Lyndon wrote - You can really only disregard quiescent current draw from a battery after you have measured it and know what it is. To assume it is the same for all MX5s could be a mistake and it only takes a couple of minutes to check it.< On this, I have measured ours as mentioned, and while it's ...

Might be less effort but would be very bad for the car and the battery! One of the worst things you can do to a car is to repeatedly start it from cold and turn it off again before it's fully warmed up and had a good run. And as for the battery, as I understand it, typical lead-acid car batts don't ...

Thank you for the respective replies, Colin & Kate. These are most helpful, as from them, a picture of the situation is now emerging to me, such that there may be two different issues being talked about in battery-flattening discussions. The first issue is that of MX5 batteries going flat while car ...

Hullo again all, A week or two ago I posted some standby current-drain readings I'd taken on our MX5 and two other cars. These showed that the MX5 drain (20mA) was not particularly high compared with other cars, and also probably wasn't enough to cause any abnormal battery-flattening while unused. A...

Graham said ----- "Several Registered Dealers have been ripped of in a similar way over recent months. Once you confirm the cheque is banked, they will stop payment. It takes at least 2 weeks to clear an over Seas cheque." So maybe the trick is not to tell them you have banked the cheque and if it c...

Greetings all, We too have the problem of the MX-5 flattening its battery while car not being used for some time, whereas our other cars don't seem to do this over similar storage-durations. At least I THINK we've got this problem, although for a definitive statement we need to actually note how lon...

Yes you are correct in that they are naturally closed and to check they are working you pop them into hot water. Never the less when they fail it seems they usually fail in the open position and thus don't close when the car cools down again, this has been our experience anyway, and for sure it is a...

Perhaps we have just been lucky ---I don't recall ever having one fail in the closed position but certainly several in the open.Often when we have bought cars (read old bombs!)they never heat up properly and the thermostat was the problem. Better touch wood now I may have just put a hex on myself! J...

Generally themostats tend to fail in the open position and your car never
warms up fully rather than the other way which causes overheating---but I
guess sometimes Murphy wins out!
Cheers Joan H

Greetings all, Another maintenance query from me, if the group can advise please. Have to do our first oil-change on our MX-5, and wonder what grade of engine oil people have found to be satisfactory in these cars. From the chart in the Owners' Manual, 10W-50 seems to be the most recommended, with 2...

Hello again Ian,
Have had success with the oil filter, it did loosen by hand - I did use the
surgical glove as well.
Cheers and thanks - back to work!
GH

Thanks for your reply, Jeff: Rather than spouting a bunch of hooey and getting it all wrong, may I gently point you in this direction ... http://www.miata.net/garage/ < Ah yes, great site, thanks Jeff. I've been there to read about the crankshaft nose problem and the cambelt change job, but thought ...

Hullo Ian, And thanks for your replies: Hi Graham I remove my oil filter by hand - it's a tight squeeze but my small hands can do it. Maybe I don't do it up as tight as factory but it's never leaked in 6 years of my oil changes and doing up by hand - maybe I'm tougher than I thought!< No, not at all...

Greetings all, A few simple maintenance queries please, for the MX-5 home mechanics out there. Although I've done a lot of work on our Alfas, I haven't touched my wife's MX-5 until now, when various routine maintenance items became due, so it's all new to me. The first job I tackled was the cambelt ...

Ah yes you are right about the sitting idling too...remind me never to buy
and Auckland car
Joan H

Amazing there are 1990 cars still for sale at $2-3000 with 30, 40, 50000km only on them, while others had over 140,000km Any car with mileage that low after all that time would surely be best avoided...it must have spent all its time driving round Jap cities.. short trips never getting warm.. a reci...

Whoops first posting had pic attached may have made file to big for list trying again without pic Off topic but as car enthusiasts I am sure you will indulge.. AK folk especially ---- please keep your eyes & ears peeled. Joan H Subject: stolen Alfa Romeo Alfasud ti race car (1982) Hi all, I would re...

Ah that would have been Andrew Deighton?
Met him at Whittakers..a good keen man!
Look forward to meeting you at Manfield Haven't been on the track myself since
May...hope to be there racing rather than watching but if I am it will be in
an Alfa I'm afraid !
Cheers Joan H

You could try this...
If you ever want to remove yourself from this mailing list,
you can send mail to <Majordomo@mx5club.org.nz> with the following
command in the body of your email message:

unsubscribe mx5list

Do you have a fax number I could fax you a copy...
or you could try going to the website www.thesurgery.co.nz
Click on "Intermarque Sprints" and from there get the email addy and ask them
to post you and entry form
Cheers Joan H

Another good series - especially for those new to motorsport is the Surgery Intermarque Sprint series. Unfortunately the last meeting for the year is coming up soon (Dec 5th) You need to be a member of a car club and have the basic motorsport licence to participate also your car will need the usual ...

Ah no, green is reserved for my MX - not common or garden BRG but the
special edition sparkle green. I gather there is one other like it in NZ -
if anyone knows of it, please let me know.


I saw one in Porirua the other day..very nice it was too!
Joan H

I'd be interested in the details too please..especially if you are from the
Wgtn area...
J H

Yes I had heard it could be hard to persuade a tire shop to fix a puncture
after one had used that gooey stuff...
If the worst came to worst and Murphy got me...I could always call the AA

Joan H

The hard part is working out where to
put the standard wheel to get it back to a workshop!


Indeed!
Infact I am very tempted to just toss out the spare...after all most tires
seem to go flat in the garage these days...rather than on the road...
Oh..am I tempting fate!
Joan H