So my 89 Eunos/MX5 is facing it’s biggest MOT bill yet, £500-700, it’s probably worth £1200 if I tidied it up.

Any way of working out what it’s be worth to sell or scrap? Needs new brake pads and discs all round, sill welding, 2 front tyres, rear spring & some brake pipework.

I do love it but it’s a luxury really, I could get by on buses, hiring & riding more.

Al, the welding would be the biggest hassle. Price up the discs and pads. Copper brake pipes or flexi hoses? Give me a shout. If you are free over Christmas I could give you a hand to do it here.

sill welding will be the bulk of that.

remove the service consumables – the brake disks the pads(100) and the tires(150)…..

your actual MOT bill for non service items that will wear on any car is in the region of 3-400 quid.

the spring is about 40 – the brake pipe work depending on the amount will be buttons in parts(25ft of quality cupronickle is about 30 quid inc fittings) and a bit more in labour – depending on complexity of the routing – id expect a whole car of brake pipe to be in the region of 100-150 quid fitted.

the worst part of the whole thing is your sills – and the true cost of that job will not be known till they open it up- most cars – when you open the exterior sill you find they have eaten from the inside out and the inner sill is in a worse shape than the exterior….but they may not be and from what i gather they will quote on the worst case scenario as they know all too well this fact.

you may be able to get the price down by finding a welding or mx5 specialist who knows the easiest way to deal with it ?

how ever – its my experiance this once this has set in your cars life is limited and will nickle and dime you to death – this is why i took my LR off the road to do a propper job of repairs to prolong its life for some time instead of sticky plastering it for the rest of its limited days till it got scrapped.

had i been closer id have been happy to lend a hand with the sills .

Only the welding that would be expensive if you can’t do it yourself or with McMoonter.

Rest is just cheap stuff.

New discs/pads & spring from http://www.carparts4less.co.uk or GSF have 25% off currently

Tyres could be part worns for next to nothing.

I’m a fan of keeping cars going – all that stuff could come up on any car more than a few years old.

EXCEPT if it needs welding, and it’s not some kind of classic. Sod that.

Check the drains while you’re having the sills done.

Pads, discs, tyres are just regular service items, no?

Rear spring, bit of a hassle but DIY-able, and brake tube is cheap.

Personally I’d keep – approx £300 in parts with some work done at home?

EXCEPT if it needs welding, and it’s not some kind of classic. Sod that.

I’ve had both sills replaced on an mk1 MX5 – it was not an expensive job. It’s quite a common thing them IIRC.

Part worn tyres? Give Fair Deal Tyres in Crossgates a shout. I got a couple of near new snow tyres for the Mothership for £30 a piece fitted and balanced. Making progress in the Mothership isn’t really an issue.

SORN it and repair it as and when you can afford to if you don’t need I to be an everyday runner?
None of it sounds too bad, apart from the welding.

“I’m a fan of keeping cars going – all that stuff could come up on any car more than a few years old.

EXCEPT if it needs welding, and it’s not some kind of classic. Sod that.”

one would assume you can neither weld nor have access to someone who can ….

much like i avoid major electrical gremlins like the plague as i have not the skills or the friends with the skills to solve them……

im a mediocre welder but a good grinder 😉

I was all for keeping our car going as above. Engine was sounding a bit off, but it was – above ground as it were – seemed OK. However most recent MOT showed a heap of really quite disappointing fails – and same for advisories – that made me reconsider that approach, it wasn’t the cost of parts so much (though not ideal) but getting access to all the linkages, time really. Effectively scrapped, but a ‘P’ plate Saab 900, not a bad innings.

Winter project? http://www.mevltd.co.uk/exocet_price.htm

Ours has had all the welding done and will be good for many more years. It was done by the previous owner’s mate and I don’t think it was that expensive.

Brake pads and discs I don’t think are difficult, there’s a good guide on the MC5OC forum. They’re around £100 for the full set.

