Since 1997 I have owned the same car, a 1991 Eunos Roadster and from 2000 to 2006 I did Hillclimbs and Sprints in it, as well as in a Alfa Romeo 75, a Ford Racing Puma and once a FIAT 126 (yes, really).
This was it in it’s glory days.
Then I had two children in two years, now what no one warned me about childen is how expensive they are to run, even more than cars. So in 2008 I put the Roadster on SORN, and it hasn’t moved since. I did however use to park it in Parent & Baby spots at Tesco's just to wind people up first.
Fast forward to now and my son starts school in September. This gave me the kick up the arse I needed to get the car back on the road, how cool would it be to go to school on his first day in a ex-racing car?
First step was to charge the battery, then Dexter and I went down connected it up and the lights popped up and I heard the fan kick in, that's a good sign I thought.
But it wouldn't start, indeed it wouldn't even turn over, so as I suspected the battery was buggered. But on the little power we had left we spent 5 minutes popping the lights for a laugh, then killed the battery for good.
However, just in case decided to pop back to my mechanic to borrow their booster pack. On the way called into my Mazda dealer just to see how much a new battery would cost from them. The MK1 MX5 has a smaller, lighter gel Panasonic battery and there are quite pricy. Now you would think asking the price of a OEM battery for a car would be easy. There were two computers at the desk, the guy spent 5 minutes clicking at one.... then went to the other one and spent another 5 minutes clicking at the other one. I assume one was for parts and one was for stock control. But these days with RDP's and virtual machines have no idea why they needed two PC's. 10 minutes later I got my price, £161.23. I made my excuses and left.
Got the pack and they ordered a battery for a BMC Mini which they reackoned would fit and went back and started the car. Turned over and then all lights went, went back in the car and the red booster thingy had fallen off, connected again and tried again and it started first time , pretty impressive as it hadn’t moved for 4 years. The engine bay is pretty horrible though, needs a good cleanup.
It's running OK, smokey and a few odd noises coming from I assume old belts being brought into life. When I was walking around the car I brushed against the door and the mirror fell off. While the door is solid the metal bolt that held the mirror to the holder had rotted away. This scared the crap out of me, I assumed that if stuff like that is falling off, the rest of the car might be rotten too. Turns out this is a common problem with the cars and there is a cheap fix - http://www.autolinkmx5.com/door-mirror-ss-repair-bolt-set-mx-5-mk1-443-p.asp
Another problem I noticed was my immobiliser wasn’t working, which was £100 to fix. Then bizarrely it started working again the day I moved it to my mechanic, I wonder if it has a internal battery that was drained and now it's back in charge again, only explaination I can think of.
Kids love pop-up lights by the way.
Got her down the the mecahnics and up on the ramp and it looked bad to me.
But I've been assured after much poking with a screwdriver that the important bits are solid, both outer rear sills need replaced, they are only 40 quid each luckily.
http://www.autolinkmx5.com/repair-section-rear-of-sill-mx-5-mk1-lh-5900-p.asp
She's also down to 3 cylinders, but hopefully that is nothing serious. So hopefully I'll make my September deadline
Jonathan
This was it in it’s glory days.
Then I had two children in two years, now what no one warned me about childen is how expensive they are to run, even more than cars. So in 2008 I put the Roadster on SORN, and it hasn’t moved since. I did however use to park it in Parent & Baby spots at Tesco's just to wind people up first.
Fast forward to now and my son starts school in September. This gave me the kick up the arse I needed to get the car back on the road, how cool would it be to go to school on his first day in a ex-racing car?
First step was to charge the battery, then Dexter and I went down connected it up and the lights popped up and I heard the fan kick in, that's a good sign I thought.
But it wouldn't start, indeed it wouldn't even turn over, so as I suspected the battery was buggered. But on the little power we had left we spent 5 minutes popping the lights for a laugh, then killed the battery for good.
However, just in case decided to pop back to my mechanic to borrow their booster pack. On the way called into my Mazda dealer just to see how much a new battery would cost from them. The MK1 MX5 has a smaller, lighter gel Panasonic battery and there are quite pricy. Now you would think asking the price of a OEM battery for a car would be easy. There were two computers at the desk, the guy spent 5 minutes clicking at one.... then went to the other one and spent another 5 minutes clicking at the other one. I assume one was for parts and one was for stock control. But these days with RDP's and virtual machines have no idea why they needed two PC's. 10 minutes later I got my price, £161.23. I made my excuses and left.
Got the pack and they ordered a battery for a BMC Mini which they reackoned would fit and went back and started the car. Turned over and then all lights went, went back in the car and the red booster thingy had fallen off, connected again and tried again and it started first time , pretty impressive as it hadn’t moved for 4 years. The engine bay is pretty horrible though, needs a good cleanup.
It's running OK, smokey and a few odd noises coming from I assume old belts being brought into life. When I was walking around the car I brushed against the door and the mirror fell off. While the door is solid the metal bolt that held the mirror to the holder had rotted away. This scared the crap out of me, I assumed that if stuff like that is falling off, the rest of the car might be rotten too. Turns out this is a common problem with the cars and there is a cheap fix - http://www.autolinkmx5.com/door-mirror-ss-repair-bolt-set-mx-5-mk1-443-p.asp
Another problem I noticed was my immobiliser wasn’t working, which was £100 to fix. Then bizarrely it started working again the day I moved it to my mechanic, I wonder if it has a internal battery that was drained and now it's back in charge again, only explaination I can think of.
Kids love pop-up lights by the way.
Got her down the the mecahnics and up on the ramp and it looked bad to me.
But I've been assured after much poking with a screwdriver that the important bits are solid, both outer rear sills need replaced, they are only 40 quid each luckily.
http://www.autolinkmx5.com/repair-section-rear-of-sill-mx-5-mk1-lh-5900-p.asp
She's also down to 3 cylinders, but hopefully that is nothing serious. So hopefully I'll make my September deadline
Jonathan