Removing coolant drain plug, oil filter & door speakers

[joanie]

Greetings all,

A few simple maintenance queries please, for the MX-5 home mechanics out
there. Although I've done a lot of work on our Alfas, I haven't touched my
wife's MX-5 until now, when various routine maintenance items became due, so
it's all new to me. The first job I tackled was the cambelt change, and this
went well. But for the next jobs I have some queries please, as follows:

1. Engine block coolant drain plug - can anyone describe where this is to be
found, please? It's hard to tell from the photo I once saw in a borrowed
Haynes manual. It's a very early MX-5, if that makes any difference. (And,
lucky us, that early-style crank nose bolt and key assembly seemed solid and
undamaged when it came into view during the cambelt job - phew!)

2. Brake bleed screws - are there the usual four, one at each wheel? (Some
cars don't do it that way.)

3. Oil filter removal tool - I've got a standard metal band filter-wrench
that I use on all the Alfas, but I don't think there's room to use that on
the MX-5. Can anyone advise if a band wrench can be used, or if not, perhaps
a standard chain-type filter-wrench (which I've also got)? Failing that,
what type of filter wrench is used?

4. We'd like to try some better speakers in the door panels to see if that
improves the awful tinny sound of the radio. Question is, what's the
simplest way to remove the speaker-panel from the door? Do we have to remove
the whole door-trim? And if so, is the procedure for that self-explanatory?

Thanks all,
Graham H,
Paekakariki
(Working on MX-5 when I should be dealing with the Alfas!)

From jifjif@gmail.com Fri Apr 27 17:16:49 2007
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Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 16:47:41 +1300
From: ~Jeff~ <jifjif@gmail.com>
To: MX5List <mx5list@mx5club.org.nz>
Subject: Re: Removing coolant drain plug, oil filter & door speakers
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rather than spouting a bunch of hooey and getting it all wrong, may I
gently point you in this direction ...
http://www.miata.net/garage/

PS - you've done the timing belt yourself and you're asking about
changing the oil filter ?!


On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 13:49:38 +1300, Graham&Joan Hilder
<graham.joan@paradise.net.nz> wrote:
[...]

[Ian Chapman]

Hi Graham

I remove my oil filter by hand - it's a tight squeeze but my small
hands can do it. Maybe I don't do it up as tight as factory but it's
never leaked in 6 years of my oil changes and doing up by hand - maybe
I'm tougher than I thought!

Door trim panels just 'pop' off - I use a putty scraper - slide it in
carefully until you feel a plastic clip then carefully twist to pop off,
moving around door from bottom. It's quite easy - be careful that the
sharp edge of screw driver, putty spatula doesn't scratch the paint.

I'm in Whitby if you fancy a fang over the Hill Rd (if it's open!) and
am happy to show you and help where I can. I have a Haynes manual if
you want to look things up, photocopy etc. Phone me on 027 454 5087.

I've not done engine coolant drain or brake bleed.

If you have done a cambelt and can keep Alfas running then you will be
fine with almost anything on an MX5!

Ian

[joanie]

Hullo Ian,

And thanks for your replies:

Hi Graham
I remove my oil filter by hand - it's a tight squeeze but my small hands

can do it.

Maybe I don't do it up as tight as factory but it's never leaked in 6 years

of my oil changes and doing up by hand - maybe I'm tougher than I thought!<

No, not at all! Doing oil filters up by hand-tightening only, as you do,
is exactly the correct method.
However, when a man does his first oil change on a used car bought from
someone else, as I am now with our MX-5, he's often faced with a filter
which was over-tightened by the previous cowboy! I'll see if I can wrestle
ours off by hand as you suggest (I've found that mechanics' surgical gloves
often give a better grip), but if no joy, my chain-type filter wrench will
probably fit in the space available.

Door trim panels just 'pop' off - I use a putty scraper - slide it in

carefully until you feel a plastic clip then carefully twist to pop off,
moving around door from bottom.

It's quite easy - be careful that the sharp edge of screw driver, putty

spatula doesn't scratch the paint.

Thank you - will try this then.

I'm in Whitby if you fancy a fang over the Hill Rd (if it's open!) and am

happy to show you and help where I can. I have a Haynes manual if you want
to look things up, photocopy etc.

Phone me on 027 454 5087.

Yes, we ALWAYS fancy a fang over the Paekak Hill (with Alfas and an MX-5 in
the garage, it's great to be living with that road on our doorstep). We
need to give my shiny new cambelt job a proper high-revs road-test anyway,
to see if I really did get it right or not...
Will give you a call or an email some time to arrange. Do you have a
land-line ph number at all pse?

I've not done engine coolant drain or brake bleed.<
If you have done a cambelt and can keep Alfas running then you will be fine

with almost anything on an MX5!<

Yes, it doesn't look too complicated. Once we find where all the required
bits are located, all should be easy.

Many thanks,
Graham H

[joanie]

Thanks for your reply, Jeff:

Rather than spouting a bunch of hooey and getting it all wrong, may I

gently point you in this direction ...

http://www.miata.net/garage/ <

Ah yes, great site, thanks Jeff. I've been there to read about the
crankshaft nose problem and the cambelt change job, but thought I'd first
see if the list had any direct answers to my other queries before I went
back to the site again (an awful lot of time can vanish when you go to a
site and start seeing all sorts of interesting stuff to read which distracts
you from the job in hand!)

PS - you've done the timing belt yourself and you're asking about changing

the oil filter ?! <

Yeah, funny isn't it - the whole cambelt job can be done with little more
than three sockets and a ring spanner, everything is visible & accessible
and you don't even need a jack, but getting at that jolly oil filter seems
so much harder!

Cheers,
Graham H

[joanie]

Hello again Ian,
Have had success with the oil filter, it did loosen by hand - I did use the
surgical glove as well.
Cheers and thanks - back to work!
GH