u/mx5plus2cones

Never thought it was possible when tomorrow's commute to work is probably not going to happen in a miata. One is in the middle of a rear suspension maintenance because the suspension and differential bushings are all worn... And the newer one decided to go into limp mode on the way home ...

Not throwing shade at miatas ,.its just funny ...this hasnt happened before.

Hope the supercharger doesnt need ro be taken off.. that would sort of suck

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Rinse well before and after use, before you put the unfinished yogurt back in the container....

The fucking gear oil stinks, and if you drop things into a bucket of it or spill it on your clothes, 3-4 washes later, it still stinks....Leave it in an open container in your garage for a few hours, and your entire garage stinks.

30k service status

oil change
brake fluid flush/bleed
DCT clutch fluid and filter
DCT fluid and filter (almost, final top off tomorrow)

The dual clutch transmission on the mclaren uses a separate clutch fluid/filter and transmission fluid (GL5 gear oil) and filter....Draining and filling the transmission fluid is slightly easier than the clutch fluid because the fill hole is right in front (2nd pix) and the drain hole is right at the bottom (3rd pix). Both are 8mm, and I think they are the interchangeable. But, I marked them so I mix them up.

The transmission filter, however is a bit tricker to get out. It's right next to the clutch filter, but it's horizontal, and it's pretty long, and theres limited clearance to pull it out AND there's 2 o rings that make it difficult to pull out (or push back in).

Procedure to drain fluid and remove filter

1. 8mm hex, make sure you can open the fill hole in front
2. 8mm hex, remove drain plug. Careful, the gear oil stinks really bad. Don't let it drip all over the floor/
3. 10mm socket to remove bolt on transmission filter
4. Use a prybar, or strong screwdriver and rubber mallet and strike the filter at the edge where the bolt goes through. You want to slightly twist the filter so the small metal tab moves, such that you can use a pry bar to open it.
5. pull the filter completely out and turn it slightly outward and an angle, and then generally remove the filter.

Installation of the filter, you need to slightly angle the filter into the housing. With the filter seated parallel to the filter housing, I used the wooden handle of a rubber mallet to push the filter in so the first seal sits properly. Once the first seal sits properly, I slid the filter in and then tighten the bolt with a ratchet. The outer seal is then installed correctly.

I filled the transmission with almost 3 liters, but will followup with the correctly procedure to fill.

Parts used:

*Liquid Moly GL4/GL5 75w90 gear oil (6 liters) roughly $20 at RMEuropean
https://www.rmeuropean.com/gear-oil-liqui-moly-22090

*Transmission filter: $243 from SupercarGarageATL
https://supercargarageatl.com/products/mclaren-transmission-filter

Year 3 ownership and 30kmile service status...

oil change
brake bleed
DCT clutch fluid and filter change (well, almost)
DCT transmission fluid and filter change

This is taking much longer than I thought. It's not difficult, but whenever it comes to transmissions, I'm superparanoid about messing things up. Some I'm going really slow. Plus I've been dealing with work things, rental things, home things, and a complication in an eye procedure that is now leaving random "floaters" in one of my eyes that supposedly is going away anyday now.... Anyway... Onto the job at hand

DCT clutch fluid is supposed to be changed every 20k miles (or 2-3 years I think). So I'm at 30k miles... I think the fuid was changed one time in the past, well anyway time to do it anyway.

Here's the parts you will need:

* 8 liters of DCT FFL4 fluid. Maximum fill is 6.5 liters, but buy 8 liters in case you spill.
Official fluid is Pentosin FFL4, at $45-50/liter.
Most people use Liquid Moly 8100, which is around $17/liter from RMEuropean.
https://www.rmeuropean.com/transmission-fluid-liqui-moly-dual-clutch-8100-20044
If you buy from FCP Euro, it's $20/liter AND it's lifetime warrantied. I should have done that, but I forgot.

*DCT clutch filter + o-ring : $130 from SuperCarGarageATL
(one of the folks that is part of McMedics)

https://supercargarageatl.com/products/mclaren-clutch-filter-11g0017cp-o-ring

(Now while $130 may sound ridiculous for a transmission clutch filter, keep in mind that these are low production cars, and there is no aftermarket company making this filters. AND... Did you know this filter for the mclaren is CHEAPER than the cartridge filter for the DCT transmission on the C8 Corvette? The C8's filter is $195 for OEM: https://wildhammermotorsports.com/20-26-c8-corvette-dct-transmission-filter-w-hardware-general-motors/

* a fluid pump. I bought an electic one that works with a Makita 18V battery. The nice thing about this seller, is if you email the seller, they claim they will warranty the pump forever. AND, they are really responsible. While this pump was only meant to extract warm oil, it can be used to fill viscous transmission fluid too, by changing the input hose to a larger diameter.. I did that buy buying some vinyl tubing from Ace hardware.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H3JVY2PJ

Procedure to do this is is as follows.

1. Jack up car

2. remove rectangle plate covering transmission.

