Former '11 GTI, now turbo '99. Lets make it faster.
 

For the past 4.5 years have been the owner of a 2011 VW GTI. It was lightly modified with coilovers, mounts, intake, exhaust, tune, intercooler, diverter valve, interior bits, sceneboy aero, wheels, and I'm sure more that has been forgotten. The car was not aging very well and I decided that I needed a better platform to tinker with and not worry about paying the euro tax to maintain. I sold the car a few weeks ago and had some newfound money burning a hole in my pocket.
Warning I did ruin the GTI by going a bit too low. This will not be happening with the Miata.
Obligatory photo of old car.

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Now comes in the 1999 NB Miata. The previous, previous owner had some small modifications made to the car. There seems to be a hamster wheel attached to the engine(FM VOODOO II). It makes noises and the car goes faster than a Honda. The last owner bought the car about four years ago and only managed to take the car from 98k to 109k miles.

As of now I have made a small list of things that need to be done for the car. Please let me know what you think of and what I should be looking for.
Maintenance
1. Find and install stock seat belts (car has 4 point harnesses)
4. windshield chip repair
5. coolant flush
6. right top latch replaced
7. rewire amp and speakers
9. Bushing kit
11. Bleed brakes

Aftermarket
3. Coolant reroute
4. Slotted rotors
5. Injectors
6. Fuel pump
7. ECU
8. Hard Top


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Maintenance
1. Find and install stock seat belts (car has 4 point harnesses)
4. windshield chip repair
5. coolant flush
6. right top latch replaced
7. rewire amp and speakers
9. Bushing kit
11. Bleed brakes

Running into an issue with the miata.

When driving around. Any speed, any rpr, any level of engine load. When I let off of the throttle the car rocks back and forth. The issue does not happen in neutral or with the clutch pressed.

Im reading online and there are a few things that pop up. Some of which may be remedied soon.
1) engine mounts blown. I have already ordered new ones as the current ones looked pretty beat up.
2) throttle position sensor $12 on carparts.com / $100 on the other main sites (oreillys, autozone, advanced)
3) sticking throttle plate
4) Idle air control valve this is a bit expensive $250
5) misaligned clutch (I really hope this isnt the case. I do not want to buy a new $700 cluch and drop the tranny this soon)

I'm not really sure what "rocks back and forth" means. Do you mean it's as if the motor goes under load on its own even after the throttle is let off?

Driveline slop, probably. Try new engine mounts and poly diff bushings.

The car feels as if I am constantly giving and letting off of the throttle. Although there is not throttle input at all. I am leaning more and more towards engine mounts.

I believe you are right. My new engine mounts arrived in the mail last night. Im going to see about installing them this weekend.

Might want to consider getting a new radiator first. Yours is looking a little brown, which is the color they turn before failing.

New concept to me(the color change). However the radiator was replaced in 2015 so I would like to hope it will hold up a bit longer. I know in the future I will replace it with a larger mishimoto radiator. I may end up waiting until the need is warranted.

Finally got some of the maintenance done on the car.

Slave and master cylinders replaced, stainless clutch line, line bled, valvecover gasket, and most importantly the oil change. The car is so much happier and I feel much more confident driving around.

I still really need to do the engine mounts. And then the transmission fluids. After that the car should hopefully be pretty well sorted.

Skip the mishimoto and get a koyo.

And look up the color change concept. The radiators start changing color to a weird brown/green and get brittle. They crack soon after. I can't really make out how bad yours is from the picture, but it's something to look up and keep an eye on for sure.

Looking at the color in person it doesn't seem odd. It's also a koyo so I think I may be okay. At this point I might wait until it changes color more. Or the radiator actually goes.

The color change has been a topic beat to death on multiple forums. AFAIK, there is no evidence to suggest that the radiator will fail once the top of it turns from black to brown/green, although some swear it is an early indicator. I drove around my first NA miata for nearly 30k miles with a brown radiator and never had any issues but YMMV.

Thankfully looking at the koyo radiator in person it doesnt appear any color other than silver. My assumption would be that it was a low phone quality photo.

New issue. The car sat for a week while the wife and I were away.

Car started just fine but the windows dont go down all the way. And they are much slower than they already were. I drove the car for an hour just to make sure there was juice in the system. But that didnt change too much. Any idea what happened?

same thing that steals my right hand work gloves?

I guess it could be a build up on the window

Went away to get some training for a month. Car started right up after I got back. But the window issue is still there (go figure). So its now time to pull the doors apart. Im also very close to ordering one of Brains ecus.

A friend and I went out for a drive last night. 2.5 hours of tearing up some empty back roads. We eventually found our way an hour from home and at a lake campground. The car performed ALMOST perfectly. The engine didnt get hot (thank you koyo radiator) I still want to do the reroute though. But the clutch did start to slip on me. Which means it will not hold at all once I get the MS ecu and start tuning. So its now time to order a happy meal. :(

Why are you sad? You should be happy! It's a happy meal, not a sad meal!

You can skip the lightweight flywheel if you don't want to spend the money. Nothing wrong with using the stock one.

Thats true. But im sad because I didnt want to spend this much money so soon. But you gotta pay to play.

I had contemplated that option. But with 110k miles on the car and me not knowing if the flywheel was changed out with the last clutch. Add me learning to drive manual on this car. I am sure it has seen some wear. Plus I haven't determined the cause of my car rocking when I take the load off the engine. I have a strong feeling its from poor clutch alignment. Which I would bet means the flywheel likely has some wear/damage too.

Just have the stock flywheel re-faced. The FM1 clutch will come with a new pilot bearing. Take it with you to the machine shop and they will press it in for you after the facing.

So im lacking on some updates.
I went and bought the flyin miata v maxx extreme sport coilovers.

