Obelisk's Garage - Miata and...a racing lawnmower??

[Obelisk]

Hey all, figured I'd start a thread for my car(s) since I'm considering doing some work once the spring comes around. I will post the obligatory can of beans in the cabin on both cars soon enough!

My main ride's a 2011 Mazda MX-5 Grand Touring with an aftermarket duckbill that was already installed by one of the four prior owners when I bought it. It's got, as of this post, 22,100 miles on it and everything is original as far as I can tell. Well, except the carbon fibre wing.

I've really been enjoying driving Mimi around - I never really realized how a sports car could both be comfortable and incredibly engaging to drive at the same time, but Mazda sure figured that one out without issue.

I don't really have any plans for Mimi like I do with the Impreza. I was thinking air filter + new exhaust and only those two things. The car is super clean and has a very good Carfax record, so I don't want to be that guy that needlessly depreciates the value of the car.

If you got this far into the post, thank you for reading and have a wonderful day.

Spoiler: Custom/aftermarket parts

Cosmetic/Exterior/Interior:
ModeloDrive Carbon Fiber XTR rear wing
Carbon Miata polyurethane diffuser (cosmetic)

Platform/Handling:
BF Goodrich gForce Sport COMP-2 tires, 205/45R17
Flyin' Miata Sway Bars

Engine/Performance:
MagnaFlow Street Series Catback Exhaust
K&N Performance Air Filter

Coming soon: "Daishō", 1996 Daihatsu Midget II R Type

 

[Obelisk]

I brought Mimi to my mechanic today to try and identify a rattling noise that I'd been having over the past few days. Sure enough, it stopped today lol.

The mechanic agreed to check the car regardless and we ended up finding out a few things:

• The front brakes were at 15% on the rotors and pads! Asked for a replacement on the spot.
• The heat shield had two push tabs that weren't in all the way, resulting in it sitting against the engine/transmission. Those got secured and are all set now.
• I have a weak motor mount that's causing some mild vibration when the Miata is in reverse, but is a non-issue otherwise.
• The exhaust clamp has a crack in it. Also, the car has a MagnaFlow on it and no one ever documented it! No wonder it seemed a bit aggressive sounding for a Miata...

An unrelated rattle (which has ultimately been determined to be road noise) led to all of these. Good grief.

 

[lbpomg95]

Always liked Subarus. Any idea how you'll reduce weight?

 

[Obelisk]

Always liked Subarus. Any idea how you'll reduce weight?

I'm not too sure yet. I don't want to compromise too much on the car, so I'm going to do some research over the winter. If I had to guess, probably just stripping out superfluous stuff from the car, i.e. some of the unnecessary interior parts.

 

[lbpomg95]

The first thing I ripped out of my Corsa was the rear seats but that's probably something that gets used in your car. It's expensive but lighter alloy wheels and an FRP hood are options. We've just bought a Suzuki Jimny (imagine a Jeep Wrangler but half the size) with lots of off-roading parts bolted on, already saved lots of weight by taking a few off. Can't wait to see if it actually moves now!

 

[SVX]

since it's rated at 148 HP when new

I would like to bet that is at the crank. You won't get 30hp with an exhaust/air filter (148 minus drivetrain loss, even less if AWD) to make your 155hp goal.

 

[Obelisk]

Update since I forgot to actually post.

With the winter season out the door, I pulled Mimi out of storage...only to have forgotten that batteries tend to run flat if you don't run the car every once in a while. Had to jump it.

I've got a more coherent plan for what to do with Smokey (Subaru), as I've got a few priority items on my list:

• Front/Rear lights replaced with better units as they are showing a lot of wear and fogging
• Old aftermarket stereo (early '00s JVC! ) has got to go. New, modern stereo on the shopping list
• Clean engine bay somehow, assess condition of engine bay and chassis as the car survived a very salty winter and might be rusting in a few places
• wing it from there

Cheers.

 

[Obelisk]

I'm heading to a car meet tonight and decided to clean up Mimi.

Spoiler: Before

Spoiler: After

I'll see if I can get some photos from the car meet tonight.

