Miata hesitating. HELP!
 

Hi all



I need some help/advice/opinions again from this group. About 6 months ago I
had the crankshaft pulley, bolt and key replaced because of a wobbling
pulley. Some of the regular guys in this group may remember me asking for
opinions on that too.



Since they were taking everything apart anyway, I told the garage to make
sure they replaced the timing belt and any other belts with new ones, which
they did. I also told them to fit a new fuel filter. Then I got the car back
and on the way home from the garage it seemed to be running fine, as it did
for the one or two 10 minute drives I did over the next couple of days.



Then, on about the third day after getting it back, I decided that I would
treat the car to a new air filter and spark plugs just for the heck of it. I
did this part myself and made sure the plugs were the exact same make and
product number as the old ones and they were gapped right, as per the Haynes
repair manual. I sparingly used some of that silver grease compound around
the threads of the plugs, which I have used on other vehicles I have owned
and serviced in the past.



NEW PROBLEM: It seems that ever since I did my simple DIY service, the Miata
was hesitating and not running smoothly at all. I admit that I should have
looked at the problem earlier, but I was in the middle of relocating from
Wisconsin to Georgia so never got around to it. I then drove the Miata
around a few more times (longer drives) and was hoping that magic would
happen and the hesitating would disappear.no luck. I went to drive it again
the other day and I it finally went buckaroo on me.



SO: I took out the plugs and found that they were all covered in some kind
of fine black soot (fouled plugs I guess). I took it to a local NAPA garage
and the guy said that other than the black soot, the metal/electrode were in
good condition and they seemed to be gapped properly. By the way, I then
bought new plugs and double checked that they were gapped right and got the
Miata running again, but its still hesitating and I'm certain it's going to
go buckaroo on me again, just as it did the first time.



MY QUESTION (I know.finally):

1) What could be causing the hesitating; could having the crankshaft pulley,
belts etc. replaced have caused this because the timing was not set properly
after the belts etc. were replaced?



2) Could it be that I'm an idiot who did something wrong when replacing the
plugs (don't answer that part), considering that I never noticed a problem
after getting it back from the garage.



What should I be looking at, and be expecting to hear from a garage when
they diagnose the problem?

I'm hoping its just going to be a matter of having the timing corrected.



Thanks in advance for your thoughts.



Jitendra



'95 Red

In article >,
"yabadabadooo..." > wrote:

> What could be causing the hesitating

Have you replaced the plug wires recently? New ones are cheap (under
$40), and may fix the problem.

---
Lanny Chambers
'94C, St. Louis
http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

No Lanny, I have not. I'll probably give it a go though...might be a cheap
fix.
Would you recommend any particular set of wires?
Do you think that poor wires would cause the plugs to go black by getting
covered in soot?

Thanks for the quick input.

Jitendra


"Lanny Chambers" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "yabadabadooo..." > wrote:
>
>> What could be causing the hesitating
>
> Have you replaced the plug wires recently? New ones are cheap (under
> $40), and may fix the problem.
>
> ---
> Lanny Chambers
> '94C, St. Louis
> http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

In article >,
"yabadabadooo..." > wrote:

> Would you recommend any particular set of wires?

NGK, the blue ones.

> Do you think that poor wires would cause the plugs to go black by getting
> covered in soot?

Sure. It's just a sign that the plug isn't firing every time. If it
never fired, they're be wet.

---
Lanny Chambers
'94C, St. Louis
http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

Well Lanny, I popped down to the local auto parts store and just bought a
$30 set of wires of a brand called XACT. They are all a little longer than
the original wires so they won't sit in the plastic clip/bracket on top of
the camshaft cover. But I installed them and it seems to have stopped the
hesitating, just as you thought they might. She's running just like she used
to, and I hope that's the end of that matter. Thanks for recommending the
NGK wires but I had already gone out and bought this set before I read your
recommendation. I guess it could be said that the NGK's would perform better
than the brand I bought, but they "gotrdun" for now and next time I'll
remember to use NGK's.

You just saved me $120 in diagnostic fees, and potentially saved me another
$25,000 because my wife was saying we should look into getting a Honda S2000
(used of course), instead of spending any more money maintaining the Miata.
I test drove a Honda S2000 not long ago and no doubt it was incredible to
drive and in another league, but I like the idea of keeping my unpretentious
little convertible thats paid for, cheap to maintain, and still fun enough
if driven right. A little off topic I know...sorry.

Thanks again Larry C.

Jitendra Tailor

'95 Red

"Lanny Chambers" > wrote in message
...
> In article >,
> "yabadabadooo..." > wrote:
>
>> Would you recommend any particular set of wires?
>
> NGK, the blue ones.
>
>> Do you think that poor wires would cause the plugs to go black by getting
>> covered in soot?
>
> Sure. It's just a sign that the plug isn't firing every time. If it
> never fired, they're be wet.
>
> ---
> Lanny Chambers
> '94C, St. Louis
> http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

On 2005-09-29, yabadabadooo... > wrote:

> Well Lanny, I popped down to the local auto parts store and
> just bought a $30 set of wires of a brand called XACT. [...]
> They are all a little longer than the original wires so they
> won't sit in the plastic clip/bracket on top of the camshaft
> cover. But I installed them and it seems to have stopped the
> hesitating, just as you thought they might.

Miatas are famous for wearing out plug wires. Some people
report only getting a couple of years per set. You may end up
with a set of blue NGKs before too long.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! I joined scientology
at at a garage sale!!
visi.com

Thanks Grant, I'll keep that in mind.

Jitendra


"Grant Edwards" > wrote in message
...
> On 2005-09-29, yabadabadooo... > wrote:
>
>> Well Lanny, I popped down to the local auto parts store and
>> just bought a $30 set of wires of a brand called XACT. [...]
>> They are all a little longer than the original wires so they
>> won't sit in the plastic clip/bracket on top of the camshaft
>> cover. But I installed them and it seems to have stopped the
>> hesitating, just as you thought they might.
>
> Miatas are famous for wearing out plug wires. Some people
> report only getting a couple of years per set. You may end up
> with a set of blue NGKs before too long.
>
> --
> Grant Edwards grante Yow! I joined
> scientology
> at at a garage sale!!
> visi.com