Thoughts on the new Mk4 ND

[TOM 5252]

I added another big update to my ND yesterday.
I fitted this kit https://www.amazon.fr/gp/product/B092D53Y2N/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which arrived from china 3 weeks ago.
When I ordered it on June 22nd cost inc carriage was under €128. The price quoted
at my local main dealer was €171 and my nearest uk dealer in Omagh was around £220,
and Letterkenny had the kit in stock.

The software has to be updated first to the 70 series, I had done that last summer when
trying to get my reversing camera to work on the central screen without it needing a reboot,
before I worked out the correct fix for that problem.

Yesterday's job involved dismantling the dash again and some of the central console to fit
the new usb hub and run the wires up to the back of the CMU unit.

Now I have google maps navigation working on the in-built 7 inch screen, which was my
main reason for doing this since my mazda navigation SD card comes to the end of the 3 year
free updates period at the end of this year.

[Pops]

Well done, you must know every wire and connector off by heart now

[Steve]

excellent Bit ridiculous expecting subscriptions to navigation these days with all the free software available on Android I'd have thought.

[TOM 5252]

Exactly, today I've been looking through google Play Store for free apps that
work off-line. The Americans on Miata.net seem to like Waze, but it doesn't
work at all without mobile data turned on. Google Maps seems to work fine
with downloaded maps, but wants to send me over a steep narrow mountain
road passing a TV mast, to get to Letterkenny from here, totally ignoring the
N14 which is only a couple of kilometres from here. The other app I am going
to try is MAPS.ME, if I ask it for the same journey it's first choice is via the main
road. So I would rather trust it if I was away in some unknown part of the country.
I've been comparing the apps on the phone so I don't know yet if MAPS.ME will
automatically work with Android Auto.

I haven't tried either yet on a road trip, as I am just starting my second week of
isolation as ordered by the surgeon who is doing a hernia repair operation on me
next Monday, provided I test covid free on Saturday and they don't stop operations
because of the rising covid hospitalisation numbers.

[Pops]

Hi Tom, navmii is well worth looking at

[TOM 5252]

Thanks Pops
I have just been checking out navmii. I might try to download the maps again,
at first sight a lot of the land mass seems to be missing, like the sea level has
already risen. The north west half of Co.Donegal and most of malin peninsula
is blue. The roads and towns are still there but most of the N56 appears to be
offshore. I just realised that when I was downloading the UK & ROI map, I stopped
the downloading of the Coastlines of 4 continents. I deleted the file and allowed
both files to download and the country is now complete again and the app looks
good.
I connected my phone to the car today and found that the Waze app appears
on the screen just like Google Maps but MAPS.ME does not. I will check tomorrow
if Navmii is Android Auto compatible.

[Pops]

Hi Tom, it's worth trying, I originally downloaded it a good few years ago thinking it was only for iPhone but since I moved to android 2 years ago it still works and I've been able to update any time

[Steve]

best of luck with the surgery too!

[TOM 5252]

Just an update. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since my operation, I had checked on the following
Thursday that I could sit into the driver's seat, (first opening the roof) and operate the pedals.
I didn't drive anywhere as I didn't have to. Last Wednesday was my first drive, back to Letterkenny
Hospital in lovely sunshine to pay the bill and then home via Newtown to book the yearly service,
as this car's first NCT is due next month.
From the reading I did before this operation, I was expecting an amount of pain afterwards but I
wasn't really sore at all in the wound area. I had opted for the spinal injection anaesthetic which
takes some hours to wear off, after the opp. giving the pain killing pills time to take over.
Looking forward to driving a MX5, top down, in the sunshine is also a good aid to recovery.

[Pops]

That's good news on the health side of things, nothing worse than trying to drive a car when in pain, all that's needed now is for the good weather to continue

[TOM 5252]

I just posted a report http://www.mx5ireland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6937&p=69699#p69699
about my NCT visit today and my tinted sun strip.

They didn't comment on the red LED strip I fitted between the tail lights or
the charging socket I fitted to the rear bumper

[Pops]

Looks like you got a real jobsworth, friend of mine works in one of those test centres (don't want to say where) he says that a good few testers are being moved around the country and they are failing everything and anything they can, I wonder if you got one of them

[TOM 5252]

I was thinking that too, but today I checked the sweep area of the wipers and
discovered that the drivers side wiper is long enough to reach right up to the
top at the corner of the screen. At that point the sun-strip was very opaque so
he was technically right according to the rule about heavy tinting on the wiped
area.
Although you would only be using that area of screen for plane spotting or
star gazing.

[Pops]

I wonder how the cars with factory tinted top of screen passes, just looked at one of my cars and it has a greenish blue tint at the top of the screen and the wiper definitely sweeps over it.
In your situation I wonder can you tint the top of your screen on the inside as a certain amount of tint is allowed on the front screen

[TOM 5252]

Yesterday I added some rodent protection to my ND that Mazda had neglected to fit.
A number of American ND owners had found a smell in their cars that led them to
discover that mice had set up home in the air intake duct upstream of the ventilation
fan. This is how it comes from the factory, after I had removed the black frame.

20221001_143526_mfnr.jpg

This is how I left it

20221001_143728_mfnr.jpg

To access this area, you have to lift the corner of the cowl grill and to lift it you
have to detach part of the weather strip. This comes away by un-buttoning it from
it's clips like undoing the wooden buttons of the old-style duffle coat.

20221001_144034.jpg

I removed the plastic frame that's held on with two trim clips and sandwiched
a piece of the expanded metal I had bought to protect the radiator 5 years ago,
between the frame and the open mouth of the intake duct.
I used two cable ties around the centre bar of the frame to hold the mesh in
place during fitting and added double sided foam tape around the mesh to
protect the paint that it was being pressed down against. I didn't expose the
adhesive on the side next the paint.

20221001_141726.jpg

20221001_143035.jpg