1991 Mazda Miata Base

[Eric W]

Thank you, John & Harriet Cole.

 

John, for taking care of this Miata for so long, and Harriet for allowing me to be the next caretaker.

 

Maintenance records back to February 16, 1991, sold in Springfield, MO, with 158 miles showing. For the first 60,000 miles or so, it's just periodic maintenance. After that, there started to be more things needing upkeep, including, right towards the end, another timing belt & complete transmission replacement.

 

The neighbor who was helping with the sale said that John had bought this at retirement as his hobby car. So it wasn't ever driven very much, as 3700 miles/year for 29 years shows. John knew exactly what he wanted, and he kept it that way. This is the BASE model.

 

No power steering.
No power windows.
No cruise control.
No alloy wheels.
No ABS.
No radio, speakers, or antenna.
No leather-wrapped steering wheel.

 

Defined as much by what it doesn't have as by what it does.

 

Here are the photos when I looked it over & made a short drive this past Saturday.

 

107k miles and 29 years on that engine.

 

Ok, so it's not one of the multiple sub-30k mile first-generation Miatas that you can see on the Miata-specific forums. Not sure where those are hiding anyway (hiding way out of my price range, for sure).

 

I'd been looking at NA (first-gen) Miatas for a couple of months now on the c-list. I could spot the good ones - reasonable prices, and 50-100k miles. They'd appear and be sold the same day. With a full-time job, I just couldn't ever get to any of these - and I was looking out at a 500-mile radius. They do show up fairly regularly - once or twice a month. Then there's the next tier -  100-150k examples, nearly all with some modifications.

 

Last week I had the idea to see if there's a website for a local Miata club. And there it was, an ad placed just the week before. But with key descriptions like "new transmission 2019", "new air conditioning compressor 2017" and "like new, always garaged & babied", and a very reasonable price, I thought for sure it would be gone. The local Miata club members must already have their cars. I left a message with the seller, and made sure I got out there within a couple of hours of him calling me back.

 

Anyway, I didn't want to post anything until the money was exchanged, open title in hand, and car in my garage. Ok, not the usual AACA restoration story, and I'm sure there's more to do here than it would at first appear. But hopefully it's not nearly as much as I've done on my 1950's-vintage cars.

 

There was a Miata advertising campaign recently, something to the effect of "when you were you" that featured memories of bad things that you did to that first-generation Miata, and reminding you that it's time in your life (30 years on) for another one. Made me think of the two Miatas I've had before this one. I'd bought my first one in 1996, a 1993 lease return, and it was my daily driver for about 3 years.

I had some epic adventures with that one - 2000+mile road trips with the destination being the Tail of the Dragon at Deal's Gap. I'd never been there before, and what little was on the internet back then made it out to be one of the ultimate places for a car like this. It was. I also have a photo of it at the Southernmost Point on Key West at about 6am, when I could pull right up next to that marker and get a picture with nobody else in the shot. And the bad things - at one point I installed a used Sebring supercharger kit which overpowered the brakes, clutch, and fuel injectors, and proceeded to drive it right into dropping a couple of valves. Pulled the head in the apartment complex parking lot, bummed rides to work for a few days, and sold that supercharger on to the next kid.

 

A couple more years without one, then I found a Black & Tan '94 via eBay. I was living in Connecticut then, and realized that a car like that is great in the summer, if you can afford for it not to be the daily driver. Which I could at that time. I drove that one all up route 7 - all over the state, actually, and up into Vermont & New Hampshire. It made the move with me out to Tucson in 2005, but I sold it not long after because I got into another project in the garage that needed the space. I only put a couple thousand miles on that one, replaced the coilover shocks & timing belt, and replaced more cosmetic interior parts than I thought I would.

 

14 years farther on, and here I am with the earliest Miata I've ever had. When I told my wife it was a blue one, she wasn't very keen on it. She'd seen too many that have faded to "light" blue. But this one makes the cut.

Edited October 3, 2019 by Eric W
extra carriage returns in the text (see edit history)

[jp928]

Wow, another Marriner Blue! We had one in Saudi in the late 90s! Actually was originally a white California car somebody imported, then drove into the ground - layshaft noisy as , hand painted with spray  cans, cracked wheels that leaked etc. We replaced the gearbox, had it painted Marriner Blue, replaced the wheels. Great little car. Wife secretly drove in thinly populated areas (not legal for women to drive there then). When we came home to Oz I found that it was uneconomic to convert LHD to RHD, as that involved replacing a big part of the firewall. Main downside of the early NA6 engine was the short nose crank and damage to the harmonic keyway leading to loss of timing.

