On the road again...

  So I sit here in a St. George, Utah hotel room with what sounds like Hurricane Isaac outside; hot, dusty, windy, thunder, hail, rain.  We don't get much 'weather' in San Diego.

  I am headed to Lincoln for Solo Nationals and I made it about 500 miles from home before I had a mechanical breakdown. I departed San Diego a day early so I could relax and explore a little with a scheduled stop in Vegas.  Leisurely cruising up I15 on Wednesday morning just east of Nevada and the car starts to hesitate and cutout under load. First thing that comes to mind is the ECU, specifically the Greddy EMU piggyback, so I pull over and bypass the Boomslang harness which puts everything in stock configuration. Start and go and I notice it runs great for the first couple miles and then quickly gets worse again.  Replace the cam angle sensor and check all connections and inspect AFM and throttle body.  Briefly runs great again for a few minutes and then goes bad again.  I am able to repeat this procedure a few times and limp it to the next safe exit and call for a tow truck.

   St. George is a few miles away and the local Mazda dealer gets me in right away.  Diagnosis is the ECU (fuel cut), but they do not have a spare one available to test and a new ($$$) ecu is days away.  The car has cooled down a little again so it is happy for a few miles before the symptoms appear again; just enough time to get me to a hotel where I search for a used ECU.  St. George Craigslist has nothing and a local junkyard search does not show any available computers for the NB1 Miata.

  A tip from a friend leads me to Mike's Place, an Arizona automotive shop specializing in Miatas, and they are happy to work with me and overnight a BP4W ecu directly to the hotel here in St.George.  However, the shipment is not guaranteed because of the remote (?!LOL) location and may not show up until Friday.

  I also called Joe at Dynotronics (DPTune) and he was eager to help me also with an overnight delivery of another BP4W; this one being delivered directly to the local Mazda dealership with the hope that a business address may help make the overnite shipment a reality.

  If all goes well and the diagnosis is correct, I will get the ECU installed before noon Thursday morning and continue my journey to Nebraska.