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living the life of an English roadster owner

...oh yeah baby I'm livin the HIGH LIFE now.

Now it seems my heater core has done sprung a leak. I've seen leaking heater cores in various cars three or four times in the past. Usually it's some kind of imperceptible pinhole somewhere, where the only visible symptom is that the coolant level in the overflow tank emysteriously declines to empty over a period of a few weeks. So you replace the radiator cap, check the hoses, nothing seems to work, until finally you track it down to the heater.

Not THIS heater core, no sir-eee! I go out to lunch and... Did you ever see the video game Doom? You know the part where You the heavily-armed protagonist descends into the cellar catacombs, and the basement is filled up knee-deep in toxic yellow-green slime, which you have to wade through, the whole while your health level is steadily dropping (stay in the basement long enough and You die!)? Yeah, that's more or less what the driver's side footwell looked like, a green pool of antifreeze over top of the floor mat.

As I understand it, the heater core is about the most inaccessible part of the entire car. O joy. Like I can afford to fix that. So I bought a piece of 3/4" pipe and a couple of hose clamps and bypassed the crappy leaky thing.

Now losing my heater is no big deal for me. I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where some of my fondest childhood memories are playing out in the wind-whipped snow, and I currently live in Tampa, Florida, where it is either fair, pleasant weather (4 months), tolerably warm (3 months), or miserably way the Hell too damn hot (5 months including today). But nonetheless, I am now living the life of a classic English roadster owner - not only does my car kinda look like the lovely '62 Elan,* but, by the shade of Joseph Lucas, I have no functioning heater! Where's my beret, scarf and pipe?

Jeez, I hope my headlights don't start arbitrarily turning themselves off at random intervals now.

yrs jp

  • "Committee" indeed! Davoud I pity your inability to delight as I do in the well-rounded, harmonious, _integral_ beauty of the NA Miata. It's your loss, like how Nabakov couldn't enjoy music, heard only a series of cacophonous tones.
Reply to
johnny p.
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Ah, the English roadster with "optional cold weather equipment" and a top that never sealed tight. Been there and done that, which is why I am on my third Miata. As an interesting point, why could the English never make a decent top until Mazda had the UK branch design the top for the Miata?

Stuart H.

Reply to
Stuart H.

Stuart H.:

I've been there, too. I'm very glad that I did not know until now that the Brits designed the Miata top; I would probably have rejected the car out of hand if I had known that when I was shopping.

Davoud

Reply to
Davoud

At least you seem to be able to find some humor in it, I know that's not easy! At least you have the most reliable 'British roadster' out there!

I agree with you on the Miata styling, I never thought of the NA or the NB as GM-style 'committee designed cars. They are quite cohesive / flowing designs. I would even argue that the NC is a pretty good looking car and a decent design. Although it's more modern and less 'flowing' than the earlier cars, I think down the road, in retrospect, most people will agree that Mazda did a pretty good job of keeping the car modern looking while paying tribute to the earlier versions. In my opinion, the NC is more of a fresh re-design of the NA car than a evolutionary re-design of the NB car. Which makes sense, since allot of NA owners cars were getting on in age.

Chris

99BBB
Reply to
Chris D'Agnolo

Assuming this is true, this is no small irony, eh?

Chris

99BBB

As an interesting point, why could the English

Reply to
Chris D'Agnolo

Same here. Prevous MGA and Spitfire for education.

miker

Reply to
miker

I recall when the heater core on my TR-3 split it dumped hot coolant all over my legs. Like you, I just bypassed it.

The Miata isn't alone in that, even as simple a car as the TR-3 made the heater core inaccessible and I believe there was a 21 hour labor charge in the flat-rate book to replace the heater core on my Jaguar XJS. The heater core on most other cars is equally inaccessible.

Reply to
XS11E

Good luck troubleshooting and don't forget to rinse the footwell thoroughly. Coolant is a heck of a paint stripper!!!

Jeroen Feelders Technical Commissioner Mazda MX-5 Club of the Netherlands

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Reply to
Jeroen Feelders

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