Another 2006 MX5 Nc 2.0 Sport thread...
Discussion
Well after reading geraintthomas's thread and asking a few questions there, I thought I should start one of my own! So a bit of a mad tale behind the purchase of this car... I have had a number of MR2's, both MK2 Turbos and MK3 roadsters. I'm currently downsizing to one car and decided I wanted something I could both commute in and chuck around a track. That brought it down to another MR2 or a first MX5. I decided on the MX5. I searched a bit and found a car I liked. Asked some questions. Decided against that one and then found a nice black 2.0 Sport. I made a deal and agreed I'd come get it when the seller had stopped self isolating.
My X5 sold and was collected and I messaged the guy about the MX5 to arrange collection. After having told me not to worry about a deposit previously, he messages back and says he's sold it someone else. Awesome.
So back on the hunt, and needed to find a car ASAP after the other fell through. I spotted this one, on ebay. Made a couple of offers but the guy wouldn't have it initially. He said if the auction ended with no bids then he'd take me up on my offer. Bearing in mind I was in Huddersfield and the car was in London, it was going to be a straight on a train and down to London job.
Heres the twist; all the trains to London were about £80, except for one, which was £15. And departed 1 minute before the auction ended
So I thought screw it. I took a leap of faith, bought the ticket, got the train and nervously watched the end of the auction.... No bids! We were up and running!
To cut this ramble short, I arrived in London, looked over the car, checked the sills, did the deal and drove it home. This is the dirty b
h I ended up with:
I'll add to this this evening, it's a massive ballache doing this on my phone because Imgur is blocked at work... But what I will say is... My god. I thought people raving about these cars were just lunatics who were talking rubbish. But no, they really are THAT good, and I also have a Boxster S. This is the better car to drive, hands down. Even with old, rattly suspension. I can't wait to see how it feels with fresh stuff on...
My X5 sold and was collected and I messaged the guy about the MX5 to arrange collection. After having told me not to worry about a deposit previously, he messages back and says he's sold it someone else. Awesome.
So back on the hunt, and needed to find a car ASAP after the other fell through. I spotted this one, on ebay. Made a couple of offers but the guy wouldn't have it initially. He said if the auction ended with no bids then he'd take me up on my offer. Bearing in mind I was in Huddersfield and the car was in London, it was going to be a straight on a train and down to London job.
Heres the twist; all the trains to London were about £80, except for one, which was £15. And departed 1 minute before the auction ended
So I thought screw it. I took a leap of faith, bought the ticket, got the train and nervously watched the end of the auction.... No bids! We were up and running!To cut this ramble short, I arrived in London, looked over the car, checked the sills, did the deal and drove it home. This is the dirty b
h I ended up with:I'll add to this this evening, it's a massive ballache doing this on my phone because Imgur is blocked at work... But what I will say is... My god. I thought people raving about these cars were just lunatics who were talking rubbish. But no, they really are THAT good, and I also have a Boxster S. This is the better car to drive, hands down. Even with old, rattly suspension. I can't wait to see how it feels with fresh stuff on...
Wow that pic came out huge 
Will sort that also later.
As for what it does better than the MR2, the main reason I was leaning towards the MX5 was because of the boot really. If it was to be a "do it all" car then I was going to need a tiny bit of practicality. That and the steering on the MR2 is quite light and numb IMO. So I wanted to try something different. The way the MX5 "feels" is brilliant. The steering has real feel to it and the car has so much mechanical grip. The soft top too, can be raised or lowered in literally 3 seconds. None of the faffing getting the rear screen to fold in and sit right like on the MR2, none of the "ears" problems with the roof and best of all, being a mohair roof, you don't get the tears down the bottom of the sides near the windows like on the 2.
I still think MR2's are awesome, but I think the MX5 is a better car to drive and live with.
Will sort that also later. As for what it does better than the MR2, the main reason I was leaning towards the MX5 was because of the boot really. If it was to be a "do it all" car then I was going to need a tiny bit of practicality. That and the steering on the MR2 is quite light and numb IMO. So I wanted to try something different. The way the MX5 "feels" is brilliant. The steering has real feel to it and the car has so much mechanical grip. The soft top too, can be raised or lowered in literally 3 seconds. None of the faffing getting the rear screen to fold in and sit right like on the MR2, none of the "ears" problems with the roof and best of all, being a mohair roof, you don't get the tears down the bottom of the sides near the windows like on the 2.
I still think MR2's are awesome, but I think the MX5 is a better car to drive and live with.
So, the first thing I've done with the car, a little bit of minor surgery...
Not a massive difference in terms of power, obviously, but sounds bit nicer and I like to think I've gained a couple of horses... Quite an easy job to be honest, getting the bumper off is a bit fiddly but not the end of the world.
Next up, while the bumper was off, were the headlights. They were godawful:
After:
Then a nice clean:
Followed by a drive out to the coast via the North Yorks moors:
Apologies for the huge pics, Imgur's resize options are crap, I'll have to crop them in future before uploading. Enjoying the car so far, did find some terrible touch ups after washing it, but they'll keep for now.