Good Luck!

jp 26 Rover 9

94 Miata

[Bloo]

Greetings from another NA base model owner!

 

Beautiful car! You did well. I really like the blue.

 

107k miles? It might take you a while to wear that out....

 

Edited October 4, 2019 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Yellowriv]

We have a three owner April 1990 RHD Mariner Blue MX5 with 34,000 miles. Immaculate, with all books and history.

[Eric W]

Attempted to clean the rims today. The paint isn't in so great shape, and they won't really clean up. With the numerous aftermarket (or stock) options, I don't know that I feel very strongly about making more investment in these tired steel rims. They're 2 different date codes - two with 1990, two with 1994 - so something happened along the way. The rim date codes are split diagonally (right front & left rear). The tire date codes are split front/year, 3 years apart. They'd put "tire blackening" goop on the tires, which was smeared all over the rims & along the fenders. Might just go the low-cost-enjoyment route & have the no-tread rear tires replaced & not think about improving the rims for a while. Space-saver spare has a hole in it, so I'll be replacing that.

 

Repainted the wiper wing (or whatever it's called). Got the emissions done yesterday. I'll get the license plate this upcoming weekend. Full-time job & all that.  

[Bloo]

I like the steelies.

[jp928]

Yes, always like steel rims like these! About the only issue we have had with our 92 NA6 is the CAS(crank angle sensor) on the back of the camshaft - at 140k kms it starts failing when really hot. Mostly recovers after 10-15minutes to cool down. Curiously the NA8 version, on the other camshaft, with different internals, is also prone to fail at around the same mileage. Down here we can get aftermarket refurbished units, so you should be able to avoid paying stealership prices. 

jp 26 Rover 9, 83 Porsche 928, 92 NA6 MX-5

[Bloo]

The 1.6 liter CAS fails? Wow. Well, I never had that happen or even heard of it. I have changed that stupid o-ring more times than I can count. The thing that really surprises me is that the airflow meter has never failed. The car has over 300k miles (480,000km), and made a 4800 mile road trip in September.

 

I am not 100% sure, but I do not believe the engine has ever been apart. It still has a short nose crank, and the defective 1990 hydraulic lifters that rattle when you slow down after a freeway run. There was a TSB for the lifters. The original owner could have had them replaced on warranty had he/she bothered. I am a former mechanic, and can usually tell if something has been overhauled. Apart from the heatshield and mounts on the header (that always break), I have not found a single mismatched bolt or missing washer on the engine or the transmission. No sealer showing where it wouldn't have been, and the hoses were all Mazda original until 2 years ago when I replaced them wholesale. It is daily driven, and fairly low maintenance, even at this mileage.

 

 

 

 

[Eric W]

Pulled the shipping hooks front & rear. On the rears, the 2 nuts at each location go back on because they hold other items. These hooks are not for towing or recovery - they served to secure the cars to the ships' decks for transport from Japan. Saw a video where the guy was claiming massive weight savings from removing these. I weighed them - 1 lb, 8 1/2 oz for each of the rears, 1 lb, 7 oz for each of the fronts, and 9 oz of bolts for a total of 6 1/2 lbs removed. I'll hold onto these parts in case there's ever a need or desire to put them back, but I don't need to drive with them. I may add a front screen for debris protection - there's 2 styles. One with cutouts to work around the hooks, and another that needs the hooks out of the way.

Edited October 27, 2019 by Eric W
add photo (see edit history)

[Bloo]

They call them "baby teeth" on the miata forums. I would guess only about half the remaining cars still have them (mine does).

[Eric W]

Been a while, but I got to cleaning up behind the firewall in the wiper pushrod area. Someone's been using spray-on grease in there for a while. Didn't get a before photo, but it cleaned up well. Also did a couple of the hoses and black plastic parts around the engine. Need to get to the hood prop base (also greased like crazy) and other dirt collection areas under the hood.

[Jeff Perkins / Mn]

Congratulations on purchasing / refurbishing one of my all time favorite cars. My 1991 is a red duplicate of yours with the exception of the aftermarket AM/FM cassette (!) radio installed in mine. I have owned it for 10 years and  10,000 mi. of the 41K on the car are mine. Paid $4800 for it in 2009. Just finished full servicing and detailing, will park it for the rest of the winter.

