Cars We Drive!

[HRoi]

I was the one who wrecked the MR2. Learned the same lesson that you did just now - make sure the wheel is straight when you come on boost

 

[ridethecliche]

I was the one who wrecked the MR2. Learned the same lesson that you did just now - make sure the wheel is straight when you come on boost

Yeah, definitely learned my lesson. I think I honestly did it to half impress my GF and half because we hit a huge curvy hill and had slowed way down and I thought it would be a bit fun to go up it a bit faster and I was impatient and there weren't any cars around.

Inexperience led me to not calculate the impact of rain since all my previous wheelspin moments in the car been hilarious and fun, not frightening... at stock power.

I'm going to install an EBC when I turn up the boost. It's going to live life at the minimum setting in bad weather.

I half feel extremely terrible that my gf had to be there for that because she had just been in a bad accident a week prior and was still a bit shaken up. She was really really rattled after it happened.

On the other hand, I'm really glad that it happened in a way where there wasn't any serious damage. Cars and parts are replaceable. Appendages are harder to fix than wheels. I think it was the best possible way to learn a lesson like this. I'm also glad I never had to learn a lesson like this on my bike... I paid less than 300 bucks to be back on the road again. I think the diff is fine, which is ******* fantastic. Torsens are expensive as fakkk!

As an aside, wheel question:
Have 15x9's with 'race' oriented rubber (225s). Should I DD that (500-600 for new tires every 8-10k miles) or should I pick up cheap stock wheels with all seasons or something (195s) for the longer drives? I think the all seasons or regular summer tires would fare far better in the rain as well.

Thoughts?

 

[Thrift Vader]

The path of the Jedi. easy, it is not.

Glad for you, that you have a very forgiving platform to work with.
you will look back on these trials. with humor.
most of the problems you are currently having are from poor advice, and lack of experience. both of which will remedy themselves in time.

you are doing good.

I came up with a big brake kit. and have some avenues to assist you.
re: wheels, mods, and a personal gift to add some street cred to your car. will pm details.

 

[ridethecliche]

These are pretty much the best big brake kits available for the NA/NB miata:

http://www.trackspeedengineering.com/trackspeed-11-75-gen2-big-brake-kit.html
or
http://949racing.com/Miata-Big-Brakes.aspx

I'm curious to see what you have up your sleeve. Sadly, I think I need to budget for some body work. My bumper is very unhappy. I might upgrade to the second gen NB bumper and headlights (more output) and sell my current headlights... Should make things sting less.

 

[Dino944]

@Thrift Vader Hey Thrift, had an issue come up with our 2010 Legacy. Basic 2.5 engine 169,000 miles, with I think premium trim, but not a GT or anything like that. Anyway, the car does NOT have dual climate control zones, just one knob for setting the temperature and one for the fan speed. Its been about 90 F here and I pressed the button for the AC and it feels like the air coming out of the 2 vents closest to the driver side of the car are warm, while the air coming out of the passenger side is much cooler, but not as cold as it was last summer/fall when I last used the AC. Any ideas as to what is causing this.

 

[otc]

@Piobaire loves to lament the the loss of big naturally aspirated engines...but the data appears to suggest that now is a pretty awesome time to be desiring powerful land yachts: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...ca-s-cars-are-all-fast-and-furious-these-days

You might have to occasionally deal with itty bitty bits of turbo lag, but across the board, fuel efficiency has gone up, power has gone way up, and 0-60 times have gone way down.

Unlike the 70s, increasing efficiency standards have not meant a decrease in average power:

 

[armedferret]

He's German, but built in Mexico, so his name is Gunter Sanchez.


GunterSanchez by Armed Ferret, on Flickr

 

[brokencycle]

@Piobaire loves to lament the the loss of big naturally aspirated engines...but the data appears to suggest that now is a pretty awesome time to be desiring powerful land yachts: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/feat...ca-s-cars-are-all-fast-and-furious-these-days

You might have to occasionally deal with itty bitty bits of turbo lag, but across the board, fuel efficiency has gone up, power has gone way up, and 0-60 times have gone way down.

