#4 bearing on a 99

[David Crisford]

LINKIE to First eBay AD

My VIN is only 3,000 higher than this one.
Anybody know if my #4 would have a problem or where I could find out?

Thanks, David

[David Crisford]

Well DOH!,
See the "Darkside" in Introduction for the link to IPRESS's new 99.

Congratulations!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...%3ALC%3AMT%3A1


My VIN is JM1NB3532X0127427

[Majik]

Maybe, maybe not. All 99s and 2000s could have the problem. Best thing to do is test it, then either line up a new engine, or forget about it. There is nothing really to do to prevent it, but the higher the mileage, the less likely it is going to happen.

[POS Racing]

Ask and you shall recieve, here is some stuff from Mazda.

http://www.miata.net/garage/tsb/sb002_99_1.pdf
http://www.miata.net/garage/tsb/sb002_99_2.pdf

[riverracer]

At over 80,000 miles I think I'll just forget I read this..... Nice to meet you yesterday Majik.............

[altiain]

majik is right - all '99 & '00 Miatas could potentially have the #4 problem.

That's the bad news. The good news is that it's a manufacturing issue, not a design one. What's that mean? It means if you have your crank endplay measured and its in spec, then you don't have a bad #4 thrust bearing, and your car will never spontaneously develop the problem.

In other words, if your car tests within specs the first time, you never have to worry about this particular problem again.

The downside is, that if your car fails the endplay measurement test, there is a high probability that at some point it will cost you the engine - there is no "fix" for the problem, like there is with the short-nosed cranks on the original Miatas.

One good thing about higher mileage cars - the majority of #4 failures occurred in the first 30,000 miles, and they're almost unheard of above 70,000 miles. so if you've got a higher mileage car, I wouldn't worry about it anyway. For instance, my first motor went at 11,000 miles. The replacement has 89,000 on it now, and I'm not worried about it.