Suspension install went great. I had no idea what I was doing and managed to get it all done in about 5 hours. The coils are almost max height and the car is still pretty low.
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I drove the car 5 hours the day after install. Gridlife south at Road Atlanta was a blast. I also ran my first autox while I was there. It was a intense to say the least. The first run was a 51 and after my fourth round I was down to 44 seconds. Some new tires and wheels are needed. The rubbing was real. On exit of turns I was kicking the rear out way too easy. I think some stickier rubber would help a lot. As would an LSD.
The fronts were rubbing quite a bit under hard cornering. The 17s are too big and heavy. The continental DW tires are fine for daily driving. But coming into a corner quickly I would have quite a bit of under steer. I have no idea how much of this was driver error. I really need to go out with someone who knows what they are doing.

Now for the bad news. Getting home was fine but the next morning I went to start the car and ran into some issues. I think my oil pump has gone out. The gauge is bottoming out and the car is attempting to die. If I give throttle the car will perk up but immediately tries to die again.

Im no mechanic so opinions from the forum are appreciated.

If it's showing no oil pressure, stop trying to run it.

1. Check oil level.

2. Check for melted dipstick handle plastic.

3. Drain oil through a paint strainer (free or nearly free at Lowes or Home Depot) and see if there is debris in it.

Thats the plan. I got a strainer and some new oil. Oil level is fine and the dipstick is fine too. Ill recheck everything when I drain the car.

Okay so Im going to eat my words in the last post. The dip stick lied!!

Trying to eliminate as many issues as possible I went to work on the car yesterday. Pulled the MAF and IACV cleaned them both and reinstalled.

Now the bad. Drained the oil and only pulled about 1qt or so. I had oil before my trip to atlanta. But not after those three days. I did an oil change and drove around the block a few times until the car got to operating temps. Everything seems fine and no crazy noises. Ive got a decent amount of oil on the bottom of the pan and over the housing for the tranny. Im leaning towards a leaking RMS. Thats going to get replaced the same time my clutch gets installed. I just need an evening with a friend for help. In the mean time I will be checking under the car for puddles and also the dipstick daily.

I guess ill bite the bullet. Its time to find another motor and build the one I have in the car.

The car has sat for the past few weeks. Im riding my motorcycle while the weather is good.

Another oil change for the car and everything seems okay after the oil starvation. I might start driving it again and see if there is any serious damage. I know this isnt the ideal option. But cash for another engine or a rebuild isnt there currently.

My idle issues are still ongoing. After cleaning the MAF and IACV at idle or deceleration with the clutch in or out the car will attempt to die out. Its not every time. This is a bit sporadic.

New IACV installed, 200 miles driven. And no issues to note.

I should be installing the new clutch that I ordered 6 months ago on Sunday. I also ordered a shifter rebuild kit, window bushings, carpeted floor mats, and my third PCV.

As of now that is all that will be installed before I deploy in January. Once I return the plan will be to get the car running on the megasquirt and finally have some fun in this car.

Regarding your oil loss at Road Atlanta. Check the operation of the PCV valve. A bad one will allow the engine to burn oil like crazy. When you order the Happy Meal, get an MSM PCV valve. That will solve any future issues with oil consumption through the value.

Thanks for the ideas. I already ordered the clutch months ago and another PCV yesterday.

If this one doesnt work well I will pick up a MSM one.

I also spoke too soon on the idle issue. Coming to a stop in neutral the died on me again.

A small update for the car. I finally installed my harness bar that’s been sitting in the garage for two months. Install was pretty easy, but I do not like how the spacers are not cut to size. In the next few weeks I will find someone with a saw or just buy one myself and cut some tubing to fit tight. I believe the harnesses may be in wrong. I’ll look up a proper install and redo them if needed.

I swapped the trunk. So no more ghetto spoiler mounts. The spoiler is headed to the dump. During this process I broke one of the tag lights. I’ll go by Mazda tomorrow to grab another.
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Also the past few days my brake light has been coming on with the new cold weather. Fluid and pads seem fine. This leads me to believe there is a sensor going bad. Further research is needed on this subject.

The car is being prepped for minimum use the next 7 months. I will be deploying and the car will be started enough to run a tank of gas and prevent the tires from getting flat spots. In anticipation of this I will be installing the wide band and gauge pod before I leave in a month.

After that the car is getting a final inspection to make sure its ready when I come back. Once back I will install the braineak MS3 ecu I purchased.

Well its time for another thread update.

Excessive oil consumption/burning(1.5qts in 300 miles). Compression test:
Cylinder 1 - 120
2- 90
3- 100
4- 110

A leakdown test of cyl 1 was 60% loss and flowing out of the oil cap. It was all i needed to determine its time for an engine build.

Time to sit on the forum and determine what my build plans are and what I need to purchase.

You're going to want to remove those black plastic dust cap looking things on your coilovers.
They will eventually eat your bump stops. Install instructions should have told you to throw them out.

Install instructions? You mean the packet of paper I should have read but instead threw out?

But good to know since they have already broke apart and removed themselves from the car.

Destructions.

Yeah. Installing coilovers isn't exactly rocket surgery but those things are a pain in the ass.

Yeah ive done a few sets on VW's and Hondas. So I wasnt too worried about instructions. I assumed they were dust covers. My GTI had them.

But they have cracked apart and fallen away. Very quickly I might say.

Sadly I couldn't stay out of the VW game. I ended up buying a track prepped VW R32(dream car). As a result I will be buying a truck to tow with and parting the miata out. Check the classifieds section. I've got a bunch of parts that I will be selling that were never installed.


NB1 FM Turbo Partout - https://www.miataturbo.net/miata-par...artout-101628/