Recent Posts

A Copart Experience - 2001 Porsche Boxster S

Randomly in July while getting bored at work I was surfing Copart, a salvage auction site, that I saw a Subaru BRZ that had some hail damage but looked fine otherwise. Getting excited, I registered on Copart and placed a bid on it for about $600, but I lost. Over time I kept losing bids on similar BRZ/FR-S cars and decided to expand my horizons. So I started bidding on Porsche Boxsters with minimal damage, raising my maximum bid limit to $1500. I ended up winning a 2001 Porsche Boxster S (Figures 1-5), with 142,000 miles, for $1400 which had a dent on the rear driver side (Figure 3a and 3b), a broken tail light and was in driving condition. Despite having a Miata that needed work, I took on another project — classic project car mistake 😊 !

Posted on Aug 11, 2019 by Vikas N Kumar

First Autocross in the Miata

With great trepidation I took the Miata to my local SCCA club autocross event today. I was number 919 in the E-Street class (Figure 1) and ended up chatting with other E-Street racers and their Miata configurations. One of them had upgraded his Base trim 1999 NB Miata to the Performance Package trim by adding all the required Mazda components that would form that trim including a Limited Slip Differential. It is something I might consider in the future.

Posted on Aug 4, 2019 by Vikas N Kumar

Car passed inspection!

The Miata successfully passed inspection today. It took me nearly a year (364 days) since the purchase date to get the inspection done. Changing the O2 sensors was technically easy but I did not have the confidence to do it a year ago. Now I do ! Cannot explain how happy I am today that whatever hard work I have put in to make the car inspection-worthy has worked out well without any serious hiccups.

Posted on Jul 16, 2019 by Vikas N Kumar

Fixing the Parking Brake

The Miata’s hand brake (or e-brake or parking brake) did not keep the car still. The car would move anyway, so I used to keep it in gear when I parked it. It was time to fix the parking brake before I took the car to the DMV for getting the emissions inspection sticker later this week. Fixing the parking brake is quite easy, but it requires removal of the rear wheels.

Posted on Jul 14, 2019 by Vikas N Kumar

Replacing Oxygen Sensors

Since I purchased the Miata it has had a check engine light (CEL) code P0140. One of the solutions among many is to replace the rear Oxygen (O2) sensor in this case. Having experienced bad O2 sensors in my truck in the past and looking at opinions on the web, I decided to replace both the sensors to be safe. My car is a California emissions car and the location of the O2 sensors are different from the rest of the USA (Federal) emissions versions of the same car.

Posted on Jul 11, 2019 by Vikas N Kumar