My attempt on an epic journey turned into epic failure.
 

So me and the fiancée had a week’s vacation and were going to go home to my family in Sweden. The plan was to fly there, mount my new Swedish plates on the Miata, who has been sleeping her winter sleep in my dads garage since she was imported from my last residence in NC, US, do the Swedish inspection, ditch the return flights and driver my baby home to Germany. Perhaps with a stop in some nice hotel on the way (My fiancée is reluctant to make 14hours straight trips in the Miata, for some straaange reason).

First, some info regarding the Swedish inspection:
Only special state owned shops do the inspection and they do only that, no repairs or such. They do not have any other tools or equipment then what is needed to do the inspection. It starts with a check of the safety gear, belts, power level of brake lamps, headlights and indicators are tested and the horn. Then they drive you beautiful car up on a special lift and checks the undercarriage. Any rust on load bearing parts, any corrosion on brake components or leaks in the exhaust are reason for failure. They actually hammer on the older cars to find rust spots. Then the car is shaken by the wheels to check the suspension, bushings and such. Then the car is test driven, brakes are tested on something similar to a rolling road and we end with a tail pipe sniff test. Then you pay a small fortune, whatever the outcome was. Of course, any parts added to the car that MAY cause any effects to the emission values or the cars noise level is automatically a reason for complete failure. But usually, the guys working in the shops let stuff like CAI and bigger exhaust pass anyway.

The Green Bean passed the trail with flying colours and the nice inspection guys pointed out the perfect mechanical shape of the car. But this was a registration inspection, ooooh yes, not a standard one, so he was looking at a few extra points here. My US-sold Miata needs EU-approved side mounted indicators, pointless little Swedish position lights in the front and a noise level document bla bla from Mazda. So noooo road legal stamp for me. :vash:

I was mentally prepared for the inspector to say: “Exhaust is not stock, roll bar is not OK, CAI is not OK” and so on, but he was really nice and said he did not care about that stuff. He also pointed out that the FM cat was more effective then what he usually saw on stock cars from -99 and that the emissions values where really good.

Oh, well. I will slap on some indicators on the underside of the side mirrors and some other crap they want :jerkit: and try again. But not until in the summer. The car is back in my dad’s garage again. Sucks to be me. :bang:

Oddly enough a lot guys here stick those on their cars to look jdm/euro.

So true, the guys on Cr love those things. Sucks to hear you cant drive your car home because of something so pointless.
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So you gotta basically stick on some turn indicators and get a letter from mazda?

Concerning the letter, you cant get it from another mazda owner in sweden or is it like VIN/owner specific?

I'd like to know more about this as well. I am not even sure what the indicator looks like. Link? Why do they need a letter from Mazda, that model is sold in Europe as well, it's not like they don't have them there already...
Good luck to you.

Side turning signals:
http://www.miataklubben.se/photopost...0070513143.jpg

Additional Side Lights (Vents)
 

These are the Simpson Design side vents. The integrated side lights can be wired in for signals. More importantly, they can be used as functional engine bay heat vents...

All cars imported to Sweden must fullfill the same demand on safety (lights are included there), noise and emission as all cars sold in Sweden. Quite logic, right? I need this model of car (this model Miata is not sold in Sweden, since it is the US-spec not the EU-spec) noise declaration from the manufacturer. It also need approved indicators that can be seen from a 5 degree angle (from somewhere behind the car or whatever). This means side mounted indicators. This means that I will place them on the mirrors and run a wire thru the mirror into the door, because I do not feel like drilling a hole in the fender. Normally, the side mounted indicator is mounted on the front fender, as you can see in previous posts. On some US-spec European cars, the same fenders are used and there is an emblem in the place instead.

Technically, there is a number of very expensive tests and crap one must do if the car is not fully stock when imported, but as I hoped (and kind of assumed) the guys at the inspection station let a moderately modded car such as mine pass, as long as it is in mechanically good shape and nothing unsafe has been done to it.

I had something like this in mind, mounted on the underside of the side mirrors. I can drill a small hole to run the cables into the mirrors and into the door and the lead it to the engine bay. What do you guys think? Lights are really small, white with Orange LEDs. and cheap. :bigtu: