1990 Mazda Miata MX5 - service

[MiataMark]

Well I've got a new job, 2 actually but that's another story, and I've probably over committed myself! But motivation for doing car related things has disappeared not helped by the weather and lack of garage. Also I had to replace a door mirror glass on the Discovery after a woman couldn't judge clearance and took the door mirror out and now the Alfa is making gearbox noises (known weakness in bearings), I at least need to change the gearbox oil.

I really need to get the handbrake on the MX5 sorted and loosely bolt the new wings on then get it down the body-shop, anyway as it was Black Friday (not that I particularly like the idea of mass commercialisation) I did venture on to the MX5parst website;



Do I need them not really but why not and they look good #becauseracecar I was actually expecting them to be braided and shiny but performance is what matters and I got stickers!

Also some time ago I bought some LED amber and white lights to use as indicators/side-lights and clear repeaters with bulbs (I want to get rid of the repeaters in the wings).

Hopefully getting some more consultancy type work which will mean more budget available (unless it gets spent on the Alfa or an Alfa replacement, ummm S-type Jag with petrol V6 that could find its way into the MX5 with a Rocketeer conversion).

[MiataMark]

Apologies for another diversion into Alfa land...

Had to drive to Carlisle a couple of weeks ago (that's 275 miles away for me) long painful journey up the M5/6 with some longish stretches using cruise control in 6th*. When I got back my wife used the car and rather gleefully said it's making funny noises, sure enough bearing noises from gearbox. Internet research reveals known problems with the M32 gearbox (also used on various Vauxhall's and Fiats). More internet research reveals a specialist in Halifax that can repair them in situ for a reasonable (still a lot) cost. Don't use the car in case it makes it worse. Yesterday get up early to drive to Halifax (only 211 miles), just up the road can't get 5th or 6th carry on as I thought that's just the bearings, arrive at garage bang on time at 9:30 (told you it was an early start), drove there in 4th. Very quick chat and test drive, gearbox knackered! I had at least arranged a business meeting in Leeds so I can claim the mileage back as an expense (self-employed). Long slow careful drive back (M62, M1, M69 Fosse Way) using 4th.

*this is what probably did for the gearbox, the shaft for 5th/6th doesn't get lubricated and the torque of the engine kills the bearings. Being lazy and using cruise instead of changing down exacerbates the problem.

So now do I pack it in and sell for parts but what do I buy then (not the Jag mentioned above the Rocketeer conversion is £6K without engine), or get a second-hand gearbox (£300 <50K 3 month warranty) plus DMF flywheel and clutch plus fitting (~£800)

and all the time the MX5 is looking sad and naked on the drive, think I might put some Christmas lights on it :-)


TBH I'll almost certainly repair it there isn't much left that can go wrong with it, apart from turbo, electrics...

[Ian]

I can feel your pain, Our old 2006 Astra exploded its 6th gear out the side of the gearbox, managed to get it home with a hole in the casing some 30 miles though.
Gearbox was then rebuilt and a new DMF and clutch fitted, which cost quite a lot but my better half really liked the car even though it had 195k miles on it.

2 months later the cambelt snapped

3 years later its still sat on the drive broken and she doesn't want to get rid of it.

[MiataMark]

Dec 11, 2018 11:07:08 GMT Ian said:

I can feel your pain, Our old 2006 Astra exploded its 6th gear out the side of the gearbox, managed to get it home with a hole in the casing some 30 miles though.
Gearbox was then rebuilt and a new DMF and clutch fitted, which cost quite a lot but my better half really liked the car even though it had 195k miles on it.

2 months later the cambelt snapped

3 years later its still sat on the drive broken and she doesn't want to get rid of it.

Cam-belt snapping was last years Christmas present!

Bought a gearbox, £480, delivered, warranty, from a 70Kmile car, the £300 gearbox was for a petrol with wrong ratios, diesel ones are rarer. DMF and clutch will probably run to about £350 and then there's fitting.

[johnthesparky]

Dec 11, 2018 8:08:13 GMT MiataMark said:

So now do I pack it in and sell for parts but what do I buy then (not the Jag mentioned above the Rocketeer conversion is £6K without engine), or get a second-hand gearbox (£300 <50K 3 month warranty) plus DMF flywheel and clutch plus fitting (~£800)

TBH I'll almost certainly repair it there isn't much left that can go wrong with it, apart from turbo, electrics...

TBH this is why I drive a new-ish VW transporter for work, I was never very good at selling vehicles before I had to spend loads of money... then would sell them eventually for the new owner to enjoy years of trouble free motoring...

