Back from the track with three questions (VIR, Miata)

Had  a great first time out with Creamsicle my Copart find miata. I had three observations I wanted to ask about

1) my stainless steel brake line on the passenger side front appears to make contact with the tire at full lock, it hasn't been doing this enough to cause a problem but I did find out thats what a rubbing sound I heard was, How do I get these lines to stay farther away etc? I believe the line is already turned to where it should be the farthest from the wheel possible

2) I noticed a few small drops of what I think is oil after not having any leaks at all for weeks at home, it doesn't continue to drip, but it will drop 2-3 little drops after coming off the hot track. It appears to be front right side to me somewhere around the alternator. (I did have a valve cover leak but that was recently replaced and seems fine?) What could leak in that area?

3) While the car performed and handled well I felt like when the track was rough/bumpy that a lot of deflection was fed back through the wheel making the front end feel light or "loose" what is this a symptom of? I checked the hubs no play, the steering doesn't seem to have any play in the tierods. I was never unable to control it it just felt like I said loose. car is at 0 front toe, but ride height maxed out in the front at 4 5/8ths pinch weld while I was going for 4.5 all around and the rear was at 4.5 (alignment shop ran out of time before the event). I do have a quick release and it has a little bit of non radial play (like I don't get any steering left and right but you could push or pull on the steering wheel just a tiny bit)

Aw come on guys someone has to be able to help me out!

From the Miata that is currently sitting in pieces in my garage, a Miata dropping oil there could be leaking from the valve cover, either of the cams (you never can tell where oil will fall) the front main, the pan, or maybe any of the oil stuff by the filter on side of the block under the intake. Can you pop off the top of the timing cover and see if either cam seal is leaking? 

As far as the steering, what's your alignment at? 

I have the same issues with the stainless steel brake lines on my car. No matter how I orient them, they always seem to contact the wheel. I'm about ready to rip them off and just put OEM lines back on the front.

NickD said:

I have the same issues with the stainless steel brake lines on my car. No matter how I orient them, they always seem to contact the wheel. I'm about ready to rip them off and just put OEM lines back on the front.

Well good to know its not a unique experience I guess, I mean as a track car I don't use a lot of full lock turning but it just sketched me out

mazdeuce - Seth said:

From the Miata that is currently sitting in pieces in my garage, a Miata dropping oil there could be leaking from the valve cover, either of the cams (you never can tell where oil will fall) the front main, the pan, or maybe any of the oil stuff by the filter on side of the block under the intake. Can you pop off the top of the timing cover and see if either cam seal is leaking? 

As far as the steering, what's your alignment at? 

Front 0 toe, rear +1/16th

Camber/Caster pretty much maxed but could only get 2.8 front camber or so. 4? caster? 

Just had the performance alignment done last week before the event. It's just on rough surfaces that I think I feel it (I paid more attention to it on the crappier roads on the way home)

In reply to Jaynen :

What suspension do you have?

Car looks great out there! In regards to rubbing, I personally like new O.E. lines for a track rat. 

Do you have coil overs?

If you are pushing a bit, give the rear 1/4" to 1/2" turn to raise the rear slightly.  That's my go-to Miata adjustment to get rid of a push.  That and tire pressure.    

I'll also add that I replaced my valve cover 3 times on a NB before I finally had it done right and leak free.

I'm not pushing balance was pretty good. I ended up running out of budget for the fox that I wanted so I am trying the MeisterR Club Race which is their new track focused offering with higher spring rates 700f/400r

I was running 225/45/15 RS4s on 9" rims and around 35 psi all around.

Parts of the Grand course are a bit rougher and so I noticed what felt like "lightness" in the steering wheel when the surface was bumpy?

NickD said:

I have the same issues with the stainless steel brake lines on my car. No matter how I orient them, they always seem to contact the wheel. I'm about ready to rip them off and just put OEM lines back on the front.

Yeah braided SS lines are one of those things that seem like a good idea until you learn about all the little details involved...one of those being the requirement for lines to be longer than rubber for the same application simply because they're not as flexible so you need more length to allow the line to bend. And then those longer lines tend to rub on things, and when a braided steel line touches something else, it damages both that thing and itself...

That tiny bit of pedal squishyness doesn't look so terrible in retrospect.

I am going to keep monitoring the situation and if I don't find a fix I may swap them out as it sketches me out a bit.

Grasping at straws, but what's the condition of the rubber bushings for the steering rack?

I've not had the issues with braided brake lines rubbing on tires, but I usually ran 205s on my Miatas...

When I take the car back to have them finish the ride height I will ask the shop to look at that stuff and see if they can identify the oil leak

Now this might be a really silly question, but could the steering issue just be the car being very communicative through the steering wheel? Like, letting you know that it has less grip due to the surface?

I mean it's entirely possible which is why I was asking, how much "movement" back through the steering wheel is usual? On a track focused setup?

For the brake lines, I often use zip ties as guy wires to control how they sit.

My first through with the oil leak is that it's PS fluid coming out of the reservoir, but that's the wrong side of the engine bay. I think you're going to have to spend a little flashlight time finding out.

Best way to find out if your steering feel is normal is to get someone experienced with Miatas to try it.

Wondering aloud, again...

You're running pretty high spring rates on the car, so I'm wondering if you get more kick back through the steering because the suspension isn't as compliant due to the high spring rates?

The guys at MeisterR (or at least their online rep) have some fundamental misunderstandings about certain suspension aspects. I don't know how good their damping tuning is. That's one reason why it would be useful to get someone else in the seat to get a feel for what's going on. It's a lot easier to diagnose that way than trying to do it online.

I'd happily volunteer for the cost of the plane ticket .

How about you buy the plane ticket and pay for your track day and I will let you drive my car on an iconic track :P

Keith Tanner said:

The guys at MeisterR (or at least their online rep) have some fundamental misunderstandings about certain suspension aspects. I don't know how good their damping tuning is. That's one reason why it would be useful to get someone else in the seat to get a feel for what's going on. It's a lot easier to diagnose that way than trying to do it online.

True enough, For the most part nothing felt untoward compared to my old FCM setup on my NA

Keith Tanner said:

For the brake lines, I often use zip ties as guy wires to control how they sit.

My first through with the oil leak is that it's PS fluid coming out of the reservoir, but that's the wrong side of the engine bay. I think you're going to have to spend a little flashlight time finding out.

Best way to find out if your steering feel is normal is to get someone experienced with Miatas to try it.

I was wondering about PS fluid, the fluid is dark and is on the steering/bottom of the engine below the alternator/pulleys but also on the little metal "hoses" that sit in front of the engine there below the belts

Since I changed the valve cover gasket there is no oil on the back of the motor/going down the sides of the heads or anything that i can see. And like i mentioned even overnight after a track session we are talking about 2-3 dime sized drops,

#3 sounds like dampening to me, but what parts of the track was this occurring?  

T-17 and T-19 on the Grand Course. Honestly did not really notice it much anywhere on the full course.

Keith Tanner said:

For the brake lines, I often use zip ties as guy wires to control how they sit.

My first through with the oil leak is that it's PS fluid coming out of the reservoir, but that's the wrong side of the engine bay. I think you're going to have to spend a little flashlight time finding out.

Best way to find out if your steering feel is normal is to get someone experienced with Miatas to try it.

Where do you attach the zip ties too? I have a bunch of long zip ties I could try