70k Oil change, Rust prevention, and hood vents
70k Oil Change
I won’t lie, the title makes it sound as if I only change the oil every 70k miles. This was actually a 3,500-mile oil change. I always change the oil every 5k miles or after every winter storage. In this case, winter storage came first. I also use full synthetic oil, 5w-30. Now, onto my bigger issue: ✨Rust Prevention✨
Rust Prevention
With 70k miles and 3 years of ownership, I’ve never checked the fender wells for dirt or other debris. Inspired by my friend Cash’s videos from CashedOutCars on YouTube, I decided to do this. The original plan was to only pull the bottom of the fenders out, with no intention of fully removing them. Anyway, I ended up fully removing the fenders.
Once I had the driver side off, I was more than happy to take off the passenger side as well. I don’t even care; even with the fenders off, the car is still very attractive to me, though we’ll have to do something about those headlights soon.
This is the surprising amount of dirt that came out of the driver side fender, along with a headlight bulb and a flashlight, neither of which were mine, lol.
Surprisingly, the driver side fender had a fair amount of rust starting, while the passenger side barely had any. Still, rust isn’t something I strive for with this car. She’s 23 years old and in great shape, and I plan to keep her like this for a long time.
To solve my rust issue, I used the paint/chemical POR-15. This is a special paint that helps prevent and stop rust.
Both fenders got the POR-15 treatment, and I’m happy with the result. I’ll check on these in about 2 years to see if the rust has accumulated at all and go from there.
Headlight Rewiring
This wasn’t planned, but while I had the fenders off, I found an OEM hole that ran directly to the 12V rail I was using for the H4 harness of my headlights. So, I figured, let’s go for it and route the wiring inside the fender. This is the basic mock-up wiring job I had planned out.
And this is it once finished. While it’s not pretty, it will be hidden inside the fender, creating a cleaner engine bay than what I had.
I’m very happy with how this came out, and it was definitely worth trying.
Hood Vent Installation
Now the fun and most planned-out part: I had ordered these hood vents from rgr.engineering and would suggest them to anyone who wants hood vents. After removing the hood, my dad and I used masking tape to protect it as much as we could. We also had to borrow a jigsaw from my dad’s friend.
The next step was planning what we would be cutting. We were cutting 5 holes for 5 different vents for maximum cooling and maximum pressure release.
Unfortunately, because I didn’t take many photos during the cutting process, I only have final result photos. Here is the Miata with the holes cut into the hood.
And here is the hood with the vents riveted onto the holes. It looks great.
The next two photos are just me working on the fender/hood alignments but still felt like they could be included here.
And here is the finished result. Sadly, I couldn’t get the hood alignment to be perfect due to the slightly bent frame, but that’s okay because race car… and you bet your ass I love her.
Cabin Air Filter
So, fun fact about the NA and NB Miatas: they don’t have a cabin air filter. This means that during pollen season, all the pollen gets blown into the car right after I detail it. To prevent this, I 3D printed a cabin air filter design I found online, and it fit like a glove.
