New Suspension for Miata

I finally got around to working on the suspension on the Miata. Back in June I bought the VMaxx Classic coilover kit from Flyin' Miata, and in September I actually installed it. I won't go into the specifics of how I did it because there are hundreds of write-ups all over the net about it. Since both my lower ball joints and outer tie rod ends were completely shot, I replaced them as part of this, too.

Here you can see just how bad the tie rod ends were with almost 180,000 miles on them. Top is old, bottom is new. I sourced new ones from supermiata.com. The lower ball joints were just as bad. I bought new Proforged ones ones from Rockauto.com. Sorry I didn't get a good photo of those.

Here are the front VMaxx units. Very nicely built and Flyin Miata supplies the needed parts to convert the NA to the better NB style top mounts. These don't come assembled so there is a little extra work to put these together and torque the top mount bolts down, which can be a bit tricky but is not too bad.

Here's a rear assembly alongside the old Tein unit that was on the car. These were installed in 2004, so they were getting pretty long in the tooth. You can see the Tein uses a much shorter spring and has the old NA top mount. I do think the VMaxx design with the NB mounts is much better. I think the VMaxx would be fine without the tender spring, but there it is and maybe it has some small benefit.

Here's a front unit installed and you can see that while I was in there I decided to replace the brake rotors and freshen up the calipers with a coat of paint. I used some caliper paint from POR-15. The rotors are from Centric and have the center hat already painted black. I did this at all four corners and also took the opportunity to lube all the caliper slider pins. I put the same pads back in as they had plenty of meat left. I wish they weren't green.

Just to show where the ride height ended up. The FM instructions say to start with the fronts at 9 inches from the lower mount bushing centerline to the bottom of the spring perch, and 5 inches in the rear. That put me pretty close to stock height, and not as low as I wanted to be, so I moved the spring perches down about .75 inches and it's pretty good. I could go a lot lower but don't want to.

Driving impressions: I've put a few dozen miles on the car since this was done and I'm very happy with it. The ride on the VMaxx Classics is supple and just firm enough to know it's a sports car. Sawing at the wheel doesn't upset it at all and with the new ball joints there is a lot less clonking going on. Bumps don't upset the car nearly as much. The brakes feel better and the car just feels finished. For the first time in 3 years, this feels like a car I can put my wife in and we can go somewhere without feeling self-conscious.

$1500 Jeep Cherokee XJ Makeover, Stage 1

So for the last couple weeks I've been getting to know this '92 Jeep Cherokee. I've never had a Jeep before and I really don't know anything much about 4x4 vehicles in general. I've got a lot to learn. But first things first - this thing has 174,700 miles on it and needs some TLC.

As usual I'm not terribly disciplined when it comes to taking pictures of my process. So this post is a bit random in nature. I've not done anything complicated or difficult, though, so there's not much to document. This pic shows the engine just after I started pressure washing it, which was the first thing I did. It improved the grime situation considerably, but there's still a lot of filthy areas I haven't got to yet.

I installed an Amsoil EaA air filter in place of the old filter, which looked to be a K&N oiled gauze filter. The Amsoil will filter much better in potentially dusty environments. The same day I did this I also installed all new hoses and flushed the cooling system. I pulled off the valve cover and painted it and put it back with a new Felpro gasket because it was leaking badly and making a big mess of the engine. I also changed the oil and filter, using Amsoil ASL 5W-30 and an EaO filter.

The instrument surround panel was silver and quite ratty looking. A few coats with some Duplicolor plastic/vinyl paint and it looks 100% better! I'll probably do a few other bits of the dash as well. Overall it's in decent shape. I got some LED's for the interior lights but they don't fit quite right. I'll have to modify the housings a bit. I also plan to strip the carpet and coat the floor with bedliner, recover the seats and redo the door panels with something less stodgy looking.

