1990 Mazda Miata MX5 - service

[MiataMark]

Previous brake bleeding wasn't good enough, pedal going to the floor although brakes working. I think the master reservoir must have run dry and let air in the top.

So excuse to buy yet another tool


Get car up with all wheels off (not as sketchy as it looks there are 4 axle stands under it).


and tool in use

Seemed to work well although I'm not sure it's as good as it could be. I do have a well used eazibleed but the master reservoir cap doesn't fit. Hopefully it'll be good enough for the MOT.

Also took the opportunity as all 4 wheels were off to swap front and back to even out tyre wear.

When I took my BMW in for work (Autoworks Swindon, near M4 J16), I asked if they had a press and could press out the ball-joints from my original wishbones.


That's a project for the future...

MOT tomorrow



p.s. found the new editor easy to use, but how do I include a 'name' e.g. @hotwire ... or emojis, seem to be lots of features missing

[jimi]

Names are the same as before, but remember you need the persons registered name not their display name (unless they are are the same) so @hotwire is @ admin = HoTWire. 😉 AFAIK, the editor facilities are still WIP

[MiataMark]

It's been a while, the debacle over the ball-joints didn't end there let's just say that I lost motivation in a big way and it sat on the drive all autumn and winter and into this spring. However this week I decided that enough was enough and booked it into a more 'traditional' garage to MOT it and sort anything out that needed doing.

The result being,



Basically they tightenned up the ball-joints (that I couldn't manage) and sorted out a small seep of brake fluid (tightenned up the connection). The brake disc is where it sat outside for months, shame as the discs are unworn.

I even washed it before it went in.



So the list of things to do are,

• service it
• sort out the leaking heater matrix
• replace the door mirrors
• put the Miata badge back on
• paint the wiper arms
• new door cards (these are water damaged)
• put the smaller front numnber plate back on
• new rear discs
  

and most importantly USE IT.

There are other things but that's enough to get on with.

[MiataMark]

Thought it was about time I did a service (ashamed to say I've never done one on the car, but then I haven't done very many miles either). Getting the oil filter off was a bit of a struggle but managed it eventually. Ages ago I bought an vacum oil extractor to use, took a long time to drain the oil and not too sure it worked very well.



Tools used and in use.



As my drive slopes down and the dip stick is at the rear of the engine rasied the front up to make sure I got as much oil out as possible. Also changed the front numnber plate to my cut down version.