 

[Obelisk]

The Miata and I made a couple of friends at the car meet last week!

 

[Obelisk]

So I had to bring Smokey to the mechanic to get a leak looked at. While I was commuting home, the "oil low" warning came on, and even though I dumped a quart of oil in the engine to try and buy time to get to the mechanic, I wasn't able to get it to go away.

It turns out a gasket near the timing assembly ("timing cover gasket" is what was told to my father when they called him about this) has gone bad and I can either live with it or fix it up. The mechanic quoted me a whopping $1,100 on the repair which has me concerned, so I'm going to get a second opinion from the nearby Subaru dealer and see what the play is. I plan on keeping Smokey, and my next step once the engine issue is addressed is to start the refresh/clean-up with a new stereo and a set of Spyder front headlights.

The tail lights....that's gonna be rough. The 2012 Impreza was a weird transitional model, so aftermarket tail lights are oddly scarce for it.

Additionally, the Miata has developed squeaks (which is metal on metal contact if I've researched this right) and some kind of clicking which is...fun.

 

[Joey D]

Spyder front headlights

If you've never ordered from CarID, I strongly recommend you don't. Their customer service blows and there's a really good chance you're stuff will arrive damaged.

As for Spyder lights, you're going to want to research what others say on a Subaru forum. I know with the Tacoma, the Spyder headlights leaked really bad and the lens were junk making their output terrible. The LED accent lighting is also known for prematurely failed as well since they use the cheapest possible LEDs.

 

[Obelisk]

If you've never ordered from CarID, I strongly recommend you don't. Their customer service blows and there's a really good chance you're stuff will arrive damaged.

As for Spyder lights, you're going to want to research what others say on a Subaru forum. I know with the Tacoma, the Spyder headlights leaked really bad and the lens were junk making their output terrible. The LED accent lighting is also known for prematurely failed as well since they use the cheapest possible LEDs.

Appreciate it. 👍

 

[SVX]

Rocker gaskets. Your quote is because of them not being on top of the engine like a traditional 4 cyl but on the sides. If it's using it enough for you to run out of oil, I suggest replacement.

 

[Obelisk]

Rocker gaskets. Your quote is because of them not being on top of the engine like a traditional 4 cyl but on the sides. If it's using it enough for you to run out of oil, I suggest replacement.

Forgot to update on that. They dropped the engine and replaced the gasket in question, as well as the rest of this stuff:

Smokey is back up and running without any issues, so for the time being I'm saving money to go through with the stuff I was planning.

 

[Obelisk]

The front bumper on Smokey is failing, so it's about high time I start getting new parts for it. Current plan is to replace the front bumper, the hood (which is badly beaten up from road debris somehow) and the JVC KW-R800BT that's currently mounted to the car. Whether I can actually put any of these words to action is a different story...

 

[Obelisk]

Over the course of yesterday, I was doing a lot of work researching what I could do to the Subaru. So far, this is what I've got:

The big snag right now is figuring out the suspension and bodywork, and looking for any other method for possibly tuning up the engine a little. I know the CVT it has will shred itself with any torque past 180 ft-lbs, so I'm thinking a WRX and TR690 swap might be an option on the table if the engine and TR590 are too old to handle any additional strain.

Another interesting little pickle I found myself in is that no one carries aftermarket taillights for the specific Impreza I have (GJ), so I had to reach out to the folks at Foxbeam for a quote/estimate on that. They were pretty cool about doing a one-off set of modernized tail lights for the Subaru!

The car originally produced 148 HP at the flywheel. It's probably closer to 140, 135 now thanks to the wear and tear over 145,000 miles, so I'm hoping that the CAI and exhaust open up the car enough to get back up to original factory power if not a bit higher. Shame there aren't many options for the FB20B engine.

 

[SVX]

Can I ask why?

 

[Obelisk]

Can I ask why?

The main reason is not really grounded in reality, I'll admit that. Essentially, it boils down to me wanting to keep Smokey running as long as I can. Thinking that a refresh like this would go a long way to extending the life of the car as well as motivate me to keep driving the car beyond just using it as a winter beater.

