Winter is both awesome and terrible. Spontaneity goes out of the window as cars need to be pre-heated for an hour or so, you have to consider wearing adequate clothing like long johns and then there’s the matter of the white stuff getting absolutely everywhere. Door locks and seals freeze and windows become opaque. With a little planning, none of these things are an issue, but at -25 °C you just can’t fool around like you’ve used to.
It gets a lot easier when it warms up by almost 20 degrees Centigrade. This means it doesn’t feel like a terrible idea anymore to get the German import Japanese roadster out of the shelter, as it doesn’t have a block heater and the battery is fairly small. But with a recent enough tune-up and good quality coolant in the cooling system, you can rely on it not being a block-splittingly bad idea to awaken.
Just make sure you have the Steve Martin comedy album ready for your outing. How’d you get so funky?
With the Sierra gone, the 1993 MX-5 is my only rear-wheel drive car at the moment. But the MX-5 does feel so much better to haul around the snowy parking lots and industrial districts: the steering is direct, the gearbox feels like an extension of yourself and the car is amazingly easy to get into controlled slides. Or you can just kick the tail out whenever you want, and it’ll come back to you with no hard feelings. And 116 horsepower is so little that you can use a lot of it – and unlike the Sierra, the 16-valve MX-5 likes to live in the upper rev range without sounding out of place.
The studded winter tires currently on it, a 14″ set of Yokohama Ice Guards have turned out to be very good. There’s plenty of tread and the remaining amount of good studs mean there aren’t any issues to be had when you actually need to drive in a casual, non-hooning manner. The car will stop and not weave about.
Another thing about the car being Japanese is that it produces a good amount of heat in the cabin, as the engine warms up quickly and the cabin is small enough to heat fast. The fabric roof probably means a decent amount of heat is lost, but whenever I’ve driven the car in the cold, it simply hasn’t been cold inside it.
I won’t subject the MX-5 to the usual, road-salty grind, as there’s plenty of rust on it as it is and I have beaters less eager to develop rust bubbles. But over here, when it gets this cold, there’s enough grip to be had so that the roads aren’t salted anymore. And practically everyone has a decent set of winter tires on their hooptie, so the roads do not need to be completely cleared of anything slippery. A 4000-5000 euro undented MX-5 would be too nice for me to throw around in the snow, but a really cheap one like this is a better idea for year-round use.
The rear-wheel-drive hoonbuckets here tend to be old Volvos, Benzes, BMW:s and the occasional old Toyota. So a sight of a Miata, with its friendly face, with the pop-up headlights up, going stupidly sideways is something not everyone here is used to seeing. That alone is worth getting the car out and about on a season like this.
Weekend Edition: Winter Sports in the 1993 Mazda MX-5
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCQGsUgOZTc
Of course, with unstudded snow tires, you can dabble responsibly in handbrake slides in an unplowed parking lot.-
The only downside with a 9-5 is that it’s not the easiest car to get sideways, either intentionally or unintentionally, especially when shod with snows. I always had to cut off the TCS when attempting left-foot braking to try to get the tail loose in the slick stuff, as I was always worried about the handbrake cables freezing up after a while.
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The early manual 9-5’s didn’t have TCS, only the automatics did. Lemme tell you, with 190K mile rear suspension, it’s REAL easy to get the tail to step out.
Luckily for me, right before I had bought the car last year, the previous owner had put all new brakes on the car, including parking brake shoes and cables. I also use the parking brake regularly so it won’t rust in place.-
The early base/LPT four cylinders didn’t have TCS, but my ’01 Aero had it. The rear end of mine stayed put, even at 300+k miles. I went through a couple sets of parking brake cables on that car; the ends of the cables, right as it attaches to the mechanism often got water in the ends, then froze more than once.
