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Aug 31, 2013 22:01:08 GMT
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Hi guys, I finally have one of the cars on my bucket list. After starting up self employeed part time (now full time ) I needed a car that could negotiate the dire roads of Birmingham better than my very low Audi 80 Avant. After it being up for sale for a few weeks the original owner Craig asked if I fancied a swap with for an MX5. The car I required for my new job had to be: 1: Practical. 2: Five door. 3: Fairly big boot. 4: Diesel. As this MX5 fitted the bill quite nicely we did a deal and swapped. Although I've owned the car for a few months now, I never really took any pictures of it. Today as I'd done the work on the suspension (see below) I took it to my parents and gave it a wash, cut and wax. Sorry about the curse word pictures, the light was fading and the only thing with camera/charge was my iPod. and of course, the obligatory topless photo Now as stated above, one of the problems with the car before I had it was the rear suspension was shot. I drove around with it in this condition as the original plan was to save up some cash and get some decent shocks/spring setup and have it a little lower. After ages spent searching for the right setup, I remembered I needed the car to be practical so I asked Bruce if he had a spare set of rear shocks knocking round. Better than that, he sold me the entire strut setup So massive thanks to Bruce for them and Brian for pony expressing them from the gathering back to Brum. I spent a suprisingly short amount of time changing the units over. It was an absolute pleasure to work on this car! Really boosted my mojo as it was running a little low. No stuck bolts or baffling things to get your head round. Four bolts each side, some brute force and it was finished. Old spring (was major leaking and had eaten some of it) New/used spring from Bruce All fitted Took it for a test drive round some twisty roads and a few bumpy bits and I cannot believe the differance! It's like a completly different car. It's quicker, puts the power down better, brakes better and sticks to the road like curse word to a blanket. I was truely amazed! There are a few more bits to do yet. I've ordered a mushroom filter for it as the K&N filter I had with it doesn't fit property and don't want the original box back on. Electric window is very tempremental on the drivers side so I've got a used switch coming. Since I have to remove the centre console to get the switch out I've got some new gaiters for the handbrake and gearstick as they are a bit discoloured and a No. 10 poolball gearknob as I always have one in my cars. The end of the exhaust dropped off too a few weeks back due to rust so going to be getting a straight thru stainless steel centre pipe and backbox as I don't need to be running a cat.
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Last Edit: Jan 4, 2015 17:24:48 GMT by MiniDan
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craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,993
Club RR Member Number: 35
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1992 Eunos Roadstercraig1010cc
@craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member 35
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Aug 31, 2013 22:09:15 GMT
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Glad to see your making some progress with it Dan The old rear shocks did really spoil the driving pleasure. now all you need are some nice BBS rims for it
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Aug 31, 2013 22:15:24 GMT
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Glad to see your making some progress with it Dan The old rear shocks did really spoil the driving pleasure. Cheers matey. It was bad with the old ones but I can't believe how bad now the new/old ones are one. now all you need are some nice BBS rims for it Yep Sorry I forgot to text you about coming down your way. I had a load of work come in and couldn't turn it down. I will be down for them soon.
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Sept 6, 2013 18:17:57 GMT
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Poolball gearknob, gearstick/handbrake gaiters and the electric window switch turned up the other day so cracked on with fitting. Before: After: The air filter did turn up but I was sent the wrong inlet adaptor so waiting for the correct one to turn up.
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Sept 7, 2013 12:53:19 GMT
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I miss Ed the Eunos Please take care of him, glad to hear he's still under the roof of RR!
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97' silver Mercedes 230 Slk.... charged 94' bronze Hiace custom ... daily drinker 92' white Eunos roadster....... sold 91' grey Mercedes 500 SL .... sexyful 82' white Mercedes 200......... needs lows
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Sept 7, 2013 17:18:41 GMT
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Quicker than I expected, the company I brought the air filter off sent me the correct adaptor for the AFM so I nipped out between showers earlier to fit it. Unfortunatly it now makes the engine bay look really dirty Will have to give it a clean up and a lick of paint. Next on the list of parts, a stainless steel backbox and centre pipe. Cat deleted of course
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Sept 7, 2013 17:21:35 GMT
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I miss Ed the Eunos Please take care of him, glad to hear he's still under the roof of RR! I will be I absolutely love it. My son has named her 'Matilda' as it reminds him of the white bird from Angry Birds. He's given the same name to my 306 too which does fit it better.
