All posts tagged projectcars

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.

Mounting the Painted Wheels

The wheels that I had painted almost two months ago finally had the Dunlop Direzza III tires mounted on them. I had gotten it done at a local Mavis Discount Tire store for about $70.

However, I did not get them to mount the wheels on the Miata so that I could learn to do it myself. The reason I waited this long to get the wheels on was that I wanted to replace the brake pads and also buy a portable 20V DeWalt high torque impact wrench for about $250. But today I decided that it was time to mount the wheels and drive the car in those performance tires. Good weather makes you do that !

Without an impact wrench, you can use a 21mm deep socket, a socket extension, a breaker bar, a ratchet and a torque wrench to do the work. You also need a jack and jack stands, but since I have a mid-rise lift I used that. It took me about 2 hours to do this as it was the first time.

Spark Plugs and Plug Wire Replacement

One of the relatively easy improvements to your engine’s performance besides an oil change is to replace the spark plugs and the plug wires which is what I did today.

The recommended spark plugs for the NB Miata are the NGK Iridium IX plugs as seen in Figure 1. I also decided to replace the plug wires with NGK blue plug wires, both of which I purchased from Rockauto.com.

For the 1999 NB Miata, which has a 4-cylinder engine we need 4 spark plugs (Figure 2).

Cleaning the Headlights

The Miata’s headlights were not as clear as I liked, so I decided to try to clean them with Meguiar’s headlight restoration kit (Figure 1), which I purchased at my local auto parts store.

Chris Fix has a video (and another) on how to clean up the headlights but I did not follow his method, and instead bought a restoration kit to see if it did the job. I think it did a decent job.

First oil change

I purchased the Miata almost a year ago, and it was time to change the oil. Since I had never done it before, I expected it to take longer than normal as I would need to familiarize myself with the process. It was quite easy to drain the oil, but removing the installed oil filter took a long time and I struggled with it, but eventually got it off. This post describes step-by-step how to do it.