What did you do to your MX5 today ?

[mrges]

Well, not actually today, but Friday. First spin in the car since before Christmas (when the tax ran out) - had a quick 90km spin to Longford and back Changed the oil, plugs, and air filter, and the car drove like a dream! Now need to get around to taking the hard top off...

Screenshot_20210425-230536_Gallery.jpg

Screenshot_20210425-230530_Gallery.jpg

[Pops]

Car looks brilliant, ya it's time to remove the hardtop alright, fabulous weather this last few days

[Steve]

nice one

[notch000]

changed the oil, filter and plugs last night. The oil filter came off easy for once. The replacement oil filter had a larger outer diameter then the one ir replaced so had it was harder to get back in under the intake manifold, center gaskets etc. were the same size. One of the plug leads was glued to the spark, of course the one partially blocked by the strut brace. So had a bit of a fight with that. Used Lidls finest 10W40 which is 15E for 5L, I'm not an oil snob but do change it frequently enough, Running sweet afterwards, had a look round underneath while jacked up and found a couple of rusty spots on sills, V rusty exhaust shield. mangled exhaust center shield (explains occasional buzzing) and some other nasties . Rear diff is a bit whiny (i think) so going to replace the oil in that next. Going to buy a mig welder over the winter. Also looking at replacing engine mounts as gear stick moves a couple of mill coming on and off the clutch, wife reckons gear change is notchier than she rembers ti to have been,
Check SR drains too they were flowing freely. Cleaned the window with Lidl W5 foaming spray, which works great on plastic & other trim too. Need to put hard top back on for the winter.

Have odd headlight light behaviors again. the driver dip only comes on if you flash the main beam twice, bit odd but work consistently like this, is there a light relay, I' have not looked at it properly ?

[Pops]

As a very basic test try swapping the headlight bulbs from side to side, if the problem follows the bulb then you've found the problem, electrical faults can be a right pain to sort out

[notch000]

convinced it is not the bulbs themselves cause they were swapped out recently for the NCT, did i mention battery box was rotted out too

[Pops]

After all you've done and now find the battery box is rotten must be annoying.
So, changing the bulbs didn't solve the problem the relay might be worth looking at as well as the earthing points

[notch000]

I had to replace a sticky caliper last night. The first bad one went fine. Stupidly i decided id do the two front calipers while i was at it. So the second (good) one gave me a lot more grief. I had issues threading the slider pins back in. They seemed to thread fine with the caliper out but when lined up with the mounting bracket there was fierce resistance in the bottom bolt and the top smaller one would just not thread inn at all, seem like then new caliper is cross threaded or the mounting holes were packed with gunk or the pins are bent ?
Maybe I bent them while removing the banjo bolt on top that had big resistance too and i took a breakers bar too., Anyways when i eventually got it all mounted up the caliper is not sliding on the pins at all, The bottom one is the issue, could the arm be bent or the pins or the caliper maybe a bad cast ???
Anyone any ideas ?? im going to try get new pins today and hopefully i don't need to swap back out the old caliper again. oh failed at bleeding the breaks too, will have to readress that, tried a ebay vacuum pump but it was pretty useless, have new sliding pins ordered for tomorrow and can put on the old caliper again worst case
Brake work is never straight forward

[Pops]

Might be a wrong caliper, try measuring the distance between the top and lower slider pin threads on the old caliper to make sure it's the same on the new one.
I tried an eBay vac bleeder too, useless is the only way to describe it as the air is drawn in through the bleeder threads when you open them, the type that pressurise the master cylinder is better

[Pops]

Screenshot_20211208_193725_de.autodoc.gmbh.jpg

Looks like the left and right calipers are different

[notch000]

ya exact same issue with puling air through the bleed screw thread, flawed system. The two calipers i got were a pair marked L&R. RHS was fine Im getting new slider pin today and will check dimes etc later. I would have checked the pin runout on a drill but both my drills are buckled too,
I have a feeling the bottom pin is bent from leveraging the banjo bolt off. possibly wrecked the caliper thread too, will see later tho.
& try bleeding again. would be a shame to have to put the old caliper back inn again........

[notch000]

wert to windsor motors Galway on wednesday they said they would have carrier bolts for me Thursday, went to pick up, parts not in, told today, no delivery today, but 'should' hopefully be in on Monday OFFS

[Steve]

ah jeez... which brakes have you? I've some brake parts from my previous brake setup in the shed I think.
Can have a dig if you need it this weekend? Just a bottom slider pin?

[notch000]

That's for the offer, it's just a standard 1.8 nb set up, il look again tonight to make sure it's the bolt thats off, but I can wait for Monday too, I'm not stuck for it

[notch000]

i got my new bolts yesterday and all is well with the world again. the bigger bolt was a bit off, i coudent really measure by eye much but the smaller pin was the real elephant in the room. see pics

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9B227LHfAAuDw41J9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/kpd4ST2cZUdg5LW1A

bleed the brakes again and there 90% there, was lazy and only did fronts but really need to do all 4 again now. At least I have the proper 2 person method finally mastered. The suspect caliper is not sliding fully freely either as in the wheel is not turning 100% freely when jacked up. but after a good long test drive it was stone cold so not binding enough to create any issue. I really need to take the caliper carrier off and clean out the slider blind holes as these are gunked up, & that wheel bearing has a bit of a growl so that's next on the never ending list......