What have you done to your Miata today?

Got the quickjack setup. Took about an hour and a bit to connect and then bleed the system. Bleeding took some time. Won't be able to use it for another 2 weeks since Mia is still in use.
 
Took her to Larz Anderson car museum’s Japanese Day. Hundreds of beautiful land of the rising sun vehicles! A beautiful days well!
 

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Thinking today about what I need to do to put the car to bed. Kind of sad things are winding down here in the NE. Soon many of the cars will be stored away for winter, shows and coffee meets will end. I’m fortunate enough to be able to spend 5 months in the south, so I can “rejoin” the car scene and fellow Mazda Miata lovers. I’ve joined several groups in both NC and FL so I’ll have my fill of meets, shows and cars and caffeine get togethers. Off to the Mazda parts dept. for some items to bring south for my 92 Smurf. I get a pretty good discount for having worked at the dealership a few yrs back. Oil, filter, plugs, exhaust gasket for my new to me muffler/pipe (it has a flow master on there now and it doesn’t sound good!)
 
I'm doing the same thing that Joe is getting ready to do, put the MX to bed for the long winter's night.

It's been dipping below freezing at night around here and the leaves are falling BIG time. I have four vehicles to winterize and put up for the season. I have all the supplies I need and just have to get off my butt and do it. The weather for this weekend is looking good for this work, as much as I hate to put the MX and my bike away it's time.
 
@bazooka joe and @Conrad 16.5 you have some odd winterizing techniques. I just swap on the winter wheels/tires, gas up and go. :p However your undercarriages will look a wee bit better than mine. ;)

Hard to believe that it is that time of year where you guys have to start considering when is the last day you get to drive your toy. This year has gone too fast.

@Reitrof What else do you need to do and when does the season start?
 
Over the weekend I was cursing Mazda for their wonderful design of the drain tubes on the ND ST. The NC drains were perfect, push a trombone brush from the top, down through the bottom and done. Last Thursday we had heavy rains and Friday I found that the carpet on the PS of the trunk was damp and the carpet behind both seats was wet. So I did some searching on how to clean the drain tubes.....

....I found that the ND has a basket and a sponge filter that you can remove and clean. I did this on both the DS and PS and found the baskets to be fairly clean and gave the sponges a good rinse. Upon completion, I dumped a 1/2 cup of water on each side. The DS was pouring out underneath the car so good to go. However the PS was trickling out underneath and backfilling in the car. So on to step 2, getting access to the drain tube from the top.

To do this, you need to get a flathead screwdriver behind the seat belt extractor to remove a plastic fastener while trying to guide said fastener somewhere where you can grab it so it doesn't get lost and rattle around. Next you have to get something firm enough to clear any clog yet flexible enough to fit under, behind the seat belt extractor and into the drain. For me this was not successful as the wire I was using moved the clog a little but was not firm enough to clear it.

Then I found some pictures that showed how to remove the lower portion of the drain tube from the body so you could clear it from the bottom up. Voila! Got it cleared and after dumping four cups of water on the PS, the water coming out of the drain tube was clear and there was no more backfilling. I attached the drain tube back to the body of the car and dumped an entire cup down the drain. It was now pouring out underneath the car, yay....but wait. I noticed a small trickle of water coming from where the drain tube met the body. I pulled it back out thinking I may have not had it in firm enough. That is when I found that I broke one of the prongs when initially pulling it out. :( I applied a small bit of silicone around the entire area in hopes that will stop the trickle.

I finished by wiping everything down that was wet and sucking out the water in the carpets with my shop-vac. I left all of the plastics on the PS removed as I knew it was going to rain Monday and I wanted to check the seal. It poured Monday afternoon so upon getting home, I checked and the the silicone felt a little wet but there was no indication of a trickle as the metal around the area was dry. I am wondering if the silicone didn't fully cure as I didn't think to dry out the inside of the tube before applying and there may have been moisture present.

I checked the upper area of the drain and everything was dry. Next I checked the carpet in the trunk which was dry and then the carpet behind the DS seat....which was wet?! I pulled the plastic liners and the top of the drain area was bone dry but I found some condensation on the lower portion of the metal behind the seat. There is a small section of carpet that covers this, the lower half was wet but the upper half was dry as was the area above it when I stuck my hand up there to feel around. I also pulled the plastic covering the access area to the lower section of drain tube and that was bone dry? I am confused as to where the water came from to wet the carpet behind the seat?

Thus my Monday night was filled with more cursing of Mazda for this ingenious design.
 
