400,000 Mile Miata

It happened on February 11, 2019. 400,000 miles! It has been quite a journey.

Our 1990 base Miata was purchased new by us on August 7, 1990.

• In February 1999 at 175,500 miles, we were hit with the dreaded "broken crank" problem which can occur on all 1990 and some early 1991 Miatas. The 175,000 mile mark is quite late for the problem; all other instances that we know of occurred much earlier in the engine life. In our case, the best fix was a new engine installed by a dealer with a very good SOCALM (local Miata club) discount. A new clutch was installed at the same time. The second engine has been fed Mobil 1 10w-30, with oil and filter changes every 3,000 to 4,000 miles. We do it ourselves.
• The brakes last an incredibly long time. Pad changes were very infrequent. The original rotors lasted until about 235,000 miles, with the fronts having been turned twice and the rears once.
• The first catalytic convertor lasted almost 200,000 miles. A second one only lasted about 20,000 miles, but this was because a dirty throttle body caused an excessively rich fuel mixture, destroying the convertor. The exhaust system has otherwise not needed repair.
• The AC has not worked for years. Since the top is down whenever the weather is warm there's not much reason for us to go through the expense of repairing it. We have an OTM that gets used when we want comfort in the hot Southern California weather.
• We've done most of the timing belt changes ourselves. While not for the "mechanically challenged", it is possible for an amateur mechanic to successfully undertake.

Misc. "Replaced" Items

• Two alternators
• Two speedometer cables
• Rear hub bearing
• Driveshaft
• Differential
• Clutch slave cylinder (rebuilt 3x)
• Clutch master cylinder (replaced 2x)
• Airflow metering sensor
• Starter Motors (~ four)
• Windshields - two
• Brake master cylinder
• Clutch - (replaced 2x) with engine replacement at 175,000 miles and recently due to wear

Seats were redone in leather at 284,675 miles on August 10, 2005. A new canvas top with glass window was installed in September 2004. The top was in okay shape but the plastic rear window, despite our dedicated maintenance, was in need of replacement. Both were done by Nacho's Auto Upholstery in North Hollywood, CA.

Long trips include a SOCALM club run to San Felipe, Mexico, Dallas 1999 for a national Miata convention and a vacation to Eureka, CA near the Oregon border. It has been our transport to Monterey car week many times, about a 400 mile trek.

When first owned it was our preferred car as it was the only one with AC, so it was driven ~25,000 miles per year. Currently, we drive it about 9,500 miles per year. We will hit the magic 500,000 mile mark sometime in 2030.

Performance mods include Jackson Racing Cold Air Induction and Jackson Racing headers. The suspension was lowered ~ 0.5 inches in 1991. The shocks were replaced twice by us and we are currently running Tokico adjustables.

Being a base Miata, it did not come with a factory stereo. It's seen about four sound systems over the years as technology and features have progressed and now features a JVC KD-R85MBS unit.

Most of our Miata friends - and we have many - have owned multiple Miatas. We are one of the few still with our original. For six years we did have a 1992 Sunburst Yellow Miata which resolved discussions about who would take the Miata on nice days. It was sold in 2012 for about what we paid for it. Seeing it go was sad but we had purchased a 1968 Corvette, so garage space was needed.

Some of the fun we've had with all the miles. Left: We knew when we bought our Miata in 1990 that we would have it for a long time, so we decided that rather than remove the license plate tags, we would just put them on top of each other. After almost 30 years they've come to almost have a three dimensional effect!

Right: The Voodoo knob, purchased around 1992 and a fine, highly recommended Miata accessory. It was powder coated but much of it has worn off over the years.

After 400,000 miles the paint on the wiper arm air deflector wore off, sort of a long term sandblasting thing. We thought about repainting it but decided not to and consider it a high mileage "badge of honor" thing. Click here to see an earlier photo of our air deflector.

Body Shop Blues

A great song goes like "Wounded deep in battle, I stand stuffed like some soldier undaunted" which describes the life of our 1990. It has spent more than it's share of time in the body shop. The front bumper was done over at least three times. It suffered a hard hit on the left front resulting in a loosey goosey chassis which was brought under control with an engine bay chassis brace. The rear has been hit at least six times, possibly as many as eight, we're not sure. The doors are the only part of the car with original paint. Despite all the mishaps, it does not suffer the indignity of a salvage title; a situation we consider to be a minor miracle.

A great man once said "Extremism in the pursuit of Miata awesomeness is no vice". Or something like that. Ever since we bought our 1990 Miata, we've kept a fuel log. At first it was with an Excel spreadsheet and later via a web based iPhone app. Statistics below are as of October 7, 2019 at 408,037 miles.

• Total number of fillups: 1,554
• Total number of gallons: 14,117.886
• Total fuel cost: $29,751.98
• Overall MPG: 28.9944
• Average cost per gallon: $2.081
• Lowest cost per gallon: $.859 on March 19, 1991
• Highest cost per gallon: $4.739 on July 9, 2008