I am thinking of buying a convertible for the summer, I've never had a soft top before and quite fancy one. I have had my eye on a few on ebay. Does anyone have one on here or any ex owners with things to look out for? Best points and the bad points and so on. I think they are the best selling soft top around, so they must have something going for them! :-)
Other thoughts at the moment are MR2. Anyone had one of these aswell? It will be second hand and about £3000.
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MX-5
For £3k you should get a very good Mk 1 and a good choice of Mk 2. UK 1.6s are under powered, but imported ones are OK. There are lots around, so take your time searching and you will find a good one. Mk 2s are a little more refined than the Mk 1s but underneath they aren't too different.
Check for cam belt changes, although non-interference motors it's still not good to have one break. Water pumps can leak so best changed when replacing cam belt
Rust - sills from front of rear wheel arch to under back of door and at top of rear wheel arches.
Older cars could be rusting on the wishbones.
Early Mk 2s can suffer from rust under the rear boot edge.
Any damp smell in cockpit is not good, check condition of carpeting around top seat belt anchorages, water flows from the roof and down a drain adjacent to the anchorages. These can get blocked, then the water floods the rear shelf then down into the cockpit floor. They are easy to keep clear once you know where they are. Also drains down the front door seal can block and cause damp in the cockpit.
Obviously check the condition of the hood, Mk 1s may still have a plastic rear window which can crack or become opague. Also check that it folds down easily, if it has a plastic window it is best to unzip it before lowering the hood.
Have a good test drive, my old 120k miles Mk 1 still felt tight and drove well. The gear change should be nice and slick.
That's all I can think of for now.
Regards, have fun looking.
Last edited by: four wheels good... on Sat 10 Mar 12 at 20:20
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FIL has a new one. Rates it very highly, and it was in replacement of his beloved Boxster. He is very critical so I consider it high praise indeed!
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Manatee's got an old (highly polished) MX5 - I wonder if he sorted the apparent overheating?
My daughter bought a new 1.8 MX5 nearly ten years ago. Totally abused and rarely serviced. Doesn't seem to have done it any harm.
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We had a mk 2 1.8iS. SWMBO and I both loved it and still miss it. Sadly completely useless once kids arrive on the scene. Reliable, cheap to service and bags of fun. Perfect intro to RWD dynamics.
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There are loads of owners groups, specialists and parts suppliers.
Here are two good places to start....
www.mx-5.com/Forum/
www.mx5nutz.com/forum/
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>> Manatee's got an old (highly polished) MX5 - I wonder if he sorted the apparent
>> overheating?
Ha ha... sort of, not. I was showing it off to bt at Stony Stratford on 1 January - not long after the head had gone back on. My pride was punctured. It seems that if it gets hot it doesn't want to restart, or even try, until it's cooled down. It doesn't boil or anything, and the fan cuts in as it should, so I think it's a heat soak problem affecting something vital, haven't got to the bottom of it yet. I've been using it for the last two weeks to go to work, so it's not that bad. Left it for 15 minutes outside Wickes yesterday though, and had to wait another 5 minutes to set off home!
It's a 1999 Mk2 that I only paid £1300 for, but it needs a hood and as it turned out had negligible compression on two cylinders, which made starting difficult and it was not surprisingly sluggish. Happily a head refurb seems to have sorted that, but my cheap car is now nearer a £2,000 one. Still needs a hood.
It's had oversills for the corrosion mentioned above, but that aside it's not a rot box.
It also leaked oil like the Torrey Canyon, but I thought it was from the rocker cover gasket and it's OK now so it must have been. A good source of parts is www.autolinkmx5.com/ where I got the gasket set and belt kit - very helpful when you call them, and for instance told me upfront that non-OEM rocker box gaskets in the kit they supply are rubbish, and to buy a Mazda one. They also import and break MX5s, useful as Mazda parts are mostly very dear.
The hood catches wear out and are expensive, but they can be fettled up to a point when this happens (google).
Coil packs (a double unit on the bulkhead end of the head) do go and are fairly dear. Autolink can sometimes supply used parts.
The Owners Club forum is useful. For a 1.8 Mk1 or 2, this is the book you need if you want to fiddle. It's for the Mk1 but there isn't a Mk2 version of the book. Most important stuff is the same mechanically. One difference to note is that the Mk1 has hydraulic tappets, Mk 2 has buckets and shims.
£3k should get you a reasonable Mk2. A hood is about £450 fitted (mohair) if it needs one.
They are great little cars, some say they are what the Spridget/MGB should have been. RWD, a proper twin cam engine and involving to drive.
Last edited by: Manatee on Sun 11 Mar 12 at 17:04
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my father has one its a 1.8 150 hp mk2. it drives very well and quick as so light. never gone wrong. lovely cars. he may be selling soon as wants another toy now
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...It seems that if it gets hot it doesn't want to restart, or even try, until it's cooled down...
Could be fuel vaporisation in the pipe or fuel injection somewhere.
It might start sooner if you open the bonnet.
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>>It might start sooner if you open the bonnet<<
Reminds me of a Toyota Hiace I tuned once upon a time, I told ee to leave the engine cover (between the seats) up!
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Thanks all. Some good websites to have a look through, thanks for those manatee. Thanks everyone else for the pointers. Hopefully the week after a next I'll get the chance to look around and possible test drive one.
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>> It might start sooner if you open the bonnet.