Now I treat my van as an asset and try and move it on before it losses all of its value or costs me more than servicing.

But of course, competent as the van is, it’s not interesting or fun to drive...

Anyway, good luck!

[Ian]

Dec 11, 2018 11:37:07 GMT MiataMark said:

Dec 11, 2018 11:07:08 GMT Ian said:

I can feel your pain, Our old 2006 Astra exploded its 6th gear out the side of the gearbox, managed to get it home with a hole in the casing some 30 miles though.
Gearbox was then rebuilt and a new DMF and clutch fitted, which cost quite a lot but my better half really liked the car even though it had 195k miles on it.

2 months later the cambelt snapped

3 years later its still sat on the drive broken and she doesn't want to get rid of it.

Cam-belt snapping was last years Christmas present!

Bought a gearbox, £480, delivered, warranty, from a 70Kmile car, the £300 gearbox was for a petrol with wrong ratios, diesel ones are rarer. DMF and clutch will probably run to about £350 and then there's fitting.

Think we spent £1800 all in for the gearbox refurb, new casing, new flywheel clutch and an oil change.

Its no fun is it, I do hate cars sometimes!

The replacement car suffered an siezed oil pump at 97k miles, so we had a recon engine fitted, at the same time it seemed silly not to put a new flywheel and clutch on it £3k later it was fixed.

Maybe we should have moved away from Vauxhall diesels!

[gtviva]

What a shocking gearbox that M32 is, GM should hang their head in shame! mind you if the one you have bought has done 70k that's probably near the end of its life as well, there is a place in Essex I think that's meant to be good for rebuilds on these boxes

[MiataMark]

Dec 11, 2018 16:38:27 GMT gtviva said:

What a shocking gearbox that M32 is, GM should hang their head in shame! mind you if the one you have bought has done 70k that's probably near the end of its life as well, there is a place in Essex I think that's meant to be good for rebuilds on these boxes

The place I was going to use was A & S Clutch Technology in Halifax they have got some good reviews/recommendations on various forums. Yeah installing a 70K mile replacement is a risk but overfilling to 3ltr is meant to work well. Failing that it's get the car running and sell it :-) This gearbox went at 96K so hopefully get another 20K out of the replacement.

[gtviva]

Ive heard using a thicker oil can help, the original oil is so thin its like water and doesnt stay on the bearings! you did well with 96k ive seen them go at 16k and GM would still wriggle and squirm about coughing up the cash to fix them!!

The thing that will wind you up more is they were chucking new M32 diesel gearboxes out at one of the main GM spares warehouses!!

[MiataMark]

Dec 11, 2018 16:56:27 GMT gtviva said:

Ive heard using a thicker oil can help, the original oil is so thin its like water and doesnt stay on the bearings! you did well with 96k ive seen them go at 16k and GM would still wriggle and squirm about coughing up the cash to fix them!!

The thing that will wind you up more is they were chucking new M32 diesel gearboxes out at one of the main GM spares warehouses!!

Interesting comment about oil, I read the reason is that the shaft for 5th/6th is at the top of the gearbox and only lubricated by splash (I'm sure there's a technical term) hence the recommendation to overfill to 3ltr and use good quality oil (e.g. Red Line MT 85 75W85 GL4) I did buy the best oil listed in ECP, Castrol Syntrans Multivehicle 75W90.

Yes that last comment winds me up :-)

[Deleted]

Might be worth chucking some Lucas gear oil stabiliser in too MM.

[MiataMark]

Dec 11, 2018 17:23:22 GMT @quatermass said:

Might be worth chucking some Lucas gear oil stabiliser in too MM.

That's definitely worth considering thanks for the info.

[tonytantrum]

Dec 11, 2018 11:07:08 GMT Ian said:

I can feel your pain, Our old 2006 Astra exploded its 6th gear out the side of the gearbox, managed to get it home with a hole in the casing some 30 miles though.
Gearbox was then rebuilt and a new DMF and clutch fitted, which cost quite a lot but my better half really liked the car even though it had 195k miles on it.

2 months later the cambelt snapped

3 years later its still sat on the drive broken and she doesn't want to get rid of it.

If your old astra is the 1.9 cdti that engine has sacrificial rockers.
Upon timing going out the rockers snap.
9 times out of ten the valves don't touch the pistons.
I would buy a set of rockers and a belt kit.
May not be cylinder head off to fix

[Ian]

It is the 150 cdti, I thought as much, I just never had the time! Being sat outside for 3 years won’t have helped it’s cause though.

