The VVT idiot
 

Hey guys, Longtime lurker here, I made like 2 posts. I bought mhy car a while ago but figured why not document its progress. Maybe the PO was on here at one point and will recognise the car? Theres always a chance

I bought my 01 in August of 2022 for transport to and from my college campus and the flight school. It had about 99k miles and was pretty decent shape sans a large dent in the Dx sill and the usual NB rust. All in all, $6k was not bad for a loaded 3.9 6 speed. besides the pretty notchy shifting(which I heard was common with NBs) it drove pretty good. A lot of its early time with me was spent cleaning the interior and fixing smaller issues. There was at least 2mm of sediment in the inerior all around. The car came with 2 keys, Sparco FF-1 15x7+25, Tein Street Basis Z, Moss Cobalt intake and exhaust, and I think a Moss Cobalt grille. Overall a pretty peppy car.

My car did not come with a radio so I installed a Pioneer W2770NEX wireless carplay unit with a metra dash kit. It fit horribly. After that, It was other changes like raising the car, while the stance it was on looked alright, it would rub on small speed bumps on campus. The first couple weeks I spent raising the car as well as checking the underbody for any damage that I couldnt see when i bought it. The car was actually so low that I had to remove the front bumper to get to the lift point

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Shifter troubles
 

The shifting never felt right on this car. I tried changing fluids and changing the way i shifted to no avail. I figured a rebuild kit was needed. My car was a very early VVT of the first build, made Valentines day 2001. Its transmission is a carryover from the NB1. I have the smaller shifter bushing like the 5spds. I put an order on 5x and "attempted" to install the kit when it came in the mail.


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That doesnt look rebuildable.

In the listing, the PO indicated he installed a Upgraded shifter rebuild kit from Moss Miata. That was a lie lol. There was the bottom most wavy washer, the bushing, and both boots were ripped(though the lower boot was the upgraded type). I installed an MR 4" tall short shifter kit. I originally wanted a 3" but that would have added 200 to the price and I figured i could just cut it down later if I wanted to. I put in 2 bottles of unicorn tears thru the shifter since you can fill it from the shifter on a 6spd. Didnt really help and the shifting was always notchy especially into 2nd gear, however it felt more like i was actually shifting instead of stirring used bath water.