Newbie

[Marcrs]

Thanks guys, your comments are really appreciated...don\'t think it\'s quite a gleaming machine just yet, but it\'s getting there

Had a great day at Brands Hatch - Garath got me in with the MX5 owners club, so I had somewhere nice to park, so the rex got a nice view of the track

I did park with some other classics for a while...



then moved, to be alongside fellow mazdas...









The day was spent in the sunshine, watching a mix of MX5s, Porsches, and some MGs and assorted classics...





sticky tyres on this MG...complete with huge cold air feed to the 1275 A series engine




was a really great day, and we thoroughly enjoyed the drive - she drives so nicely, the balance and handling is just soooo lovely :yes




I have something terrible to admit to as well...

We don\'t have a rear wiper arm, I need the nut, and connecting rod that holds the wiper blade on...anyways...the switch was half switched on, probably caught it when I was cleaning it or something, and sometimes, over a bump, it was coming on, and you could hear a whirring motor type noise for a while...then it would stop...sounded a bit like a fuel pump or something :2Rolleyes

Karissa was adamant that it sounded more in the car when it came on today...and sure enough, I found I could turn our "noisy fuel pump" on or off :rolleyes:

So, the fuel pump is fine, and I\'ve switched the rear wiper properly off :2Rolleyes

What a complete numpty...:Talking1

[Ian65]

So, the fuel pump is fine, and I\'ve switched the rear wiper properly off

At least it spured you on to fix the tank before you went up in flames!!

[David Nock (RIP)]

My new resolve....Sort that tank sender out, thanks for the inspiration to get it done Marc and Ian.

No Go I\'m afraid.....Sender is Open Circuit and I ain\'t dropping the tank to get it out......I just run with full to half tanks all the time.

Liking that car at Brands Marc....Bet you got some good chat off the MX5 blokes.....jealous as hell, I\'ll bet.

Glad the fuel pump\'s miraculously fixed itself.......that\'s the story you should have told mate, not the absolute truth. Youngsters don\'t know how to lie these days, what\'s the world coming to?

[captainbizzaro]

Looking good Marc:Thumbsup!

[Garath]

was a great day out, and a great drive the mx5 racing was fantastic, I might have to try to get into that
 
oh, and I can see my car from here
 

 
its the red one with the bonnet open, showing of the turbo(y) goodness

[Marcrs]

No Go I\'m afraid.....Sender is Open Circuit and I ain\'t dropping the tank to get it out......I just run with full to half tanks all the time.

Dropping the tank isn\'t that bad a job - but I\'ll honestly say I\'d have trouble getting my sender unit out, as the screws that hold it in now resemble rusty rivets... :2Rolleyes

Glad the fuel pump\'s miraculously fixed itself.......that\'s the story you should have told mate, not the absolute truth. Youngsters don\'t know how to lie these days, what\'s the world coming to?

I like it here, I get called a youngster... young at heart, and my mental age is probably still just about in the teens :Giggle


best not let on I\'ll be celebrating my 40th next year though :eek


I could have, it\'s true, just "never encountered another problem with the pump"...but I would have had to keep my dirty little secret, and it would have been eating away at me inside...and then one day someone would have a similar problem, and I\'d say "make sure your rear wiper switch is properly off"...and wait for the onslaught :Giggle

[David Nock (RIP)]

Dropping the tank isn\'t that bad a job - but I\'ll honestly say I\'d have trouble getting my sender unit out, as the screws that hold it in now resemble rusty rivets... :2Rolleyes


I like it here, I get called a youngster... young at heart, and my mental age is probably still just about in the teens :Giggle

best not let on I\'ll be celebrating my 40th next year though :eek

I could have, it\'s true, just "never encountered another problem with the pump"...but I would have had to keep my dirty little secret, and it would have been eating away at me inside...and then one day someone would have a similar problem, and I\'d say "make sure your rear wiper switch is properly off"...and wait for the onslaught :Giggle

Sorry Marc, Getting you and young Ross mixed up....Senior Moment.

Yeh them screws quickly resemble unmovable objects.....I picked the best ones off 2 tanks last time.

[Marcrs]

Senior moment eh...hmmm, I\'ll claim one of those, as far as the fuel pump goes

[Marcrs]

Flushed the rusty water out today, and filled it with some nice new coolant. It was really nasty, took a fair bit of flushing before the water ran clear...
Only took about 5 litres of coolant...and I expected to use nearly double that...is it possible I\'ve done something wrong? I took out the drain plug on the engine and had the heater set to hot...
I\'ll keep some coolant in the car for a while, and keep an eye on the level, just in case

I had a blonde moment, and started to remove the larger bolt - behind the coolant drain plug, and oil started to weep, so I put it back in...didn\'t seem like the same nice clean oil that\'s on the dipstick though...can anyone clarify what I undid, and why it\'s not nice clean oil in there?

I also checked the diff oil, as I thought it had been leaking, possibly at the drain plug, but it seemed ok. I\'ve cleaned it all up, and will check for leaks as we go

One other thing (sorry, been a long day) when I started it, to run it up to put the coolant in, the front coil was sparking from the HT lead to the neg terminal...no all the time, a bit intermittent. The plugs were possibly a bit wet, as I cleaned the engine around there before removing plugs etc. Any ideas? I refitted the HT leads to make sure they fit ok, and I think it settled down after a while, but I\'m not sure...

as always, any thoughts or ideas welcome

[David Nock (RIP)]

Oh.er....No drain plug that I have ever known about on a 12A engine, both S2 and S3.
You have to drop the bottom Rad hose off....(Best to attack the water pump end if it\'s not been off for a while as otherwise you might bust the bottom tank connection which is only soldered into place).
So what have you undone? Pics required I think.

Diff drain plugs are often wet with oil without loosing any so if the level seems OK then it\'s fine. Oil changes are recommended (every 20,000??) so maybe think about that.

Sparking...well a bit of a clean all round the coil tops, leads and in and out of the distributor cap with a non-fluffy cloth and then a good WD40 spray should fix all that.

[Ian65]

Marc,

was the coolant drain plug you undid the one on the engine at the base of the oil filler, shown circled in red in this pic? ( the engine water channels drain plug)
 


if so, do you mean the large hex headed thing just further back from the water drain plug?
( circled yellow )
I reckon this is either the oil bypass valve or the redundant take off for the remote oil cooler ( not used on series 3 cars with the beehive cooler)

Unless anyone knows differently....

[Marcrs]

Yep, the red circled one was the drain plug for the water (as per the owners handbook) and yes again, it was that large one I undid first...what you said makes sense, but I can\'t explain why the oil there was pretty yukky - I serviced it about 100 miles previous...

your picture looks as oily as my engine - I take it that\'s more common than I thought then

[Ian65]

the engine bay never looks clean for long, even after I clean it, it soon has a mist of road film / oil over it.... that enormous fan doesn\'t help, it\'s like a hurricane under the bonnet.
I do drive the car most days though........it\'s a well used car.
I\'m more interested in driving it than polishing it!

[myatt1972]

I\'m more interested in driving it than polishing it!

Even so, it looked very nice at Milford Common the other day!
Big Brother...

[Ian65]

Even so, it looked very nice at Milford Common the other day!
Big Brother...

Cheers,
I usually go through there about warp 10 so I\'m surprised you noticed!!