Not a massive difference in terms of power, obviously, but sounds bit nicer and I like to think I've gained a couple of horses... Quite an easy job to be honest, getting the bumper off is a bit fiddly but not the end of the world.
Next up, while the bumper was off, were the headlights. They were godawful:
After:
Then a nice clean:
Followed by a drive out to the coast via the North Yorks moors:
Apologies for the huge pics, Imgur's resize options are crap, I'll have to crop them in future before uploading. Enjoying the car so far, did find some terrible touch ups after washing it, but they'll keep for now.
Well I've done a few jobs since the last post. I also scraped my rear bumper corner on the garage which was awesome 
I realised the car was doing really poor MPG, so set about trying to sort it. I also wanted to see if I could sort out the flat spot/hesitation around 2k RPM that a lot of NC owners seem to report. First up, new plugs:
I went for the Denso ITV20TT plugs, as recommended by a few other owners online. These are a fair bit cheaper than the NGK equivalent. What I did find, as can be seen from the pic with the sleeve over the old plug, is that the car had the shorter 1.8 engine plugs fitted This did give me hope however, that I had found the cause of the 2k hesitation. Alas, it was not to be. But I'm obviously a lot happier knowing that the car has the correct plugs in it now. I did read about some people having issues regarding removing old plugs, but luckily nothing to report there.
I realised the car was doing really poor MPG, so set about trying to sort it. I also wanted to see if I could sort out the flat spot/hesitation around 2k RPM that a lot of NC owners seem to report. First up, new plugs:
I went for the Denso ITV20TT plugs, as recommended by a few other owners online. These are a fair bit cheaper than the NGK equivalent. What I did find, as can be seen from the pic with the sleeve over the old plug, is that the car had the shorter 1.8 engine plugs fitted
This did give me hope however, that I had found the cause of the 2k hesitation. Alas, it was not to be. But I'm obviously a lot happier knowing that the car has the correct plugs in it now. I did read about some people having issues regarding removing old plugs, but luckily nothing to report there. The next job I did was an oil change. I got a decent price on Petronas Syntium from Halfrauds and picked up a Bosch filter. Got the car up on stands and did the change:
I know know what people mean when they talk about how bad the dipstick is in these. I also tried to be clever and put a small hole in the foil on the top of the oil, so that I could pour it slowly and accurately. Unfortunately it got a bit of air inside the bottle as I poured it, gave a glug and spat a load out over the exhaust manifold
I know know what people mean when they talk about how bad the dipstick is in these. I also tried to be clever and put a small hole in the foil on the top of the oil, so that I could pour it slowly and accurately. Unfortunately it got a bit of air inside the bottle as I poured it, gave a glug and spat a load out over the exhaust manifold
The next job was the thermostat itself. This is where my luck turned rotten...
As you can see, I overtightened the first bolt and cracked the corner of the new start off. Doh. And that was the moment I discovered my torque wrench no longer works! Luckily, it's clamped tightly on the rest of the area but I'll not be able to leave it like that, so will get yet another one at the weekend and do the job again.
Interestingly, I bought the Circoli item from ECP. I wanted the more expensive ERA one but my local branch closed before I could get there on Saturday so I had to go to the nearest one that was open on Sunday and take what they had. I noticed after fitting that the oem part has metal sleeves where the bolt holes are. The replacement does not. That might have stopped this happening, but on the other hand I might have stripped the threads out of the block if the plastic hadn't cracked.
But the fun didn't stop there, oh no.
"Hisssssssss"
"What on earth is that?!"
Turns out one of the pipes to the aircon compressor wasn't bolted down at all. A slight touch on it and it started pissing gas out I tried tightening the bolt but it just span. So I removed it. On it, I found piece of thread from the hole on the compressor housing. I had a rummage and found a slightly longer bolt in my collection and gave that a go. It appears to have worked and I was able to tighten it, albeit judging by hand thanks to the broken torque wrench. Now I need to get that regassed...
It never rains but it pours. But I still love the damn thing.
As you can see, I overtightened the first bolt and cracked the corner of the new start off. Doh. And that was the moment I discovered my torque wrench no longer works! Luckily, it's clamped tightly on the rest of the area but I'll not be able to leave it like that, so will get yet another one at the weekend and do the job again.
Interestingly, I bought the Circoli item from ECP. I wanted the more expensive ERA one but my local branch closed before I could get there on Saturday so I had to go to the nearest one that was open on Sunday and take what they had. I noticed after fitting that the oem part has metal sleeves where the bolt holes are. The replacement does not. That might have stopped this happening, but on the other hand I might have stripped the threads out of the block if the plastic hadn't cracked.
But the fun didn't stop there, oh no.
"Hisssssssss"
"What on earth is that?!"
Turns out one of the pipes to the aircon compressor wasn't bolted down at all. A slight touch on it and it started pissing gas out
I tried tightening the bolt but it just span. So I removed it. On it, I found piece of thread from the hole on the compressor housing. I had a rummage and found a slightly longer bolt in my collection and gave that a go. It appears to have worked and I was able to tighten it, albeit judging by hand thanks to the broken torque wrench. Now I need to get that regassed...It never rains but it pours. But I still love the damn thing.
