Mazderati in progress!

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
05/24/2019 at 21:36 • Filed to: None

The roll bar is in the car and all of the holes are drilled. But unfortunately I forgot my wheel key (these stupid wheel locks are being thrown out as soon as I get them off) so I couldn’t finish bolting everything down. Just the two top mounts and two front mounts into the seat bolt towers are secured, with ten holes drilled not mounted. Those will be easily accessible with the car on jack stands and the wheels removed so I’ll just wait to finish that up. But since everything is in place I figured some photos were in order. I love Miatas with roll bars, it just looks so right!

Also, happy Memorial day weekend! I’m heading to Denver tomorrow night and exploring that area for a few days. Never been to Colorado so it should be a nice little vacation for the long weekend. Next weekend I’ll be doing another trip someplace in Cali that will hopefully include some hiking, camping, and maybe even an autocross.

DISCUSSION (17)

AestheticsInMotion > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/24/2019 at 21:46

Ha I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone speak fondly of wheel locks, at least not people who have owned them. Good idea, in theory...

You’re totally right,a r ollbar really does look great on a Miata. So what are you doing with the other Miata after you swap suspension?

daender > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/24/2019 at 21:53

Nice upgrade ! Do you like running with a boot cover since you’re all about that top-down life ? I’ve seen people modify the OEM ones to have zippers to go around their rollbars.
Also, I don’t know if I asked you this before but what your thoughts on “bikini tops” and Miatas?

Boxer_4 > AestheticsInMotion
05/24/2019 at 22:04

The last time I had to deal with wheel locks:

Kinja'd!!!

...yeah, not a fan...

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > AestheticsInMotion
05/24/2019 at 22:32

Straight to the trash bin!! Uhh well first it’s off with the lsd and 6spd Trans in order to sell. Then I’ll eventually strip everything else, save the motor for future rebuild, maybe save some spares, and then scrap the shell. But I'll be taking my time on that probably.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > daender
05/24/2019 at 22:36

Boot cover won’t fit with the roll bar so I’m not going to bother trying to chop it up to make it fit. I do actually have a cover now since this car came with one but it was a hassle to use anyways. I do tend to put the top up when I park in public for long periods of time. Bikini tops are super functional but I don't really like the look that much. Although maybe it's something I should consider considering I just don't drive the car if it's gonna rain here and the only reason my top is ever up is to get some shade from the sun on 100+ days.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/24/2019 at 23:19

Awesome job! I agree that Miatas just need roll bars to look sporty. Is that the hard core? Your seats come up above the roll bar? That’s convenient! My stock na seats don’t come close with my sport hard top. Part of w hy I had to go with a Sparco.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
05/24/2019 at 23:26

It's the boss frog Clearview, similar to the hard dog hard core m2 but sits further back. It's still the tallest possible though so it does not fit a hard top. Although I've heard from forums that it does fit without padding but it's tight. They are out of business but I bought it secondhand. I do have a hard dog produced harness bar made specifically for the boss frog bar. And yeah the stock seat certainly does go above the bar when leaned forward enough to have a proper driving position. That seat is not staying in the car and I'll just put my bride vios knockoff in there for now. I'll be seat shopping at some point though to change it up probably.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/24/2019 at 23:49

Ah got ya. I think you told me that before lol. If you are looking for a new seat:

https://www.corbeau-seats.com/product/le-pro-lotus-elise-exige-s1-s2-seat/

Also did you figure your misfire issue out?

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
05/25/2019 at 00:07

So I thought the misfire issue was behind me. It had actually been gone for a few hundred miles and it is running better than ever. But it came back this morning, although the cel managed to resolve and go away on its own which was strange. It's not running strange at all so it's going to require more investigation to sort out.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
05/25/2019 at 00:10

Idk how that seat can claim to be 5 and 6 point harness compatible without holes for the sub straps. Unless they leave out that image.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/25/2019 at 00:25

I know the early nbs had problems with the ignition coil. I’d start there. What year is yours? I think it was the 99 that was the worst... can’t remember, but if yours is one of the models that had that issue, look at getting coil on plugs.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/25/2019 at 00:27

I think it’s just not visible, but you get that and a custom mount from ryoku rob and you are set.

Future Heap Owner > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/25/2019 at 00:40

Nice work, that’s looking good!

Another nice thing about having older cars secondhand is that I’ve yet to have to deal with wheel locks.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
05/25/2019 at 12:11

It's an '01 so it's beyond the coil pack issue. I'm going to throw in a coil pack from the other car though since I know that part worked at least. The ones on this car were definitely replaced but they are not Mazda oem units so it is suspect. I'm trying to make sure I only replace one thing and then drive for a while until the light comes back. It takes time though since it's so intermittent. If the coil pack doesn't work, I'll be checking compression and then doing injectors as my last step since those are expensive and invasive to get to.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/25/2019 at 14:12

Ah got ya. Yeah non oem seems to not work well with a lot of things. Hopefully that’ll do it for you.

I think I have to replace some seals on my injectors. I’ve done everything else and still have occasional rough idle/ hesitation. It’s irritating. I’ve been told it’s not difficult to pull the injectors, but I don’t know.

Compression issues. Yeah that would be a bitch.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/
05/25/2019 at 15:51

Yeah I mean the injectors don’t seem that hard to do, but it’s annoying enough that I definitely don’t want to do it twice. Meaning regardless if they are bad or good, if I’m taking it apart I’m replacing them. But then they are not cheap either. And from what I understand the injector o rings are non reusable so you have to at least replace those any time the injectors are pulled. Checking compression is a good thing to do anyways since its an unknown engine to me and it would rule out worse things. Considering the engine has like 110 k on it, I don’t assume anything bad but you never know.

This car only idles “ off” when it’s sat for a couple days and is completely cold, seems to run fine when warmed up a little . The misfire cel flashing and code shows up in conjunction with that cold startup as well. I t definitely became even less frequent after putting in new plugs and wires, but I'll have to just keep investigating.

mXxxxXm24 /O/ /O/ > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/25/2019 at 16:16

Got ya. The injector orings can be bought from miatamecca through eBay for less than $20 btw. I was also wondering if I should just replace the injectors all together though.