Thread: Timattalon's MX5 woes

Loctite 660

It will fix that in 60 seconds


Done it plenty of times on heavy machinery equipment

It’s made to bond shafts/collars to each other

Very very simple inexpensive fix

If you are going to repair it in situ then Belzona will give you a fighting chance - esp with a good fitting stepped key and the bolt torqued up with loctite 262. if you need some Belzona pm me and i can post some down to you

The other option is Devcon 2-part steel filled epoxy. That's done similar jobs for me in much higher loaded situations. It can be done, but as you say if you have a spare donk to drop in it is another way to flog that cat.

We were replacing cranks left right and centre when those things first came out lol.
Kept us busy at the dealership thats for sure. Only seemed to be the 1s with powersteering...

@dannyb Cheers. I wasnt really expecting quite so much advice....It was originally only yo say I knew how the guy felt.....

All good.

Originally Posted by timattalon

@dannyb Cheers. I wasnt really expecting quite so much advice....It was originally only yo say I knew how the guy felt.....

All good.

Yeah i figured.....kinda spiraled

Originally Posted by timattalon

@timattalon I have moved your posts to a more appropriate part of the forum, happy to rename it anything you like just let me know ?
dannyb



I think I am about to find out. Went to replace a front crank seal on my MX5.....and this is what greeted me....

Attachment 221961

It is either pull engine remove crank- repair (Bro in law is a recon guy) and replace or fit a replacement motor which I have bought....

Pulling motor means new clutcu while I am in there, AC delete while I can access it (Has not wprked for years ...) and a few extra bits as well.....

k20 swap it man

Originally Posted by 199p

k20 swap it man

Alloy 302 and 5 speed at a minimum

Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

Alloy 302 and 5 speed at a minimum

Theres one on the yellow site with a 4.0l Lexus V8 in it........I am happy with the original 1600. If I want speed I have a couple with two wheels that will satisfy that fix....one is about the same size (1520cc flat 6....)

And 5 speed is a given. The new motor I am getting comes from a mates donor car as he has converted a 96 auto to manual with the gear box from the crashed donor...

Originally Posted by cambo

We were replacing cranks left right and centre when those things first came out lol.
Kept us busy at the dealership thats for sure. Only seemed to be the 1s with powersteering...

Is it still an issue with these motors?

At what km do/did the issue rear its head?

aparently 13b's bolt right to the gearboxes

how are things at the salon these days?

Originally Posted by Finnwolf

Is it still an issue with these motors?

At what km do/did the issue rear its head?

All the 1s we did were under warranty still so less than 3yrs old. I'm talking about the original NA 1600s. Generally started when customer noticed it lose performance or was generally hard to start.
The early BP motors all did it even in the 323s

Originally Posted by Finnwolf

Is it still an issue with these motors?

At what km do/did the issue rear its head?

Originally Posted by cambo

All the 1s we did were under warranty still so less than 3yrs old. I'm talking about the original NA 1600s. Generally started when customer noticed it lose performance or was generally hard to start.
The early BP motors all did it even in the 323s

I cannot speak for the rest of the country but here in Chch the MX5 has become quite popular and well sought after car. I bought mine as a run around hack some years back for a bit of fun with a longer than normal commute. I fell for it and really enjoy it as a daily driver. There are a lot of NA (89-96?) floating around and a lot of them have been well looked after. Mine has well over 225000km on it but apart from that- its straight, runs well (but lacks power now due to timing issue above) I must also put my hand up and say it is possibly due to something I did when we did the front seal last time. I may have done / not done something which may have contributed to this. Not sure what it was....but I feel its wrth fixing...

As a side note, this was orginally just a comment in the campfire thread to say I knew how the guy felt....I did not expect it to get to two pages .....

how are things at the salon these days?

That's a bit mean

I think it takes a braver man to say "fuck the haters, they're fun to drive"

I just about got involved in a serious prang due to these bloody things - well the import MX5's. A club day for them, about 40 all in a row travelling together and the import ones had the front yellow fog lights on. I was travelling towards a gentle left hand corner, as the approaching line of cars rolled around their right hand the yellow fog lights passed behind the car in front which gave the appearance of a row of blinking yellow lights... Now to set the scene a bit more, this was on an overcast day not quite dark yet but at the point where a lot of people would flick their headlights on.

The issue here comes from the fact that in my lane on the road, a dark grey vehicle was waiting to turn right into a driveway and the driver while indicating did not have their headlights on so the only visible light at the back of the car was the flashing yellow right indicator - which completely blended into the rest of the flashing orange lights on the oncoming lineup. And when you are doing 90-100 and travelling towards a stationary object that is the same colour as the road and not showing any visible lights, once you resolve the fact that it actually exists it's basically too close to stop. Luckily there was enough shoulder for me to slide past on the left, I went past at about 30 and I think gave the driver a hell of a fright (similar to what I got!).

That there, is a prime example of some bits in the road regulations that most drivers either don't learn, forget or completely ignore - stationary vehicle on a lane must display warning lights at the back (the good old brake light triangle, left right and high stop) and if you're turning right against a line of traffic pull off to the left and wait clear of the road!

Had a family friend get severely injured in a little mazda too, rear ended at an intersection which shunted her into the traffic crossing. Luckily it was a fairly slow speed set of hits but it folded the thing up like a coke can. Took a few months but she got over it, and brought a toyota surf(?). That's my experiences with MX5's anyway...