What did you do to your MX5 today ?

[peteh]

Fitted a silicone coolant hose kit (9pcs) I got from AK Automotive in England, a right pita of a job! old hoses were welded onto the stubs, had to cut most of them off with a stanley, a lot of the retaining clips for the hoses are in hard to reach areas, plenty of skinned knuckles! Also managed to break the thermoswitch on the thermostat housing so had to replace that too. then changed the coolant.

[franksm]

We all know that our cars can be made to go faster by:

(a) making the engine produce more power
(b) reducing weight and therefore rolling mass

Last weekend in Belfast I opted for (b) and introduced some Speed Holes on my '5.



That's the passenger side. To maintain an even balance, I made sure that the driver's side also has the same. Going one step further I made sure that my rear wheel arches on both sides were also perforated. Perforated metal has less weight than sheet metal. By my reckoning, the car has gained 12 to 15 extra horsepower.

I know what you're thinking, the car might now be nose-heavy with all that lost weight at the rear. I have that covered too, I removed the old manky radiator and fan assembly. That ought to be worth another 12 horsepower. Another benefit is that the intercooler now gets to see more daylight.

[jaybond]

Installed new stereo.
Very rare, it was really easy. I bought the deck from Lidl and the wiring fit the wiring of the old deck, snapped right in and the coolest thing is after pairing it with my iPhone when I use the music app on the phone it hooks into the system via blue tooth, no wires and sounds great.
Now I have to figure out why the car starts to run rough when it hits between 45 and 50 mph.

[sifpilsen]

Jaybond: Hope it was easy, I have to do the same job to close the hole in my center console due to 1din-headunit+1din cubby currently fitted..

Fit some leds to the interior lights. Found the drivers side to just blink once, not stay on when changing mode on the switch, probably poor connection inside it. Will have to unsolder the switch and open it later.

Got the lights from ultimatemods.co.uk, festoon 4 leds. Light emitted is ok, not great. May change to 6 leds later, but the 31mm was a tight fit due to being larger in diameter yet within the 28-32 mm range needed.

[jaybond]

New spark plug leads. Are the tips at the spark plug end supposed to break off, because they did, all four of them. I'm guessing they where due. Doesn't run rough at 45 mph anymore

[Steve]

really??? Do you have a photo? Which brand leads were they?

[mx5ideways]

Took my rs for it's first spin last night after getting insured in it, wohoo, delighted to to back in a mx5, only problem is I might have a problem trying to keep my licence with it, it's unreal fast and lovely to drive, plus I still have to get my mk1 back with the turbo fitted, I hope there's not alot of speed traps when I'm out in either car it's going to be hard to be senseible!

[leamyj]

Took my rs for it's first spin last night after getting insured in it, wohoo, delighted to to back in a mx5, only problem is I might have a problem trying to keep my licence with it, it's unreal fast and lovely to drive, plus I still have to get my mk1 back with the turbo fitted, I hope there's not alot of speed traps when I'm out in either car it's going to be hard to be senseible!

Easy there now young fella!!!!!

Yeah, I'm familiar with that feeling when you migrate from a 1.6 mk1 to a 1.8 mk2..scared the bejaysus out of me , that's probably why I went back to a 1.6mk1

[johnv]

winter is really here fitted the hard top . roll on next spring

[sidewaysreilly]

Frank, are you winding us up????

[franksm]

Yeah, I am dragging the car back to Dublin this weekend to stick this on:



and then off to the welders to get these fitted:

[jaybond]

I installed a ragtop cutting deterrent, please see below:

[sidewaysreilly]

Finally got time to do some work. Pulled the diff out c/w shafts, hubs and drive shaft. Subframe next for some cleaning and painting.
Gonna paint new diff shafts etc before refitting. Clean up new box and fitt new seals in it. Oh and lighten the flywheel.

[DIL2307]

Yeah, I am dragging the car back to Dublin this weekend to stick this on:



and then off to the welders to get these fitted:

Fittied an IL motorsport rad few weeks ago they're a very pretty piece of kit

[Steve]

Removed my Innovate LC-1 wideband O2 and replaced it with an AEM UEGO, much happier (plus can see where I'm running rich on the fly).