 

[Aerocoupe]

Essentially, it boils down to me wanting to keep Smokey running as long as I can.

Makes sense, but having your budget allocated to an intake and exhaust upgrade and over $2,000 quoted for custom lights don't really align with that. I'm also unsure why you're considering a WRX engine/trans swap either; if the current powertrain seems healthy, why bother making an expensive headache with wiring and computers? At that point just trade it in for an actual WRX and be done.

...motivate me to keep driving the car beyond just using it as a winter beater.

Is that...not what you have the Miata for? You already have something that does the "fun" thing perfectly well, and it just isn't making sense to me why you're thinking about throwing all this money at making your winter beater into something you have right in front of you.

This kinda reminds me of @Lameonade's thread on his Buick Rendezvous. He had all these ideas about swapping in a Vortec straight 6 from a Trailblazer and all sorts of other wild mods, but ended up not going through with it because it just didn't make any sense for him. Of course it's all your money and your decision here, but I just don't think most of what you want to do to Smokey is a wise investment.

 

[Obelisk]

I'm also unsure why you're considering a WRX engine/trans swap either; if the current powertrain seems healthy, why bother making an expensive headache with wiring and computers? At that point just trade it in for an actual WRX and be done.

I forgot to edit out the bit about the wrx swap. I rejected the idea after a few hours of bouncing it off some friends of mine as it's not really what I had in mind. Plus, older wrxs are appreciating beyond belief ($54,000 for one I saw from around the same year as the Impreza) and buying a new WRX (even the base model) would mean trading both the Miata and the Impreza. I have just enough disposable income to clean up and modernize the Impreza.

Is that...not what you have the Miata for? You already have something that does the "fun" thing perfectly well, and it just isn't making sense to me why you're thinking about throwing all this money at making your winter beater into something you have right in front of you.

I'll give you that one. Yes, the Miata is already a lot of fun. While I daily drive it most of the year, I want to avoid subjecting it to late fall through winter conditions because it'll start rusting and that'll just ruin the car. I've seen way too many rust bucket Miatas around and don't want that happening to mine. Doing all this work for the Impreza does a couple of things:
1) Since my normal routine is to switch cars every week when it's not fall/winter, it'd keep the commute enjoyable instead of driving me up a wall every other week.
2) Makes life in the winter a bit more fun. Since the Miata has to be garaged, I have to depend on Smokey throughout that season. Why not make it more engaging during that time?

Plus, there's that whole modernization thing. I did mention in my reply to SVX that my motivation isn't really one grounded in reality, but I might as well spell it out at risk of sounding like a lunatic:

I genuinely feel bad for the Impreza. It used to be a nice mid-range Impreza at one point in time and has essentially become nothing more than a winter beater. All of this stuff I want to do with it, the custom lights, wheels, tires, eventual suspension stuff is basically how I intend to bring it back up to being a nice car instead of a...er, i'll call it a shoebox.

Tl;dr the subaru deserves better, so i want to make it happen.

And the reason I don't do all of this to the NC instead is because I feel what it already has equipped is more than enough.

I hope this at least provides some insight into the thought process behind this.

 

[Obelisk]

Smokey's throwing the oil light again. That only lasted a month. I suspect the engine's burning through oil as we haven't seen any leaks since the gasket replacement.

Suppose it might be a good time to evaluate options and see if I can find a better car for the winter and for modding out. I'm not confident in the condition of the engine.

 

[Obelisk]

When it rains, it pours. I thought I had the clearance to get out of the garage this morning. I didn't. I now need a new passenger side mirror on the MX5.

 

[Obelisk]

Good news: Smokey is not doing anything serious. She's just burning a bit of oil - some additives and 0w20 will fix that right up. As for the MX5, the local Mazda dealer has a paint-matched mirror replacement waiting for me tomorrow and it seems that the mirror itself is an easy fix.

 

[Obelisk]

So, I got the mirror, I got a set of valve stem covers and I got some oil additive for Smokey.

And with that, the car work begins.

