Hints and Tips
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Regular maintenance and MX5 Tips for Saving Money

This page is under construction - please excuse the mess!

Keeping the weather out

Unblocking the soft-top drains

Part of every service for an MX5 should be to keep the soft-top drains clear. If this is not done the result is rather messy because rain water will eventually end up in the cabin floor soaked up in the carpet underlay and even can fill up the body sills. So if you hear water sloshing about as you brake or corner the first thing to do is unblock the soft-top drains. Its really easy to do, here’s how. You need a long rod just like the removable radio aerial that comes with your car. In fact you can even use your aerial if you are careful with it! Obviously if your car has an electric aerial or other type you'll have to use a coat hanger straightened out - but without a sharp end. You will find the top of the right drain under a small carpet flap inside the car behind the driver’s right shoulder. The hole is about a pencil width. Push your rod down through the hole (if you’re using your aerial take care at this point to flex it evenly so as not to put a kink in it) until the rod comes out on the ground Repeat this with the passenger side drain. The drains are now clear.

If you are getting rain water in the boot it’s a fair bet your drain gutter rail is blocked. This runs along under your rear window as the roof material joins onto the car body. HOW TO UNBLOCK THIS

Calliper maintenance

Many new and reconditioned rear callipers are sold because owners or mechanics damage the callipers as they renew the brake pads. This happens because they are unfamiliar with the design and push back the pistons with a G-clamp. The correct procedure is to wind the callipers back with the adjuster located at the very back of the calliper.

Lots of adjuster bolts are correctly located and then broken. To avoid this happening to you, the day before you change your rear brake pads remove the 14mm bolt (which reveals the adjuster Allen bolt) at the very back of the calliper and spray WD40 or a penetrating oil and replace the cover bolt. This will help free the adjuster for the next day.

 Soft-top front and side seals

Windows

If the electric windows on your MX5 (Eunos Roadster) are getting slow to operate the problem could be lubrication. This is obviously the cheapest approach. You’ll need to remove the door card, this involves removing three screws from the armrest (one concealed behind a plastic corner trim), next lever the door card away from the door with a screwdriver. The door card on the MK1 car is well made and if you lever the card as near to each popper it should all stay in one piece. Once the card is loose you lift it up to unhook the top padded part (which is separate to the main door card but keep these together to prevent breakage). With the door card loose peel back the clear membrane to expose the door workings. You’ll now be able to clear out the window mechanism’s channels, spray grease them and grease the winder cables.

Motors or cables –

Regular lubrication of window slider channel

Window switch

Fixing your mirrors

The only weakness of the mirror unit is the swivel bolt which tends to corrode and eventually break. You probably won’t see the rust but if your mirrors are starting to get very stiff as you adjust them the next thing can be that you break one off in your hand! It takes a few years to happen but they all go in the end! The good news is you can repair them and some used mirror parts are available separately. Here are the main components with links: glass, glass retaining trim, plastic mirror housing, ball mount pedestal, pedestal trim cover, swivel bolt, swivel bolt spring, (*) There is a very cheap mirror repair kit you can get to fix your mirrors. You can get new mirrors which will need painting to the colour of your car or you can get used mirrors in all the standard MX5 colours.

Clutch problems

If your MX-5 won't go into gear despite the clutch pedal being fully down, chances are the clutch slave cylinder seals have gone and it's lost the fluid.  This causes the clutch to drag. Check the fluid level in the master cylinder reservoir (on the bulkhead inboard of the brake master cylinder).  As a get you home fix, top up the reservoir and it may work again for a little while.  Replacing the slave cylinder is a fairly easy job and 9 times out of 10 it'll bleed itself so you can do it without an assistant to pump the clutch pedal. 

If your MX-5 has a noisy release bearing you'll hear this when the car is standing idling. The noise will stop when you depress the clutch pedal. Note that the spiggot bearing can give exactly the same symptoms, so when replacing the clutch its a false economy not to change the flywheel spiggot or pilot bearing too as its only a few quid and a few minutes at this stage.

Self diagnosis