Buying high milage MX5

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Pete67
Hey. They are NOT Training wheels.
Hey.  They are NOT Training wheels.
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Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:01 pm

Buying high milage MX5

Post by Pete67 » Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:38 pm

Hi there, I'm new to your forum. I am finally ready to get that project car and I have set my sights on an older MX5. I obviously need to take budget into consideration, but I am prepared to over time spend money on the car. I located a very well looked after and well maintained 2001 1600 manual MX5. It is well priced (negotiable), but unfortunately it is obvious why, it has 294 000 km on the clock. I took it for a test drive on a windy country road. The car feels solid. Transmission and suspension feels good, paintwork is very good and the soft top is brand new (fabric with glass window) It was used as an every-day car, has done 70km every day on the open road. The question is, is it advisable to buy a car with that high milage? I know a lot about cars and do all maintenance and repairs myself.

Keith Jones
I count 5-s in my sleep
I count 5-s in my sleep
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Re: Buying high milage MX5

Post by Keith Jones » Fri Apr 30, 2021 9:00 am

Obviously with that sort of mileage, things will have worn - engine, gearbox, suspension. However from your description it sounds like nothing is in need of immediate replacement. Fortunately the MX5 engines are very durable, most parts are easy to get and are not expensive. We had an NB6 with over 250,000km on it and the compression pressures were still well within factory spec.
The only point to note is that the NB6 engine is the least available engine if you have to replace it. If (when) it needs to be overhauled, you would most probably have to have it rebuilt rather than being able to go out and buy a low mileage replacement. Also information on the NB6 engine is less available than for the NA6 and NA/NB8 engines. Most of the on-line information relating to MX5s comes from the USA, and they never got the NB6, only the NB8. You are unlikely to find a workshop manual on the NB6.
You talk about it being a "project car". What do you have in mind to do with it?

Pete67
Hey. They are NOT Training wheels.
Hey.  They are NOT Training wheels.
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:01 pm

Re: Buying high milage MX5

Post by Pete67 » Fri Apr 30, 2021 6:45 pm

By project car I mean I want to drive it and enjoy it, but I would also like to play around with it giving it more grunt, nothing drastic like turbo charging, more things like head, exhaust, cams and ecu. I don't want a super fast car. I want to park it up and work on it as long as it takes to do what I want to do. The idea if I were to buy the one I looked at was to drive it for a while and then park it up and do an engine rebuild. No use to fiddle around with an engine with that kind of milage. I see the NA engine power output is a fair bit less than the NB. That is one thing I noticed when I drove the car, there is not a lot of power. Did that year model come with the NB engine or can it be either or? Are parts for the NB6 also commonly available? Is an engine swap an option?

Keith Jones
I count 5-s in my sleep
I count 5-s in my sleep
Posts: 329
Joined: Thu Jul 06, 2006 6:30 pm
Location: Waiuku

Re: Buying high milage MX5

Post by Keith Jones » Mon May 03, 2021 2:22 pm

The NA and NB MX5 engines (B6ZE/BP5/BP4W/BP-Z3) unfortunately don't respond very well to the regular normally aspirated tuning mods - increased CR, high lift lift cams, porting etc - compared to other makes of engine. It's a fundamental design problem which is pretty much impossible to overcome. I have built a 190 bhp normally aspirated 1.8L engine, but the cost was twice that of doing it the turbo way.

The 1.6L B6ZE engine in the NB model has a bit more power than in the NA (125bhp compared to 115/120 bhp) but still well short of the 140 bhp of the BP4W engine which is standard in the 1.8L NB.

It is possible to replace the 1.6L engine in the NB with a 1.8L engine. They are physically not too different. You would need to swap ECUs, and possible some other electronic parts, for example, the ignition coils are different.

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