I bought another Aero last spring (’03 sedan, automatic), but sold it at the end of the summer, as it wasn’t the same driving experience as the 5-speed car, in spite of it having a prior owner’s stage 3 tune/3″ downpipe/sport cat and Konis all the way around. I may have to find another ’00 or ’01 Aero one of these days, after I get around to thinning the herd.-
I had a lot of trouble with the parking brake cables on my NG900 freezing up. I ended up getting one of those bicycle cable lube clamp things and a can of bicycle cable lube spray (I think it’s PTFE-based lubricant?) after the parking brake froze on at work and stranded me in the parking lot. I had to find a maintenance guy with a hammer I could borrow to whack the parking brake arm on the back of the hub to release the brake. Didn’t have any trouble again until the car sat in an unheated garage for a year.
And I love having the manual, coming from only ever driving automatic SAABs. Even with my LPT I can let the clutch out with barely any throttle without so much as a shudder. Plus, 2nd gear pulls are extremely satisfying. The reverse gear being super hard to shift into bothers me a lot though, and the transmission pops out of 2nd around hard corners (though I think that’s a case of bad engine mounts twisting the shift rod.)
If the car didn’t need a timing chain/water pump/oil pump on top of desperately needing the rear suspension rebuilt, I’d keep it. But alas, I long for another 900/9-3 hatchback. And I’m sick of the car breaking. I did the math and the 9-5, gas/oil changes not included, has cost me $14 per day since I bought it! -
I used a big screwdriver (BFS) to push the arm back on my ’01 when it froze.
Compared to a NG900/9-3, the 9-5’s actually pretty roomy under the hood. Other than having to pull the turbo plumbing and power steering pump/brackets, it’s positively roomy in there. I did the WP on my girlfriend’s 9-3 in the fall and it’s somewhat hateful, space-wise, but still better than an Audi V6 (I finished working on one of those last night… for the moment). If the cam sprockets on the 9-5 aren’t worn badly, strongly consider rolling in a new chain–plus you can halfway assess the wear on the camshaft sprockets.. Oil pump’s not horrible to get out, except for needing a pair of giant snap ring pliers to get the clip in/out of the timing cover. Your 2nd gear popping sounds like the transmission mount bushings. Genuine Saab has custom poly bushings for that mount. Inexpensive and strongly recommended. If anything, 9-5s in the rust belt rot fairly quickly for a Saab, which is the big reason I sent the first Aero to a new home.
I have a 5-speed project 9-3 here in the driveway, in line for a clutch job, which I’m putting off doing as long as possible. Decent 9-3s are starting to get thin on the ground, and even beaters/projects are getting harder to find.
I’ve only had three automatic Saabs, out of the dozen or more so I’ve owned, all of which left here fairly quickly–a classic 900T ragtop and a couple 9-5s. -
The cam sprockets are fine, I’m just more worried about the chain guides (and the possibility of one breaking.) Until I got the car last March, it still had one of the bad PCV revisions– the one that siphons oil out of the dipstick tube under vacuum, in addition to causing the turbo to pressurize the crankcase under certain conditions, to be precise. Even with regular 5k oil changes done by the previous owner, the inside of the engine was pretty nasty; my mechanic dropped the oil pan for me and the crap he scraped off of the bottom of it was kinda like tar.
I already replaced the transmission mount bushing, in 20 minutes or so actually. That was pleasantly surprising. At this point I’m pretty sure it’s the rear engine mount that’s causing my problems– on down shifts I can feel the engine rocking back and forth, especially through the shifter. I just don’t feel like laying on a frozen driveway on a piece of cardboard to replace it.
Actually, most of the repairs I’ve done, outside of cleaning out the camshaft followers, have been pretty quick to do. I replaced the starter in an hour; hour and a half if you include cleanup and prep time. I wouldn’t mind if the repairs I’ve been doing hadn’t been so costly and so often, mileage-wise. My 900’s are dirt cheap comparatively. -
Yeah, it would suck if the fixed chain guide breaks (major PITA in a 9-3, but not so bad in a 9-5–again, more real estate to work with). Don’t forget the upper mount–things will flop around if that one goes, too… and it’s a near sight easier to change, even this time of year. I keep forgetting not to take a furnace in a garage for granted, although I’m not out there tonight– 5 below F, which means the garage floor would still be incredibly cold, even with the Reznor blasting. Your car must be in the 180-220k mile range for all the fun you’re having.
