idle should be 850-900

How would you adjust idle speed? If it was a carb, no problem. Not much experience with injection.

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thats a simple one though theres a little black box that says diagnostic on it, let the car warm up completely, jump pins ten and gnd, theres a screw on the side of the throttle body slowly adjust it up too ~850. remove the jumper, rev and make sure it falls back to where you set it if not repeat.

Welcome to the forum! Sorry I'm late to the party.

While you are jumping pins TEN and GND, put a timing light on the crank and make sure the timing mark lines up with the timing notch on the timing cover (marked 0 and 10). When TEN and GND are jumpered it locks timing at 10 degrees and you can verify timing at that point. If it is a little off, you can loosen the cam angle sensor located on the rear of the exhaust cam and rotate it to adjust. Adding 5 degrees to the base timing won't hurt anything and will make the car a little peppier. Above 17 or 18 degrees you will get a little pre-ignition, so don't go too far.

As for rattles, check the upper shock mount bushings, and the sway bar bushings if you think it is suspension.

My car is a '96, too, so if you need any parts I might have something extra laying around. I arrived at the Miata by way of Austin Healey Sprites and a long gone Triumph GT6+ so I understand the affinity for lightweight cars. And to reiterate what RTM said above, these cars are extraordinarily reliable with only rudimentary maintenance.

Thanks for the info folks. I had already been thinking of advancing the cam about 5° or so. Probably gonna start on the body pretty soon. Did find loose shock mounts. Also went ahead and installed a Pioneer unit with bluetooth and ipod plug ins. Daughter is rocking with the hands free now!

i love having the bluetooth connection in the car, i wish my dd had it to be honest. but sound quality in the dd will always be better than the miata so i will take the trade off.

Advancing the cam is not something I suggested. Advancing the spark timing is a better idea. It was probably a typo on your part.