BAM! Mr. Tarrou. Is your Miata all of a sudden getting tons of fog on the inside
of the windshield in the morning? Are you struggling like me to figure out why
your floorboards are full of water? Now I'm squishing water out of this
little hole but actually I had a couple of inches of water and the
floorboard of my car by the time I finally figured out... that when water
comes down off of your soft top it comes through this channel down towards the
front into this plastic area down this tube and into this little box now yes I
have heard that Miatas have drain filters but after three years of
ownership my filters could get this clogged up and yes we have a big oak
tree in our yard but I take my car to the dealer all the time to have it well
have the oil changed I clean it all the time I'm constantly washing it and I
just could not believe that all of this stuff could be in my filters and yes
it's my first convertible I admit I'm a bit of a noob even though I've owned
this car for three years and here just on the other side again the top is down
there is your channel where the water is going to come in flowing from the roof
this is the side where I have taken off that filter and down in here we can see
that there's also a foam filter underneath that plastic cup so I'm going
to pop the roof here a little bit raise it up just a hair and get my hand wiggle
down in there
to get there we go to get that foam filter out of there
look at all that gun no wonder I had an inch plus of water in the floorboard of
the passenger side of my car okay so let's see you know I put this roll bar
in I thought maybe it was leaking because I cut some of the drainage trays
inside the car but no it was just because those filters are clogged just
like you'll see all over the internet people talking about how the interior of
your Miata ends up starting to flood with water those are probably clogged
and they're also quite difficult to get to in a nd Miata so we're going to raise
this up a little bit this is only my second attempt of getting one of these
filters out we're gonna reach around and here bring in my arm down underneath and
I'm going to be trying to feel there's a little bit of there's a little bit of a
foam tab on this box cover and then I can't move my hand around I'm trying to
use my pointer finger just behind going towards the back of the car there's that
little tab that you can push on and pull towards the inside of the car you might
have to put the phone down and try and do this with two hands
nope okay I use my nail and I'm putting that nail behind the clip that you can
push down I'm pulling it towards into the side of the car I know you can't see
in this I'm just trying to describe it I'm going to tilt that in and wiggle it
up a little bit it should be fun trying to see me try and put these back in it's
starting it lift up lift up feel tons of debris I think I'm going to close the
roof a bit more yep that's it it wasn't coming up because the roof was some kind
of bar from the roof was in the way and there we go let's see if I can't put the
camera here and show you how its lifted out
you
so I've taken a hose I've rinsed this out you can actually see this through
this again rinse out the little sponge filter here which is going to go
underneath this filter as such and you're going to see that there is a
right hand side and a left hand side this right hand side is going to go into
the car with this kind of orientation here this should be fun trying to see me
to get this try watching me trying to get this back in but we're first going
to take this filter with the top down we're going to slip this down in here
with the nice orientation
kind of sort of tucking that in or look something like this when we're done and
this dirty side is the side that was to the car catching that debris as it came
down from that Inlet and now
okay we'll see if we can't get a picture of this once it's back in but you're
gonna want the top up about almost close reach your hand between the side of the
seat and this metal bar here and sneak your hand down get your elbow into this
area and you're looking for that foam pad you just put in and get that bottom
of that basket kind of just above where that foam is and it doesn't I thought as
I was trying all that time to slide it down but you're actually kind of once
you feel that area slide the basket towards the outside of the car and
eventually you're gonna feel a little bit of a foam seal that's in the car the
bottom of that basket kind of sits into it and you can feel that that clip wants
to snap in and you just heard it I hope and it's in plate but I just had a
revelation that I did both sides of the car the hard way as far as getting those
filters out so we're going to open the door we are going to move the seat up
we're gonna pop this door sill off that was real hard we are going to put the
top down so we have some light
take the seat up and I'm gonna do this uncut because this was so much better
than what just did little nails fold it out one pin this is the passenger side
of course get my nail in here to pin
three
and I'm not trying to edit this short I just accidentally stopped the video with
those three little snap pins out or whatever you want to call those you're
gonna grab this piece of plastic you're gonna lift it up down here I've already
done this because I didn't realize the cameras had stopped we're gonna get that
loose from the bottom and we're gonna pull this down and out and there's that
quarter panel there's everything nice and open and where are you at trying to
do this oh there you go that is the filter box that I just took out still
not the best of lighting but with the top up and this panel out you simply
reach in here try not to knock that wire loose from
the seep up mechanism and see I'm not a contortionist come in here
pinch the left-hand side of the left and right hand side of the box maybe use my
thumb here on this pin get it to come out
trying to wiggle it the wrong way and out comes your filter without acting
like a contortionist now again my filter is all nice and clean but now I'm still
trying to do this with the Cameron I'm just showing you this is much easier to
take out that those two pieces of plastic trying to go it in feel the
bottom where the foam is and when it Wiggles in with the right spot you can
kind of tell it starts to get to be a natural fit and push in as I try and
talk of course it always works better when you're not on camera right to rush
this there we go and it clicked into place again kind of
going right back into there and it's in the right position now whether I buy a
tool or I take this to the dealer that is how you clean out those filter boxes
and access them easily but I believe because I've let this go for three years
it seems like it drains into a horizontal pipe here a little bit and
then goes inside there and drains towards the bottom of the car but at any
rate that is an easier way to get to your drain filters so we're going to
take this piece going to slide it up here going to
snap that into place you can see these holes now we're just going to yeah get a
little bit of wiggling around get those holes to once again line up they're not
all three lining up so I'm gonna get this in push put this pin in push and we
see that they're not quite lined up here we're just gonna move this around a
little bit here we go
put that in up carefully not ruining your trim pieces snap when Dastur sill
pop it in and now with a lot less effort you have cleaned your filter boxes
you