Almost-dead Miata
Let me start by saying my ass has been saved thus far by an extremly helpful on-line resource:
http://www.miata.net/hakuna/port1.html
If you own a Miata, this site is a wealth of information!
I have a 91' Miata with 217K miles on it, and so far its been a supurb little car. But about a week ago it start sounding like a VW bug and lacked a lot of power. The local Ernie's shop stuck me for $100 and said they fixed it by changing a plug. "Cool" I thought. Glad it was cheap and simple. I start the damn thing up and it sounds exactly the same!!! I let the shop know and the tech says "Just run it for a while, it has to warm up." Sorry dude, thats BS and I damn well know it. I smile, nod, and walk out.
I could raise a stink, and probably should have. But if they are willing to do something like that then I don't want to do business with them anymore. And fighting with your mechanic is like fighting with your waiter. You don't want either of them screwing with your stuff out of spite.
Long story short, I pulled the head myself today and found the #4 exhaust valve has a perfect 1/16" hole drilled right through. According to the local Mazda service techs, this is something the commonly seen with Miatas and is cheifly due to the timing belt becoming stretched out. The car will still run ok, but over time it causes abnormal wear to the #1 and #4 cylinder valves.
I'll be swaping out the head tomorrow with a rebuilt one. New head, valves, springs, gaskets and belts all around. The pistons have some wear but still looked ok and should clean up fine. I honestly thought about ditching the car and just getting something different. But ya know, its been so much fun so far, and fairly easy to work on. Hopefully this will add a few more years to its life!
...plus I just changed all the brake pads, hoses , and fluids before all this happend. Kinda added insult to injury :P