[ChicagoGirl96M]

Hello all,

I just bought a 96 M-edition, and this car ROCKS! I already own a Miata, and wanted a second car so that I can put the Miata in storage for the winter and keep the miles off it. I had never even driven an MX-6, but something about the car just told me I had to have one. I went on Ebay at the beginning of August, and there he was: Purple, V6, leather, clean, well cared for, never seen snow.... Thanks to the owner putting a but-it-now option on the sale, he was mine the next day, although I had to wait three long weeks to finalize the deal and get him shipped to Chicago from Houston!

Anyway, right after I started driving the car my check engine light came on, and it turns out I had two bad solenoids and my throttle body needed cleaning. Got the throttle body off, and it is NASTY in there! Is it normal for the car to get a ton of carbon buildup in there? When I did an engine swap last winter in a '91 Miata the manifold was totally clean even after twelve years and 120K miles of being abused by it's previous owner! I realized it's a different car, but still, that's a huge difference! I cleaned those two shutters in the manifold as well as I could, but when I open them I can still see lots of nasty inside. Should I take the manifold off to get it cleaned? Now that I've replaced the solenoids and cleaned as much as I could, the engine light has turned off, but all that carbon in there still bothers me.

Anyway, now that I've taken care of this stuff, the car is so much fun! It was great when I first got it, but now it feels like the car just shoots down the road when I hit the gas! I bought the car thinking that it would be a winter/crappy weather car, but I have a feeling it's going to end up getting a lot more miles than the Miata. Not that I'll ever give up the Miata-it was my first car, and you just can't beat being able to drop the top on a beautiful day. But I'm so happy I took a chance and bought this guy-he's beautiful, he's incredibly comfortable, and I love how I get pushed back into my seat when I stomp on the gas!

I'm sure I'll have more questions, but now that my boy is back together I need to go get better acquainted with him.

 

[Mr.T]

only a girl could make somthing like carbon buildup into 3 long paragraphs.. lol just messin with ya.


UMM you shouldn't ever have to "clean" your intake manifold persay, its not really a maintanence measure i've ever heard of. take ur manifold off and get some machine work done to it, if you take it off. as far as the 'nastyness' INSIDE of the manifold, that shouldnt be there. is your filter on ur MAF? try cleaning it. i'm not an expert on carbon build up..


T

 

[Methman]

You could install some catch cans along your breather lines, oil coating your Throttle body is normal, because breather lines are usually routed back into the intake, and the best spot to route it on your intake is the throttle body, so this causes oil to coat the TB sometimes.

Methman

 

[ChicagoGirl96M]

When I started taking things apart, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the air filter... damn thing looked like it had never been replaced in the car's seven years. It was filthy and all torn up. Good thing it was a Texas car-poor thing never would have survived like that in Chicago! So maybe that had something to do with all the nastiness I found.

I don't know what breather lines are.... Sorry, I'm so new to this car, and working on cars in general, that I have a LOT to learn. My engine light was off this morning, but came on at lunchtime. Could this be because of the stuff that's still in the manifold? Unfortunately it's going to have to stay in there until spring, since I've only got three weeks before my Miata goes into storage and the MX-6 is my only car. I don't have time to take the car apart, get the manifold machined, and get everything back together in that time.

And yes, I can make anything into a long speech, T... Guess it's just part of being a girl. But I'm so excited about this car I could go on and on and on. I just wish there were an MX-6 club near me where me and my boy could make some new friends!

 

[Guest]

I'd clean it out if you feel its going to help, but yeah, take the manifold off if you're going to do so. So the Miata is going into storage? *Sigh* finally a girl who knows how to treat a car right...and she even knows how to type well.

 

[RbluEMx6]

Good thing it was a Texas car-poor thing never would have survived like that in Chicago!

Actually, I am living in El Paso, TX where high winds and lots of blowing dust are very bad for the intake and the paint jobs on all these cars. i have to hand wash my car every other day and clean off the dust under the hood. :lol:

But anyways, yeah hope your 6 survives the winter( I know how it is up in Chicago).

 

[lordy611]

Sounds to me like you need a professional induction system cleaning (decarbonizing of the intake system). They spray/flush somehow and voila! Zoom Zoom.
After about 7500 miles of clean intake parts, get a can of BG 44K and run it thru your fuel system. It should help to keep all that nasty away from the 'purple monster'!

 

[ChicagoGirl96M]

Lordy, do you know if I would just go to a regular mechanic for a professional induction system cleaning, or if I have to take it some place special?

Also, is there an easy way to reset my check engine light? He decided to tease me and leave it off for a while yesterday, but it's back on now. I'm not sure if that's a fluke, and it's still the original error codes, or if something else has come up. God I hope not-I like my cars to be LESS work to keep happy than my boyfriend, not more!

 

[Guest]

Wow, nice tie-in with the boyfriend comment, that was really good...thanks for letting us know.8D

Maybe reset your ECU and that'll erase the error codes and kill the check engine light temporarily. Though I'd look into the problem some more personally.

 

[rylinkus]

Wow, nice tie-in with the boyfriend comment, that was really good...thanks for letting us know.8D

BTW, you're no longer welcome here......

Just kidding.

You can reset the CEL by unhooking the Neg terminal of the battery and depressing the brake pedal 30 seconds or so. If it comes back on get it checked out. These lights come on for a reason.

 

[ShadowSE95]

i took off a friend-of-mins's PGT TB the other day to swap out the IAC and when we got it off, he had a really thick coating of carbon / oil / sludge covering everything from the TB plate back into the heads. So we took off the IM (fun!) and went to a carwash where we blew the hell out of it with a high-pressure spray gun. yes, it was nasty, but now it is clean! (hehe) next step will be putting inline filters into the PCV lines to try and prevent this from happening again.

 

[rylinkus]

i took off a friend-of-mins's PGT TB the other day to swap out the IAC and when we got it off, he had a really thick coating of carbon / oil / sludge covering everything from the TB plate back into the heads. So we took off the IM (fun!) and went to a carwash where we blew the hell out of it with a high-pressure spray gun. yes, it was nasty, but now it is clean! (hehe) next step will be putting inline filters into the PCV lines to try and prevent this from happening again.

Carb cleaner yould probably work just as well. :shrug:

 

[ShadowSE95]

Carb cleaner yould probably work just as well. :shrug:

not for the parts you can't get to directly and not when it was on as thick as this stuff was. it was nasty.

 

[ChicagoGirl96M]

not for the parts you can't get to directly and not when it was on as thick as this stuff was. it was nasty.

Mine was really think in there too. I got a really funny look from my hygienist when she handed me a new toothbrush after my cleaning and I said something along the lines of "Cool! I needed a toothbrush for the car!" But even with some serious scrubbing it took me a couple hours to get the crap off. And there's still stuff inside that I can't get to!

 

[Guest]

BTW, you're no longer welcome here......

Just kidding.

You can reset the CEL by unhooking the Neg terminal of the battery and depressing the brake pedal 30 seconds or so. If it comes back on get it checked out. These lights come on for a reason.

Bah, you just said what I did earlier but in a little more detail. So stop stepping on my shoes.



:lol: