Coolant Line Cap

January 2011 - After seven months of driving around my Miata on trips around town and the occasional spirited drive through the canyon behind my house I had my first problem. I noticed the temperature gauge rising as I was nearing my house so I turned on the heater and nursed it home. upon shutting down the engine, I heard a hissing sound from the engine bay. I opened the hood and could hear that the hissing was getting quieter - it sounded like air escaping from a tire and it was getting fainter. I followed the sound to the rear of the engine block on the right side. with the aid of a flashlight I found the culprit.

It is a vacuum line type plug that is used to plug a coolant line that was utilized when this engine was in a front-wheel drive configuration like the Mazda Protege. Since the Miata is rear-wheel drive it was eliminated with this cap which deteriorated over time and split. A very simple and inexpensive part, but access was terrible. An hour later I was ready to go!

Steering Wheel & Shifter Boots

July 2010 - I found a Momo steering wheel on Ebay for a good price. I decided to go with an adapter from GoMiata.com as it contained a circuit to keep the airbag dash light from coming on.

I decided to rip out the Airbag sensor and wiring from the engine bay since I figured they were just adding weight since the airbag was removed. While not a bad idea, it caused the airbag light to come on and made the 50% more that I paid for the hub adapter a waste - I should have purchased the basic Momo adapter.

I also took the opportunity to replace the infamous torn shifter seal and insulator - both inner and outer.

As you can see (or can't see as is the case) the rubber boots are virtually nonexistent. I forgot to take an after pic, but I found an example online of what the new ones look like and I will leave the rest to your imagination.

Miata - My New Project

May 2010 - After much research and deliberation I decided to buy a Mazda Miata as a project car. I was looking for an inexpensive vehicle for which parts would be easy to find and was capable on track days. It also had to be small enough to fit inside and be worked on in a one-car garage. I had owned and upgraded/tracked a Protege 5 in the past and was very impressed with Mazda as a company so the Miata was the natural choice.
After scouring Craigslist for months, I finally purchased my car - 1991 Miata with 188k miles in good running condition. I knew I was going to eventually go through the car replacing and upgrading various components so I figured it was a waste to spend more on a Miata with less mileage/wear/etc. Also, the power steering pump and A/C compressor/condenser had been pulled which saved me the trouble.