Over the weekend I was cursing Mazda for their wonderful design of the drain tubes on the ND ST. The NC drains were perfect, push a trombone brush from the top, down through the bottom and done. Last Thursday we had heavy rains and Friday I found that the carpet on the PS of the trunk was damp and the carpet behind both seats was wet. So I did some searching on how to clean the drain tubes.....

....I found that the ND has a basket and a sponge filter that you can remove and clean. I did this on both the DS and PS and found the baskets to be fairly clean and gave the sponges a good rinse. Upon completion, I dumped a 1/2 cup of water on each side. The DS was pouring out underneath the car so good to go. However the PS was trickling out underneath and backfilling in the car. So on to step 2, getting access to the drain tube from the top.

To do this, you need to get a flathead screwdriver behind the seat belt extractor to remove a plastic fastener while trying to guide said fastener somewhere where you can grab it so it doesn't get lost and rattle around. Next you have to get something firm enough to clear any clog yet flexible enough to fit under, behind the seat belt extractor and into the drain. For me this was not successful as the wire I was using moved the clog a little but was not firm enough to clear it.

Then I found some pictures that showed how to remove the lower portion of the drain tube from the body so you could clear it from the bottom up. Voila! Got it cleared and after dumping four cups of water on the PS, the water coming out of the drain tube was clear and there was no more backfilling. I attached the drain tube back to the body of the car and dumped an entire cup down the drain. It was now pouring out underneath the car, yay....but wait. I noticed a small trickle of water coming from where the drain tube met the body. I pulled it back out thinking I may have not had it in firm enough. That is when I found that I broke one of the prongs when initially pulling it out. :( I applied a small bit of silicone around the entire area in hopes that will stop the trickle.

I finished by wiping everything down that was wet and sucking out the water in the carpets with my shop-vac. I left all of the plastics on the PS removed as I knew it was going to rain Monday and I wanted to check the seal. It poured Monday afternoon so upon getting home, I checked and the the silicone felt a little wet but there was no indication of a trickle as the metal around the area was dry. I am wondering if the silicone didn't fully cure as I didn't think to dry out the inside of the tube before applying and there may have been moisture present.

I checked the upper area of the drain and everything was dry. Next I checked the carpet in the trunk which was dry and then the carpet behind the DS seat....which was wet?! I pulled the plastic liners and the top of the drain area was bone dry but I found some condensation on the lower portion of the metal behind the seat. There is a small section of carpet that covers this, the lower half was wet but the upper half was dry as was the area above it when I stuck my hand up there to feel around. I also pulled the plastic covering the access area to the lower section of drain tube and that was bone dry? I am confused as to where the water came from to wet the carpet behind the seat?

Thus my Monday night was filled with more cursing of Mazda for this ingenious design.
Could it still h@ve been wet from before and not dried out completely?
 
Could it still h@ve been wet from before and not dried out completely?
Maybe? I hit the area good with the shop vac but maybe not good enough? Guess that could have led to the condensation as well. I should have checked it yesterday morning before the rain but I was focusing on the PS as that is where I was having issues with the drain.
 
@bazooka joe and @Conrad 16.5 you have some odd winterizing techniques. I just swap on the winter wheels/tires, gas up and go. :p However your undercarriages will look a wee bit better than mine. ;)

Hard to believe that it is that time of year where you guys have to start considering when is the last day you get to drive your toy. This year has gone too fast.

@Reitrof What else do you need to do and when does the season start?

Winter tires on my MX? Nope and nope! That's what the CX is for.

I don't mind putting my toys away for the season so much, it makes it that much sweeter in the spring when I bring them out to play. The roads around here in the winter are covered in white, and I don't mean snow either. No need to expose my baby to all that metal eating salt if I can help it.
 
It was in the 60s today so I swapped the winter wheeks/tires on. I'd rather do it a little early than wait a few weeks and freeze my butt off.

Gave the summer wheels/tiresa good wash before storing and then wadhed the car.
 
Winter tires on my MX? Nope and nope! That's what the CX is for.

I don't mind putting my toys away for the season so much, it makes it that much sweeter in the spring when I bring them out to play. The roads around here in the winter are covered in white, and I don't mean snow either. No need to expose my baby to all that metal eating salt if I can help it.
Hahaha, I hear ya. I'd drive the CX but then my wife would ask how she is getting to work.

Exposing my baby to the white stuff pains me but I do my best to wash it throughout the season making sure to hit the undercarriage.
 
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