I realize this is a nissan forum but i'd rather ask you guys Any help I can get will be greatly apreciated.

I've been wanting a 240 or a 300zx but i came across a mazda miata 1990 5 speed and fell in love with it. It has 64k miles with NO rust and beautiful paint. I've been driving it around fine for about 3 days now, and now i'm noticing all the problems little by little.

1. The engine began to overheat i noticed the fan wasn't on...The coolant bubbles in the reserve. I checked all the fuses and its not a fuse related problem. I'm guessing it could be a thermostat, water pump, or maybe even a clogged hose? It has overheated once and i immediately shut off the car. I think his might have lead to problem 2.

2. The car idled fine and drove smoothly when I bought it... Now it sputters.... and is about to stall out. When I accelerate the car lags and jumps and sputters up the rpms. The engine is making a low buzzing noise. Maybe its a vacuum leak in the throttle?

What scares me is I had the same thing happen to my previous car (94 civic)... The head gasket blew the next day and an hour later a rod blew threw the block destroying the engine altogether.

Might be a leaking HG, for the sputtering you could check your vaccum lines, your timing, MAF, plugs & wires. The overheating I would first replace your thermostat and do a system flush, you can do that so cheap its by far worth it, if after that your still having problems I would look into a leakdown and compression test.

Whats HG?

Timing belts are nearly brand new. How can I check if the MAF is good or not? It looks like it needs new plugs... maybe that will solve that issue.

I'll replace plugs, thermostat, and a radiator flush today.

HG is a quick referance to HeadGasket. Umm I would buy some electrical contact cleaner and spray the MAF with it see if its really dirty, if not you can check with a voltmeter and see how many volts your maf is sending to your ecu, You can do this by connecting a voltmeter to the signal wire (usually have 3 main wires: power, ground, Signal to ECU) and blowing air into your maf, but older Miatas have a VAF (Vane Airflow Meter) And I know there is 2 types, they both recieve battery voltage but one returns more voltage (older one) to the ECU and one returns less voltage (newer one). I cant really help you on testing your VAF, sorry. When I said Timing I meant your Ignition Timing not your physical timing. Oh and your plugs get gapped at .044.

miata.net?

it's a GREAT resource for the cars.

I wish I could get in one and drive it right...

Took me a while but i figured it out. The throttle cable was getting stuck (18 year old spring) I WD40'ed it and it helped out a lot. It lags here and there but no real issue. That solved the rough idling too. I got one fan to spin, the other one still doesn't but now it doesn't overheat at all. There was also a clamp missing on the hose on an antifreeze hose. I was soo worried it was a HG issue and now I'm happy. The car drives and pulls beautifully now

I created an account on miata.net with the same user name but I still like nico better.

One last thing: I need an alarm. Not a sounding one or anything special, I just want some kind of kill switch so no one can steal it. What should I get?

Thanks for all your help guys

cool deal.

nothing wrong with liking this forum better...I don't have nissan right now either....the users here just rock.