What have I been up to?
Wrestling with wiring mostly!
There is so much of it to rationalise and not helped in some cases by the Mk2.5 MX-5 loom not being quite the same as the diagrams would have you believe! Additional wires in connectors which do not appear in the diagrams, mostly in the instrument panel area and also notably in regards the big blue X-16 Engine management loom connector. For example the manifold oxygen sensor is shown in the diagrams with all four wires being wired directly to the ECU. However the Mk2.5 oxygen sensor heater ground wire actually runs from the ECU to the sensor via a loop on the fuse box side of connector X-16!!
There have been some major head scratchers but I *think* I’ve fathomed it all out. And all of this in conjunction with making sure the wiring is all properly installed (for Mr IVA) which has taken way more time than I had thought.
The main reason for going though this pain now is that I’m using an ME221 ECU and whilst it is PnP, it doesn’t utilise some of the original ECU wiring which I have ‘deleted’ as part of the loom install process.
Anyhoo, here’s a list of what’s been done most recently:
- Replaced diff pinion oil seal.
- Set rear ride height (145mm).
- Torqued the rear suspension to 40Nm. I torqued the upper and lower rear hub carrier bolts to 50Nm (top) and 60Nm (lower), notionally based on the MX-5 specs.
- Removed and refitted the rear wheel arches adding rubber piping / gasket.
- Fitted second prototype FPR bracket and created final 3D design.
- Commenced 3D design for rear fog light mount.
- Opened a DVLA account for IVA application and started pulling the paperwork together.
- Set rear wheel camber (1º).
- Completed and tested rear light wiring.
- Refitted rear wheel arches with rubber trim between arch and side panel.
- Loomed in handbrake, reverse switch, neutral switch and speedo sensor wiring.
- Continued to tidy wiring around fusebox, adding spiral wrap where required.
- Added rubber trim to ECU panel where edges are contactable from footwells.
- Tested Hazard wiring, switch and LED lights flasher unit – all worked first time!
And here are some pics:

