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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.
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
Last edited by barnes93cb; 07-29-2018 at 02:50 PM.
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)
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?
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)
Driveline slop, probably. Try new engine mounts and poly diff bushings.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Originally Posted by barnes93cb
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.
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?
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.
05-21-2017, 09:58 AM
Former '11 GTI, now turbo '99. Lets make it faster.
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