-only system, so as useful as tits on a bull around here. Not as simple a task as first imagined... I can't believe how complex this thing is! 6 radio sensors on the rear window, a GPS sensor, another sensor (VICS?) on the dash, a couple of signal amplifiers, the DVD unit, and several other electronics boxes scattered throughout the car - in the boot, on the parcel shelf, and behind the glovebox. What's shown doesn't even include the TV screen that must have been in there also...

I reckon I saved about 5kg.

What's wrong with a bloody Navman?????

Blink and you'd miss it

Not much happening lately - I was supposed to be going to a track day at Sandown, but given the condition of the car (see below), that wasn't happening. It's off to the shop tomorrow morning, hopefully to be fixed before the next club event.

So to alleviate the boredom of a lack of car tinkering (or maybe just to satisfy my anally retentive attention to detail) I pulled off the corner reflectors and sanded back all the raised lettering. Start with 400 grit wet and dry to buff off the lettering, then again with 1200 (the finest in the shop, 2000 would be better), and finally a buff with plastic polish.

Hopefully the panel shop guys will be able to figure out which one goes where when they reassemble it, now that they aren't labelled. I didn't get round to doing the side indicators, but they could really do with the same work done. There's a couple of letters on the rear lights too, but I probably won't bother with those ones.

But the job isn't complete yet. They're still orange. The next task is to find and apply some lens tint and blacken them up - I saw some painted on another car recently and it looks superb.

handbrake - fixed

Took the (dented) car back to Tony's on Saturday to get the handbrake sorted out properly. We unbolted the lever and disconnected the rear cables and loosened everything off (finally managed to unscrew the handle adjuster barrel. Then reconnected, adjusted the calipers correctly, and it was perfect!

The front cable section is still frayed though, we will install a new piece next week.

Bugger!

photos say it all (well, no public comments anyway til the insurance is sorted)

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.