Cambs_Stuart said:
Thicker ARBs and rollover protection Are you planning to take it on the track?
Very much so! The idea behind this car was to replace two cars with one, and although that means some compromises, I wanted something that would come alive on track and allow me to still have some fun. Not sure how far I'll go with it, but we'll see!Well it's time for a little update! There hasn't been loads done to the little MX5 until recently, other than the rear arches have started to take on a shade of orange which needs addressing ASAP 
However, the car now boasts a set of Renaultsport Megane Brembos up front, RX8 rear calipers and a set of yellow dot RX8 anti roll bars 
Ignore the state of the wheel
I actually bought a set of wheels with some nice Bridgestone summer rubber on, only to find that they didn't quite clear the calipers on the front. Annoying. I'll be buying some 3mm spacers and trying again, hoping they don't now catch the arches
Whilst I had the car off the road, I also fitted a Racing Beat backbox and an I.L. Motorsport exhaust manifold. The manifold was a real ball-ache of a job. The heat shields need to come off of the OEM manifold and a few of the bolts on mine didn't want to play. This meant getting it loose then wiggling it arround to get Irwins onto the knackered bolts. I also extended the O2 sensors' wiring and I think they're nickel, so don't solder easily:
Shiny
This was allied to a full decat midpipe, as a nasty speedbump sheared the OEM one from the backbox... Now, how loud is it you may ask? Surprisingly, it isn't as loud as I was expecting it to be. Infact it's quite pedestrian when just pootling, but open it up and it gives off a throaty rasp, which I actually quite enjoy I'll need to find out exactly how loud it is before I attempt to take it on track though!
There's a video of it on Instagram for anyone interested:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CfUrXJYDDSU/?utm_sour...
So that brings us up to date for now. I plan to buy a Cybul strut brace with the built in brake stopper at some point, get a remap and also fit the Gaz coilovers I have sat in the garage! I also have a roll bar and some polybushed suspension arms to throw on... Hopefully I'll find time to do these soon.
The hope is that it sees a couple of trackdays this year, but we'll have to see how things go. I still love driving it as a daily and can't see that changing anytime soon.
However, the car now boasts a set of Renaultsport Megane Brembos up front, RX8 rear calipers and a set of yellow dot RX8 anti roll bars Ignore the state of the wheel
I actually bought a set of wheels with some nice Bridgestone summer rubber on, only to find that they didn't quite clear the calipers on the front. Annoying. I'll be buying some 3mm spacers and trying again, hoping they don't now catch the arches
Whilst I had the car off the road, I also fitted a Racing Beat backbox and an I.L. Motorsport exhaust manifold. The manifold was a real ball-ache of a job. The heat shields need to come off of the OEM manifold and a few of the bolts on mine didn't want to play. This meant getting it loose then wiggling it arround to get Irwins onto the knackered bolts. I also extended the O2 sensors' wiring and I think they're nickel, so don't solder easily
:Shiny
This was allied to a full decat midpipe, as a nasty speedbump sheared the OEM one from the backbox... Now, how loud is it you may ask? Surprisingly, it isn't as loud as I was expecting it to be. Infact it's quite pedestrian when just pootling, but open it up and it gives off a throaty rasp, which I actually quite enjoy
I'll need to find out exactly how loud it is before I attempt to take it on track though!There's a video of it on Instagram for anyone interested:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CfUrXJYDDSU/?utm_sour...
So that brings us up to date for now. I plan to buy a Cybul strut brace with the built in brake stopper at some point, get a remap and also fit the Gaz coilovers I have sat in the garage! I also have a roll bar and some polybushed suspension arms to throw on... Hopefully I'll find time to do these soon.
The hope is that it sees a couple of trackdays this year, but we'll have to see how things go. I still love driving it as a daily and can't see that changing anytime soon.
Cambs_Stuart said:
That manifold looks really good. How much of a performance increase does it give?
The OEM manifold is the 'plug' in the performance on the NC MX-5, and replacement with a decent 4-1 long tube item should be the number one, first and foremost mod made by anyone looking to make more power. Manifllod change on its own changes the character of the engine and frees up a bit of power and encourages it to rev out to redline a lot more, manifold and basic remap gets from your 158 to 170/180ish.
snotrag said:
The OEM manifold is the 'plug' in the performance on the NC MX-5, and replacement with a decent 4-1 long tube item should be the number one, first and foremost mod made by anyone looking to make more power.
Manifllod change on its own changes the character of the engine and frees up a bit of power and encourages it to rev out to redline a lot more, manifold and basic remap gets from your 158 to 170/180ish.
That's a fantastic gain. Do you run into any emission issues? Does the new manifold remove the cat? Manifllod change on its own changes the character of the engine and frees up a bit of power and encourages it to rev out to redline a lot more, manifold and basic remap gets from your 158 to 170/180ish.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff