What have you done to your Miata today?

amaff: you didn't like the RBs? good to know, as i'm getting ready to order the 1.125" front bar (<--- see massive body roll in avatar), and had planned on the RB endlinks as well.
Yeah, they're *decent*, but for the money, they're not really that great. The poly bushings have a bit much give for an end-link...
 
Well, I'm sick of my bad endlinks. Under braking, they'd pop and give, screwing a bit with the car's attitude mid corner. They never fully lined up 100% correctly, and the bar's pre-loaded. SO, I finally found a product that'll fulfill my needs. I'm going from the Racing Beats:
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to Gearhead Garage:
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these should work just fine I think ;)

let me know what you think about the new endlinks... I've been putting off ordering the RB ones for quite some time now, and was considering ordering them when i get my upcoming bonus... tho the other day i did see the shorty gearheads and went 'hmmm....'
 
hahaha since everyone wants to know, I'll post my impressions once I get them on.
 
she threw a CEL, so I took her to autozone to get the code read... P0402- excessive egr flow...

hopefully just the orifice clogged in the intake manifold... from what I've read about that code, is thats common w/cars >50k miles.... and i'm at 86k right now... so I bought some throttle body cleaner, and looks like i'm gonna have a busy few hours of cleaning...
 
I just got some tokico blues delivered today. now I just need some air tools and new bushings.
 
somebody hit the self-destruct button on my car this week...

alternator failed most spectacularly on my way to work... it was kind of fun watching different electrical systems fail one by one in a bit of a domino effect... first the radio, then the a/c, then the power steering, then finally the engine stumbled and died, followed by an exciting effort to stop the car in the middle of a busy intersection w/out the power brakes.

sooo... today i cursed most violently at my car after finding out apparently no one in town stocks alternators for the miata...
 
yeouch! That sucks :(. Do you have something else to drive in the meantime?

and the power steering's not electrical, it's run off of the engine....
 
new front calipers. To call the old ones holey would be an understatement...
The new endlinks are REALLY nice for the record. It doesn't have the mid-corner blah anymore from the poly bushings and, OMG, they don't make any noise! lol.
Also, put some HPS pads on the front from the HP+. I got tired of them pretty much becoming an on/off switch after about 3 runs.
 
Also, put some HPS pads on the front from the HP+. I got tired of them pretty much becoming an on/off switch after about 3 runs.

Heh heh...I can imagine!

I recieved the following:
1 head light assembly
1 pair of front turn signal lights (black housing)
1 pair rear tail lights (cf wanna-be's)
 
put some fresh tape on the tears in my roof (ughdance)

picked up some of these:
 

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nice, now get some decent rubber for those ;)

Ok, so it's been a strange (tho somehow par for the course) couple of weeks for Dory.

Part I:
I was fed up with locking up my tires CONSTANTLY after the pads had about 2 or 3 runs in. They pretty much became an on-off switch for me. So, I swapped out some HPS pads (from Kevin's GRM car) for my HP+s. While those work great for R-comps, the HP+s are too much for my *decent* street tires. After the pad change, with newer pads mind you, my brake pedal got LONGER. While we were changing the pads, we noticed both calipers were leaking fluid. Well, THERE'S your problem... Swapped in new calipers (HUGE thanks again Kevin) and bled them. The fluid coming out of the driver's side was milky b/c it was impregnated with air. Gross. I'm a lot happier with my braking now, esp that my pedal works again ;)

Part II:
The part some of you seemed pretty interested in at least... Swapped in the new endlinks. Now the POP from the front every time I touch the brakes is completely gone, and the mid-corner 'uncertainty' from the poly bushings is gone. I'm EXTREMELY pleased with them.

Part III:
New shocks. I had the Koni Race shocks (re-valved w/ more rebound) and shortened shocks up front only. This was before I knew that the BIG place you want more travel's the rear. I got a deal on some Races for the rear and jumped on that ASAP. Shortened shocks = more travel = car can stand to be a little lower. I'm not touching the bump stops nearly as much as I had been in the rear, which makes this RWD wonder a lot more predictable. However, I'm a chassis setup n00b, and therefore...

Part IV:
Shock settings. I ran 1.75 events like this. I'm embarrassed to even admit to this. Laddies and gentlemen, boys and girls, listen close. Better shocks don't mean JACK if they're not set properly. I honestly can not even remember how or when this happened, but it did. After my 3rd (of 4) timed runs yesterday, I noticed a pattern. Right turn: Understeer. Left turn: oversteer. Huh? I check my rear shocks (the only thing that had changed that could cause that, besides wonky ride heights). Right rear: full stiff. Left rear: almost full soft. @%&#(@#%&@!!!!! So, for the last timed run I sort of set them somewhere in the middle and hoped for the best. I ran a 47.2, well off the pace, but good enough all things considered. For my 2nd set of runs (time only, aka fun runs), I worked on dialing the rear of the car in. Managed to get down to a 45.7... that's a 1.5 second reduction just by having my shocks properly set up. Too bad those last runs didn't count, b/c I would have won STS2 by a half second. Oh well...there's always the next event ;)

Part V:

Found a surprise while rotating the tires Friday night before the event. Everything went fine until I got to the passenger side rear. Break 1 loose, break 2 loose, break 3 loo... looo... LOOOSE!? Nope. Turned the bar once, twice, and third times a charm: PLINK! Snapped the stud. Sumbitch. And of course, you can't exactly hammer out the stud and replace it in the rear of the miata, you have to pull the whole hub assembly appart. Well, I didn't have the tools, the facilities or the part, so I bit the bullet and took it to kauffman tire to get it done. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't have been a big deal, but I have lug-centric wheels, so I didn't really feel comfortable running only on 3.

Part VI:
Scored a deal on a use Racing Beat header. It's the new design (4-1 as opposed to the tri-Y of the earlier headers). This header makes better power / torque than the last one, so I was happy to find someone selling it used :)
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Only 1 problem: it's wrapped backwards. Anyone know if it would be a big deal to re-wrap it using the same tape, or would it make sense to get new stuff? Also, does anyone know how to undo those metal straps that secure it in place? They look like metal zip ties (but no teeth on the strap). Is there any way to re-use these? If not, I'll probably just install it as-is and suck it up ;)
 
lol ok ok. I meant a couple notches higher... like some azenis, hankooks or Bridgestones ;)
 
Doing some minor body work (pending if my 4 month old son allows me to get things done).
 
Came in 2nd in STS2 by .3 seconds at an Alabama Region autocross yesterday (second)

I got beat by a fellow Atlanta region driver. After us there was about a 3 second gap ;). On the plus side, I've got a 2nd place trophy to compliment the 1st place plaque I've got from that region :D
 
Great thread.

This was a busy weekend. Began the work of transferring my running gear from the old car to the new one. We (my father and I) began by tearing out my good interior (including the dash, what a colossal PITA) and putting it in the new one. Then, today, we pulled out my torsen and my tokicos and put them in the new car. next weekend is the turbo powertrain, a little wiring, and then vroom. :)
 
got the window pulled from my hard top so i can start prepping it for paint

also got the new windshield in the '96 m-edition, found out the airbag sensor my dad bought to replace the old one is junk after he tore down the entire dash to get to it... but at least the car is running again.
 
Today I pulled out my old dash, front bumper, and LT and RT front fenders (what a chore). I'm supposed to have these new parts coming tonight or tomorrow evening.

My miata looks like it lost alot of weight.... and to top it off, I've got cobwebs on my firewall with dried dead spiders!!!!

I guess my miata could pass for a haunted house, if need be.(scratch)
 
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