Has your turbo Miata ever stranded you?
 

This is a question mainly to help me decide wither or not I can count on my Miata to be my daily driver once I turbo it.

What is relevant (I think) is in what way it failed, mechanical or electrical for instance, and if it was a tinker or tow away situation.

Also, we all know when we are "pushing it" with our builds. If your Turbo Miata stranded you, how aggressive were you with your build? Were you already on a bad clutch, or were you trying a new part or fuel map when it failed? Did you have any clue prior to the failure that you were on borrowed time? Is it a DIY build or is it a kit? Are there any things you would do differently now that you have experience to make it a rock solid build?

Maybe it’s just my insecurities… I am getting closer now to starting my build and while I am not trying to get anyone to talk me out of the turbo, I want to learn as much as I can to do it right the first time.

<< For information’s sake: My commute is about 36 miles each way, about 85% highway. I am weeks away from buying a MS3 and wide band – which will be my first install>>

The responses are going to vary EXTREMELY widely on this topic... Just a heads up. Too many variables from build to build... We talking DIY turbo setups or kits???

No (knock on wood). I daily drove a 91 turbo with MSPNP for about a year with your same commute.

Oh yeah: Oil lines falling off, blown engine, broken 5spd, turbo falling off, blown tire, etc.
That's just the process for a maturing track car.

Stranded, no. Completely frustrated and having to do parking lot repairs, yes.

I take that back - I've blown my motor once and had to get towed home. That was about it as far as stranded.

The next runner up would be a day I went to 7-11 on a lunch break. Couldn't restart the car. This was back on MS-I after I just fit larger injectors...turns out I didn't have enough fuel for cranking at high coolant temps. I probably could have got it to run, but I had newbsauce come with a laptop and we added a bit of fuel and I was on my way.

Honorable mention is when my driveshaft fell off.

Nope, and I race the car hard, monthly.

To be fair, even my N/A Miata has "almost" left me stranded because of a failed main (EGI) relay...twice.

It depends on your level of expertise, experience, and budget. If any one of these are lacking - the probability of being stranded goes up dramatically. Year, condition, and mileage of car obviously has a big impact.

That being said, I have never been stranded. But I know that I have been lucky....and I have a back-up car, just in case.

Yep.

Had to limp home from blowing couplers off before, with a MS it's "just drive slowly when that happens". With an AFM it's "find a way to connect the pipes, or you're not going anywhere"...

Driven my Miata from Monterey, CA to Jacksonville, FL and then on to Fayetteville, NC. Had problems but they could have been avoided. In AZ my COPs started frying themselves (accidentally loaded map with stock dwell settings) and just outside of Jax my WGA bracket broke.

If you're doing your EMS first you're already on the right track.

It did not fall off, there was still one bolt holding it on.

true. :laugh:

The one time mine left me where I needed a tow I was 1.5 miles from my house. Unknown engine failure.

When the turbo shit the bed I was able to drive it home.
I did do a big cross-country trip with a track day in the middle. Pounded the shit out of my car for nearly 2 weeks and almost 6k miles (mostly out west). Not a single flinch the whole time.

Numerous alternator belts broken. (stock/turbo)

A dip into a lake that formed in the front on my house which cause the motor to hydro-lock. (stock)

Blown head gasket on the highway. (stock)

Returned line went off the turbo in its first drive

The cables for the MAP that connect to the MAF pigtail came lose while the car was running, which caused a short which burned my cooling fan cables and miscellaneous relays. This later left me stranded as I did not find out the fan was not working till I drove it and overheated.

Lastly, I blew the motor Amtraking a Volvo at about 120 mph :cool:

I used to have a fail smiley... Idk where it went :cry:

I'll quote this one as well. I had the OE clutch line fail on a summer Sunday afternoon in Biloxi, MS, fortunately there was an Advance Auto Parts close by. Made a temp. hardline and was on the way. But that's not actually turbo related, the car handled trips and daily driving just fine.