We’re spending about £750 on ours this Christmas which includes new discs and pads, a new catalytic convertor, new HT leads, new spark plugs, new coil packs, new wheels, 8 tyres (summers and winters), underbody sealant, new number plates and tools to do it with (jack, axle stands, sockets, spanners, haynes manual, greases etc).

Shirley you know a welder with some spoons that can sort your sills?

“haynes manual”

save your 20 quid. not worth the paper they are printded on these days

youtube and forums and a printer will be much more useful.

comparing the late 80s/early 90s Haynes for my defender to the current release show they have taken out alot of the more indepth useful stuff…..

It’s a shame you’re so far away, I’ve got an 89 mx5 sat on ramps on the drive which I’ll probably end up breaking. Had new suspension, adl discs and pads all round, 4 new michelin tyres and some other bits for the MOT in May, I had the cambelt and waterpump done at the same time and less than 500 miles later the crank pulley span and the engine is scrap, I sourced another but a string of injuries stopped me swapping it and now I’ve got something wrong with my hands and can’t grip with any force.

comparing the late 80s/early 90s Haynes for my defender to the current release show they have taken out alot of the more indepth useful stuff..

The Haynes for the mk1 MX5 is pretty good. As hobby cars go, they’re pretty good – late 80’s design remember. And its surprisingly roomy under the bonnet. Drivetrain is all easy access. Peachy engine too. Not too much in the way of emissions stuff to worry about, but reliable injection.

I’d quite like another one TBH. They’re everything that all the old Brit sports cars wanted to be, but done right. By a company who actually could organise a piss up in a brewery. Instead of Triumph. Or MG.

Part worn tyres?

No no and thrice no. Specially not on a 5. Not an economy worth making.

I used to get most service bits from mx5parts.co.uk, they do some decent bundle deals. Thos springs break for a past time too, though often imported models have been lowered simply by cutting the springs – so a new ones all round actually vastly improves the handling.

PS – can lend the Miata service manual if it’s of any help, and the performance tuning guide.

fix it – its yours – what else can you get for the money that is as much fun.

one would assume you can neither weld

Oh aye. If I could weld I’d be right there. In fact, if that were my car I’d be tempted to take it as an excuse to learn 🙂

If it was an old dog of a car I’d say sell as work needed. Get it sorted and sold in spring. You’ll get £600 in your pocket whereas at the most now you’d get…circa 500 but you’d nothing to drive or love for 4ish months. Please don’t scrap it. My 99 Puma worth 900 needed 500 to get through the mot. I sold it to a mechanic. Any car needs discs and pads but they ain’t as cute as a Eunos or..bus nkers.

Thanks all.

Welding is only £100, brake pipe est £100 as it is convoluted routing, £120 for rr spring (P&L), £120L/£125P brakes, my est £100 for tyres plus some wee things.

Mech is a mate so I trust the labour charges. I have nowhere to do any work on it (and if I did I’d save on the brakes & spring i.e. £200). Cheers for the offer Pete! I’ll consider.

Hmmm…I guess getting it done and selling it (I keep saying that after each MOT – £300ish pa) I’ll probably keep it! I’ll check out selling prices with the hardtop.

Al, I’m here between Christmas and the New Year and I can get the tool shelf out of the garage. The brakes should be straight forward. A coil of copper brake pipe is probably £30. I have unions and a flaring tool. Is there a prefabricated repair panel for the damaged section of the sill? I have a mig welder too.

All told it shouldn’t be a days work between us.

Cheers Pete, I am around, issue is getting it there – old MOT has expired…would be a big ask using your trailer! Can ask Shrew re panels.

Tbh 300 quid per mot is good going,

I reckon on 1k a year in repairs and mot for 10k milage in a 10 year old car….

Still cheaper than the payments on a newer car.

Once it starts to creep up or it leaves me stranded ill start thinking about a new car.

Al, the trailer bed on my Ifor Williams trailer is pretty knackered. At a push I could lay some scaffold boards on it. But it might be doable.

If it has rusted in a common point there may be a repair panel. Have a look on ebay.

