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I've had my '5 since last Tuesday and have already travelled over 300 miles in it - I'm getting to know Dorset quite well! Over the weekend I started to see how much "grunt" my car had (1.8i mk1 - 130BHP???) along the dual-carriageways around where I live. What struck me was that it didn't have the "pull" that I expected it to have. After getting well and truly beaten by some "well-'ard" Max-Power children (a couple of Astras, Golf and an Orion) I sat down for a think...small car, lots of power, driven hard(ish), whats wrong? I came to the conclusion that the previous owner had driven the car very sedately, in that it seems to rev relatively slowly above about 4,000 RPM. My previous cars had been very well "exercised", giving the impression that MX5s were very slow-revving and sluggish (I hope I'm wrong here!) Over the latter part of the weekend I began to drive around in 2nd-3rd gear, trying to keep the revs between 5,000-6,000 rpm (but not over 6,000) in an attempt to free up the engine. Am I wasting my time? I am damaging my engine? I don't know much about this sort of thing, so any help would be appreciated. (2/00) |
| You can rev to 7+ (I do, not all the time though) which not only sounds great but I find the engine loves it as well. I used to never rev it high 5 or so, as I was worried but the rev limiter works (found out in first when having a heated discussion with a mate and forgot to change up!!) I say rev it to whatever feels good :) then think about mods, eg CAI etc, I am (2/00) |
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Why not over 6k? It redlines at 7200 - if you were meant to change
earlier they'd have put that redline lower down! There's a chance that as a sale was looming some service items were skipped. (2/00) |
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There's a chance that as a sale was looming some service items were skipped. It was bought recently as a Mazda-Approved-Used-Car...they had quite a while to work on it before I bought it. I think I'll check the air filter and plugs though. The engine itself is immaculate...I've never seen one like it except on a new car. The car looks very well loved (I'm yet to find a stone-chip) and was serviced every 9k miles. Hopefully the engine is only half-asleep through years of slow driving. Perception wise: I was *almost* keel-hauled by a nova (gasp!)...and comprehensively beaten by an Astra SRi (1.8 - 112BHP). I realised I would get no *fun* from my usual game...so resorted to cruising the country lanes with the top down (which I enjoyed much more). (2/00) |
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Just because they had it a while does not mean they did any service work to it. The approved used car CAN mean it is checked NOT serviced, and frequently it will mean they do a levels check before passing it to you and nothing more UNLESS it is unsafe it which point they will rectify it , but you need to be as aware with them as with buying privately for making sure the work has been done. I would recommend you just go back to the dealer and explain your doubts over the performance and get them to check it out and even let you take another one on their forecourt out to see if it is perception or problem. I believe you have a 14 day 500 mile return as well under the programme, can always use that as a pressure point. Make them work for the money they have charged you for selling you a car. (2/00) |
| I had something similar when I first had my 1.8i - have a look if there is any slack in the throttle cable. It takes seconds to adjust at the engine end, you won't half notice the difference it makes when you are then able to open the throttle wider......well it did on mine anyway. (2/00) |
| I now realise that there's 2 things wrong: 1 - I'm driving it like its going to break. 2 - I may need a few *moderate* tweeks to unlock the power of my car. Hopefully, I can get those sorted soon. (2/00) |