I did bend a rod (never was able to pinpoint a cause), but it happened when I was in my driveway so I wasn't stranded. Gave me a good excuse to build the motor and upgrade the turbo components.

once but it was a stock cam sensor failure.

these failures aren't really due to the turbo nature of a miata though. Any and most of these failures could happen to a stock miata.

oh yeah one time a fitting broke on my Prop valve. I was able to limp home using the e-brake, repair it in my parking lot, bleed the brakes, and was only 30-45 minutes late to work.

I've never been "stranded", but I've limped to a gas station after seeing my temp gauge nearly pegged - put coolant back into it and off I went, except without A/C. Had I not seen the temp gauge, engine would have made itself irrepairable. My coolant temp gauge gives me a warning when it gets hot now. Heat extraction hood makes sure it never overheats for the same reason again. Pulled into the garage at home once, got out of the car, went inside, came back out to the car to get something out of it 30 seconds later, and the lower radiator hose blew off just after I walked back into the garage. Replaced radiator cap. Forgot to empty catch can in the winter, lines froze up and car began to burn oil like a mofo. Figured it out within about 60 seconds, pulled the dipstick to vent the crankcase while I let the engine idle to warm up enough to thaw out the lines.

So no, the turbo has never left me stranded. I HAVE been stranded twice though - gearbox stuck in reverse once, and slave cylinder came off once. - Neither turbo related

The Turbo part of my Miata has never left me stranded. The adding of a Megasquirt has. I have fried 2 sets of stock coils in a day because MS randomly decided to invert my spark on me. I have also ran on 2 cylinders and randomly getting the other 2 back because of bad wiring in the db37.

The miata broke down on me a good number of times over the years, but luckily I've always been able to fix it and get it running again. I keep certain key spare parts in the trunk along with a carry on sized toolbox full of wrenches, sockets, cutters, extra wire, nuts/bolts/washers, etc.

The good thing about doing all the work yourself means you know how to fix it when it breaks! lol

I'm sure my engine failure had something to do with it being boosted. Very rarely have I heard of a stock, well maintained engine just keeling over.

Mine's been towed home a few times. Once was due to me forgetting to torque the bolts on the water pump pulley -- a week later it threw the belt on the way home from work. It also ate a coolant line at Laguna Seca and then blew the head gasket after bypassing that.

--Ian

my TB jumped teeth. my crank pulley is off 10* form my pulleys. I get to fix that tonight.

Vlsd blew at the track, that's the only time I've been stranded. I've cut a lot of sessions short due to over heating. I've also limped home on two cylinders A LOT, either from MS, COPs, or injectors. Or my wiring.

Nothing turbo related. Put it together well with good parts and it won't go wrong until the life of the parts is up. Overheated once, but that was my fault. Someone told me I didn't need a coolant overflow tank :facepalm:. I also blew up the POS 2-piece DP that Begi sells a couple of times... replaced it with ARtech goodies and all is well.

MS has never left me stranded, but once, for some unknown reason, the car ran like SHIT. Almost stalling out, no power, that sort of thing. Let the car sit overnight, next day, it was fixed. Weird.

The LC1, however... Don't get me started on this fucker. I think it's broken on me 4 or 5 times in the 2 years I've had it... Lots of random errors over the years that seem to reset themselves with time. It's never left me stranded, but it has pissed me off to no end.

Only time I was ever stranded was my fault. Bracket got into the tranny housing when I did up the tranny and it proceeded to start to grind on the flywheel... bad noises. Probably could have driven it the 10 miles home, but I didn't feel like risking it.

60 miles a day probably 4.5 days a week on average at 219rwhp. Hasn't given me any serious problems. Like I said, if it's well put together and well tuned, it will be no worse than any other factory turbo car.

EDIT: The only problem I have with DDing my turbo Miata is that it's delicate, low and hard. I've been driving my A6 more and more just because of these reasons.

My car has never failed on me.

My shitty/ignorant wrenching skills
Bullshit fuckups from vendors/shops
Crappy turbo systems designs

Have stranded me.

This should be on the front page.

+1. the things that break are the things I touch.