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Looks like a fun car to drive.
I can imagine how this Miata is even better in the winter than in summer. Toying around on snowy roads at low speeds is a lot fun with a controllable car that is not supposed to do anything else but toying around. The Miata is also light enough to be lifted out of minor glips by two guys. More than 10 years ago, my ’77 242 struggled a fair bit when I started it from a cold engine in -30 degrees. I flooded the valves several times by misapplicating the choke. The only fix to that is wait until the car starts again…
For years, I’ve been a big fan of Hakkapeliitta 7 studded tires – I’ve had them on all my cars. Their directional stability is unrivalled, in my experience, and they transform even crappy car’s steering to something that resembles directness. Even though I lack the skills and balls to park the car with the handbrake, right where it belongs, there’s no way I’m not going to make the kids scream in this weather:
http://s26.postimg.org/scbprs4tl/20160114_214711.jpg
Is it random that the most capable cars get used the most in the worst weather? This is were we park when our 30 degree steep, 50m long driveway becomes unusable:
http://s26.postimg.org/b7z02umax/20151228_095853.jpg
I am also a big fan of the seasonal changes during winter:
http://s26.postimg.org/o1x1w6zqh/20160114_092246.jpg
http://s26.postimg.org/5l2n5djs9/20160114_105609.jpg
Anybody else here producing their own firewood? =8^)
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That’s a beautiful home and stable you have there. Where do you live? Pacific Northwest?
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Thanks – it’s the Atlantic Northwest. I’m a neighbour to your moosety avatar country. Also, only the first two cars on the right are mine above, the rest belongs to our neighbours.
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Huh, last I looked, Norway seemed to be in the Atlantic (far) Northeast. When did you guys move?
😉
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A friend here in Ohio also swears by those Nokian Hakkapeliitta studded snows. This is the first year I’ve bought any winter tires and I simply couldn’t stomach the $180-$200 per tire price for the Nokians, especially when I was buying sets for two cars. I bought General Altimax Artics for about $65 and $85 instead. Not enough snow here yet for me to know the difference from the all seasons I’ve normally run.
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I expect to pay about 500$ for a full set, too (with last year’s exchange rate it would have been 800$). Tires are the one and only thing on the car where I don’t shy away from picking from the top shelf. Usually, I would buy cheap cars, sometimes on Chinese tires, most commonly on Michelins – as long as I can perceive the difference in quality behind the wheel, I’ll pay. BTW, the Hakka 8 is rumoured to have longer-lasting, more silent studs. They somehow retract, which sounds pretty amazing. Are you happy with the Generals?
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So far, yes, but we’ve only gotten one snow of about 2″. I’m not the primary driver on the cars that got them either (wife’s Prius, daughter’s Mazda3). The ti had cheap, new all seasons when I bought it and the other daughter’s Escort has new all seasons on it as well. The Prius & Mazda3 are the worst in the snow as well.
Central Ohio is an area that might get 3-4 snows of 4″ each or less, or we might get 5-6 of 6″ or more, you never know. Seeing as I just spent $1000 on winter tires, I’m sure we won’t have much this year. So far, that’s the case.
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In Kansas City, we get just enough snow and ice to
need good tires in the winter, but enough dry, warm pavement throughout
the winter months to ruin dedicated winter tire compounds very quickly. The snows I put on the Town Cow only lasted about 1-1/2 seasons. I put Cinturato P7 all-seasons on the Kizashi last June and they’ve handled the snowy roads we’ve had here over the past week or so quite well, especially for an all-season tire that handles very nicely in the dry. The only criticism I have of them is that they grip like doo-doo in the rain.-
I’m a little afraid of a similar situation here. We’ll see how it goes over the next couple of years. If I don’t get at least 2 full seasons out of these tires, I’ll rethink using dedicated a winter set.
