random picture so it's not just a wall of text
[ home ]
Judder Begone!
random picture so it's not just a wall of text
There has been a significant bit of expenditure on the MX-5. 'But MX-5s are bulletproof!' I hear you cry. To a degree, they're well made, but they've all had their issues. The reality is that they're not perfect, and I've just forked out the best part of a grand on mine this year. Some of it was just consumables in the form of another new battery that doesn't quite fit in the tiny bin that it goes in. Unlike last time where I had to cut a lip off it to get it in there, this one is about 1cm too tall for the bracket that holds it in. Lots of cardboard wedging it into the bin so it can't move and some tightly tied string has seen to it this time. A tiny bit of leeway for the small variances in battery size from different manufacturers would be nice... It's solid and won't move, but still it looks janky as hell. Next was getting the transmission and differential oil changed. Go on the interwebs and you find ten different threads with ten different answers as to what to swap it with. I took it to some people who race them and just let them do it, seems fine.
No sooner was I driving home, that I got stuck in a traffic jam on the A1. There's a new noise I notice at low speed (higher speeds drown it out, but it's still there), it's a grinding with every revolution of the wheel and it's loud enough to be concerning. Next day, with a cold car and there's nothing, then a couple of miles down the road, I notice it, after about four, it's loud. I deduce that it's on the front axle (because I can feel it through the wheel), and it's something spinning because it's consistent with the wheel rotation. It isn't anything hitting bodywork as it'd be doing it all the time, there's no wobbling in the wheels, and it's not the brakes as using them changes nothing. Process of elimination says wheel bearing. It's quiet when it's cold because the grease is thick, louder as the grease warms up. I was quite pleased with myself that I diagnosed that right without even jacking the thing up and spinning wheels.
So I booked it in at the local garage and asked them to take a look, but also while it was in, try and look into the brake judder that I've had for years that's getting progressively worse again. That they tracked down to a bad brake calliper that had once again warped the disc (so not the fault of the disc as I had previously thought). So new bearing, calliper, discs and pads (they were worn) went on the bill too. It was a big 'un, but for the first time in years, the judder is completely gone. The bearing must've been going for a while and I got used to it because it's all so quiet now. I am a very happy chappy as this is the first time the car has been 100% mechanically sorted in some time. Now I do have a slightly bent lip on one of the wheels that was caused by me driving through the mother of all potholes. But the wheel ain't wobbling and it's not loosing air, so I'll just keep an eye on eBay for a cheap wheel that I'll slap a tyre on so I've got a spare handy that I can swap it with.
Otherwise, for the first time in a long time, it's all done. It feels like a new car again (to a degree). Don't get me wrong I was getting super frustrated with it before hand and had they not been able to fix it completely I'd have probably got rid of it. But I'm friends with it again, I even paid a man to wash it for the first time in months. Needs a proper job doing at some point, but it's winter and it'll just be dirty again tomorrow.