I started by putting WD-40 on the screws on the current mirror - rather be safe than sorry with these screws! Set the valve stem covers while I was waiting, too.

The door panel had to come off so I could get to the connector, so that was next on the list. Inside of the door handle and the cover of the handle both had to come off to get to two of the three necessary screws for the door card/panel.

Entire panel has to come off too and in doing so it sheared every clip that was in the panel...ugh. I'll ask the Mazda tech about that at the maintenance appointment, but I suspect they're not super important. (edit after the fact: yeah, they don't seem important, the screws are doing all the work)

After that was the speaker. This was so I could trace the harness and figure out where to go from there. Everything after that was simple: Pull the bolts, pull the harness, off with the old mirror...and then everything in reverse with the new one.

Just like new. I may have pin-pointed the rattle in Mimi as well - the air restrictor in the back is really loose.

As for Smokey...oil was refilled and the sensor stopped lighting up. I'll be putting the additive in the next time she goes for a spin and burns oil.

Not bad for my first time doing any kind of serious work on a car.

 

[Obelisk]

Mimi went in for regular maintenance today.

I was informed the rear shocks are blown

While I can drive on blown shocks, the fact of the matter is that my commute to work definitely was a major contributing factor. 495 is hell on suspensions because it's just a total mess of a road surface.

I'm not gonna risk blowing any other parts of the car, so she's gonna be garaged until i get better, closer employment or the money to get the shocks ordered and replaced.

 

[SVX]

Shocks also wear out. Seeing as your car is over 10 years old they are probably the originals and failed. Make sure you replace with good quality OE like KYB otherwise you'll have a repeat in a quarter of the time frame

 

[Obelisk]

Yeah, that's definitely another key factor in those failing. I'd be picking them up through the Mazda dealer so it's likely going to be good OEM parts anyways.

And speaking of Smokey, I've been reconsidering my decision to work on it. once I pay off the Miata, I'll have the space in my budget to sell the Subaru and buy a much better second car in its place. That could be a WRX or it could be a new AWD Mazda3, time will tell.

 

[Obelisk]

Sorry about this being kind of blurry, took it in a hurry.

Figured I'd upload a small update.
MX5 battery went flat because it's been garaged for a while. Still need to get shocks fixed. I got a trickle charger and hooked her up to it overnight. Battery charge and voltage looked good this morning so charger has been stowed. I'll be checking to make sure she starts when I get home today.

The Subaru has been holding up quite well. The front bumper is still damaged from an incident with the garage doorway around the same time that the MX5 mirror got taken off, so I'm ultimately going to have to replace the bumper (which is being held on with a fair bit of duct tape to stop the sides from popping off and flapping at highway speeds) and clean the paint scrape headlight on that side. I also have been having a minor issue with the front right tire not quite holding pressure.

I should be getting the funds i need for the suspension repair by end of year, so Mimi will be back on the road soon.

 

[Obelisk]

Quick update for you fine folks.

Mimi has had her rear struts/shocks officially replaced as of yesterday evening and her inspection sticker updated so she is good to go for when the spring comes around.

She has had one ongoing problem, though. For some reason, ever since I got the car, she's been leaning to the driver's side. It's pretty noticeable and while it hasn't compromised the driving dynamics (as far as I can tell) it's driving me absolutely insane. Some research suggests either twisted bushings or worn out springs, but as it is I do not have the means to go and deal with this particular problem. It's always something with these cars.

 

[Obelisk]

Quick update for you fine folks.

Mimi has had her rear struts/shocks officially replaced as of yesterday evening and her inspection sticker updated so she is good to go for when the spring comes around.

She has had one ongoing problem, though. For some reason, ever since I got the car, she's been leaning to the driver's side. It's pretty noticeable and while it hasn't compromised the driving dynamics (as far as I can tell) it's driving me absolutely insane. Some research suggests either twisted bushings or worn out springs, but as it is I do not have the means to go and deal with this particular problem. It's always something with these cars.

Turns out it was my garage floor being uneven. Sometimes I'm a little hopeless.

Have some photos I took after a car wash.