Proof Miatas are durable cars

[black roadster]

I decided to do a compression test on my 1995 Miata with original motor and nearly 180k miles

Here are the numbers.

.........^.........
Front of Motor
.......(190)......
.......(180)......
.......(185)......
.......(180)......

Gary at TDR says (175) is excellent.

Looks like I don't need to worry about my motor being tired.


BTW, if anyone wants to check your compression, we can do this at a Wednesday night GTG. It takes about 15 minutes.


Oh and for all you synthetic oil lovers, my car gets Castrol High Mileage Dino Oil roughly every 3k miles.

[smartmx5]

Damn!! Very strong numbers. How about a leak down test? That is your next check. I need to perform a compression test on my car. Does Autozone have a compression loaner tool?

[Radio-Active]

Yes.

[Sharpie]

My numbers were very similiar at 212k miles.

[black roadster]

Damn!! Very strong numbers. How about a leak down test? That is your next check. I need to perform a compression test on my car. Does Autozone have a compression loaner tool?

do you really think I need to do a leak down with those numbers?

[Nexus Flux]

Might as well, more info leads to better informed decisions. Plus it gives you more numbers to brag about

[black roadster]

Might as well, more info leads to better informed decisions. Plus it gives you more numbers to brag about

So who has the tools to do a leak down?

[VFR750]

BR, not to rain on your party (cause your motor is probably still pretty healthy) but how many times did you let the motor crank over to get those numbers? With those readings it sounds like you let each cylinder hit compression 8 or 10 times. I forget the rule of thumb now but IIRC you should get 75% or so of your max reading on your first pump. A leak down is a true test of cylinder sealing, I have a tester. They are pretty cheap on Ebay. If I ever get home and caught up we can have a leak down party!

[black roadster]

BR, not to rain on your party (cause your motor is probably still pretty healthy) but how many times did you let the motor crank over to get those numbers? With those readings it sounds like you let each cylinder hit compression 8 or 10 times. I forget the rule of thumb now but IIRC you should get 75% or so of your max reading on your first pump. A leak down is a true test of cylinder sealing, I have a tester. They are pretty cheap on Ebay. If I ever get home and caught up we can have a leak down party!

I went with the recommendation of my gauge. 4-5 cranks. It sort of leveled off around there.

[VFR750]

BR, if your readings are that good with only 4 or 5 pumps don't waste your time doing a leak down, your in good shape.

[trickyrix]

That's good stuff, BR... how long have you had that car?

I thought Hallett was a pretty good indicator of how durable our cars are! My car's temp never crept past what it normally runs (about halfway up the dial). It didn't use any oil that I could tell. The tires still look fine. And once I learned how/where to brake on that track, they didn't get stinky - and I never got a soft pedal.

I can't imagine my old Mustang or Camaro making it through the weekend without smoking the brakes, overheating, puking power steering fluid, or chewing up a set of tires.

[black roadster]

I bought it with 9x,xxx miles on it in 2003 from the third owner who had it for 60k miles. He had good maintinance records and I've changed the oil roughly every 3k miles with regular 10w30 dino oil.

[SirHustlerEsq]

i bought my 1991 with 148k miles, did 19 track days last year, and the only thing that ever broke was a spring in the exedy clutch. The thing was a tank, hopefully it will be just as reliable with the turbo 1.9l '99 motor.