Time for "Historic" plates

The VIN plate on the door of my first-year Miata says that it was built in May 1989.

Which means that it's now over 25 years old.

NYS DMV says that I can get "Historic" plates for it in the next calendar year: so, January 2015.  But it's already registered through March of 2016. (And "Historic" plates cost more.)

A quick Google doesn't turn up a VIN-decoder that will tell me the exact day it rolled off the line; but it seems to be around #4,0000 in the run.  (The last I knew, production-to-date was in the 900,000 ballpark.)

The Decline of The Red Menace

The Miata now seems to be entering the territory of Oliver Wendell Holmes' "One-Horse Shay". No trouble to speak of for essentially forever, except that the day finally comes when entire vehicle just . . . disintegrates.

Year one: No problems
Year two: Convertible top fails, replaced under warranty
Year three: No problems
Year four: Valve cover gasket leaks. A $50 problem.
Year five: No problems
Year six: No problems
Year seven: Top fails again
Year eight: No problems
Year nine: No problems
Year ten: Center brakelight wire fails
(A zero $ problem: I just spliced in a few inches of used lampcord)
Year eleven: No problems
Year twelve: No problems
Year thirteen: No problems
Year fourteen: No problems
Year fifteen: No problems
Year sixteen: No problems
Year seventeen: No problems
Year eighteen: Cooling system fails (April '07.)
(First the radiator goes, then - when the pressure is increased - all the little fussy hoses at the top of the block fail, one after the other.)
Year nineteen: Transmission explodes (July '08. The Miata finally strands me. Then the alternator dies (Halloween '08))

Now that the transmission replacement is fully amortized (three-and- a-half months), the "Battery!" idiot light came on. I was able to drive to work and back on Friday apparently on just the battery. (Being careful to use no lights, no radio.)

So replacement was this weekend's project: an hour to get the old alternator out, forty-five minutes to go get it tested and trade it for a new one, then a half-hour to put the new one in. (The alternator apparently did not like being sprayed with coolant last season when all the little hoses let go in last year's cooling-system failure. The alternator did continue to work for another ~10,000 miles or so before failing, though.

Here's the trick: to physically get the alternator out of a Miata engine bay, the air intake pipe across the front of the block needs to be disconnected and moved out of the way.

And here's the moral of today's story:

Had I disposed of the Miata after SEVENTEEN YEARS of service (and 140,000 miles), it would have been essentially trouble-free. Now the elderly-car problems are starting, and I should start to think about replacing it. (It's long overdue for an exhaust system, for instance - that'll be next....)

Fun fact: the stock alternator was a Mitsubishi part, the new ($130) rebuild is a Bosch.
My 14mm box wrench was nowhere to be found, so a 9/16" served until I could buy a new one.

The Flight of the Phoenix

Last year, the Miata lost its radiator. I kept it running all season with BarsLeak and chewing gum, but just before Thanksgiving, it was a goner: it could no longer make it to-and-from work without being topped off.

Mercifully, Russ had revived the Death Car for me - making that car much less potentially lethal than it has been in several years - so I just parked the Miata and let it languish in the snow while I enjoyed the luxury of the closed car all winter.

But spring is now officially here: time to get the Miata running again.

Charge the battery, give an ounce of oil to the valve gallery.
Battery: check.
Coolant: uh, check.
Spark: spark? Hello?

Seems like the gas in the tank was pretty non-volatile. That was the longest the Miata had ever been down - about four full months of sitting, come to think of it - so it would crank forever, but never spark.

It took like what seemed like a full minute of cranking before it even fired. But once it finally started firing, it caught in a hurry. Once it was firing roughly, it limbered right up. The Youngest Member and I took it around the block, and it quickly started firing on all cylinders.

To celebrate, I blew 30¢ (on the difference) and treated the car to One Whole Gallon of high-test, to pep up and revive the sludgy old gas. We left it at the corner garage for its annual inspection (oh: and a new radiator...) and walked home.

Year Eighteen of The Red Menace begins.


[(slightly) Tragic addendum: the shop changed the radiator and the major hoses... which shifted the pressure to one of the minor hoses (the "throttle-body-to-somewhere-mysterious" hose). THAT split, creating a slow leak of hot coolant all over the alternator....
Fortunately, I was still in the habit of carrying a jug of 50/50, so I made it home.]

For Tonight Is Halloween

One of my favorite things in the world to do is to drive around on Halloween with the top down, wearing my Viking helmet.

More going on than meets the eye

Some friends and I were talking about the current Katrina-disruption gas crisis.

I just happen to keep track of my mileage, so I have some solid data .

I always keep track of my mileage. But this summer, prices were rising so fast that for the first time, I started making note of prices even when I wasn't buying. The interesting thing to notice here is that the summer of '05 was already a gas crisis BEFORE Katrina.

(My apologies if this is too tedious for anyone, but I figure that as I already HAVE this data, I might as well share it.)

2005
Jan. 18 191.9 paid
Jan. 22 185.9 paid
Jan.29 191.9 paid
Feb.19 193.9 paid
Feb.20 175.9 paid (New Jersey Hess)
Mar.12 207.9 paid
(...skipping a bit -- a stable quarter, too tedious even for me --
but then we enter an inflationary period)
June 5 212.9 paid
June 7 212.9 paid
June12 216.9 paid
June19 216.9 paid
June21 220.9 paid
July 10 231.9 paid
July 10 233.9 paid (up 21¢ / 10% in a month)
(7/10 is at the SAME STATION: they increased price 2¢ midday, as alluded to in the July 11th post below)
July 16 233.9 paid
July 30 233.9 paid
Aug. 6 235.9 paid
In early August, gas starts going up fast enough that I start keeping note of it - -
Here are the observed prices at my corner Mobil station:
Aug. 8 243.9
Aug 10 249.9
Aug.11 253.9
Aug.12 249.9 paid
Aug.13 263.9
Aug.14 265.9 - up 22¢ / 8% in 6 days
Aug.22 261.9 paid
Aug.29 267.9 paid (up 34¢ / 15% in a month, PRE-crisis)

Monday morning, August 29th, Katrina hits the Gulf Coast: the following are mostly (unless noted) the observed prices at my corner Mobil station
Aug.30 267.9 observed
Aug.31 269.9 obs.
(Prices now sometimes change MIDDAY, I don't have all of those observations)
Aug. 31 279.9 paid (I had the Lady M fill the minivan...)
Sept. 1 289.9
Sept. 2 319.9 (+30¢ /10%, the biggest daily jump I've ever seen)
Sept. 3 339.9 (up 70¢ / 26% in 3 days)
Sept. 4 329.9
Sept. 5 329.9
Sept. 6 329.9
Sept. 7 329.9
Sept. 7 339.9 (changed MIDDAY)
(Sept. 7: 329.9 paid (Getty, 7gal. Highest I’ve ever paid.)
Sept. 8 339.9
Sept. 9 339.9
Sept.10 339.9
(Sept.10: 324.9 paid (Citgo, 11 gal) )
Sept.11 339.9
Sept.12 334.9
Sept.13 309.9 (- 25¢, biggest 1-day drop I've ever seen)
Sept.14 309.9
Sept.15 299.9 (up 30-32¢ - say 12%- over pre-crisis)

So: a two-week crisis (so far...), with a 26% spike, five days at the peak price, and now maybe settling at something >40% higher than at the start of the summer, perhaps 12% higher than two weeks ago.

But note that July was up 10% over June,
August was up 15% over July.
So another 12% "Katrina" rise in September
is just a continuation of that trend.