Can too much oil drastically reduce power? Transmssion getting hot? AND floaty feelin
 

Hey everyone!

I finally picked up my first miata... It's a crystal blue metallic 2001 with 72,000mi and a 6 speed and original hardtop. I bought it off the first owner, and he DID NOT want to lower the price. It had a few fairly decent issues (throw out bearing on its last legs, transmission leaking fluid...) but the lowest he went was 7500. oh well...

anyways, on my long drive home, 1100 miles, the car was extremely low on power, on up hills, and seemed to get it's power back on down hills, and sort of on straights.

Obviously a car will not accelerate as fast up hills, but this was far more than that... I couldn't accelerate past 60mph in 4th! gear. I was literally passed by minivans and suv's, while i'm lugging along.

On my next fill up, I checked the oil, which was changed just before I got the car... It was past the full mark by a decent margin. I plan on draining it to the proper level, and hope the car isn't "making oil"

I haven't done a compression or leak down test , but that will be in the next few days.

ALSO, the transmission tunnel, shift lever, and boot were VERY hot at certain points in my trip. Not hot enough to burn me, but I'd guess at least 120 degrees? Maybe I'm way off on that... I know that the bottom of the shift lever contacts the transmission fluid (if I'm remembering that) so could that possibly mean overheating? I could smell trans fluid off and on for most of my journey, and a few drips would show wherever I parked the car for a few minutes.

ANOTHER ALSO... the car felt very vague, and quite unsettling while driving over 60mph. It has the stock suspension, and no ground effects (no lip, side skirts, or anything) there was also a large delay before a steering input was transferred to the rear tires, is this just because it has no chassis bracing? This all was very scary driving through curvy mountain roads without guardrails...

Thanks everyone!

Oh, and long term plans are (this car is super slow even when it felt like it had full power) oil coolers, FCM coilovers, 6758 turbo, built engine...

I'm guessing due to the oil pan shape, going up hills made the oil contact the crankshaft?

I'd be surprised if being a quart or two high would cause the loss of power.

Does it burn oil? If the rings are bad, perhaps the PO put in extra oil so he wouldn't have it fill it so often, and that would also explain the loss of power.

The tranny tunnel does get warm on long drives. Theres supposed to be a bit of insulation around the shifter, which may or may not still be there.

--Ian

We had a guy here several years ago who was convinced that someone was stealing the oil out of his engine at night.

Now we know where they've been putting it.



You've discovered gravity. :giggle:



On long trips in the summer, Miatas get warm. The exhaust pipe is right next to your right leg, there's very little insulation on the interior, etc. It happens.



That shouldn't be, ESPECIALLY with a 2001-05 model. These cars had excellent chassis straight from the factory- no aftermarket bracing is required.

Very first thing I'd do (assuming you don't plan to fuck with the ride height immediately) is put it on a suspension rack. Have the tech write down where the numbers are before changing anything, and report back.

A reasonable alignment for a stock, street-driven Miata is a tad more aggressive than what's in the book. I like to run about -1° to -1.5° camber equally on all four wheels, zero toe front and back, and as much positive caster in the front as you can get without sacrificing the other two (usually works out to around 4° or so, but this isn't a critical number.) Some people like a little bit of toe-in on the front, and this does make the car more stable, but I find that zero works well.

I suppose it's not impossible that the shocks have had it. This would make the car a tad floatey, but really shouldn't be the case with such low mileage. Don't go throwing aftermarket parts at the problem right away.

What tires are you running and at what inflation pressure?

You almost certainly need one of these:
http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/prod...2d481B%29.html


You might also need one of these (might be the cause of your tranny leak):
http://parts.arlingtonmazda.com/prod...2d480A%29.html


Ditto on checking alignment.

A stock NB should be able to break 60 up a hill, assuming it's not Lombard Street.

--Ian

Missed that part.

I'm having a hard time being convinced that this is due to over-filling of the crankcase... I don't have a good answer dreamed up yet...

Isn't the boot from the '06 model version supposed to be the exact same fitment, yet (inexplicably) far cheaper?
BOOT,DUST (R501-17-47Z) - $12.53 - R5011747Z

Cool, I was thinking alignment too...

I already have the miata roadster shifter kit ready to install, it comes with both of those items you showed, hornetball

I forgot to mention, the car had an issue with a coilpack failing, causing the cat to get clogged, PO had a new cat welded in, and BOTH coilpacks replaced... I might check the connections?

I'll do the jounce test as soon as I get back outside... i think that's what its called, just pushing on each corner of the car, and watching how much it bounces

The car has hankook ventus v12 star tires in the rear, and kuhmo excta (sp?) in the front 35psi warm all four tires.

I'll have a compression and leakdown test done tomorrow morning...

On a positive note, I did discover I can turn much faster and break much harder than I was doing on my trip.... I guess i was just tired from 18 hours of driving, I had like zero testosterone left :)

Sounds like you got a shit Miata.

I did too, but mine was $5000.

Start doing maintainence. Oil change, diff fluid change, tranny fluid change, shifter rebuild, water pump/timing belt, motor mounts, suspension, brake pads/rotors/lines, etc. report back when you're done with that list.

I was about to post this yesterday, but didn't want to make the guy feel bad.
Looks like PO thought his car was a gem, when in fact it is not even close. You shoulda haggled harder.

Oh well, doing maint is pretty easy and (at least to me) satisfying, and you won't have to wonder what all was done or wasn't, since now you'll have to do ALLOFIT

Wondering if this thing has a clogged cat...

that would actually make a lot of sense
or maybe a pice of the old cat is stuck in the exhaust, since homeboy replaced em

Yeah, anytime a car doesn't have matching tires . . . HUGE RED FLAG!!

What Vlad and Curly said. Time to go through this car and get it up to snuff. As long as it is rust-free and solid, any Miata can be easily resurrected.

Clogged cat theory makes sense. When I bought my Red car, it had a melted cat from years of running too rich. Test pipe fixed it!

Yeah I think you got a miata that was worth closer to 3-4k than 7.5. I just got a 99 car with a hard top that only has 2 issues, a bad cat and its missing a pedal for less than half of what you paid. It sucks, it happens, you get excited about the car and make a bad decision and get a shitty one. Best option is to spend minimal money to make it less obviously shitty and try and sell it to someone else for what you paid.

Nope. You fix it and you enjoy it, rather than being a shady douchebag

I guess, but thats more expensive than just passing it along to the next guy and picking up a less fucked up miata for less money than you spent on this one.

sorry to be late but guys running a extra qt on lsx motors have experienced a 60hp loss.

This. So much of this. Too many people not owning their mistakes.

This forum cracks me up sometimes more than it should.
"Yo DAWG my girlfriend's father-in-law's son's wife's boyfriend just got a nb2 for a carton of cigs and and 30 rack of swill beer and he only had to browse every forum/classified/dating site every 5 seconds for 16 years; happens allll day errrrry day bro DAWGE BROooo"

The OP bought a used car with the basic issues that almost every used car has.
When starting from nothing, that drivetrain + hardtop is worth $4k in good/usable condition. Go fix it's minor issues and enjoy your car. Nb2's with those parts are selling for 6-8k in my area.

I'd bet some of the naysayers here have paid over $2k for paint on a car. Not something I'd ever do, but something is worth as much as you're willing to pay for it.