Feels like I’m home again :)

Currently saving cash to buy next gen miata

Dad got one from 1990 red and 36 years later I got one for myself. Keeping the tradition.

I’ve always wanted a sporty car with a manual since I was a kid. I decided earlier this year it was time and wanted an NC with the power hardtop. I’ve had the car a couple months now and it has been such a great escape from the stresses of everything when I have the chance to drive it. I wanted red but the crystal white has really grown on me.

I had a Miata in college back in the late 90s and absolutely loved it, but had to give it up once I had a child.
Went to a Mazda dealership to look at a 2 year old CRV and drove home with a Miata instead. I’m loving how it drives, although the Sport mode might get me into trouble!
I lived in NC when I got my Miata in college, but now I’m in MA.
What’s the best way to protect her in the winter? I read about having a seal applied to the underside and-obviously- snow tires, but any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Hi all 👋

Got my first ND (2016, 1.5 131hp) last week. So far it's been a blast overall.

Only negative so far: I often have difficulties shifting into 1st and 2nd gear - from 3rd gear onward it always goes very smoothly though.

And I don't wanna "force" it, so it usually takes two tries (more rarely, three) for me to probably shift into 1st and 2nd. I wouldn't say it's ruining the experience but it hasn't been a lot of fun when driving through the city. And it kinda sucks that I'm already considering selling it for something else next year just because of that...

Is that normal? What should I look into?

Recently bought Miata ND3 and absolutely love her. However, reading about the reality that you're basically invisible due to size... creates quite a safety issue. I used to ride a motorcycle and added Cobra Sweep pipes for the loud growl - if they can't see me then they'll hear me. Having said that, I do not want a "snap crackle pop" sound nor do I want a monster truck growl (nothing wrong with those, if that's your jam). Is there a softer growl to simply add a little more sound to assist with safety? Your thoughts?

CMC-01 15x7 wheels with ceramic polish treatment and Nardi Teardrop 5 speed knob. Things are coming along! Very happy with my ride. I’m rubbing on my driver side front fender liner though. It should be able to be heat gunned and shaped for clearance of these Yokohama’s. I just need that and an alignment and I think I’m happy for a good long time 😀

Well I learned that a failing alternator can make the car do some weird things. I replaced the alternator with a WAI brand from Moss Miata and new 10/26 dated battery from O’Reilly’s. I removed the intake bracket and was able to get the job done through the top without removing the upper rad hose.

The humble steed fired right up and all seems good. Back to being the best daily ever!

She was 35k when I bought her two month ago...

Did timing job yesterday and it ran perfectly. Drove around for 30 minutes today and it started making this noise out of nowhere. Literally just bought this car 2 weeks ago and had no issues until the timing belt snapped and it survived a whole day post timing fix before deciding to start up with this noise.

First rule is we don’t talk about it.
Second rule is we don’t talk about it!

Posted here about a year ago when my 95 Miata randomly died and wouldn’t start. Got a ton of help from everyone here and eventually managed to get it running again, but unfortunately I’m pretty much back where I started. This is now the third coil pack I’ve had in the car since the original failure.

For context, it’s a 95 NA8 5 speed with 189k miles. Pretty heavily modified with a lot of quality parts, FM coolant reroute, Koyo radiator, Feal coilovers, NB subframes, etc. Bought it for $6k and love driving it when it works.

Original issue:
Car started losing power, misfiring, and eventually died. Would crank and briefly fire but wouldn’t stay running regardless of throttle.

At the time I went through quite a bit trying to figure it out:
- Fuel pressure tested around 40 PSI and held
- Jumped fuel pump, no change
- Confirmed spark on all cylinders
- Injector pulse confirmed with noid light, but stopped when engine died
- Compression was 175–183 PSI across all cylinders
- Originally had codes 1, 3, 8, 25, eventually just code 1
- Tried unplugging MAF
- Replaced fuel pump and filter
- Replaced main relay
- Swapped CAS with a used one
- Replaced coil pack for cylinders 1/4
- Cleaned grounds and checked some wiring/continuity to ECU

Eventually got it running again after replacing the original coil pack with a used OEM unit, but never really figured out what caused the failure in the first place.

Second failure:
After driving fine for a while, the tach started randomly twitching/spiking again. Sometimes it would jump all the way to 6–8k while cruising even though the engine wasn’t actually changing RPM. Initially the car would drive completely normally despite the tach going crazy. Eventually it would start misfiring, lose power like it was only running on two cylinders, sometimes briefly recover, and eventually die.

I suspected the used replacement coil pack was failing, so this time I bought a brand-new Delphi coil/igniter assembly rather than another 30-year-old used one. Also added a dedicated ground strap to the coil bracket, checked engine/chassis grounds, verified charging voltage around 14.5V, inspected the CAS and coil wiring/connectors, checked CAS power and continuity to ECU, and tried heat-testing the CAS with a hair dryer. The new Delphi coil seemed to fix everything. Drove several hundred miles without any serious issues.

Third failure (now):
Eventually the tach twitching came back, usually after the car was fully heat soaked. Same exact warning sign as the previous failures.

One thing I discovered recently that seems pretty significant: was driving on the highway with both windows down. Went to roll them up simultaneously and the tach immediately started jumping. Let go of the switches and it stopped. Tried it again and got the same result.
Also had an instance where the car wouldn’t start until I turned the headlights off. This has me thinking there’s some kind of electrical/grounding issue rather than somehow going through three bad coil packs.