Unlike the 70s, increasing efficiency standards have not meant a decrease in average power:

I know where Pio's complaints about engines are coming from: the delay when you stomp on the pedal because of turbo, so the story glosses over that. It isn't necessarily the 0-60 times, but the shift from cruising at 55 to accelerating.

What will be interesting is the maintenance cycles and lifespans of these newer cars. Will all these turbo 4s be out there 20 years from now like so many cheap 4 bangers are today? Or will the increased cost in maintenance push them to the scrap heap earlier?

 

[Thrift Vader]

@Thrift Vader Hey Thrift, had an issue come up with our 2010 Legacy. Basic 2.5 engine 169,000 miles, with I think premium trim, but not a GT or anything like that. Anyway, the car does NOT have dual climate control zones, just one knob for setting the temperature and one for the fan speed. Its been about 90 F here and I pressed the button for the AC and it feels like the air coming out of the 2 vents closest to the driver side of the car are warm, while the air coming out of the passenger side is much cooler, but not as cold as it was last summer/fall when I last used the AC. Any ideas as to what is causing this.

first thing to do, is check the sight glass in the A/C system. it will be on top of a canister with pipes both ways. air bubbles are bad. what you want is flow of A/c gas. you can see flow. but if nothing?
system is ok, gas is gone.

next, mix dish soap, and water in a spray bottle, spray every connection with it on, rubber O-rings can perish. but the spray will show bubbles if you have a leak. the pro stuff is expensive, so try this, heavy on the soap.

after you do that, have it pressure tested, seek out a truck refridgerant company, who deal with "Thermo King" systems, it might cost less than a car shop doing it.

another possibility is the hardware being the same as the upgraded version, without the switches. (common) and malfunctioning. if the tests i said above fail? then ask somebody to look under your dashboard, at the A/C. the actuators for the system. and also the heater tap. air con is simple. but has so many parts that can fail.

 

[HRoi]

Turbos are pretty reliable, you just have to overbuild the internals. Presumably these fancy oem engineers are doing that

 

[otc]

The thing that will kill all of these cars when they are 20 years old are the electronic systems that start failing. When everything including the parking break is fully electronic, and the car does **** like shut off the engine at every stop... Eventually electrical gremlins are going to show up and make it not worth fixing (especially if it requires a dealer and/or special parts so it can't be fixed by a home mechanically easily). Turbos are at least pretty simple mechanical items that are quickly swappable if they fail.

Besides, we all know pios claims are kind of bogus. Those cars are so fast and powerful, and the lag is so small, that it is a non-issue for anyone who doesn't have a bee in their bonnet that makes them hyper sensitive to it. Sure, they could make a big engine that doesn't have that problem if they didn't care about economy, but lag or no lag, the total time it takes to go from 55 to 80 is still less than it was a decade ago for almost all cars. That fraction of a second doesn't matter if the next 2 seconds push harder.

And leasers don't care about the reliability of the car 20years from now unless it starts cutting into the residual.

 

[Dino944]

@Thrift Vader
Thanks Thrift. I'll give your suggestions a try this weekend. Really appreciate your assistance! Cheers!

 

[Thrift Vader]

anytime, @Dino944


@ridethecliche i did some digging, and the best brake for buck combo.

-are the sumitomo monoblock 4-pot calipers from an LS400. these badboys will slow your car like time itself stopped. think about kerb weight. your car weighs 1/3 of mine. an adapter bracket for the calipers can be made. all you need is discs without bolt holes, and have them drilled to fit your car.
i mean. if your car was here, i could do it. but i'm not buying a car just to measure the brake mounts.

this will fit. the bolt pattern, and the adapter plate are key. big 4-pots. cheap.

and i spent the afternoon looking for the rocker cover to your engine. i would like to test some paint ideas. and custom paint a rocker cover for you.

 

[double00]

^^^ 2 issues with my jeep - tall gearing and drive by wire. Ive wondered how feasible it would be to make the essential systems purely mechanical at somw point down the road, tbh i havent researched at all...

 

[jcman311]

I know that for a while there were chips that one could add to essentially defeat the drive by wire delay. I think my car was an early drive by wire that the manufacturer got right. Neck-snapping pedal response. I know that some manufacturers added a delay to make cars smoother to drive.