Lincolnbaggie

Private plate, black, Nismo'd, with bonnet bulge parked outside East End Foods car park at the Albion game vs Preston yesterday! I was next to you as you very carefully got out of that tight parking space - anyone on here?

1. Shire (sunday) 2. H5 (Saturday) 3. Chesterfield 4. Chris`I (not sure which day or maybe both) 5. Nurrish (sunday) 6. Madmarky 7. Yokomo 8. Scott (sunday) 9. Bladesgrant (Sunday) 10 Ians16 (Sunday) 11. Roo (Sunday) 12. Lincolnbaggie (Sunday - TBC) Might be able to make the Sunday - James/Scott, might have a convoy after all

If you can add £150 to your budget, how about this http://www.justkenwood.co.uk/car-audio. ... navigation

Mate of mine who works in Brigg rang me this morning to say he'd seen the same one - he thought it looked (and now he's trying to persuade me to get one )

How are you going to run a separate amp from the Bose HU - I didnt think they had a pre-amp out?

Well the plot thickens! Arranged for my local garage to sort out the problem as I know them and they don't tend to charge me! They've just been to pick the car up to take to their guys to sort it out. We pushed the car out of the garage; lowered the window to get better access for pushing and the immobiliser light came on and went off as it should. Tried to start it and car started fine. Turned off and back on and started fine again! Closed the doors and locked it; unlocked it, inserted key, no immobiliser light and it wouldn't start (and yes, we did try lowering the window again) Looks like an intermittent problem with the immobiliser, so we'll see what they say. Must mean the keys are still coded and it's not a fuse blown (else it wouldn't have started once), so maybe just a corroded wire or bad earth somewhere. Totally confused now.

I'd give him a tenner for list of parts and a diagram if this works - been waiting for it for ages.....

Personally I would say that chassis bracing is only worth it if you are seriously tracking the car. Decent ARBs will help, but only in conjunction with decent dampers. Maybe your existing dampers are a little worn if they are original?

You only get clearance issues if you lower it too much You only get clearance issues if you dont plan your route properly

You only get clearance issues if you lower it too much

Camber at the rear is a bit high as it shouldn't really be above about 2 degrees. I imagine the unsettled ride will be due to running 295 rear tyres on standard suspension - I imagine it would tramline a bit for a start. Only way to really sort it out is decent suspension with a camber kit on the back and ideally adjustable ARBs; depends how hard you want to drive it and how much you want to spend - you always get what you pay for.... No experience with the MeisterR myself, but you can't beat the KW kits (although they are not the cheapest). I have the KW3 with a rear camber kit, although I think I also need better ARBs according to the race engineer who set it all up (and then the drop links will need doing and then I need a new mortgage and then I may as well get a 370 instead....) At the end of the day James, you need to spend reasonable money to get reasonable improvements and good money to get good improvements - think about what you're trying to get out of the car and budget accordingly?

That's only a tax on brand new vehicles - don't panic!

Not fuses - everything else is working fine (lights, dashboard lights, radio, windows) - I think H5 is right on the key thing I'll download that manual and have a look. Cheers again guys.

Yep, both keys. It's a fob, but that only turns the alarm on and off as far as I can tell. I think with the MX5, the key sends a signal to the immobiliser only when the key is inserted so it must be via the management system of the car rather than IR. Seems to me the problem is more with the keys not sending the right signals. The alarm arms and disarms okay using the fob, but the key is not sending the correct signal to deactivate the immobiliser. Why are cars so bloody complicated these days - hanker after my old Rover V8 where you could work on everything so easily....

yeah, saw that earlier, but the point: 1. Insert one of the pre-programmed transponder keys and turn the ignition to "on", leave on for at least one second ( wait until the red key symbol in the instrument cluster extinguishes), remove the key from the ignition. messes me up cos the red key symbol doesn't come on when key is turned to "on" (which it should as this is the immobiliser responding to the key)

Cheers for all your help on this I disconnected the battery this morning and will leave it off till tomorrow and see where we are then. There must be a reset procedure I would have thought but can't find one anywhere....