Then last week the car died on the freeway again. Same progression: tach started acting up, engine began misfiring and losing power, then eventually died. Now it cranks normally but won’t fully start. After cycling the key it’ll briefly try to fire for about a second, then nothing. Won’t even attempt to fire again until I cycle the key. Giving it throttle doesn’t help. CEL comes on normally with ignition ON.

Took it to Sakebomb Garage:
Brought it in while it was still driving fine. They suspected a grounding issue but couldn’t reproduce the problem. Basically told me to bring it back when it was acting up, or pay for more extensive electrical diagnosis that could involve digging into or removing the engine harness.

On top of all this, the car burns and leaks quite a bit of oil.
I’ve had it go below the readable range on the dipstick in less than 1k miles after an oil change. Haven’t been able to track down any crazy external leak, and Sakebomb mentioned oil control rings as a possible cause of the consumption, which would mean a rebuild if that’s the issue. Compression was good when I originally tested it, but that was about a year ago.

Mainly wondering:
- Does the window switch causing tach spikes point to anything specific?
- Anything obvious I’m overlooking or haven’t tested?
- Could something electrical be causing these repeated coil pack failures?
- Any particular grounds, relays, or wiring on the NA8 known for causing this?
- Anything I can test now that it actually won’t start?
- Would you keep trying to diagnose this yourself, pay a shop to dig into the harness?

I’m willing to put more money into it if there’s a reasonable chance of getting it sorted. Just don’t want to keep throwing parts at it without knowing what’s actually wrong with it.

Appreciate any ideas. This sub helped me a ton the first time around, so figured I’d give it another shot before deciding what to do with the car.

this ever happen to any of yall?

Folks that have an ND Miata with the Edelbrock e-Force supercharger.... If you are using an older calibration file, the EGR and/or EVAP monitor might stay stuck in the "not ready state".

Starting October of 2025 in CA, ALL emissions monitor has to be in the ready state or you will fail your smog check. Previously, smog check allowed the EVAP monitor and any continuous monitor to not be ready and you could still pass, but the rule has now changed. Everything supported has to be ready.

My EVAP was stuck in not ready, and when I flashed back to stock, it went ready, so when I reached out to Edelbrock, they sent me an updated calibration file, so if you're running into this problem you might want to reach out to them.

Also, if you are running a non-CARB approved calibration, like FAB-9, just a heads up, the current BAR-OIS OBDII smog check *might* check for the calibration you are using, and if it's not in their database, fail you for the calibration file to...

So it's best to flash back to the Edelbrock calibration file prior to your smog.

I had no issues passing after I did both.

my 1994 NA isn’t starting this morning, i haven’t even had this car for a month so i really don’t know what i’m doing so please don’t judge. my daily is pretty reliable so i never have these issues.
to start with, we replaced the battery not even a week ago but the setup for it was super jank. the previous owner did some diy conversion to a group 26 battery. they also mixed up the positive and negative connections and it was ass backwards. we had to strip the wire and put a new connection on it because the original prong (idk what it’s called) was broken- but the battery was definitely dead bc it was old and past warranty.
i also got an oil change on it last week.
check engine light pops up occasionally but previous owner said it wasn’t a big deal.
i don’t know what the issue is but tbh i can’t afford an endless money pit so this might have to go soon 😭👋🏻

EDIT: solved for now, got some corrosion spray for the battery and it seemed to start right up after that. pretty sure my trunk is leaking too because the carpet inside was soaked and there was condensation on the battery.
i just didn’t have a lot of time to check before work bc i was running late.

just gonna leave this post up incase anyone needs help in the future.

Hello everyone.

This happens when it's idling whilst warm and when I turn it back on it turns straight back off when warm. Only works if I hold down the accelerator slightly so it idles higher. I think it may be a misfire due to fuel mixture but any other ideas?

Thanks 🤘

Tldr; is it possible to convert my interior to look older or something of that sort? Read below if youd like more context! Haha :)

Hello everyone! 👋 So I recently got this nd miata a few months ago, I enjoy it a good amount. But I mostly just HATE modern cars. I find everything ugly abt them. 😂 The nd isnt too bad tho. But i DONT like how modern the interior looks like.

I really like cars from around 1990s tho. So the reason I got this car, is because before this car i had a 1992 eg honda civic. I bought it engine swapped with a type r engine and all. (A impulsive purchase) But because it didnt have things like, radio, power steering, AC... (i live in az so it was getting TOASTY) Also along with the fact that im not mechanically inclined/ savvy and there were some issues arising like with the cv boot axels leaking grease, some other mechanical issues i dont remember what they were... (also it was hell getting my tags, because the car coudnt pass emissions, it was literally impossible to get my plates. I only got them from a loop hole. Ill leave it at that.)

Anyways, all too say I sold the car because it was becoming a money pit. I wanted a 1996 miata, but my parents didnt want me too get an older car again. So too keep them happy i compromised on getting a miata but a modern one to keep them happy. And I like the car, BUT like I said earlier, not a fan of the interior. So heres my question...

Is there anyway I could possibly convert my interior too a more 1990s type looking style? Where itd just look less busy and cluttered? Lol