There hasn’t been much to journal about lately except depressing car repair news. We took apart the Miata, replaced the water pump, put everything back together, and the noise that was the cause of all this ruckus in the first place still remained. It wasn’t all a loss, since the water pump did have a bad bearing and could have used replacing anyhow.

So we ordered the next part that could be the problem (timing belt pulleys) on Friday and have been waiting the weekend for UPS to deliver the package.

Assuming it will arrive later today, we took the car apart yet again and pulled off the pulley on the side of the car that seemed to have been making the most noise. Sure enough, the pulley had something scraping inside. But was it our squeak?

Berck put the sander attachment (minus the sandpaper) on a Dremel tool and put it up against the pulley. When the Dremel tool spun, it spun the pulley, and when Berck turned the it off, the pulley continued to spin … and made our squeak! We feel confidant that we’ve isolated the problem and can leave as soon as we’ve put the car back together.

It’s amazing how much easier it is to take a car apart when you’ve just done it a few days before. Hopefully, the same will prove true for putting it back together again…