3. remove rear defuser. It's just follow around the diffuser, and remove the bolts with are torx t-25.
   * be careful that there is a bolt on each corner holding the diffuser to the bumper. You have to peel back a little of the bumper liner to access the bolt on top.. A good tool to use is the Harbor Freight Meme Tool (small 1/4" ratchet)
   * don't forget to unplug the harness to the rear fog light.

4. Remove the fill plug on the left side with a 8mm hex socket on a flex head ratchet.

5. There are two drain bolts for the clutch fluid. Remove the one closest to the front of the car, then the one toward the back of the car. If you do it in this order, the fluid shoots out a certain way that does not make as big of a mess.

6. Unbolt the Z bar and let it hang (stabilizer bar). You need to lower it to be able to reach the bolts on the filter house

7. Remove 4 screws on the filter housing. Then use a small flat head screwdriver on the small recess hole to pop the lid off.

8. Pulls the filter off, put the new filter on, R eplace the o-ring on the filter lid.

9. Put the lid back on the housing, and hand tighten the 4 bolts, using a X pattern.

10. Torque oil filter lid to 10nm using a cross pattern.

10 Torque drain bolts to 40nm.

11. Using fluid pump, pump in 6.5 liters. I stopped at 5.5 liters and plan on adding the other liter tomorrow.

12. Tighten fill hole.

13.Put rear dIffuser back on (not going to since I need to to the transmission fluid too).

I filled about 5.5 liters tonight. will top off tomorrow to 6.5 liters.

Gotta use the coupon somehow...

It's now only $56 cents before sales tax.

Recently, I am helping my dad take care of his F10 550 that I bought for him new back in 2011, now that we are living together.

The car has a total of 33kmiles and I am looking at service records , and his front rotors and pads have never been replaced, since he doesnt drive much.

The pad thickness is still fine but looking at the rotors, they are heavily scored and the pad wear is very uneven. My guess is because he hasnt driven that much, rust developed and became part of the friction material and contributed to the heavily scored rotors and very uneven wear in the rotors where its much smoother toward the center and very scored and uneven toward the outer edges

He hasnt noticed any reduced brake performance , but I was going to replace them anyway.

Just want to confirm with you pros wnd make sure that i am not overreacting and thats what would be the professional recommendation.

Ty

Folks that offered suggestions on the previous thread, thank you!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Miata/s/3OjNKcR2MM

I ended up putting Bridgestone RE-71RZ on my 17x8's in the 215/45/17 size.

I was going to get the Continental Extreme Contact, but i got a pretty good deal on the Bridgestone. They were about $218/tire installed, after price match . Continental, I couldnç't find a lower price to do a price match and install charges couldn't be waived.

For my other set of wheels, I will get the Conti's when they go on sale

I bought my dad this F10 550 the moment i started to do pretty well in mobile software, as his 70th birthday. He and my mom haven't driven it much throughout the years. Now that they are in their 80ies, I've decided to have them live with me and so I can help take care of them. As such, the F10 is now back at my home.

14 year old car with 33kmiles, the car is in great shape. It needed new tires, they were 10 years old (yikes) still had a lot of tread on them, but come on. So, today was tire day, and ended up buing Michelin Primary 3 RFT on them. I hate run flats, but given my dad and mom still drives it maybe once a month, it's just piece of mind. Also, gave it a decent bath. Car was garaged mostly. Just dusty.

I took it out for a drive today, and man I forgot what it's like to sit in a 5 series cruiser. The ride was great, and the 400hp V8, while not the fastest, felt great. And while the interior is a bit old style, I don't know, I still like the way it looks.

The minor gripe I have is the interior door handle plastic is a gooey mess. I think this is a common problem on older BMW's as my e70 X5 has the same issue with sticky gooey door handle.

Other than that, I still enjoy driving this car.

The interior accent lighting shown in the picture is a bit misleading. The ambient lighting is the famous amber lighting with old BMW's including the cluster. My smartphone made the ambient lighting closer to red, which isn't the real color.

Files with miscellaneous heavy things and used wheel weights. The concept was funnier in my head

..your customer ..I'm kidding!!!

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A few months ago, I dropped my cordless soldering iron about 8 feet off the ground and unfortunately it landed on the tip and broke it in half. It's not a great soldering iron, but it was cheap and I like to carry it around my backpack for minor wiring work, and so picked up another one for $20 and was hoping to find a replacement tip, because Neiko doesnt sell them.

It turns out a lot of these cheap made in china cordless soldering irons all use the same soldering tip, called an "E10 soldering iron tip"... I guess E10 is the designated name for the lightbulb like screw type. About $10 for 2 on amazon or $5 for 2 on Temu/Alibaba/Aliexpress.

Going to keep one at my lab at work now and one in the car.

I was told if I charge these until they are warm for several days, it will double the cold cranking amperage capacity once they expand to accommodate for more storage capacity...

I swear, I'm a very handy person. I changed a light bulb once, and it only took me 2 hours. Dealerships and Indy shops are too expensive and are going to rip me off, and I only have liability insurance because collision and comprehensive coverage is a scam.

thoughts

Just trying to bank more easy flat rate money for things I could do faster while in this service position...