I do - if your car doesn't start, a good coat of looking at is essential ;-)
I agree it's probably fuel. I fret it might be the coil pack, even though it would be a strange way for it to fail, as it doesn't even cough. It's never done it other than when stopped, except once when it had been ticking over for five minutes. Fuel vaporising makes more sense, I just have to figure out where it's happening and how to stop it.
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if it has a crankshaft sensor (i guess it does) i would be poking around in that area.
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A Fiat Seicento I use regularly had a problem with fuel vapourising. Turned out that the exhaust wasn't sitting in one of it's brackets properly and was rubbing against a fuel pipe. No trouble when rolling because of the cooling airflow, but coughed a bit at tickover and needed to cool down before it would re-start.
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>>if it has a crankshaft sensor (i guess it does) i would be poking around in that area. <<
So would I. From memory the book Manatee mentioned has some resistance values in it to start diagnosis.
I think they have crank and cam sensors. The cam sensor will have been disturbed when the head was done.
No one has mentioned the MR2. Of the two cars the MX5 is, in my opinion the better everyday drive. I have only driven the Mk2 MR2 and it is not as user friendly for just "tooling about" in in as the Mazda. Maintainance is not as user friendly either, especially when your joints and back are knocking on a bit.
I've only worked on my daughter's 1991 model but I would check carefully for rust in the cills (drain water goes inside them) and I would want to see a good service history, especially the cooling system anti-freeze. I don't know whether they changed on later models but the heater pipes ran along the top of the fuel tank (inside the transmition tunnel) and are prone to fracturing (google MR2 pipes from hell). Just removing rusted undertray bolts can lead to suicidal thoughts!
For choice the MX5 would have it.
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One more thought -
However hot and sunny it may be when you go for a test drive, always do at least some of it with the roof up and windows closed. Even with just a canvas top you may hear nasty noises which could be lost amongst the increased tyre, wind, traffic noises around you without the roof.
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Thanks for that, I'd not thought of that tbh. I test drove a mk3 about a year ago and it didn't quite do it for me, although not quite sure why. Mind you that was £9k so maybe I expected a bit more. At £3k I think it's less of a risk. What was it like to use in winter/bad weather?
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I once had a Mk2 Toyota MR2 - a 1993 model T-Bar bought second hand at about 3 years old. It was a nice car but nowhere near as agile as an MX5. Lots of styling appeal though, and some nice details such as the flying buttresses, the curved rear window and the rear spoiler split across the boot opening.
The boot was spacious enough for a largish suitcase and it was good for long distance journeys. The engine noise coming from behind also gave it a sense of driving something special, but truthfully the Golf GTI I had previously handled much better.
I wanted a T-Bar for the ability to drive with the glass panels removed, but the wind roar above about 40mph was deafening.
It was fitted with a brilliant factory fitted stereo which stopped working after a month and Toyota refused to replace it under warranty. Eventually got it repaired by a car electrician.
Biggest problem I had was tyre wear at the rear - didn't know you had to have the rear tracking checked and ate a set of rear tyres in about 3,000 miles, gulp. Also managed to spin it once in heavy rain, the car apparently spun around its own axis and I was left facing the direction I'd just come from.
All in all a nice car, but not as special as the styling would indicate.
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I agree with you about the Mk 3, not as direct feeling as the previous marks. Having said that, I may get one later as I should really settle down a bit and be a little more sensible in my retirement and use it as a tourer rather than for blasting around the countryside.
As mine have all been toys, I have rarely driven them in any wet or nasty weather unless I got caught out, then I would drive a lot more gently.
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Hopefully I won't have to either as I walk to work and I am down to about 6000m a year. But you never know with the weather!
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Thanks bagpuss, sorry I should have said, I meant 1999 onwards MR2.
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SWMBO had a late MK 1, which was so much fun- highly entertaining and grin-inducing. Generally very reliable and good for quite high miles (ours had 109k and going strong).
We did have an overheating issue: diagnosed by the garage as HGF, but some online sleuthing led me to a rad issue: replaced rad and thermostat, all fine again. It seems that the rad channels on these are narrow, and tend to fur up, hence the overheating.
HTH,
Alex.
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>>>> We did have an overheating issue: diagnosed by the garage as HGF, but some online
>> sleuthing led me to a rad issue: replaced rad and thermostat, all fine again. It
>> seems that the rad channels on these are narrow, and tend to fur up, hence
>> the overheating.
Recommended to flush the cooling system every 2 years I believe.
Last edited by: four wheels good... on Tue 13 Mar 12 at 13:05
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>> Recommended to flush the cooling system every 2 years I believe.
>>
Missed the edit.
I use distilled water rather than the tap variety so no included salts etc to fur hopefully.
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I was in the same position 4 years ago, and was all set to get an MX-5. However it was very low on the ground for SWMBO's arthritic knee, so we tried a BMW Z3. It's a little higher off the ground: it's more of a grand tourer than a sports car like the MX-5, but what it does have is that glorious straight-six engine. I loved the way the MX-5 handled on a test drive, but the noise it makes is nothing special.
I may try to flog the Z3 this spring: I love it still but it's now 11 years old and has only needed a new water pump and two new rear tyres in 4 years and 13,000 miles: passed 3 MOTs without trouble - and just by the law of averages something expensive is due to go wrong.
Last edited by: Avant on Tue 13 Mar 12 at 23:08
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Mazda MX5 - Any mx5/mr2 owners? - four wheels good...
