What have you done to your Miata today?

sigh... so, 2 problems:

1. The car is giving me 2 codes: 2404 and 0446. Evan said I might have an exhaust leak (said the same about the MSP and was right), I checked the exhaust mani and its fine, have to check the downpipe. From what I saw online, it could be either a bad vacuum hose or a clogged evap filter. Anybody have any ideas?

2. This morning when I was heading home from work I noticed that it was kinda hard to shift. It was fine when I left work, smooth as always, but it gave me trouble getting off the freeway. I played with it as I drove home, sometimes it worked fine, sometimes its hard to get it in gear. I'm thinking it might be a bad slave cylinder. When I bought the car 2 years ago I flushed all fluids, including the clutch. Now I notice the fluid is still clear BUT it has some moldy residue at the bottom of the container. Could that have stayed in the line or the slave cylinder and eventually came out?
 
Is the clutch pedal feeling spongy? Because it's a Miata, chances are it's the slave.

While there, get one of the "race" braided lines that replaces the rubber clutch line, and the stupid curly-Q that allows sediment to build up and not be properly flushed. My car's on the 3rd or 4th slave cylinder since I've owned it, always replaced with OEM, and I just replaced the line this last time. It also makes it a BUTTLOAD easier to bleed.

As for the codes, my car ain't got OBD, good luck. Definitely check all the vac tubing & exhaust for leaks. You can use a little spray bottle with some water in it. Spray around and see where your idle changes.
 
Can't help you with 1), but I'm having the same issue as your 2). Bled mine and got a lot of air out (in fact I don't think I got it all out), worked fine when I started my test drive then progressively got harder to go into gear some times. There are no signs of any leaks and no change in the fluid level, only thing I can think of is leakage past the piston on either master or slave causing it to not work (I can pump the pedal a couple of times to help the problem). I just ordered a new set from RockAuto, should be waiting for me when I get back home.
 
(I can pump the pedal a couple of times to help the problem).

That's definitely a leaky seal. When I pulled my slave which had been working "ok", there was a ton of brown, nasty fluid inside the boot of the slave cylinder. It didn't look leaky from the exterior, but it sure as hell was.
 
I pulled the boot on the slave back specifically to check for leakage, there wasn't any (ran my finger on the inside around where the piston comes out). I'll find out for sure once I change everything out, but I'm still leaning towards internal leakage. I don't have any info on when/if these were ever replaced before, I have about 72,000 miles currently so they are probably due.

Oh yeah, Pablo +1 on what Maff said about the long stainless line to replace the pig's tail. I did mine quite a while ago and it does make life easier (well, except for getting that pig's tail out of there!).
 
Huh. All these issues I've had with the car that make people say my car's a piece of s***, and I don't have those problems...
 
hmmm, guess it'll be a good idea to replace the slave cylinder and add a stainless line. The car is driving normal today, really strange. As for the vacuum lines, I checked them and they are fine. I'll have to look into the evap filter and exhaust leak.
 
All packed up and ready to head out to the big show in Lincoln, NE. SCCA Solo National Championships bound :D

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Copied from my build thread, but:

Video to come after I get home, but suffice it to say that Nationals was a freaking riot. Tuesday went so-so. It was my 1st runs ever at nationals and I was inside my own head, and stunk it up pretty badly. But even my co-driver, who held his own in the car couldn't do much due to the point-and-shoot super high-speed into a pin cone nature of the East course. I was not a fan of the course, and it did not agree with my car.

We added 6 lb of weight in the morning, and rolled across the scales at 1700 lbs even on day 1. Min weight is 1695. *phew*
Peter was 12th and I was 14th of 16 after day 1.


We added another 9 lb of weight that evening for Wednesday's west course, which walked fun, and drove REALLY fun. The car was well set up for it, we made a small tweak which made it even better, and just had an absolute blast... until my last run when we found out we apparently burned a LOT more fuel than expected. The thing is acting like it's almost totally out of fuel. I've never fuel starved a miata before, but I guess there's a first time for everything. It happened to me about 4 times on my last run, but alas, live and learn. Even with that, that course was excellent. So much fun. Hang on as tight as you can and find out exactly how much you trust the car. Lots of sweepers and transitions.

Peter ended the day in 11th, and I was in 12th. After my utterly abysmal day 1 performance, I'm pretty pleased with that (1 of the places I gained was due to a Lotus with a dead throwout bearing).

All in all, a very successful 1st Solo Nationals for us. Lots of beer drank. Lots of 4 Square played in the Atlanta paddock.



Now, to trade my 4.3:1 diff for a 4.1:1... because damn do we need the gearing. It was better on the West course, but through the slaloms in the 1st couple sections I was just riding the limiter in 2nd.

And onward the project goes :D





I should probably get a little rest... we're getting up at 3am to pick up the trailer (with the car already loaded) from the event site for the 17 hour trek home. Fingers crossed that it'll be as uneventful as the tow up.
 
Have a safe trip home. Nationals sound like a blast, I really have to make it out there one of these years.

What the hell is 4 square?
 
That's what I thought at first but that didn't sound like an adult activity. So I just assumed it was a name of some Georgian drinking game. :D
 
well for all we know, it may also be....


might get the miata a present this month of a RB frotn sway bar. I want to do ground controls at the same time though and dont feel like spending the money
 
well for all we know, it may also be....


might get the miata a present this month of a RB frotn sway bar. I want to do ground controls at the same time though and dont feel like spending the money

I'm toying with the idea of selling my Ground Control/Koni setup and upgrading to Xidas.
 

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