Mazda Mx5 For The Mrs

[markcoopers]

Just picking this old thread up again.

How would one inspect for rust......is it as obvious as it sounds?

Also is one in that Gold/orange colour an acceptable colour or is it open season on the p*** take?

[darve]

When I stripped my for a donor the areas of rust was in the known locations on the mx5 - the door seals and wheel arches. Everything else was pretty solid. It's so obvious as you can see the paint bubbling up and simply feel the metal is weak when you push it. I can't remember and other parts of the car I thought was that bad and I stripped it back to a bare shell

HTH

[peterg]

Some mk2 and mk2.5 cars are now failing the MOT for excessive chassis rust around the front legs and engine mounts to such an extent that they are having to be scrapped as there isn't enough good metal to weld anything to! Garath (who trades as The MX5 restorer) said he knows of one 2004 car that had to be broken for spares as the rust was so bad around the engine compartment

Wheelarches are obvious but if you can see a tiny bubble anywhere on the sills then it's bad as they rust from the inside out... Garath charges £4-500 per side to cut out the rear sill section and wheelarch, remove and patch the inner rusted sections and then weld a new panel over the top.

[Dommo]

I found the rust on my sills carefully hidden under a load of filler. It's fate was already sealed though, it was going to come out of it's garaged shaped cocoon as a Westfield from before I'd even bought it!

The mk1s tend to be cheap enough now they could be almost disposable. Probably best finding a nice mk1/mk2 that's had the sills done and forget about it.

[Mid life crisis]

Ironic seeing this post back up.

SWMBO is off to the Mazda garage tomorrow to test drive a new MX5 as her Smart Roadster is approaching 60k miles.

Apparently there is a face lift car on it's way as a stop gap before the lightweight space framed MX5 is introduced.

The 1.8SE's are now on offer at £13995

[hilux]

The more powerful 1.6 mk1 is most definitely the one to have. Sweeter engine, perfect gear ratios and a much better steer on small wheels with skinny tyres. They're brilliant little cars.

Absolutely agree but dont get a very very early one, get a later one around 1992 on as the early ones suffer from crank pulley keyway failure (not terminal but can be) - you can tell by looking at the crank pulley - if its a 4 slot pulley walk away even if the car is nice unless its a bargain price and justifies a potential engine swap factored into your budget - if its an 8 slot it`s bullet proof. If its worn you will be able to rock it by hand but it can be repaired if not gone too far.

I paid £300 for mine (with a hard top) with the intention of tracking it having seen a couple of Mk1 Eunos`s on track but the wife absolutely loves it has adopted it and didnt replace her leased car and now drives it daily. She now wants me to do it up completely with arch extensions, a more aggressive front and wider wheels

Brilliant fun - wish I`d had one years ago - easy to maintain - lots of upgrades if you want to go quicker - front and rear suspension is totally adjustable - a good club scene and tons of cheap spares. Sailed through the MOt with no advisories.

The 1.6 Mk1 imports have a/c and leccy windows and a superb little engine (just as powerful as later 1.8`s but more free revving) and are less likely (ironically) to have suffered from salt corrosion. Inner cill corrosion at the rears is not uncommon and is due to blocked hood drains and sill water outlets - easily repaired if not too bad but you`ll see it all in the wheel arch at the bottom - ask the owner if you can have a prod in there and at the sill end and under the end of the cill.

She`ll love it.

Edited October 20, 2012 by hilux

[Mark (smokey mow)]

Absolutely agree but dont get a very very early one, get a later one around 1992 on as the early ones suffer from crank pulley keyway failure (not terminal but can be) - you can tell by looking at the crank pulley - if its a 4 slot pulley walk away even if the car is nice unless its a bargain price and justifies a potential engine swap factored into your budget - if its an 8 slot it`s bullet proof. If its worn you will be able to rock it by hand but it can be repaired if not gone too far.

I disagree.  Both my engines are short nose and are absolutely fine showing no signs of keyway failure, and both have over 100,000 on the crank.  Problems only occur if the crank bolt is over tightened which can skew the key and over time allow the crank pulley to rotate wearing the keyway further. The most important thing to do with a short nose engine is use a torque wrench on the crank pulley bolt.  If the car is clean and the engine runs smoothly then buy it, if however the engine runs lumpy or has trouble idling then walk away if it has the 4 slot pulley. 

[markcoopers]

Confession time, it might be for me for hooning around the lanes in.

I really good BGR Mk1 1.8 with BBS x spokes sold this mornig i was too slow. However a few mk2 1.8S's have poped up close to home that show sights of been well looked after. 1 Black and 1 Gold.......which i am currious about and quite like.