The front brakes were almost down to the backing plates and the rotors quite scored. The first time I drove this Cherokee I was startled by how bad the brakes were. So a set of Bendix CT-3 pads and a pair of Centric rotors went on the front. It definitely has helped, but the brakes are still not great. I discovered a big bulge in the side of one of the brake hoses, which would definitely ruin the brake feel and limit performance, not to mention the obvious safety issue, so new brake hoses all around will be installed in the next week or so. I haven't even looked at the rear drum brakes yet. I'm sure they'll need attention.

I drove the Jeep to work one day last week and my nose alerted me to a coolant leak. A quick inspection underneath revealed a leaking radiator. That explains why the cooling system had no antifreeze whatsoever in it - the previous owner had just been keeping it topped up with water. So a quick trip to NAPA yielded a new radiator for just over $100 and I installed it today.

I also cleaned up and painted the radiator support bracket and the fan surrounds. I used Eastwood Chassis Black on the radiator support and it came out nice enough given the limited amount of prep I did on it.

Also today I installed all new battery positive and negative cables that I got from a guy on the Jeep Forum. They're made with big 4 gauge wire and sized exactly to fit the XJ engine layout. I also threw in a new Optima Red Top battery to replace the pathetic Advance Auto "Economy" battery the XJ came to me with. Finally some gold plated terminals tie it all together and replace the old tired lead clamps that were original to the Jeep. They were so worn they would hardly tighten down on the posts anymore. I also installed a set of new 8mm silicone plug wires and a distributor rotor and cap from Summit Racing.

Here's an external shot. I haven't really done anything to the exterior yet. After this photo was taken I yanked off the rubber moldings on the lower panels. I'm going to clean that area up and coat with a bedliner type material.

I took the XJ out for a 45 minute drive this evening and it's definitely running better than it was when I got it. I certainly can't trust the brakes yet, but they are better. The ignition system seems to be working nicely now as well. It's been a bit hard to start a few times, especially after sitting for a while, so I'm suspecting it may have some leaky injectors. The truck drives just fine. It just needs a whole new suspension. On smooth pavement it's fine, but on bumps or broken pavement it just comes completely unglued. I figure the shocks are long gone. I'll be installing a mild lift kit with new shocks before too long anyway, so it's not a problem.

M3 Update

The project of the weekend was some new brake pads and rotors on the BMW M3. You can spend thousands of dollars on brakes for these cars, but the stock brakes are not bad by any stretch of the imagination. Rather than bling it up with fancy cross-drilled and/or slotted rotors that sell for several hundred dollars EACH, I went with an OEM equivalent rotor by Centric, purchased from rockauto.com for a handy $62 each. I've bought lots of rotors before and these are the nicest I've ever gotten. The hub area and hat are coated in black, as are the outer edges and the insides of the vanes in the vents. That pretty black paint may burn right off under track use, but should last a long time and keep the hubs looking nice for a while with street use.

For pads I went with another OEM equivalent from Ate (pronounced AH-tay). I've been using Ate's high performance brake fluid in my racing cars for years, but had never tried their OEM replacement parts before. Much to my pleasure and surprise, when I pulled the old pads off I noted the name Ate on the original pads, clips, and yes - even on the M3's calipers. So these aren't just OEM-equivalent. Ate is an OEM supplier to BMW.

Anyway, you can see from the photo that I also painted the calipers red. It's overdone, I know, but I like it and that's all that matters. The calipers were slightly rusty and not looking great, so the paint freshens things up a bit. I used some Dupli-color ceramic caliper paint, applied with a small brush.

So far life with the M3 has been pretty good. No mechanical problems have come up, but I've done a TON of maintenance, cleaning, and general refurbishment. One of the best improvements I made was fixing the sunroof headliner. It is supposed to slide back and forth under the glass moonroof. The tiny plastic guides that it slides on had long ago left their stations and the headliner was now all loose and floppy and wouldn't open more than a couple inches. For about $25 in parts and an hour of my time, the sunroof now operates as it should and there's no more flopping around above my head. Now that the brakes are up to snuff, my only remaining mechanical concern is an oil leak that I need to chase down and fix, and doing a flush of the cooling system.