Was in the local pub the other night and one of the village youths was in drinking cider - we got talking about cars as you do (he's got his first car and is learning to drive at the moment). Then he asks "Have you seen that silver thing that drives through the village - that is one hell of a nice car. Looks and sounds gorgeous..must have cost a bomb" that kind of thing. At this point I mentioned it might be my mine he's seen and that's it - next day him and his mates are over at mine drooling over it and getting me to start it and begging rides etc. They left with the biggest smiles I've seen in ages They still don't know what it is though.... or that it's only worth 12 grand!

It's the original Mazda alarm/immobiliser system built into the car. Car is a 2001 1.8i Sport (mk 2.5). History of problems: 1. Flat battery after winter. 2. Removed battery and charged using a trickle charger 3. Connected battery (while doors locked), unlocked car and car started fine (twice) 4. Left for two days 5. Car won't start (flat battery?) although I wasn't there for this bit so no idea how car was unlocked or anything 6. Removed old battery 7. Fitted new fully charged battery (while the doors were unlocked I think) 8. Won't disarm immobiliser. 9. Tried disconnecting and connecting battery with car in various states of locked/unlocked and it seems to have made things worse. Sometimes indicators flash as normal and sometimes nothing, but never got the immobiliser light on the dash to come on when the key is inserted into the ignition which it should do. Alarm still works if you connect the battery with the car locked and alarm disables okay using the key fob or key in the door? Don't know what the hell I've done, but I've ballsed something up. I just want to disarm/reset the immobiliser to start the thing, but it's all connected to the ECU and ignition coils and stuff so no idea what to do (and obviously can't get it anywhere to have someone look at it). Nothing on Google either...... It always feels worse when it's someone else's car as well I think a mobile auto electrician is the way to start.

Problem is not the current drain - new battery is fine. Since fitting the new battery the immobiliser will not disarm and we can't start the car. Whole lock/unlock procedure seems to have gone haywire - sometimes the indicators flash, sometimes they don't when locking/unlocking and the immobiliser warning light is supposed to iiluminate when the key is put in the ignition and then go out, but it doesn't come on at all. Think I've messed up the immobiliser system somehow, but can't get it to Mazda as it won't start. It's the original Mazda system. Alarm still works, and I'm stumped (and to cap it all off the friend who's car it is had her 9 month old kitten run over and killed yesterday and a friend of mine from uni died on Wednesday from cancer at 45 - life is just pretty crap at the moment )

Friend of mine has an MX-5. Over winter the battery became flat. Charged it on a trickle charger (they are gel batteries on these things). It did start after charging the old battery up, but that went dead again over a couple of days so I think that one is kaput. Bought a new one, fitted it and now the car won't start. Immobiliser problem I think; I think I've messed up the system fitting the new one somehow Tried all sorts of locking/unlocking permutations. Alarm still works fine, but when I put the key in the ignition the "key" light on the dash that is supposed to light up and then go out doesn't appear at all. Has anyone mechanically minded on here got an MX-5 and know anything about how the immobiliser on these things can be reset/tested etc? I'll explain the problems more fully if anyone thinks they may be able to help (PS Tried asking on MX5-OC, but not a jot of help there )

water in the pipes froze overnight and expanded pushing the plastic bits outwards, but then thawed and retracted, possibly?

Happened to me on the Millbrook high speed ring at 130 - scared both me and Colin a little at the time. Couple of cable ties and we were good to go again

Well done that man Now you just need to let the rest of us know exactly how you did it........

I don't think the strut bars are normally under that much tension anyway - mine came off without any need to loosen the bolt. Just slacken off half a turn and then tighten half a turn when you put it back on. Not really necessary to use a torque wrench, just tighten the locking bolts up tight.