ExigeEvan - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - '95 Mazda MX5 (Eunos) and 2014 Vauxhall Ampera

  • Thread starter ExigeEvan
  • 24 comments
  • 1,562 views
ExigeEvan

ExigeEvan

Premium
17,192
1995 Mazda Eunos Roadster 1.8i

So back in February some of you will be aware that I got myself an MX5. It's a Eunos meaning it was imported, I believe around 2001. It's had a respray and the usual rust issues have been resolved. It's also had -

- Sport Cat S/S Exhaust
- Full Polybush
- Apexi Coilovers
- Drilled and Slotted Front Disks
- K&N intake (I have the original)
- Style Bar (already removed, and replaced with cabin brace)

I took the car for an alignment today, and the guy has loads of previous experience owning and racing MX5 (Avia Auto, Bridgend). The front left was out of alignment, and the rear right was too. He then took it for a spin (myself riding shotgun) and gave it a general good bill of health. Which is fortunate, as he wasn't far off crashing it into a van parked on a blind bend! It had been my intention to raise the ride height, but the Apexi's seem well stuck, and he doesn't think there's much height left in them anyway. The car sits nicely on them, but I need to use scaffolding planks to clear my driveway...

Anyway, behold! Was a lovely day on the roads around Treorchy!

upload_2016-4-5_14-36-58.png




20160405_114346.jpg
20160405_112804.jpg
 
ExigeEvan
Was a lovely day on the roads around Treorchy!
Click to expand...
Bastard. We did our Mustang shoot there a few issues back and you could barely see your hand in front of your face. We parked in that car park in the top shot and it was difficult to make out the road curling around behind, let alone the one over the other side of the valley...

Car looks good though. Cabin brace is next on my list too, or maybe a half-cage.
 
Heldenzeit
Half cage all the Miatas!
Click to expand...
A roll cage behind the seats is definitely an aspiration.
homeforsummer
Bastard.
.
Click to expand...
I've taken family up there before and had same issue. If you took approach via Maesteg you would have come close to my home.

If you weren't aware of the area previosly I was going to suggest it to you but I'm not sure there's an easy approach (i.e. suitable for supercar-esque vehicles).
 
We came up via the south, because we'd driven in on the M4. So via Nant-y-moel. Got some of our sideways shots on that hairpin visible on the map image you posted. Some great roads in Wales, but they take so damn long to get to. South Wales has been pretty much ruled out recently because of some draconian speed limits (the Black Mountain Road is now 40mph, I believe) and even north Wales is knackered a bit since our previous friendly/cheap accommodation near Betws-y-coed has changed hands.

I'm actually a bit jaded by driving in the UK in general. If I wasn't travelling so much and getting to drive the much emptier, much sunnier roads in other countries I'd probably have gone insane with frustration by now.
 
Yeah we've discussed the Black Mountain before and it's a sodding shame they've made that change. There are some more roads in the Bridgend area at Southerndown but they're quite limited in length.

The only other place I would suggest is taking the A4059 near Pen y Fan, but it's more of a fast road. I need to check out the northern part of the A4061 too.
 
Spent way, way too long doing what is supposedly quite a routine fix on the MX5, clutch cylinders.

I've been losing clutch pressureif the clutch is depressed, and finger usually points to the Master cylinder in this instance, even though the slave is more likely to fail. So I took it upon myself to do both. 2 things the How Tos don't mention is the pain of getting the pedal rod into the Master cylinder, and the difficulty of re-attaching the hydraulic line to the slave. Both took way too long, and let to lots of wasted clutch fluid (but wiped up).

Anyway, oil and filter change tomorrow morning to finish off.
 
Getting the line into the slave is a real pain haha. I actually found a stainless line that deletes the curly line and is a straight shot from the master to the slave. Removes a couple potential failure points.
 
Yeah I read about the stainless steel line, it's a possibilityin future.

Oil and filter were easy enough. Took the undertray off and sheared the two screws that also hold the bumper hangars. Thought that was weird as the guy I bought off was quite convincing about his oil change routine.

Then realised that even with aircon fitted it is possible to reach the oil filter from above. If I use the oil change pump I might not even need to climb under the car in future :dopey:
 
MX5 is SORN :(

But it's not a big deal, rear brakes started binding a few weeks back and I've had to work weekends so had no spare time to resolve issue or book a MOT. And my tax was this month too!

Well atleast the weather sucks at the moment!
 
ExigeEvan
MX5 is SORN :(
Click to expand...
Disconnect the battery or put it on a trickle charge while it's out of action. Would suck not being able to use it if it's dead next time you want to drive it. Not that I know this from personal experience or anything...
 
Couple of weeks was fine for mine. It objected after a couple of months though. Well, I say objected, when I mean completely ignored my attempt to start it.
 
homeforsummer
Couple of weeks was fine for mine. It objected after a couple of months though. Well, I say objected, when I mean completely ignored my attempt to start it.
Click to expand...
Thanks for reminding me, I'd better put my battery on charge while the car is in pieces!

I had to google what SORN meant... How long will you have it off the road for?
 
Punknoodle
Thanks for reminding me, I'd better put my battery on charge while the car is in pieces!

I had to google what SORN meant... How long will you have it off the road for?
Click to expand...
I'm on annual leae for second half of August, so I hope to get the issue resolved and the car back on the Road by September at the latest.
 