You can get sill panels if they are the same as mk1 mx5 . I priced them up not long back at about 40 quid a side for outer sills .

Cannot remember where from though.

Was very tempted by a mates k plate mx5 he wanted off his drive due to rotten sills – tidy little thing bar the sills , new mohair , roll cage , buckets , short shift and coil overs. i just couldnt make space or time to deal with it 🙁

Cheers…plenty misinformation about legality of driving without MOT online…

cynic-al

Hmmm…I guess getting it done and selling it (I keep saying that after each MOT – £300ish pa) I’ll probably keep it! I’ll check out selling prices with the hardtop.

From what I can see MX5s have stopped depreciating and are now becoming a bit of a cult / classic. I remember seeing them a few years ago and they were all sub £1k, now you’ll struggle to get one for less.

Personally I’d spend the money on it, maybe a wee bit more. Enjoy it, look after it and it might be worth a few bob. Petrol’s nice and cheap too, and by keeping an old car on the road you can lord it up people with your green credentials. Win, win, win, win.

WIN!

What ^^ JimJam says – if you can sort it and get it to a rust-free, solid state then it’ll hold it’s money / appreciate (more so if it’s otherwise stock spec).

My Mk1 will need one of the front arches and a small section of sill doing at some point. As long as it’s caught early enough it’ll be worth it in the longer term.

(Unless you’ve a Mk2 which has the dreaded issue with the rails rotting from the inside out. Been a few ‘immaculate’ cars that have been spotless until they’re up on a ramp for an MOT and suddenly discovered to be properly knackered)

FWIW, one of my old 5s went past the point of no return as far as economic repairs went. It was a rough £500 banger anyway but with some decent bits. Sold the wings, boot lit, steering wheel, roll bar, exhaust and a few other bits and made near enough my £500 back. Then stuck the rest on eBay as spares or repair and some fella paid £200 to take it away for a project he was working on.

“Cheers…plenty misinformation about legality of driving without MOT online…”

Really isnt worth it al – the only acceptable time is “going to a prebooked mot” and you cannot simply book one next to mcmoonters and travel from edinburgh.

Man with a van type fella will be cheap enough and certainly cheap enough to move it without risking it – i payed 60 quid to move my land rover between my last house and here – that was about 30 miles.

shiply.co.uk

Whilst it’s up on a ramp, drop the cat off for a straight through, and take the bulb out of the exhaust emissions warning light 😈 – K&N induction kit on (10 minutes), timing to 5 degrees otdc (I think , I should check that!) – makes the old 1.6 sing a lot sweeter with no noticeable loss in economy (though I didn’t have kids then so probably wouldn’t have noticed!). Worth it for the sound alone…

Try shiply for a quote,I got my 205 delivered to Inverness from Nottingham for less than it would have cost me in fuel.

Post-MOT we need pics too. Ideally in a rural setting with a nice view behind 😀

Like that idea brassneck, you need a dodgy MOT guy surely?

Re transport, I’ll look at that, prob 30 miles to MC’s.

DBW’s story appeals tho! One arch is rusty from inside, so the body may not now be good.

doubt it on an 89 al.

august 92 they came into legislation and 1993 for compulsory at first reg.

– i did a fair bit of looking into this when i was going to transplant an 89 v8 into an 87 chassis/body and wanted to do twin straight through side exits.

No cat required for MOT pre 93

Ta everyone.

I’ve just ordered the parts, now trying to secure transport via shiply, which seems to be a sticking point…

K&N induction kit, £85 for 8bhp sound right?

No no and thrice no. Specially not on a 5. Not an economy worth making.

What’s your issue with part worn then?

Guy I use has premium brand tyres with 6-7mm tread for £30. Now I used to pay at least £120 a tyre, not now.

more like 85 quid for a filter that increases noise which makes you think more BHP but a filter on its own will give you no extra power

but it sounds nice and rev free’r

I wouldn’t bother if your train of thought is “will I keep it wont I keep it’