I look forward to following your posts and I anticipate learning much about these cars. Most people on this website don’t realize how hugely popular these early Miata’s are.

[theastronaut]

Nice find! They're not terribly easy to find in that condition, especially a base.  I got interested in them a few years ago, wanting something rwd for autocross road course events to replace the Festiva I had been autocrossing.  It took awhile but I finally found a '92 base with 106K miles and dealer added A/C (gotta have that in SC!) that was in fantastic condition.  I did some minor detailing, added coilovers and 15x7" BBS/BMW 325ix wheels to improve the grip and handling, and put about 25k miles on it during my ownership.  Very reliable but not practical at all, plus it didn't handle nearly as well as the Festiva and wasn't as fun to drive.   Definitely a future collectible as nice as yours is, and something to hold on to! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jeff Perkins / Mn]

Hi Eric,

Several of us would like to see an update on your project!!

[Eric W]

Not much to say about the Miata. Considering wheel/tire options, but working on keeping the Studebaker going so possibly it might be sold.

 

Also working on even bigger project of possibly moving to a place with more room for these projects. Had two that we could live with for sale around here recently - one was on the edge of our price range, but the house had many add-ons over time that resulted in wasted space and a layout with rooms that just weren't usable for us (but 3 1/2 acres of land and two 24' x 36' workshop buildings), and another with an older house that we could live with and one workshop building that could be a 4-car garage but for electrical risers in the middle of the floor and only a single-wide roll-up door. Made an offer on that one, but didn't get it.

 

My current thought about a Miata project wouldn't start with this car, since it's a nice original NA. There's a kit for the NB that converts a 2.4l front-drive Honda engine to rear-drive and gets it into the Miata. This is 240-ish hp and drops about 50lbs from the car. Sure, then you get into brakes, wheels & tires that are instantly inadequate, but so it goes. kmiata.com

[Eric W]

Got the rear pair of tires today. Had considered replacing the rims, or maybe pulling these rims off for repainting, but with the Governor's "stay at home" order and all that, I figured the powder coat place might not even be open. And the fronts have some life left, so I wouldn't want to pull all 4. But I wouldn't want to do the powder coat in 2 trips, because I might not get the same color (it's lower cost if it's an "in stock" color, but you never know what's "in stock"). The left rear has had a slow leak for a while, and the prior owner definitely got all the life out of these tires - basically bald since I bought the car.

 

I did online order with Discount tire. I've been getting tires through them for many cars now. Their order said 3-5 days to the store. Ordered last night & they called this morning saying they're here. I happened to be out in the Miata when they called, so I was there in less than 10 minutes. They swapped those two pretty quickly. Feels a lot better to have real tread. Nothing fancy - Cooper Evolution Tour 185/60/14.

 

As for the house, there's yet another one for sale around here on a 3.3 acre lot. A little more house than we really want, but there's a slab on the lot where there had been a 5-car garage. Or maybe it was 4 bays + workshop. Anyway, not quite ready to go, and I don't know what it takes to pop a steel building onto an existing slab - would at least need to redo the anchor points. The slab does have electric & water to it. Pretty overpriced for what it is, but maybe global conditions will have the owner reconsidering their price in a month or two... Though global conditions may have me considering what I can or want to do myself as well.

[CarNucopia]

I'm glad to see Miatas getting so much love here. I got my first one in 1990 and, in the passing time,  have only been Miataless for about a year.  Last year, I bought a '94 M Edition, which was the first time I'd driven an NA in 16 years. I forgot how fantastic these things are.

 

Enjoy!

[Eric W]

Watched about 2 hours of Miata videos yesterday - a series about building one up for track use. Took some notes. One thing they did which seemed to make a difference for them was to rebuild the shifter. The documents with my car indicate that the transmission was changed out at some point, but the vinyl shift boot is cracked. So I figured this is one not-too-extensive thing I should look into. I ordered the kit, which includes the boot on the transmission and the boot on the floor. They also replace the nylon shifter bottom bushing with a brass part. The shifting, particularly to first & reverse in my car isn't that great. Hopefully that's improved with this kit.

 

Opening things up, the floor boot was cracked all the way around. The trans boot was also cracked off. So need to replace those anyway. The trans "turret" where the shifter resides also didn't have any lube in it. The shifter itself had some kind of oil on it, but the turret is supposed to have fluid as well. So I'll fix that.

