I was just coming back to say this. I also paid to get a full CarFax report for it and it lists the pickup as having a 16 valve engine, so it looks like we’re good there. I also found the info about the plug threads and timing chain guides. The timing components have been replaced but I see nothing about the spark plug threads (I understand one can install aftermarket inserts that address this issue).
All the regular maintenance has been done on time, so that makes me feel better.
Yes, and since we’d be buying it from family they’re offering us a bit of discount off the blue book which is nice.
Since this seems to have become the “general car advise” thread, it’s time for me to start thinking about new tires for my 2019 Mazda MX-5 Miata. They don’t need replacing just yet, but the last time I had it serviced I was told they would likely need replacing in a few thousand miles, i.e. around the next oil change.
For my previous cars I always just bought inexpensive tires from Les Schwab (a discount tire chain in the Western US). But this is the first sports car I’ve owned, and I’m thinking I should get somewhat better tires this time. I don’t take it to the track or anything like that, but it is fun to drive it in a “spitited” manner from time to time. So, does anyone have any tire recommendations. The current tires are the OEM Bridgestone Potenzas that came with the car. I suppose the easiset path would be to get another set of those, but I wouder if there are better options out there.
It’s personal preference of course, but I have some hard-wearing all-seasons on my Miata. From a traction perspective they’re truly terrible. But if you watch this video you’ll understand why. You can only go so fast on public roads, and I’ve “ruined” many a car by buying sticky tires for the street. It’s fun to get a little wiggly every now and then, and on a 200TW tire that’s just not possible without being a public menace. Sticky tires belong on the track, IMO.
You can take this concept too far, of course. I had some Chinese 680TW tires once and they wore terribly and felt unsafe at times.
If getting wiggly on the street doesn’t appeal to you, I’d say stick with what came on the car. But my advice is that you don’t need something special just because it’s a sports car. Just the opposite, in fact.
(TW = tread wear, the higher the number the less they’ll wear. 200TW is often mandated for spec racing series as a cost control measure (as opposed to allowing non-DOT approved slicks) and so they’ve gotten ridiculously fast. Anything under 400 is generally plenty of grip, above that and you can start to feel some slip.)
So one of the questions Tire Rack’s “decision guide” asks me is whether I want All Season tires or Summer tires. On one hand, I live in California where it rarely gets below freezing, so I probably could get away with summer tires. It’s not like I’ll be driving up to Tahoe in the winter in this car; I wouldn’t want to do that in a lightweight rear wheel drive sports car regardless of what tires were on it. On the other hand, I feel like I should get all-seasons, just in case. So are there any advantages to summer-only tires?
The major difference is that the rubber compound for all seasons works in a wider (read: lower) temperature range. All seasons don’t offer dramatically better performance in rain.
If you need something to work in 10 degree weather, summer tires aren’t it. If you need all the grip you can get, they’re great.
Why not try a track day sometime? It was after I bought my Miata in 1998 that I took my first one-day High Performance Drivers Ed (HPDE) class, setting me off on my major hobby for the next 12+ years.
There are many great tracks in California, including Willow Springs and Button willow in Southern California, and Sonoma and the great Laguna Seca in Northern California. One of my great regrets is that I never got to drive Laguna Seca.
If you’re at all interested, go to the websites of the tracks, look at their calendars for car club events. You can’t race with your street legal Miata, but most events will probably be non-racing HPDE. And you can probably join in a non-Miata club event with Porsches or other makes. They usually aren’t exclusive.
The track itself might also offer track days with instruction. Even a one-day class will make you a better driver on the street. Or you might get hooked, like I did. Then you’ll want those summer tires to start, and may work up to track-only racing slicks. And performance mods to the car, and a dedicated track car, and…
I gotta plug that hole in my experiences list too. I’ve done laps of Laguna Seca on my motorcycle, but not at speed, just sighting laps. Still, diving into the Corkscrew made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
Back to @WildaBeast - yeah, go do a track day, or maybe an autocross event! I used to have a Miata, and in many ways it was the most fun car I ever had, despite owning vehicles that were better on paper in every way. I don’t think there’s ever been a better car for getting your first performance driving experience.