I broke my key in half last night, and I was stranded at the Frat house. Read: Pusha

My fuel pump said F YOU, after filling up at a gas station on the way to work last year. Had to get towed home.
My alternator crapped out at night on the turnpike, also last year...got it towed home.
Otherwise, it's been a good car.

Stranded once. City driving it died and wouldn't start again more than momentarily. Water had made it's way down pressure signal tube from the intake mani to the sensor in my megasquirt. It killed the mapdaddy. Computer thought the car was seeing max pressure all the time. Overboost protection kept the car from running. I've looped the line and added a small fuel filter to prevent it happening again.

I've blown a headgasket and I've blown a coolant line off twice and had another bust on me. All but the busted line were my own fault (and that one probably was as well, for reusing lines instead of replacing). These were actually all on my old car as well, current car has never left me stranded. I do daily drive mine and I'm confident in it cranking and getting me to work everyday. That said, I have a ninja 500 that I can drive when something does happen.

It's also been very rare that I've tried to do something that should easily be done over a weekend (install turbo/ecu/swap motor/clutch/etc) that I hasn't up taking 2 weeks, waiting for some random part that I managed to break in the process. Be it bad luck, or just plain stupidity, at least 95% of my problems come from trying to fix or improve on something that wasn't really broken in the first place.

Several times.

-Stranded me at Thunderhill when 2 of the 4 turbo studs failed, and the other two seized halfway on, halfway off. Fixed with v-bands, you can fix it with our inconel studs (if you're man enough).

-Stranded me at a meet about 15 miles north of home, blown 5-speed. Probably could have limped it home but I didn't want to be doing 40mph and have the rear end lock up somewhere.

-Stranded me 75 miles north of school, on the way home - threw #4 rod from the 160k original longblock (30k boosted miles).

While I was still DDing it, honestly, it was pretty damn reliable. Aside from massive major components failures caused by the stresses of track duty, there was really no stupid issues. I did a lot of homework before I bought any parts and it paid off big time.

It's absolutely doable, if you don't cheap out on important stuff. You have to have good oil/water lines, a good manifold/downpipe, a good ECU and tune, and generally good maintenance habits. The guys that have chronic problems with street cars are either unlucky or lacking in quality components.

Tracking the car is an entirely different story - it's definitely doable, but you need to be utterly pedantic about maintenance, oil analysis, and overbuilding for your use. Cars like Trey's may look like street cars, but when you do 12-15 events a year, it's a race car with an interior and plates, and it needs to be maintained like a race car. That includes regular nut and bolt checks, UOAs to determine oil change intervals, more aggressive fluid cooling throughout the chassis, monitoring engine/drivetrain vitals more closely, and just being a more ---- owner overall. You can neglect a street car a little bit, but if you "leave something to the next event" on a race car you're playing with fire.

Thanks all for the replies. I have a 2002 Jeep Liberty that is my winter/spare vehicle. My first matter of business is probably to get THAT car tuned up solid so it will be available if I need to drive it for any period of time while i work out gremlins.

Next, it looks like my biggest danger is ME f'king up my install. Check all fittings, bolts, connections, and double check them. Don't expect to drive to work immediately after messing with the engine management.

Unless I am mistaken, the LC-1 is the O2 sensor/pigtail itself and requires an analog gauge, but the MTX-L has the O2 and pigtail included correct? Which is preferred? Should I get the full length cable or is the 3ft "motorsports" cable a better choice?

Thanks!

I'm in the middle of a 1500-mile, two week road trip in my white, shitbox daily driver. Both are meticulously maintained, but I really considered taking the track car because I know deep down that my trackcar is more reliable than my street car. I'm more worried about my 130k, stock motor zinging at 4500rpm for 6-hours on end than I am doing the same in my track car.

It's pretty cool when you check yourself and think about it.

My car randomly shut off on the way home today. I down shifted and it started back up. But the throttle didn't work and the tack was flipping out. Turned the key and got power back but now its idling at 1500. Valerie acting like a bitch!