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Tech Tips
WARNING
Any work you do, or have done, to your car or a car not owned by you as a result of reliance of this information is entirely your responsibility. You should check technical advice with an independent source, and take local specialist advice from a qualified person who has actually seen your car if in any doubt. The MX-5 OWNERS CLUB and its officers can accept NO RESPONSIBILITY for any damage caused to your person, car, property, or third party as a result of following or not following any procedure or advice given in this article.
Here are some tips to help you get the most out of your car. If you've got a tip which might be useful to other
owners, please send it to Contact Us and we'll add it, if we think it's suitable for inclusion
If you have a Mk 1 car (with pop-up headlamps) remove the retractor fuse (located in the main fuse box) before doing any work in the area of the headlamps. Those pop-up motors are pretty powerful, and can operate without warning if you cause a short!
The original plug leads on MX-5s / Roadsters are prone to early failure. This can cause a misfire (possibly one that's hard to detect) which can cause damage to your catalyst. (Roadster owners may see the "Heat" warning lamp on the dashboard illuminated with the engine running) If your leads have done more than 30000 miles, or you think you might have a misfire, replace the plug leads without delay. Several brands are available - possibly the best results are obtained with Magnecor KV-85. (Check the "MX-5 Traders" page for contacts)
Mk 1 cars have hydraulic lash adjusters (HLA) (or tappets) - they will make a noise on cold start up unless you change the oil more frequently than Mazda recommend. Always use synthetic oil, and use an Engine Flush at every oil change!
If your car is fitted with air conditioning, use it regularly! Lack of use will cause the seals to dry out and fail, then the expensive gas will leak away. Even in winter, the air conditioning (in conjunction with the heater) is useful to demist the car. Aim to run it for at least 10 minutes every week.
If you find the gearchange a bit "notchy", especially first thing in the morning when the oil is cold, there are a few things to check. Consider replacing the gearbox oil with synthetic - again, several brands are available, but Redline MTL gives excellent results. Make sure that the change turret is topped up (it takes 90 ml of gearbox oil) and check the condition of the heat insulator (under the visible gear lever gaiter) and the seal on the change turret. These deteriorate quickly, and can cause gear selection problems.
The rear brake calipers have been a source of unnecessary expense for many MX-5 owners. Mazda do not recommend any routine maintenance apart from checking the pad thickness, but really you need to make sure that the pins, on which the calipers slide, are free to move and that the rubber boots are undamaged and doing their job of sealing the pins against moisture and dirt. I'd suggest a check every 6000 miles, or at least once a year.
The normal unleaded petrol (premium grade) available in the UK is 95 Octane, but the standard specification timing (10 degrees BTDC) allows use of 92 Octane. Most MX-5s and Roadsters will perform a little better if the base ignition timing is set to 14 degrees BTDC. This is easy to do on Mk 1 cars, but less so (and there's less point in doing it, due to a different ignition set-up), on later cars. Instructions on how to adjust the timing can be found here: www.miata.net/garage/ignition.html#timing - don't forget that those instructions refer to a lhd car, so watch out for terms like "drivers side" and "passengers side"
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