Miata Mailing List: February 1999, Message #216

sponsored by

        +++  You need to do two things, David:

        #1 --- Get new plug wires. Red plug wires. Red Ultra Silicone 
plug wires from Racing Beat. Oh, they'll feed you a bunch of stuff about 
8mm silicone rubber insulation, zinc-coated stranded copper core wire, 
double-crimped brass screw-together connectors, wire-wound carbon 
resistors, finned zinc plug connectors, spring steel retaining clips, 
water-tight seals, and the like, but it's their Redness that does the job.

        The exact same thing happened to my car [except for loaning it to 
your buddy] at about the same mileage. Then I got my Red wires. It not 
only fixed the problem but the car is now TWICE AS FAST as it ever was 
before. Well, maybe not. But, it sure looks like it with the hood open. 
You should see how kewwelll those big, fat, juicy red ignition wires look 
threading their way through a set of aircraft polished cam covers! [When 
it gets right down to it, so should I. I haven't quite got round to 
ordering mine yet. Spent all my money on plug wires.]

        Sure, they're way overpriced, but, take my word for it . . . Red 
is the way to go. And, your car desperately needs some.   ;]

        #2 --- Don't loan you car to people who are used to driving cars 
with 8 plug wires. They double the strain on your 4.

        Keep the Revs up!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        Phredd'n'MisteRedd


--------------------quotext-------------------


>OK.  I am hurting because my poor little blue car is hurting.  I 
>traded cars for the day, my '92 Mariner Blue for my friends 
>Mustang 5.0.  Although I don't get a real kick out of driving those 
>(having already owned a couple) he wanted to experience the Miata 
>experience.  I thought a conversion was in the making.  Well, 
>maybe not.
>
>He brings it back to me after the Super Bowl and it is limping 
>along, to say the least.  I have owned her for a year, and it now has 
>30K miles on it.  No problems ever until now.  Here are the 
>symptoms:  hard starting, small "pops" from the tail pipe, erratic 
>idle ranging +-500 rpm, extreme loss of torque, and hesitation and 
>jerking at low rpm.  When the car jerks on acceleration, a clunking 
>or popping noise can be heard.  He said this started after putting 
>3.5 gallons of Super America 93 octane in it.  I have pretty much 
>ruled out bad gas by filling up the tank and adding water remover to 
>no avail.  Also, SA says they have moisture sensors in their tanks 
>and received no complaints of bad gas recently.  I have also 
>changed plugs, for lack of a better idea.  What could it be?  Timing 
>chain, plug wires (which I checked for arcs), catalytic converter?  
>Please help my baby!
>
>Thanks,
>David Karpik
>