sobota 22. mája 2010

spark plugs on Lexus IS200

My IS has over 170.000 km driven. As I have become a happy owner of this great car when it was 150.000km "old", I don't have a clue whether the spark plug have been replaced or not. Also I wasn't sure about the condition.
This is not any how-to, but at least you cas see how to access them.

First you must remove both parts of airbox. the each hold 3 screws.
Start with the front one:














then remove those 3 screws and pull out the main part of airbox. Prior to this, I removed the air filter. There is it is:














Next step is pretty straight forward, as you can see on following images.
overal view at the "naked" top:














remove the cable, unscrew and pull out:




























as you can see, there is NGK IFR6A-11 which is one of the two recommended spark plugs (iridium only).

piatok 21. mája 2010

track day at Slovakiaring

we (drgi and I) have decided to take 30-minutes of free ride at our new shiny racetrack - Slovakiaring near Orechová Potôň. 2 days prior to this event I replaced the engine coolant fluid with success and my miata was ready for hard track-driving.
I changed the tires and my beautiful 16" OZracing wheels were replaced by 15" very light Enkei rims equipped by pretty worn tires Toyo T1R's. I wanted to make them completely gone and buy the new ones, Kumho Ecsta MX.

We have left Bratislava around 5 - 6'o clock evening and been delayed by traffic. Arrived at ring around 7'o clock, signed the necessary paperwork paid 30€ for 30mins and we were ready for fun.














miata ready for the ride

And that was fun! track was quite empty, from time to time one of K1-Attacks have taken me over, or BMW M3... I was pretty slow compared to those cars, mostly due to lack of power but I didn't care. Corners were pure excitement to keep miata to not oversteer, looking for optimal line, getting to apex, and keep exit speed and most possible maximum.
There were several moments when I run faster into the corner and had to go on brakes and sacrify the speed, line, everything but the contact with track :)
Or when I realized that I'm too fast and pulled leg from throttle while cornering... the tail started to slide out and I made some counter-steer corrections.. Yeah that was fun, but it couldn't be :) (if I'd be too late with correction).












I was keeping my eye on gps lap timer and celebrated my first lap under 3minutes. It wouldn't be hard to drive such a laps, I can feel thee is a lot of to improve. A lot of. I know exactly what and where; so it won't be boring at all, next time.

nedeľa 2. mája 2010

Spark plugs replacement on Mazda Miata

I decided to go for iridium spark plugs. Got NGK BKR6EIX-11 on Ebay for a good price.
























































štvrtok 22. apríla 2010

Dust shift boot replacement

To remove upper shiftboot, which was completely worn.
Now the dust shift boot is to be removed with gear lever














After removal of the 3 bolts just pul it out.
The best way how to remove old rubber is to use knife and cut it.
Then clean the gear lever. I decided to replace the white nylon ring (looks in good condition but I had the spare one).
Applied a litte bit of WD-40 on new shift boot before I tried to fit it onto the gear lever (it's pretty tight!).















Tried to remove the rest of the old oil, but there was nothing to remove!














empty turret.. (bad camera focus)














In repair manual there is reccomentded 90ml, I used about 100 ml of transmission oil 75W-90 (GL5)




























put both shifter boots back




























I bought the insulation, which was missing ("thank you" authorized service, to take it out)














And finally everything right where it belongs!
see my ipod instalaltion? :)
















TEST DRiVE:

have to say, I was so impressed! There is almost no noise from the transmission. I'm not sure whether it is job of replacement of both worn shifter boots, added oil or just the added insulation. Or all of that has made something..

shifting is much more smooth, so I have to say that missing oil was fail!

pondelok 12. apríla 2010

Fron fog lights installation (I decided to stop this due to missing cabling for fod lights)

Got dual switch from Miata NB 10th anniversary. This one has different connector compared to the single rear for switch therefore I'll have to look for wiring diagram. I 'm not sure whether there are included cables for front fog reflectors too in the wiring.

























I made few pictures of relays, where front fog relay should be located. This needs to be reviewed with wiring diagram, if all cables and relay is present.

If yes, I plan to look for connector to fit the dual switch.
..will keep this blog updated when I'll get more info.

some additional pictures:

both switches side by side














fuse box - front fog fuse is missing















and relays. blue wires are closer to driver's seat






























and finally the wiring diagram for 2002 miata (mine is 2003)

I have found some doc related to relays placed in NBFL's relay box