Got a 6' ... Sort of

[Megamonkey]

Alrighty so starting a new job in April and need a car to get there, was thinking about a HDi but then a friend of my parents was getting rid of this -







Its a 2003 Mazda 6 Estate, 2.0l Diesel and picked it up for £300 quid!

However for that price it has a few problems,

Its done 153,000 miles tho has a full service and mot history, with only 1 owner from new.

Theres a crack in the windscreen in the passager side lower corner (pics to follow) - Has to be sorted for MOT I assume

MOT and tax till the end of March

5th gear pops out when you press the go faster pedal -

Uses about a litre of oil every 3-4months (2500 to 3000 miles) - Likely to be the turbo, apprently these cars have an oil strainer in the sump that clogs and restricts oil flow to the turbo?

Slow puncture on the back passager tyre

Battery dies if not used for over a week.

Brakes and tyres are worn but don't need replacing for another 5 or 6 thousand miles

Cambelt overdue.

A/C Need regassing



So basically I'm going to chuck it in for an MOT and see if theres anything more that would fail it, and see if its worth fixing. I can live with the oil and gearbox issues for now, but anyone know cheap fixes to these?

Idea would be to get it through an MOT and tax for 6 months and see what happens. Anything else goes wrong it'll probably be scrapped, otherwise I might consider fixing it up, little bit of tune too, get rid of the DPF and airbox


Generally it looks in good condition, couple of scuffs around it as to be expected. Tho it does have a 6 CD changer and BOSE sound system

I'll get some pictures when I pick it up on Sunday.

[Chris]

The gear box could be engine mounts allowing the engine to move pulling on the linkages popping it out of gear. (mate had that on his 306) but could be a worn box.

For that price I'd fix it, cant be hard to get parts (turbo and gearbox) as it should be just a ford mondeo under the bodywork (the 3 is a focus under the skin)

[D@wson]

If the crack is on the passenger side and is no bigger than 40mm then its a pass.

[Megamonkey]

The gear box could be engine mounts allowing the engine to move pulling on the linkages popping it out of gear. (mate had that on his 306) but could be a worn box.

For that price I'd fix it, cant be hard to get parts (turbo and gearbox) as it should be just a ford mondeo under the bodywork (the 3 is a focus under the skin)

Apprently these mazda's had gearbox problems due to low oil levels ... most common was that it grinded in 1st and 2nd when cold (or when putting in the wrong oil)

Mount might be the issue tho, as it only slowly comes out and there's not other problems with the box and very smooth! Tho the clutch is a bit high but think its normal for this?

If the crack is on the passenger side and is no bigger than 40mm then its a pass.

Well its alot less than 40mm wide ... but its about 15cm long! haha

[Niall]

Not a bad find for the price!
They used the same style strainer in the sump as the old saabs which suffered really badly from getting clogged up. Eventually if left to get too bad, it would just starve the engine of oil.
Not a bad job to clean. Just not a nice one. At all! Good few hours work.

[Megamonkey]

Not a bad find for the price!
They used the same style strainer in the sump as the old saabs which suffered really badly from getting clogged up. Eventually if left to get too bad, it would just starve the engine of oil.
Not a bad job to clean. Just not a nice one. At all! Good few hours work.

I assume its just drain all the oil, get the sump off (getting rather mucky too), scoop all the shite and crap out and clean strainer ... refit sump with some sealer and fill with oil again?

[Connor]

Nice mondeo

[Niall]

Not a bad find for the price!
They used the same style strainer in the sump as the old saabs which suffered really badly from getting clogged up. Eventually if left to get too bad, it would just starve the engine of oil.
Not a bad job to clean. Just not a nice one. At all! Good few hours work.

I assume its just drain all the oil, get the sump off (getting rather mucky too), scoop all the shite and crap out and clean strainer ... refit sump with some sealer and fill with oil again?

Yeah but I would put aside 3-5 hours. 10 years of oil builds up in these. They look horrible and you can't just jet it put. You need to scrape it out of every hole in there then cover the thing in gunk for a while.
Believe me it's a messy job and it does come out practically solid but the car will thank you for it.

If you can, buy a new strainer as these are a pain to clean and you can never get them totally clean. If not, just be careful with it as its a very fine mesh.

[Megamonkey]

I assume its just drain all the oil, get the sump off (getting rather mucky too), scoop all the shite and crap out and clean strainer ... refit sump with some sealer and fill with oil again?

Yeah but I would put aside 3-5 hours. 10 years of oil builds up in these. They look horrible and you can't just jet it put. You need to scrape it out of every hole in there then cover the thing in gunk for a while.
Believe me it's a messy job and it does come out practically solid but the car will thank you for it.

If you can, buy a new strainer as these are a pain to clean and you can never get them totally clean. If not, just be careful with it as its a very fine mesh.

Would it not just be better for me to buy a new sump and strainer if it isn't too expensive?

Think this is a job for after the MOT and cambelt tho, want to make sure nothing else goes bang first! Not sure how easy the cambelt is on this,whether it a job for me or if I need some help and there not much info on Mazda forums about this model so think I need a Haynes manual!


Thinking of this kind of order -

Fix anything to get it MOT worthiness, includes the windscreen!
Battery replace
Fix puncture in rear tyre
Cambelt
Clean out or replace sump
Gearbox - might see if a gearbox oil change helps before this tho.
Turbo replacement - as I reckon this is where the oil goes

As I said tho, most of it won't happen in the first 6 months!

Then it'll be on to the modifying, tho first time I've ever had something with an ECU!

Ps thanks for the advise

[Niall]

If you can get a new sump, it will only be a 20 min job then to swap them over but I think most suffered from it so if you went to the scrap yard and got one, you would still have to clean it out.

[Megamonkey]

Pictures added in the first post, sorry about the quality it was getting dark and was on my phone!

[Megamonkey]

Managed to sort out the airbag warning light and replaced a couple of exterior lightbulbs ... Hopefully now it should only be the windscreen that will fail the MOT, so need to get that sorted.

[Poodle]

Looks good, would say it's worth fixing myself, relatively sought-after cars, should easily be able to make your money back if you decide to move on.

[Megamonkey]

Aye ... well I've seen ones with the same sort of Milage go for £2000 ... which I thought is alot! £1000 would be more reasonable I think, and should be able to do all the things for less than that!

Update on the Airbag light, its back on and resetting the system and unplugging the sensors under the passanger seat doesn't work not (my lardy arse brother set it off when I took him to football practice) ... so I think a replacement seat is in order as it'll be the sensor in the seat. Hopefully going a breakers on saturday that has a mazda 6 estate so should be able to sort it out!

Got my Haynes manual on order too!

Plus got a quote on the windscreen for £168 + VAT so just over £200 quid, which isn't bad. Autoglass quoted me £500 for it!

[Megamonkey]

Alright so was MOT day today, and well it failed for -

Offside suspension mount corroded (£40 quids worth of welding to fix)
Offside anti roll bar fixing cracked (£60 quid to replace)
Nearside lamp corroded - not producing enough light - Go down the scrappy I think

All tyres need replacing as either a fail or advisory.



Not bad I don't think to be honest.