Thoughts on the new Mk4 ND

[mrges]

V

[Pops]

Hi Tom, the engine backplate is probably a generic piece that suits various cars so I wouldn’t worry about the empty hole, there may well be a corresponding one on the passenger side that is being used on your car.
You seem to be lacking something that every other model has.......... a rusty underbelly

[TOM 5252]

I put my Summer wheels back on the car today.
Hope I'm not tempting fate, and the snow is actually gone till next winter

I also did this--
http://www.mx5ireland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8739

Tom.

[TOM 5252]

Here is another addition to my ND, prompted by reading threads on the US forum, Miata.net

Rear Light Strip1.jpg

In case you're wondering. What you are looking at is the line of light between the two tail lights.

That strip of LEDs wasn't there until yesterday but I think it looks like it could have come from Japan like this.

[Pops]

That looks really good, I like the way it connects both tail lights

[mrges]

Nice - looks really well.

[Steve]

wow... love it

[TOM 5252]

Thanks guys for the positive comments. I copied the idea from a number of posts on Miata.net in the USA.

Today I added an idea of my own, I fitted a relay operated from an ignition feed, so the feed from
the tail-light plug+socket to the LED strip is only live when the ignition is on.

So if I have to leave the car with the parking lights on for any length of time, the load on the battery
is as Mazda designed it and not 6 watts above.

I showed this to my Mazda guy today as I was booking the car in for it's yearly service, and he asked
if I thought the cops might object to this change. But when I showed him the night-time photo that
shows that it appears to be the same brightness as the original outer loops, he was less concerned.
Also some of this years new cars are going this way,- such as the Lexus in the current TV advert.

[TOM 5252]

Last Friday when my car was up on the lift for it's second annual service, the only noticeable
corrosion we seen was on the three aluminium chassis cross-member panels including the
one you remove to access the oil filter.
This corrosion shows itself as a white floury powder that can be brushed off and when the
panel is struck with the back of a wire brush you get a ringing sound so I wondered if these
plates might actually be galvanized steel, but a magnet doesn't stick so they must be
aluminium.
Yesterday I removed these panels brushed off the 'flour' and painted both sides with aluminium
zinc aerosol. While I had the front of the car up on axle stands I decided to remove the plastic
wheel arch liner and examine the area behind it. It was nice to see that the plastic liner is doing
a good job of keeping all the dirt and road-spray out.
Since I had the liner off, I got out my can of Hammerite Underbody Seal and sprayed all the grey
and red areas black.

Front Wheelarch at 8000km.jpg

Front Shock at 8000km.jpg

And the area that had to be often cleaned out on the NA and NB cars

[mrges]

Sounds like a nice bit of preventative work. Anything to keep the Tin worm at bay is always good!

[TOM 5252]

Yea. Now I have to get round to getting the rear arches done,- to keep the 50-50
weight distribution correct!

[TOM 5252]

Hi all. Here's my latest little addition to my car.

.

Left Vent.jpg

.

Right Vent.jpg

These stick-on rings come ready painted to match Mercedes cars.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0776RXDKD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Some of the USA owners on Miata.net had started pulling the vent units out of the dash
and dismantling the rings, to paint the inside of the rings, just like Mazda has done with
the dashboards of the orange 30AE. Then somebody found these sets on amazon.

[Steve]

ha, brilliant!

[TOM 5252]

Over a week ago I fitted this adaptor cable
https://car-solutions.com/en/car-camera-connection-cable-to-mazda-mzd-connect/?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Leave+Feedback&mailhash=dXQjMzQyMTI1MzU%3D
to the back of my infotainment unit so that I could view my reversing camera on it's 7 inch screen.
I had been using the 4.3 inch flip-up screen that I transferred from my mk2 along with it's camera.

Rear View Short Lines.jpg

The whole operation went perfectly, following online pictures and videos from forums and suppliers of
the oem kits, after I did the three button reset of the infotainment CMU. Then I discovered that the
CMU would forget the camera if the car was locked and left alone for 3 minutes or more, and I had to
reset the CMU again to use the camera. My camera was still powered from the reversing light supply
and I found instructions on the car-solutions web site that 12v cameras be supplied directly from the
ACC (accessaries) supply. The reason being that the camera had to be powered when the CMU was
starting up from sleep mode. So I did this by running another wire back into the boot, but I still had the
same problem.
The camera and adaptor cable kits that are available have the camera working off a 6 volt supply from
the CMU cable.

Next I went back and connected two wires to the 6volt supply and brought them down to the passenger
footwell. I connected a small 6v relay- at first just to make the CMU think it was powering a camera,
still had the same problem. Then I routed the wire feeding the camera through the relay so that the
camera would go on and off as the CMU demanded. I still had to do the reset for the picture to display
but at least the camera was only on in reverse and not for the whole journey, I could tell by listening to
the click of the relay.
With a bit more on-line research I discovered that a guy on the UK MX5 owners club forum who sells
the best value kit I have come across, uses a 12volt camera and a small step up boost convertor from
amazon to change the 6v to 12v. I was about to order one of these but I suddenly had a great idea!

I took a 6volt lead acid battery I had bought as Maplins was closing down, and still had 6 volts in it
and connected it to my camera (which I had bought as a 12v one) and it worked, it took 84 milliamps
On 12volts it takes 85 milliamps Thinking simplistically you would expect a 6v item to use twice the
amps of a 12v one to do the same job, but these cameras run at 3.3 volts and have inbuilt circuitry
to drop the incoming voltage.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ZCJI4NE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So next job, I run a new power cable (cut from leftover cable from the house security camera update)
with the plug already fitted to match the camera power socket, from the boot to the 6v wires through
a fuse holder. One more reset and lock the car, check it an hour later, select reverse, screen is live.
It's been working perfectly since.

[Pops]

Nice bit of thinking there, reversing cameras are great, I've one in my work car and it also has blind spot monitoring which is brilliant but the drawback is that I've become nearly reliant on the system which doesn't help when driving the other cars, it's probably age catching up but trying to judge the dimensions without the cameras has become nearly impossible