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Well, it's been a while. I took the MX5 off the road at the end of January as I didn't want to be using it while the snow was around. Turns out we didn't have any... Never mind. My current daily, a Jeep Cherokee (aka the Heep), is slowly dying so the MX5 will go back into daily duty. Before it went off the road there was a horrible metallic noise coming from the rear n/s wheel. Having a quick look with the wheel off it looked like the brake pad was really low. Today a package arrived from MX5parts containing their aftermarket brake kit which consists of 2x vented front discs, 2x solid rear discs, EBC black stuff pads all round and an exhaust hanging kit (more on that soon). Cue one helper And we're ready to go. Jacked the car up, took the wheel off the n/s and we were greeted with this: Not looking at its best. Took the old pads and disc off. Ahh, that'll be why it's making a noise then. New parts: and fitted: Did the o/s too but didn't photograph any of that. Was quite easy to do. Didn't have any major problems. Started on the front too but was unfortunately abandoned as one of the bolts looked in a bad way and I'm an expert at snapping them. The garage can carry the fronts out before the MOT. Next on the list is the exhaust. That'll be the middle of next week though as I need to order two gaskets from MX5parts (fantastic place by the way) which I initially forgot about. Oops.
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Jun 20, 2014 22:57:24 GMT
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Yay! I'm back on the road! I don't have any photos of the progress as I gave everything to the garage to sort as I couldn't do it on the driveway. It had a pre-MOT check at it failed it on the following items: 2x track rod ends, 2x upper rubbers, backbox incomplete, slave cylinder leaking (already knew about this so had on to hand), 1x caliper leaking and 2x calipers seized. Track rod ends and rubbers were replaced for new items. Old exhaust system was removed and a nearly new MX5parts stainless steel centre pipe and backbox (was included in a deal for my old car transporter) and a good second hand de-cat pipe was installed with all new rubber hangers and the correct flanges from MX5parts. The new slave cylinder was installed and is working perfectly. The front discs and pads were installed when the calipers were off. The leaking caliper was just a washer needing replacing. One of the calipers was un-seized with a bit of persuasion, so re-greased the sliders and was working as it should, but the other was completely knackered. Wouldn't budge a milimeter. So a new one was installed and jobs-a-good'un. Only advisorys were some corrosion underneath and one of the tyres is getting close to the limit. Got insurance (cheers to Brentacre, quality service!) and tax today and it's back on the road. It sounds fantastic, not chavvy, just a lovely burble when your foots on the loud pedal. Brakes are feeling really sharp, even though their not bedded in yet, they already feel great. I couldn't be more pleased The next jobs are: - Oil change - Diff oil check/replacement - Sort the previous welding on the sills (not very tidy IMO) and repaint the stonechip paint. - Put some drain holes in the one sill as the repair has covered the original one up.
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Jun 22, 2014 16:38:58 GMT
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I really need to replace the rear shocks on mine, someone went to the trouble of new springs but no shocks.curse word awful like a pogo stick!
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'98 e36 316i lux '97 mx5 harvard '87 Saab 900 T16s
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Jun 22, 2014 19:59:16 GMT
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Grabbed a few pictures this morning after a blast out with mini-MiniDan of the new exhaust I really need to replace the rear shocks on mine, someone went to the trouble of new springs but no shocks.curse word awful like a pogo stick! It seems a little counter-productive changing just one and not the other (unless they were in good nick). The differance it made with the second hand ones was amazing! Defiantly worth the effort!
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craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,993
Club RR Member Number: 35
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1992 Eunos Roadstercraig1010cc
@craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member 35
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Jun 22, 2014 22:13:50 GMT
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Glad to hear that your making progress Dan Can't believe how bad teh pads were
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Jun 22, 2014 22:20:28 GMT
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Glad to hear that your making progress Dan Can't believe how bad teh pads were Cheers matey. The other side on the rear wasn't as bad as that. Still had a bit of life left in them. I think it was down to the caliper being seized on that side. Strangely though, I managed to get the new disc/pads on there. On a seporate note, I may be heading down your way for work very soon.