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Hakkapeliittas are always excellent. I’ve had two sets on two cars, a 2004 V70 and a 2012 Octavia. They were far, far too noisy for the Octavia though. I sold them after the first winter and bought studless Nokians instead. Sooo much nicer.
I’ve been looking forward to some decent snow to play with the ti. It’s the first RWD car I’ve owned in over 20 years. We had a couple of inches early last week, so I got to play a little, but it didn’t last long enough to do much.
I did learn that for general “I’ve got someplace to be” driving, I’m thankful for the traction control. I switched it off just as I entered my work parking lot and it was quite eager to kick the tail out.
my favorite thing about the Miata is that you can get it sideways on dry pavement! and that when you mess it up, you can recover pretty easily. so forgiving!
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Which is why I will get one this year.
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:3
an NA?
i’m actually getting rid of mine soon. i’ll miss it, but i need at least one car that isn’t 16+ years old.-
Have you announced the replacement yet? The Insight is out of the race?
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Ferd Fiesta ST is the front runner. planning to get my mitts on one once the Miata has found a new home. i test-drove a FiST and it was fantastic.
i had a couple of weeks with both of my cars being undrivably broken. i work in small-town Texas, and i have a 30-minute commute out of suburbia. nobody here walks or bikes anywhere. i was bumming rides, renting cars, taking shuttles around. my entire life revolved around my lack of mobility.
during those weeks i lost a lot of enthusiasm for owning quirky old cars. my Volvo has been working fine since i got it running, and i’ll keep it as an eternal project slash weekend car, but i can’t plan my mobility around its being functional.
as an aside, the experience made me really frustrated with how we lay communities out here in America. if i couldn’t afford two cars, or one good car, my life would be so much worse. and if i couldn’t afford a car living in Waco Texas, i sure as hell couldn’t afford to move to a place with public transit. we make it so hard to not have this giant steel-glass albatross around our necks. but that’s totally unrelated to Miatas. -
A car guy frustrated about the total need for cars…I understand you very well! When I was in that position, I threw out my 40 year old daily driver “classic” – it was really shabby – and started buying my long line of no-thrills-mobiles. The FIST isn’t a bad choice though. Is your area quite flat or do you get to soup up corners and grades?
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flat/straight roads, but there’s still some fun to be had in what corners there are.
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That’s about the age that I seem to buy my cars. At the bottom of the depreciation curve.
Yes, it’ll be an NA.-
noice. yep them’s adorable with the pop-up lights. try to get a 1.8 – still not fast, but fast enough.
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Growing up in the south east US, we only got 12″ of snow per season.
But I managed a quattro, ’88 5000 as my ride.
1993- we got dumped on. But I had my fatty Audi. Under my mom’s direction, I was delivering meals and wood to the local elderly in my quattro. With all-weather tires.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Storm_of_the_Century
I’m running Yokohama Ice Guards on my 2 (albeit unstudded ones, studs are illegal here), and they’re just garbage. I mean, I’m not about to get stranded, but things get a little loose at times, and pretty much any time I’m leaving a stop light in wet weather, I’m spinning the tires. Only bought them last year as well, which is disappointing.
But yes, a small, light, low-powered RWD car in the snow is one of the best hoon experiences possible.
So where in the world could I get hold of a block heater DEFA 527…
Edit: the part# is DEFA 411527 now…
Part of that interior warmth likely has to do with how little thermal insulation the Miata has. You can really feel that header through the floor with your right foot. I didn’t realize this much until I changed out all of my coolant hoses and I was able to drive for longer periods. I’m usually fighting the opposite fight, the fight to keep cool in the Miata. I can’t wait to get back on the road this week, when the new cat arrives for mine.
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