[MiataMark]

Dec 11, 2018 18:15:15 GMT tonytantrum said:

Dec 11, 2018 11:07:08 GMT Ian said:

I can feel your pain, Our old 2006 Astra exploded its 6th gear out the side of the gearbox, managed to get it home with a hole in the casing some 30 miles though.
Gearbox was then rebuilt and a new DMF and clutch fitted, which cost quite a lot but my better half really liked the car even though it had 195k miles on it.

2 months later the cambelt snapped

3 years later its still sat on the drive broken and she doesn't want to get rid of it.

If your old astra is the 1.9 cdti that engine has sacrificial rockers.
Upon timing going out the rockers snap.
9 times out of ten the valves don't touch the pistons.
I would buy a set of rockers and a belt kit.
May not be cylinder head off to fix

If that's the same as the Alfa 1.9 JTDm 16v engine then when my cam-belt went it only took out the rockers didn't damage the valves, oh and the glow plugs but at least one wasn't working anyway.

[tonytantrum]

Dec 11, 2018 21:12:42 GMT MiataMark said:

Dec 11, 2018 18:15:15 GMT tonytantrum said:

If your old astra is the 1.9 cdti that engine has sacrificial rockers.
Upon timing going out the rockers snap.
9 times out of ten the valves don't touch the pistons.
I would buy a set of rockers and a belt kit.
May not be cylinder head off to fix

If that's the same as the Alfa 1.9 JTDm 16v engine then when my cam-belt went it only took out the rockers didn't damage the valves, oh and the glow plugs but at least one wasn't working anyway.

Yes its the same fiat derived engine.
The joys of part sharing in the modern automotive world!

The french and the italians supply around 60% of the markets diesel engines!

[Ian]

Maybe I should take a look under the rocker cover, page it can wait until spring! It needs new brakes and tyres now at least anyway, and some moss removal.

It still has original turbo and exhaust at 195k miles. Lots of EGR valves and alternators though.

Shame the 2.0cdti has a fault on the earlier ones with the oil pump...

[MiataMark]

Final tally on the gearbox repair;

£470 second-hand gearbox (has done 70K so will probably fail soon*), £870 for fitting including new DMF and clutch both were pretty very worn. The gearbox actually had a hole in the casing.

So in the last year I've spent about £2.5K on it and it's worth maybe £3k on a good day, think I really need to address my man-maths (I do know the figures for the MX5 but chose to ignore them).

At least now I can concentrate on the MX5...

* I have had it filled with 3ltr of good quality oil and will probably add the additive as mentioned by @quatermass as well as changing the oil annually.

[MiataMark]

I've been keeping away from RR since Christmas, I hate to think what @quatermass has been getting up to in the NAUGHTY CORNER!

What with work issues, bad weather, and a general lack of motivation (car or otherwise) I've not touched the MX5 since the summer. However I really need to get it sorted out one way or the other so I can actually drive it. It was sat on the drive with no handbrake cables, front wings, front and rear bumpers removed. Last weekend I got out there and retrieved the new wings I'd bought from under the car, thankfully they had survived being in the open wrapped in soggy cardboard, fitted them loosely, refitted the front bumper loosely (there's a theme here).

This weekend, weather permitting, my aim is to replace the handbrake and (loosely) put the rear bumper back on. I also need to sort out the passenger sidelight/indicator as it was held together with putty! I did buy some LED side/indicator lights but need to make up some small brackets and different connectors. Then it can go to the body-shop to have the welding sorted out. May have found some barn space so I can do a bit of painting and sort out the front brakes, but the main thing is to get it back on the road so i can drive it.

I was hoping to have it back on the road by the RR Weekender, for the BNMAC stand, but not sure if that's possible.

Quick question, it's taxed and insured but doesn't have an MOT (and would fail one at the moment) can I drive it to a place of repair (body-shop) who will also sort out an MOT when it's repaired?

The troublesome Alfa is being troublesome, having sorted out the gearbox, at great expense, a driveshaft is now wobbling (common fault apparently, sigh).

[zeberdee]

Quick question, it's taxed and insured but doesn't have an MOT (and would fail one at the moment) can I drive it to a place of repair (body-shop) who will also sort out an MOT when it's repaired?

You can drive it on a direct route there for repair , as long as it’s pre booked with them & they have your registration number on their booking system .

Hopefully you’ll get it back on the road soon .