Fixing Up the Miata

I'm glad I'm able to fix stuff.

In January I got busy on my 15-year-old Miata, too. I'd been driving it for a year with the skin of the muffler wired on; I found a stainless steel muffler on eBay and had it installed. The car suddenly developed a miss, so I ran some injector cleaner through it; when that didn't work I put in new plugs. When it still ran badly, I bought new plug wires and installed them. That did the trick. She runs like a champ now.

I had the Miata washed and waxed, and then detailed it, touching up the was as I went. The windshield washers were plugged, so I ordered new ones (not cheap!) from Jim Ellis Mazda, since cheap generic washer nozzles wouldn't work. I replaced some rubber vacuum hoses which had gone rigid with age, ordered and installed a new plastic cover for the inside door latch, and lubed the power window buttons, which had begun to operate intermittently.


A piece of rubber trim that ran the width of the car inside the engine compartment had come loose, so I priced it at Jim Ellis. $41.00. Ouch! Back at home I studied it and managed to, by stretching it a bit, create a new attachment point. So far it's holding.

The trunk light and rear brake light no longer worked. It wasn't the bulbs, so I used a multimeter to trace the wires until I found a break in the trunk light. I ran new wires, and it worked, yay! The wires for the center brake light disappeared into a wrapped bundle, so I ran a new hot wire to the left brake light, spending some time routing it so it was secure and looked good.

Early model Miatas are notorious for trunk leaks originating at the brake lights, and my trunk leaked, so I bought some clear caulk and filled in the spaces around the lights. It had quit raining by then, so I don't yet know if that worked. If it doesn't, the problem is probably a clogged rain gutter.

The right blinkers were flashing far too fast. Reading up on the problem, I feared the flasher unit was bad, but the wiring to both front blinkers had been corroded by salt air and both the lights were hazy, so I found new ones for 1/4 the price asked by Jim Ellis and installed them. Problem fixed, and for less than the cost of just new wiring harnesses.

When I checked the radiator overflow container it was full of brown gunk that looked like Tootsie Rolls. I scrubbed it and then washed it in the dishwasher. Big mistake. I then had to scrub the dishwasher, which was leaving brown film on the glassware. The same brown sludge was in the radiator, so I bought a gallon of Prestone anti-freeze and a flush kit and flushed the radiator, saving the fluid I drained for recycling.

The hard plastic boot on the parking brake was horribly scratched, and the shifter boot had a little hole in it, so I looked online and found both, made of fine leather, for $14.95 with free shipping. You gotta love eBay!

The right latch for the top worked fine but didn't lock, so I installed one I bought on eBay. It works great.

The power antenna doesn't work, but the motor clearly works, since I can hear it operate when I turn the radio off and on, which means the problem is with the mast. I had a mast on hand, and, after watching an instructional video on YouTube, I took the motor out of the car, disassembled it, cleaned out the broken bits of the old mast, and reassembled it. According to the theory, I could then stick the leader of the new mast into the antenna and, by turning the radio on and off, cause it to be pulled into the motor. That worked, but the motor no longer operated. Currently a piece of blue painter's tape covers the antenna hole and the motor is on the kitchen table for testing with my multimeter.

I found at long last a wiring harness for the headrest speakers. It's half-installed. I'll need to take the center console out in order to route the wires; while it's out of the car I'll put in the new shifter boot (the brake boot is already one and looks great).

The right side marker light doesn't work. I traced the problem to the wiring harness. I replaced part of the harness, but it appears the other part doesn't work either. I'll be ordering that.

The car needs new seat belts and I'd like to find some high-quality seat covers, and I've two big projects in mind-- installation of a new radio, amplifier for the door speakers, and a subwoofer and amp in the tiny trunk. (I already have all the components). I also have a pair of Hard Dog roll bars, which I promised my Sweetie I would have installed. And oh, yes, the cruise control doesn't work and wants bird-dogging, and the airbag control unit needs replacing. And the speedometer cable squeaks when it gets below 40 degrees Fahrenheit and needs to be replaced. And the transmission hump gets hot on long drives in warm weather and needs insulation.

I made a big dent this spring, but there's a ways to go. However, the car looks great (it gets a compliment nearly every time I take it out), drives great, and handles wonderfully. I think it's ready to take it for a drive in the North Georgia mountains!

p.s. Got on eBay today and found a used but functional speedometer cable for $44 and a new driver's side seat belt for $59. And on eBay I bought the insulation the car needs for just $23.  Great prices!