Bought an ND!!!!

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Interesting, good to know. 

With out using your owners manual... Find the 12V outlet.  I dare you!

I also have a 16 Club but with out he bbs/brembo's. Driving the car is an experience. If you drive it on snow/ice with those Bridgestones it's a terrifying experience. The best part about the ND is you can easily average 30+ mpg in the city with out really trying as long as you pump premium fuel. If you want to add Navigation to your car, the Mazda Navigation card from Amazon ($150) is worth every penny instead of the $300 from Mazda. If the sound tube gets annoying it's easy to remove. You just need to be clever and come up with a way to close off the elbow where it connects off the intake tube. I used a chair stopper as odd as that sounds. (it was laying around and worked so sweet!)

Im still learning about this car, my buddy just showed me were the cubbies behing the seats are, at this rate ill never find the outlet, just tell me. Haha

Also what is the little box under the usb outlets?

Thanks about tip on the nav ive been thinking about the upgrade.

I think im gonna do the infotainment hack first.

I test drove an ND and really liked it. I just couldn't justify that much of a payment right now, especially considering it would get ~30k miles/year... Congrats though!

Re: C5, I've been interested in the C5's recently as well, but TX is much too far at the moment, and my funds are still recovering from Christmas time. 

Again, congrats and good luck!

Little box under the USB outlet is where the nav card lives. It's just an SD card. IIRC, you can copy them until they've been installed in a car for something like 60 miles, then they lock to the VIN. That's where the, umm, "aftermarket" ones come from.

For the infotainment system, turn off the nag screen and set up pause on mute. Why the latter isn't standard, I have no idea.

Keith what trans and diff fluids do these thing like?

We're using Redline MTL and 75/90 for the trans and diff respectively.

MTL made a huge difference to the shift quality on mine. Shifts still don’t feel too good when it’s cold but then again I have the iffy early gearbox...

Miatas have always had more mechanical feeling gearboxes than most cars, and that includes a bit of crunchy when cold. I figure it's the tradeoff for how good they feel when they're warm.

In reply to BoxheadCougarTim :

Really? That sucks. I have a later production 16, and the shifts are buttery smooth and feels just like my NA trans did +1 gear.

That being said, I've had a few issues else where. Infocenter took a crap on me day 1, and now I'm going back into the dealer again on Monday for wheel speed sensor replacement.That's 2 pretty big strikes in under 10K miles.

Keith Tanner said:

Miatas have always had more mechanical feeling gearboxes than most cars, and that includes a bit of crunchy when cold.

Based on my E46 experience, that's also a side effect of the MTL fluid.

Keith Tanner said:

Miatas have always had more mechanical feeling gearboxes than most cars, and that includes a bit of crunchy when cold. I figure it's the tradeoff for how good they feel when they're warm.

My T-56 feels great cold and hot, so I don't understand why the Miata's feels not so great in comparison.  I hate my brother's NB2 5-speed(or any other 5-speed Miata I've been in, maybe the Aisin 6-speed is better) in comparison, so notchy and requires more force than it should where the T-56 is totally smooth and takes just the flick of the wrist to go between gears.  They're both top-loader transmissions, though the Miata uses 75W-90 and the T-56 uses modified ATF labeled as MTF so that's probably a lot to do with it.  That or Borg Warner just knows how to make a better transmission than Mazda, I do know they make a better one than Tremec as I tried a Tremec T-56 and it didn't feel anywhere as good as the Borg Warner.  Of course everyone is different and some like notchy shifters, I'm not one of them since you can be smooth and tactile at the same time as it doesn't have to be either or.  That said I prefer the Miata's shifter to a vague linkage shifter which is just the opposite, smooth but no tact.

It never fails. Someone posts a thread about how much he loves his new car, and soon enough someone else has to explain how it's not THAT good 

I've shifted a lot of Tremec T56s and they're a long way from Miata quality. If it takes more force to shift a Miata 'box than a big burly T56 then something's not right with that Miata.