 

Here's what the removed parts look like:

 

[Bloo]

That is a regular maintenance area. The turret is supposed to have it's oil changed whenever the trans oil is changed. You are supposed to suck the oil out, but is fairly normal for them to drain down and be empty already. The boots last about 3 years. The rest of it holds up good as long as there's oil in there.

Edited June 7, 2020 by Bloo (see edit history)

[KMag1226]

Very nice. Just restored my 90 Mariner last year. Looks good.

[ericmac]

I am a big fan of the MX-5 Miata. I've owned a '90, package B, a '94 package A (both red) and a '95 M-edition,  a car the remains the very best car I've ever owned.  Someday I'll get another one,  I'm sure. I like that you are working on the preservation of your car. In my humble opinion,  many people are very good at making their Miatas gods of the track but in the process they sort of lose the essence of the car.  You seem to be striking a good balance with your car.

[bryankazmer]

I drove a 90 base model for 92k miles from new, all year in Ohio and Michigan, as a daily driver. No problems. Personally not a fan of "Fisher Price Blue" but it is by far the least common of the 3 original colors.  The manual steering is a plus - better feel than the assisted, and still light enough when parking.  Crank windows are lighter, and you can reach the passenger one from the driver's seat/\.  The holes from removing the front shipping hooks make excellent mounting points for small fog lights.  Outstanding gearbox.  Turn the spare tire upside down and it's a storage spot (and ain't much of that around).  But you never get used to the "air brakes", those pop up headlights.

[Eric W]

On 12/26/2020 at 10:27 PM, ericmac said:

I am a big fan of the MX-5 Miata. I've owned a '90, package B, a '94 package A (both red) and a '95 M-edition,  a car the remains the very best car I've ever owned.  Someday I'll get another one,  I'm sure. I like that you are working on the preservation of your car. In my humble opinion,  many people are very good at making their Miatas gods of the track but in the process they sort of lose the essence of the car.  You seem to be striking a good balance with your car.

Yes, this is the 3rd one for me. I don't recall the exact package numbers, but I my first one was a white '93 with the "big block" AM/FM/CD/Cass head unit. I did a lot of bad things to that car - changed wheels, tires, sway bars - really screwed up the handling. And a supercharger, which I took to the point where it exceeded the max fuel flow capacity, burned & cracked off a couple of valves, and drove home about 50mi on 2 cylinders, balancing between going fast enough not to get run over, and slow enough not to over heat. Yes, that was bad. Pulled the supercharger & head, disassembled the head on the dining table (single-guy stuff), and got the head reconditioned and put it all back together, less the supercharger, which I sold to the next kid to figure out it's not such a great idea. Next was a '94 black & tan - where I worked on "return to original" rather than modify. Pulled out a mess of cell phone add-on wiring & an aftermarket stereo. Replaced cracked/broken plastic parts back when these were easy to find. Found some photos - forgot how nice that one looked. This one - I got blue because when you find a decent NA Miata with a tolerable mileage and extensive maintenance history (back to day one), you go for it.

 

On the white one, I added the factory "competition graphics package" (stripe kit) - long since no longer available. I'd add that to this blue one, but nobody is making them. There's one website advertising their own re-creation of that stripe kit, but the company is gone. The stripes are tapered slightly narrower at the very front & rear, and they taper out to full windshield width just in front of & behind the cabin.

[Eric W]

Found a couple of photos of the white '93.

[Eric W]

Been a while since I added to this thread, but I do still drive it just about every week. Took it up to the photo spot this morning a couple of streets north of here. It's a good spot because the street goes up the slope to give a wide background.

[Roscoe]

Love the smurf. Miatas have been one of the guilty pleasure cars that cycle through my tiny collection periodically. My first was a triple black '95. I really regretted trading it for a C4 Corvette, but, well, 'vette- my genuine addiction. I HAD to. Then a few years later, my daughter remembered the '95 from her childhood, and since she was approaching her license, fell in love with a white '94. It was abused but cheap. A couple of pink vinyl stripes later it was her driver for the first few months- then she managed to finagle my 'vette from me and the Miata got sold. 

Now, we've got a '99 NB that belonged to a family friend who passed. It's an auto, which I just knew I would hate but the sentimental connection caused it to come home. Surprisingly, while I prefer the stick of course, this little thing still has some of the traits that caused me to fall in love with Miatas- it isn't all bad.  It'll probably stay in the collection. It's tempting to build a Monster Miata out of it....