Whole lotta Miata

[Jake]

A/C makes the car nearly undriveable.

One tip for hot summer driving... windows down, unzip the back window, leave the top up. Makes things nice and breezy but keeps the mid-day sun off of you.

Glad to see you're having so much fun with it! Looking forward to seeing it at some autocrosses and such.

[SlimKlim]

How does pedal spacing matter for rev matching? He didn't say he was trying to heel toe. Rev matching you just blip the throttle and down shift.

I understand your disappointment but I hope one day you can forgive me for messing up my terminology.

I, for one, found the miata difficult to heel-toe easily, possibly just because of my big ski feet. The pedal extension does make it extremely easy to hit the gas by accident, but once you get used to having it it's pretty nice. Just in my experience.

I'm sorry.

[BLINGMW]

Yeah, the pedals feel fine to heel toe for me. The only problem I have is when the A/C is on.

I'd be willing to bet your pedal spacing and mine are not the same, for some 25-yr-old-cars reason. I had to bend my throttle toward the brake just so my size 13s could reliably catch the edge of it while braking. Some internet people said that was A OK.

[Senor_Taylor]

Thanks for the tip, Jake. I kind of thought to do that the other day but didn't know if it was a good idea to have the top "tight" when it was closed and not have the window zipped up.


Mine are probably already bent, then. A few small "mods" were done to this car that I'm still discovering.

[Jake]

Thanks for the tip, Jake. I kind of thought to do that the other day but didn't know if it was a good idea to have the top "tight" when it was closed and not have the window zipped up..

Unlatch it, unzip window, then relatch. Same deal when you zip the window back in. Unlatching it from the windshield header will release enough tension to let you do that and not tear the window or top.

[SlimKlim]

^ Definitely don't forget and zip the rear window back in with the top latched. Did that in harrisonburg in my Miata and had to duct tape it together for the drive home.

[Senor_Taylor]

I have a very VERY slight misfire sometimes. It seems like it is on humid days, but that may just be a coincidence. It doesn't effect driveability at all, but it makes it run like crap when the A/C is on and the car is trying to idle. The idle will drop down to ~500 RPM and stumble a bit if the A/C is on.

I'm assuming it's either the plugs and wires, MAF, or I have moisture getting in somewhere like the TPS. Doesn't really bother me at the moment, but I guess I'll get to poking around with it soon. I've still never done sparkplugs, which is weird considering the other things I've done.

Also pulled the carpet from the trunk and soaked it a few days in oxy clean. I also pulled all of the foam padding that was under the carpet and scraped up the glue/tar that was holding to down. Hopefully it'll get that gear oil smell out.

I've also got some gear oil and transmission oil sitting in my Amazon shopping cart. Waiting to get my rent paid and I'll pull the trigger. I'm sure it hasn't been changed in a long time and I'm sure the transmission should feel a little better than it does. I still need to get around to adjusting my clutch pedal. It doesn't fully disengage unless I have the pedal pegged against the floorboard, which has led to some gears grinding.

[Evan]

miatas have notoriously weak plug wires.

also check timing.

and it sounds like your clutch slave cylinder is going. very common. get a rebuild kit and some brake fluid and rebuild it.

[Senor_Taylor]

Slave cylinder repair kit ordered just now.

[Jake]

Slave cylinders like to crap out and yours sounds like it's going. Good news is they're super cheap and easy to replace or repair.

My Miata would eat plug wires every like, 20k miles. Plugs and wires both are pretty cheap and very easy to do so I'd recommend it the next time you have $60ish and 30 minutes of time to spare.

[*insertusernamehere*]

Slave cylinder repair kit ordered just now.

Was that cheaper or something? Why not just buy a new one?

[Sully]

It's probably a couple o-rings like a brake caliper rebuild kit so if that's the case, I'm sure it would be much cheaper

[Senor_Taylor]

Repair kit was less than $2 from Rock Auto.

[Senor_Taylor]

Also just noticed the other day that the idle is at 1200 even when it's warm. I would just lower it down, but I know it'll stall out when I turn on the A/C. Maybe the PO upped the idle instead of fixing the root cause of the idle dropping so low when the A/C comes on?

Edit: Just checked. The idle screw is all of the way as low as it will go and the idle was at 800. Then, I revved it and it came back down to 1200 and stayed there. I heard a super loud clicking coming from the valve cover that I couldn't hear when I was in the driver seat. Pulled the spark plug leads and there's a little water in the sparkplug holes...

[ViPER1313]

Pulled the spark plug leads and there's a little water in the sparkplug holes...

Tampons... Seriously. Then get new plug wires that fit correctly and slather all that ish in dielectic grease. Might as well change the plugs while you are there.

[Senor_Taylor]

Good idea! I dried them out and the miss seems to be gone. It seems I need a new Idle Speed Control Valve, because of the RPM's not changing when the A/C comes on. Not too big of a deal since I don't plan on using A/C that much.

[Senor_Taylor]

So, my tach has started bouncing around periodically. I think it's because the engine has too much horsepower and revs too quickly and has broken the gauge. Any ideas to help reduce horsepower?

[*insertusernamehere*]

Bouncing how? Like crazy bouncing or like its tired and doesn't wanna go so it takes a 2 second break but eventually drags itself up to where its supposed to be? Lots of old cars do it if its the latter, Chips stang included. No idea how to fix.

[BLINGMW]

tired and doesn't wanna go so it takes a 2 second break but eventually drags itself up to where its supposed to be?

:lol: you have described the speedo of mine perfectly. Especially if speed hasn't changed much, it's like, hey this is close enough I'm gonna stay here a while and eventually you might be back here anyway soooo.... :dunno:

[Senor_Taylor]

I'll be driving at 3000 RPM, then it'll just move up to 4000 for a few seconds, then mosey on back to 3000.