See but this a Borg Warner T-56, I even said the Tremec sucked in comparison.   This has been multiple Miatas and they all felt the same, so I imagine they were par for course.  My brother's only has 110K on it and one NA even had the shifter bushings, boots, and turret oil done the weekend before.  It's not like it's a lot of force but it's notably more than the BW, and it's definitely notchy whereas the BW is smooth.  I agree the Tremec T-56 felt terrible, I don't know why but the the BW just feels a lot better(even though being practically the same the BW was made in the USA and the Tremec in Mexico, so maybe lower quality in the Tremec units).  It's smooth and direct with a satisfying clink between the gears and it just takes the flick of your wrist to do it, the Tremec version for whatever reason is none of those things.   I LOVE the Miata as a car, just not a fan of the notchy shifter since to me it doesn't match the car seeing how the rest of the controls are so light and smooth.  I just wish the Miata shifter was as smooth and light, that's all.

rezisehtnys said:

See but this a Borg Warner T-56, I even said the Tremec sucked in comparison.   This has been multiple Miatas and they all felt the same, so I imagine they were par for course.  My brother's only has 110K on it and one NA even had the shifter bushings, boots, and turret oil done the weekend before.  It's not like it's a lot of force but it's notably more than the BW, and it's definitely notchy whereas the BW is smooth.  I agree the Tremec T-56 felt terrible, I don't know why but the the BW just feels a lot better(even though being practically the same the BW was made in the USA and the Tremec in Mexico, so maybe lower quality in the Tremec units).  It's smooth and direct with a satisfying clink between the gears and it just takes the flick of your wrist to do it, the Tremec version for whatever reason is none of those things.   I LOVE the Miata as a car, just not a fan of the notchy shifter since to me it doesn't match the car seeing how the rest of the controls are so light and smooth.  I just wish the Miata shifter was as smooth and light, that's all.

Way to play the contrarian...............a domestic 6 spd being smoother than a Miata 5. 

You're way above the rest of us then. lol

I'll have to find one of those transmissions, then, because I've never felt the Miata trans to be heavy in any way! 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

I second that. Notchy yes. Heavy no. If it's not a fluid related issue it may have a bushing binding in the linkage or something over tightened. To me the MX5 NA 5spd and ND 6spd feel almost exactly the same. And that's one heck of an accomplishment as the NA 5spd is on of the best cars to cycle gears in. The ND is no different.

Trust me I wouldn't have believed it either until I actually used the BW T-56, I tried a Tremec T-56 in a Cobra and a GTO before it and they were truly terrible; the Tremec was super notchy and you had to jam it into the gears where the BW isn't notchy at all and clinks between gears with ease.  I don't know what changed between Borg Warner making them and Tremec, but something must be different somewhere for it to be so drastic in feel.  If any of you are in Alabama you're more than welcome to come see for yourself and compare to the NB2 Miata parked next to it.  Up until then the Miata shifter was my favourite actually, it's not heavy just heavier than the BW.  After researching on Miata.net I'm going to try and convince my brother(or if I buy it from him I'll do it myself) to use a bronze shifter bushing and an one pound knob to see if that smooths out the notchiness and reduces the effort, that and maybe use SynchroMesh in the shifter turret instead of the leftover RedLine MT-90 that was used in the transmission.  Again it's all a matter of preference, I just don't like notchiness.  The Miata is a wonderful car and I love them, I'm just being anal with the shifter since it's the only thing that stands out to me that I don't 100% like about them.

The Manic Miata has a short shift kit in it and I can shift through all 5 forward gears with my fingers and wrist. I can leave my forearm on the console and not move my elbow at all. It can hardly be called notchy. 

Duke said:

The Manic Miata has a short shift kit in it and I can shift through all 5 forward gears with my fingers and wrist. I can leave my forearm on the console and not move my elbow at all. It can hardly be called notchy. 

Cool will definitely check out some of the short shifters then, if you don't mind sharing which did you use?  I just finished jumping back and forth between the cars actually since I was making sure the 303 Aerospace worked on the Miata's top since I did that the other day and it just now finished raining.  Which I have tiny lady hands but I can easily do the BW with my fingers and wrist through all forward gears, not quite as easily in the Miata but it can be done except for 5th which is a bit of a strain.

In reply to Opti :

Your new car looks awesome. I hope I'll be able to buy an ND some day - I want one really bad. Please keep us updated on any upgrades.