And as a guy that loves digging deeeep into the options, I might say “go to one of the Miata forums and ask what the balanced tire choice is that finds the intersection of fun and cost” but that may be a lot more work than desired. But on that same note, I found the Tire Rack people super helpful in getting me through all of the available options to the tire I need.
If I’m reading the sidewall correctly, the OEM tires are Bridgestone Potenza S001s, which is actually a summer tire according to Tire Rack. So I’ve actually had summer tires on the car this whole time, it seems.
I am leaning towards going with something fairly similar to the OEM tires, just because I’ve gotten used to the car handling a certain way, and I enjoy playing “How fast can I take this corner?”, and don’t want unexpected results there because I now have significantly less grippy tires on the car.
Potenzas are perfectly decent semi-performance tires forvyour semi-performance car.
You might see if you can get them in the same wheel size but lower profile. Or if you’re feeling flush find the widest aftermarket wheels that fit under the fenders & go with wider tires to match.
My 2010 Dodge Laramie has been awesome and just hit 204,000 miles. And the dash freaked out–no speedo, no gas gauge, no turn signals, no nothing. I read the codes and it was “Can Bus error” among other things. YouTube was dire. My call with my mechanic was dire. Didn’t drive the truck for 3 weeks while waiting for the appointment. The truck is in great shape but probably worth $10k. They solved it in one hour! Huzzah!
Already mentioned this elsewhere, but I became exasperated at my truck’s scolding me for exiting while it’s running. I realize this is to prevent someone driving away without the fob, but my use case is different. I’ve been enduring an annoying triple honk every time I exit and close the door. It’s not a muted “meep” like my Toyota, it’s a full on HONK… HONK… HONK which annoys me and everyone around.
I took it to a custom audio shop yesterday for a Horn-ectomy. The operation was successful and it’s now in STFU mode while I’m positioning or loading things in the lot. This is a huge improvement for me, as I can leave the truck running while I check lights, or hitch line-up, or leave my dog locked inside the A/C for a quick errand. It even silenced the annoying “I’m already locked” honk that happens if I press the fob’s lock button twice (to be sure I locked it).
I’m now wondering why it took me so long to get this done.
Many of those things are software switches buried inside the bowels of the car’s many computers. For the price of some brand-specific software and a compatible OBD-II dongle you can probably access hundreds of settings and greatly reduce your vehicle’s nagging. I sure have on my last 4 cars.
My current car has a very annoying feature that the transmission is designed such that if you open the car door with the engine running, the trans is instantly forced into neutral. The sensible well-meaning intent being to prevent someone from absent-mindedly climbing out with the car in D or R with the engine running and the car then starts moving forward or backward at idle unattended.
But that means you can’t open the door to e.g. look down and see how well aligned you are with parking space stripes, see that it’s good, then stop the engine. Because … if you open the door, then shut down the engine the result is the trans is locked in N, the parking brakes can be set, but you can’t lock the car because the trans isn’t in P. And it’s beeping and chiming about the extreme danger you’re in.
So the fix is close the door, start the engine, put the trans in P, stop the engine, then re-open the door and climb out. I’ve had the car 3 years and this still pisses me off about 2x/week.
And no, that particular behavior is not controlled by a software switch I can access with my software tools. Damn!
Egads. How did you figure out the solution to that? My new vehicle has a similar “feature” but to their credit, it was implemented fairly well. If driver’s door is opened along with the seat belt released, it puts itself in Park and issues an aural warning. You have to move the gear selector to Park (so it matches the actual xmission) and it is happy again. It prints an obvious message to do this dead center of the dash, and blinks lights on the appropriate controls to “lead” the driver to the correct response. But it doesn’t react to just opening the door, even if in gear and moving.
My guess is this will save a lot of guys at the launch ramp. Every year someone climbs out of their truck to deal with their boat and the whole rig ends up in the water.