The life and times of Miata #338

The package showed up. It was my stock Miata radio that's more than 35 years old that was modified by Jeff Anderson (RIP) over 25 years ago. I sent it out to have the dodgy channel looked at and to be serviced. It came back with all of the caps and incandescent bulbs replaced (old parts included) as well as a new drive belt for the tape deck. Brandon was impressed with the fact that the tape deck worked at all. Even the lighting was in pretty good shape with just one or two bulbs out. Maybe not totally necessary, but call it preventative maintenance. Brandon couldn't find a problem with the bad channel and it seems to be okay now, which makes me think I had a bad connection at the back of the unit.

The CD player didn't work when I sent it out. Instead of fixing it, he installed a hidden Bluetooth receiver inside the head unit that hijacks the CD input. The lights still work on the player so it looks stock but I no longer need to use my little Bluetooth-FM adapter thing. It looks good. The Jeff Anderson modifications are still in place.

When reinstalling the interior, I wasn't happy with the shift feel due to the new heat insulation being compressed by the center console. I removed one of the pieces and it's better. I'll evaluate again after I get on the road.

Since I had the car on the lift for all the fluids, I decided to swap out those upper shock mounts and front bumpstops. All four mounts had definitely started failing with the rubbing left front being the worst. That's it on the left in the picture, you can tell it's a 1.6 part from the short studs. The other is a slightly slipped 1.8 part. The gap between the top part and the rubber beneath shows the slip, it should be in contact. I've been playing whack a mole with these by taking the best I can find in my parts stash, but they keep continuing to degrade. Now I have four new ones in place.

Interesting detail change between the 1990-93 and 1994-97 units that I'd forgotten about - the spring perch is less aggressively contoured on the early ones.

This will raise the ride height slightly. Once the car is off the lift and settled, I'll take a measurement and see where it sits. It will definitely help with the rubbing - not because the ride height is higher, but because the bumpstop location had moved up with that slipped upper mount and thus maximum compression put the wheel higher up into the wheel well. 

The surgery was a success. I drove the car to work yesterday and not a single rub. I'm very happy with the ride quality. I suspect it's sitting a bit higher now and I'm a bit uneasy with the stance for my survivor stock-ish car - the wheels look a little more aftermarket than I'd like in pictures - but I can't complain about the function. I need to spend more time looking at it from a distance :)

The bad channel is back on the stereo. I may do a back to back test with my other stock one. It's possible I do have a bad speaker and I missed it because I had the headrest speakers too loud. It's not really noticeable unless I've got the balance and fader set to drive just the one speaker. The Bluetooth modification is nice enough, although I got a pop out of the speakers when I turned the car off. Hmm.

I also picked up a new accessory. A local(ish) Miata owner was selling a factory tonneau cover that he'd had for years and never installed. The price was right so I decided to buy it for my hoard, as I still have the one I picked up in the 90s. I have no expectation of needing it anytime soon, but they haven't made these in decades.

This must be newer than my other one, this warning isn't on the other. But it's an important one. If you try to open the door with the mirror snap in place, something's going to be heavily stressed.

For the first time, I own a Miata with functioning AC!

I am very excited about this for the summer. I know the little 1.6 will get dragged down by the compressor but this will extend my happy driving weather considerably. My coworker Kyle did the system fill for me, and once I replaced a bad o-ring and tightened the fitting properly it all went perfectly. So happy.

I've been driving FM's new 2024 Miata a lot recently. Partly for evaluation, partly to help break it in, partly because I have to do some network investigations on it and in large part because I can. It's funny, compared to a 1990 in good shape it almost feels synthesized. The controls don't feel mechanical, they feel like they're running a simulation. The engine noise is very subdued and doesn't change character much (at least, not below 6k which is where I'm keeping it for now). Even the leather on the wheel feels too smooth, with no indication that it's organic. Weirdly, the worst part of the car is the ride quality at city speeds, it doesn't soak up the surface like 338 does. It does deal well with uneven surfaces at higher speeds, though.

I'm not looking for rough edges, just that little bit of friction/noise/vibration that tells you it's a machine. Like when you adjust the HVAC controls on an NA, you can feel you're moving doors via a cable. Or when you move the turn indicator stalk, you can feel the contacts clicking into place - especially on the non-airbag cars which have much beefier contacts and better tactile feel than the airbagged ones. I'm still trying to come up with a good way to explain it, but the engagement level is just lower. Of course, the new car is very capable and definitely faster and it's quite possibly the most engaging new car available to people who work for a living. It's just that I'm comparing it to one of the sports car icons.

It's still pretty fun to take up a twisty road on a sunny February day with the top down and the seat heaters on.

Excellent.  I've always believed air conditioning in a Miata is basically a requirement, and I'm at 9,200ft where it's a lot cooler than Junction.  I'd guess I most often use it with the top down at stop lights, where I don't need the power anyway. With the way the 1.6 kills the compressor at full throttle, it's not too much of an inconvenience.  The thing I hate the most is that it manages to re-engage between shifts, and the rev drop with a lightweight flywheel and the drag from the AC is just too much.

Hmm, I have an idea for a new product.

It needs a blip shift except it has to work with or without the brake applied, or program it like a BMW that hangs the revs between shifts.

Blip shift is what heel-toe is for :) This is not a drive-by-wire car you can program. I'm thinking of something to prevent the compressor from engaging during a shift. 

I'd obviously buy such a thing!  I think it'd be nice even without a lightweight flywheel, but the lightweight flywheel is what makes it really annoying.