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Last Edit: Jun 22, 2014 22:21:16 GMT by MiniDan
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After a lot of mojo loss in general life and cars, I hadn't been on RR for approx. a month. Still not got my mojo back. I had neglected the MX5 an oil change so decided it needed doing. Not really much to show, but here's the new oil filter. I'm very thankful that the last person to service it did the oil filter up property (ie. hand tight) as I don't think it's easy getting a tool in there! Was hard enough getting my hand in! Lots of thick, black oil came out too. While the oil was draining I tackled a job which has been anoying me for ages... the grey window wiper arms. Over time, as most stuff does, they had faided to a horrible greyish colour. So whipped them off the car. Eeeeeeeeee... Gave them a good rub down with a sanding pad, sprayed with primer then sprayed with some black paint. This was an oversight though as I though I had loads of black paint, turns out I didn't, the only black paint I had was grafitti/art paint. Gave it a coat in it anyway and it turned out ace. I think I'll have to re-apply in the future with more hard wearing paint, but hay-ho. Next on the list is gearbox oil, gearlever boot/oil (trasmission tunnel is getting a bit toasty) and diff oil. Want to tidy up the plate on the sill and paint as it's a bit untidy too.
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Oct 12, 2014 17:32:44 GMT
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After selling some unwanted stuff on eBay, I had the spare funds to purchase the next bits needing to be done. Brought a genuine Mazda gear boot set from MX5spares and 3x 75w90 and 1x 80w90 gear/diff oil from Euro Car Parts. Had some spare time this afternoon, as since it wasn't raining, I set to work. Got the car up on the ramps/axle stands and set about removing the fill plug on the gearbox. After approx 4million/lb of effort went in, it finally started to move. Drain plug was super easy to undo. The oil that came out didn't look too bad until you looked at it in the drain pan and smelt it! It was near black and had a horrible burnt smell. With it all drained it was time to fill'er back up. I knew this part would be awkward so I purchased a syphon pump to make it easier. That worked great, except the amount of time it took! A long time later, we was all good and full. Now came the diff. This was dead easy. Great access. A 23mm and a 24mm socket got the fill and drain plugs off dead easy. Even filling it was easier as there isn't as much needed and you can have the bottle higher. Then it was just the gear stick oil and change of boots. The boots I took off were actually in OK condition. Bah, never mind. The plastic bit on the end of the stick was a little worn though. Old boot about to come off. New kit. I forgot to take any more photos after this, but went back together OK. Took it for a test drive and it felt good. Went from 1st to 2nd easier from cold I'll see how it goes tomorrow on a proper run out.
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It's been a few months since I last came on here, so will update this a little.
The gearbox still feels better but the change from 1st to 2nd is still a bit graunghy for the first minute.
As the cold weather was approaching I thought it'd be a good idea to get the old coolant out and stick some anti-freeze back in as I didn't know the history of it. While driving too the tempreture guage would fluctuate depending on how fast you were driving so thought I'd get a new thermostat too. Turns out it was running without one!
Drained the old stuff and it was a horrible chocolate fondue resembling liquid that came out. Blagh! Unbolted the coolant reservoir and give it a good scrub out as it was full of curse word too and flushed the radiator and engine through and topped it up with 60/40% de-ionised water and blue antifreeze. The thermostat was put in too and it now stays lovely and warm after about five mimutes of starting.
I ordered some new pedal rubbers at the same time as the thermostat too as the clutch one has worn through a lot and the brake one is getting bald. These still need sticking on.
Next is the track-rod ends. The near side seems to be skipping along while on full lock in a car park, so need to investigate.
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Feb 19, 2017 15:34:20 GMT
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Wow! I can't believe it's been over a year since I did anything on the Eunos! With the bland-mobiles I was driving round in, my motoring mojo was all but lost. Got my Saab and it brought back the enjoyment with cars. Over the year I've been collecting parts to get the Eunos road worthy and ready for a respray. Today I was at a loose end so decided to do something productive. I don't have a before picture, but I binned the original seats, red carpet and fake momo steering wheel for some tan leather seats, black carpet and a genuine Nardi steering wheel 😁 I'm extremely happy with the result! 😁 Ignore the door cards, I'm about to hit eBay and get some material to sort them out and sort something for the inside of the hardtop. A new gear knob is on the cars too, but I can't find one the same colour as the steering wheel that isn't extortionate.
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craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,993
Club RR Member Number: 35
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1992 Eunos Roadstercraig1010cc
@craig1010cc
Club Retro Rides Member 35
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Feb 19, 2017 17:39:59 GMT
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I was wondering how you'd been getting on with this the other day, good to hear it's still progressing 😀
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Feb 19, 2017 22:44:17 GMT
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I was wondering how you'd been getting on with this the other day, good to hear it's still progressing 😀 Cheers matey. Hopefully it'll be back in the road in the next few weeks. I'm looking for tyres for the BBS's at the minute and that'll be it for MOT stuff I think. Still a few bits to get for after the respray though.
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