Oil for a first gen Miata

[ctechbob]

Thanks for all of this. Yea; it definitely needs a little love in the handling department. A huge part of the problem now is it's probably on 20 year old tires that suck and need balancing, but on the drive home there was a pretty notable "death wobble" at around 70mph.

The stock wheels are 14", and there seem to be very few options in the performance category. I want either UHPS or UHPAS for this car, and I dont see anything readily available in the 14" size. I may be looking for a set of 15" wheels to open up my tire options a bit, but I'm a little concerned about weight. In any event, first maintenance item is new rubber all around, if nothing else for safety. Alignment to follow.

Plenty of good light 15" wheels out there. I had RPF1's as my street/autocross wheel and a spare set of Rota Circuit 8s for my track tires. There's lots of others out there now.

Ahh the Miata shake. Some cars have it worse than others. Road force balancing your new tires will probably reduce it if not clean kill it.

 

[Legs4Arms]

Mobil 1 Euro 5w30 gets my vote in this engine. Not the ESP, the newish release, at least here in Canada. Full SAPS, ~3.5 HTHS. Seems like the perfect fit for the little mice-driven 1.6

 

[CleanSump]

Somehow I'm feeling Castrol for this. With that chart though, you can pick anything except water.

 

[Legs4Arms]

Somehow I'm feeling Castrol for this. With that chart though, you can pick anything except water.

Being brutally honest I'm on board with your thought process. The Castrol 5W-30 Euro Car C3 stuff I stole on clearance made my GA16DE silent. Only time I've ever twisted the key when it was already running was after that oil change. Seriously good oil...

 

[TacoFergie]

Welcome to peak Japanese sports cars of the 90's!! I don't closely follow the Miata's, but mostly MR2's. But I believe any modern 5w30 synthetic will easily be able to handle the whatever you can throw at these low horsepower, low stress NA engines. Depending on how many miles and how you plan on driving it in the summer months, I'm willing to bet an annual oil change will suffice as well. I really like Valvoline Restore and Protect for unknown history on used vehicles. Keep an eye on oil level too. If you take it on longer highway runs at 70+ mph, you're likely to use oil since you'll be at a sustained high RPM. My MR2 at 75mph is cruising at just under 4k RPM.

When I got my NA MR2 (5SFE) it was burning about 1qt every 800-1000 miles and had valvetrain tapping on startup after sitting more than a day, unknown oil at the time. I tried Mobil 5w40 in 2023 and it was the same. In 2024 Valvoline Restore and Protect was showing awesome results all over the interwebs. So I threw Valvoline Restore and Protect 5w30 in the car and throughout the summer I noticed it reduced oil consumption, about 1qt/1500 miles. I only put about 3k miles on the car a year, so 1 oil change at the end of the season is my normal OCI. This summer with fresh Valvoline Restore and Protect, consumption was down to about 1qt/2000 miles, valvetrain tick is only noticed when sitting for week or more now, so an improvement there too.

 

[Reloader59]

If you are going to drive it in the winter, I would suggest 5W-30.

 

[SugarMouth]

Thanks for all of this. Yea; it definitely needs a little love in the handling department. A huge part of the problem now is it's probably on 20 year old tires that suck and need balancing, but on the drive home there was a pretty notable "death wobble" at around 70mph.

If those tires are really that old, I would replace them first thing. You can check the date on the sidewall.

As for oil, if it does not see the track I'd just grab Kirkland 5w-30 and call it good.

 

[ATex7239]

Nice ride - love i!

Stock 90’s NA 4 cylinder I’d go 5w-30 and not lose a bit of sleep over it. Ultimate Protection 5W-30 would be great.

 

[Japanese]

Plenty of good light 15" wheels out there.

I used to autoX my Civic with Windy City Miata Club sometime ago. Used to know most of the Miata enthusiast in the area and was for an year or two part of their club regardless that I had Honda.

Btw, I have for sale maybe the lightest Miata rims the 14", 6J Hollow Spokes. Bought them for another vehicle, but won't need them for now. Those are about 10.8 lbs with no tire. Awesome 14" stock rims. The Honda has similar but 5.5J off the '96 Civic HX. I run those two.
Both Mazda and Honda 14" stock rims were made by Enkei with the only reason - light weight.