Sunday Miata Maintenance

[aremmes]

Instead of vegging out like I'd normally do when SWMBO is out of town, I decided to take care of some due maintenance on the Miata and change the oil and coolant and rotate the tires. I usually enjoy working on the Miata, but seriously dislike changing the oil on it since it always results in an oily mess no matter how carefully I do it. I don't remember when I last changed the oil other than it happening pre-COVID, so a couple of weeks ago I picked up a box of motor oil from BJ's and an oil filter and two gallons of coolant from Auto Zone.

I put the car up on stands, remembering to put it back down after the first stand to loosen the lug nuts. Then I went around removing wheels and putting them on their new positions, leaving the front right wheel off for reasons that will be obvious later. Then I moved on to drain the cooling system.

Filthy. That coolant should look green, but instead came out pinkish. I got about five quarts out, which is about right. I also took the overflow tank out to clean it since it looked quite cruddy.

Nasty stuff. I took that to the sink to soak in a solution of one cup of Krud Kutter to about one gallon of warm water, and went to drain the oil out and remove the filter. As usual, the drain plug dropped into the oil catch pan after knocking out the mesh insert intended to keep the drain plug from falling into the pan. Then while futzing around with the oil filter the drain flow slowed down enough so that oil was now pouring away from the pan's catch opening and oozing onto the cardboard below. In all, I collected three quarts of oil from the engine, with the rest of the schmoo falling on the outside of the catch pan and spilling onto the cardboard. I might need a better catch pan.

Now here's the part that I truly dislike. In the B engine's original transverse application, the filter faces the firewall and can be reached without too much effort by reaching around (snert) the intake manifold, or from below if you use a lift or have a pit. Here, though, the intake manifold sits just a couple of inches from the wheel well and also has a support brace that blocks access from the front, while the subframe blocks access from below, so unless you have paper-thin hands your only good option is to reach through the front right wheel well.

This time around I had the additional difficulty of having an oversized oil filter. Well, why did I get an oversized oil filter the last time around? See, normally I buy Purolator oil filters so I know the car takes an L14610 (regular) or PL14610 (PureOne). When I last changed the oil they had a Purolator Boss filter on sale, so I got a PBL14610, which I later found that it's a bit longer than normal. How much longer? Just enough so that I couldn't use my filter socket to tighten the filter, and the intake manifold gets in the way of the strap wrench when tightening, so I tightened it by hand. Getting it off, however, was not happening with just my hand, but I was able to swing the strap wrench just enough to get it started and then finished by hand, getting schmoo all over the place in the process because that's how the Miata do.

Here you can see the difference. Since AutoZone doesn't sell Purolator filters, I picked up this Motorcraft in order to stay away from Fram. I'm not sure why Purolator made it this long, but it looks to be the same size as an L14612, which is the size used in the Millenia and possibly the MX-6 and is known to fit the Miata with the aforementioned limitations.

Anyway, I got the new filter in nice and tight and poured five quarts down the gullet before going back to the overflow tank. That looked better but still not good enough, so put a quart of vinegar in and shook it, which got a little bit more crud out but not enough. I said eff it and took a can of brake parts cleaner and blasted the rusty crud away, managing to get most of the junk out.

Quite a bit better. After putting it back on I filled the radiator with almost a full gallon of pre-mixed coolant and put a little bit into the overflow tank, put the front right wheel back on, lowered the car, torqued the lug nuts, and started the engine to burp the cooling system. Once it got warm, I stopped the engine and topped the radiator and overflow, checked for leaks, and cleaned up.

And since it was still bright outside, I called my son to go for a drive and get lunch at Elevation Burger. He approved.

[ClassicDatsunDebate]

@aremmes sounds like a great day.

[Cash Rewards]

@aremmes good Lord I hate getting the oil filter on in the Miata.

[CivicWagonEngineer]

After my first Miata oil change, I didn't tighten the oil filter down enough for the same reasons as you mention. A couple months later at my next change I found my "leak". At least it was an easy fix!