RE: The above

Not quite to plan. Firstly, took ages trying to get rear right caliper loose. Eventually the hammer resolved the issue of the upper slider pin being an arse. This was after I returned from doing the rear left caliper, which was much easier to resolve...

Except for the cracked disc (bloody drilled and slotted discs).

So, whilst everything is disassembled I'm looking to atleast get rear calipers refurbished. And that'll be a few weeks by the time they go back on and fluid changed.

"Fixing" season is a bit earlier than planned I guess, but I did buy this car to spanner on so....
 
Sadly the MX5 has sat in my garage since October with time and money being prioritised elsewhere. I still hope to get it out this summer, but at worse I will get it through an MOT and any issues resolved (might need sills welding).

But, in other news my faithful Skabia has gone to the scrap heap in the sky. Unable to find a quick buyer for a car with Aircon, gearbox and central locking issues, I was forced to take her to the breakers for less than the price of her 2 front tyres! A shame, but 60,000miles in 2.5years isn't bad going though she was starting to cost me money.

The replacement? A 2014 Vauxhall Ampera, and I've already done 1500 miles in 2 weeks but hopefully that's just due to a busy spell in work. In return it's given me 45MPG on the motorway, 60MPG cross country and the ability to do my normal commute (nearly 80 miles all round) almost entirely on electric with charging at work.

What are my observations so far?

- Car is much more fun on electric, but isn't useless when on the engine. Though when completely drained of recovered electricity it's a pig to get going quick.
- It's amazing in traffic. Switch to high regen braking (L) and it's effortless to crawl in traffic.
- It's a complete geek-fest every time I drive it. Balancing charge, regen and petrol when needed is great fun. But also isn't necessary to return good efficiency, it's just better when you do!
- All the toys. Full display dashboard, reverse camera and plenty of kit. Doesn't have some of the later things like active cruise but I can do without them for now.

Some negatives:
- Boot is small. I knew this, and I can almost certainly live with it, but I'm used to having a large boot, even the Alfa was quite good. Oh and it's covered by a trampoline!
- They didn't put a knee pad on the centre console. But that's okay, my sister is making me one!
- It's got a Vauxhall badge on it :lol:
 
Last edited:
Had my home charger installed :dopey:

It's that little bit too short when I reverse onto my declining driveway :banghead:

Either going to have to get used to drive-in, reverse-off, or look to swap on a longer cable.
 
homeforsummer
Have you figured out how many miles you're getting from a full charge yet?
Click to expand...
Depends!

My commute is either 35 or 40 miles depending on route. 35 being more stop start, 40 being nearly all bypass. But it's also a not to be ignored gain in height, about 200m mostly near the end.

On the way to work via 40 miles route I need to use about 10 miles petrol if I'm "making progress", but I have made it with just 1-2 miles if steady.

On the way home (35 miles) I get home with 5-10 miles range remaining. And that includes a rather wasteful climb and descent. I I left the motorway earlier and went around the longer route I'd probably not lose any of that remaining energy but achieve a greater range. Not bad when I charge for free in work...

That's all without pre-conditioning the car, something I'll start doing in mornings now I have a 16A charger. Only this week have I put my tyres upto 40PSI.

And I measured my charge cable, and it's 4.4m not 4.7. it makes a difference to my parking arrangements so I'll definitely be in touch about that!
 
Done over 3,000 miles in the car now and it hasn't missed a beat. Took a colleague cross country in it the other day and he's quite keen on the idea of one now, as well as another colleague that has seen it charging in the car park. So much so I've put in a request for more charge points in work.

Car estimates 34 miles most days after a charge, but I can easily better that if I drive it sensibly. The issue is that I don't, and end up burning 2 miles of petrol on the way to work, and occasionally on the way home. Still, it offers unbelievable economy on my commute without needing to drive like a saint.

It's also proven itself capable at the traffic lights leading into a local NSL. With the road quickly tapering into 1 lane after the lights plenty of the locals try their luck in the outside lane. The ease at which you can put the power down in the Ampera means you can get ahead of many hot hatches without much thought. Only good if not going far that journey.
 
So this week I've been on the road a lot, and with limited success at charging.

First stop at a hotel I requested in my booking and got a charge, huzzah.

Second stop I was ICE'd by an M4 of all things and was offered to jump a kerb, park on grass and have an extension cable. No thanks. Annoying as I'd also given advanced warning of this.

Third stop, ICE'd again. Same hotel as first but this time I'd failed to specify my charge type and they reserved the wrong bay, and the charge points are either side of an external staircase.

And now a colleague tells me there's a car doing it in my charge by whilst I'm away for the week.

STOP. PARKING. IN. CHARGE. BAYS. :banghead:
 
Ampera is still churning through the miles like the best thing since sliced bread.

Had to take it in for rear disks and pads which was disappointing but not a huge issue.

And this week it was absolutely covered in snow, thank god for pre heating! (Even if it required the engine!)


o92t7o.jpg
 
A little update to Dr Jekyll.

Over 19,000 miles in the Ampera since May and it's been bliss! Dash indicated 90 MPG in my ownership but it's important to point out that I've done nearly 5,000 miles this year of cross country driving for work that has seen the car way beyond it's EV range, which is why I bought it in the first place.

Today it went through it's service and MOT with no issues too.

The only downside? I spotted another Ampera in the work carpark this week. I don't know if it was visiting or belongs to a member of staff but it's slim chance when just over a 1000 are registered in the UK!
 

Latest Posts

Back