It's broken already
Discussion
Well it's a record for me...3 miles before it broke down.
Firstly, I bought it privately and I know I have no comeback and have absolutely no intention of even contacting the previous owner. I took a chance and it has backfired a bit. Tough.
So what happened. Finally taxed it, put the room down, grabbed some CD's and I was off. Nice and gently warming it up and a clunk and it died on me. Wouldn't restart so I had no choice but to call the missus and get her to tow me home. At this point I must say for a first towing exercise she did a great job.
Had a feeling it was the cambelt. Removed the oil cap and turned the engine over and the exhaust cam wasn't turning. Luckily for me its a non-interference engine.
So a decision had to be made...what to do.
I asked the following questions:
Did I buy the wrong car? Possibly but that's tough.
Was the car cheap? Yes
Have I ever stripped down an engine? No (removing the rocker cover below has been the most I have ever done).
What is my Haynes spanner rating? 1..I have changed the oil in the past
Do I often end up trying stuff and then paying a professional even more money to sort out my mess? Yes
Do I own a socket set? Yes
So with the above asked the answer was obvious. Try and fix it myself. I had already decided to change some parts due to an oil leak and had purchased a rocker cover gasket, CAS o-ring seal, new water pipes (the CAS leaks onto these) along with the general items for a service. How much more work can adding a cambelt on be? And while we are there may as well do a waterpump.
So why the thread:
I am likely to need lots of advice
Some people may find it interesting
It's more likely people will find it amusing when I cock it up
Firstly I whipped the rocker cover off and this immediately confirmed the problem. Although the cambelt doesn't appear to have snapped there is no tension which has resulted in the timing being complete screwed. Possibly tensioner spring?
so time to start stripping. This will be done over a number of evenings and weekends and I will drip feed the information as and when I can.
Airbox and associated gubbins off, radiator out, engine tray off, power steering adjustment released (couldn't release the main bolt so have left it overnight with some WD40). Plus gas, and loads of other bits, is on order.
And that's the current state of play. Will update when I next get a couple of hours to work on it.
Firstly, I bought it privately and I know I have no comeback and have absolutely no intention of even contacting the previous owner. I took a chance and it has backfired a bit. Tough.
So what happened. Finally taxed it, put the room down, grabbed some CD's and I was off. Nice and gently warming it up and a clunk and it died on me. Wouldn't restart so I had no choice but to call the missus and get her to tow me home. At this point I must say for a first towing exercise she did a great job.
Had a feeling it was the cambelt. Removed the oil cap and turned the engine over and the exhaust cam wasn't turning. Luckily for me its a non-interference engine.
So a decision had to be made...what to do.
I asked the following questions:
Did I buy the wrong car? Possibly but that's tough.
Was the car cheap? Yes
Have I ever stripped down an engine? No (removing the rocker cover below has been the most I have ever done).
What is my Haynes spanner rating? 1..I have changed the oil in the past
Do I often end up trying stuff and then paying a professional even more money to sort out my mess? Yes
Do I own a socket set? Yes
So with the above asked the answer was obvious. Try and fix it myself. I had already decided to change some parts due to an oil leak and had purchased a rocker cover gasket, CAS o-ring seal, new water pipes (the CAS leaks onto these) along with the general items for a service. How much more work can adding a cambelt on be? And while we are there may as well do a waterpump.
So why the thread:
I am likely to need lots of advice
Some people may find it interesting
It's more likely people will find it amusing when I cock it up
Firstly I whipped the rocker cover off and this immediately confirmed the problem. Although the cambelt doesn't appear to have snapped there is no tension which has resulted in the timing being complete screwed. Possibly tensioner spring?
so time to start stripping. This will be done over a number of evenings and weekends and I will drip feed the information as and when I can.
Airbox and associated gubbins off, radiator out, engine tray off, power steering adjustment released (couldn't release the main bolt so have left it overnight with some WD40). Plus gas, and loads of other bits, is on order.
And that's the current state of play. Will update when I next get a couple of hours to work on it.
Brave man.
I am a bit of a novice mechanic, but decided against changing the water pump/ Cambelt myself a couple of months ago.
I also need to change the CAS o ring having just replaced the heater hoses. Will read the thread with interest from one novice to another. I am sure most the time it is a confidence thing rather than lack of ability.
Best of luck
Mike
I am a bit of a novice mechanic, but decided against changing the water pump/ Cambelt myself a couple of months ago.
I also need to change the CAS o ring having just replaced the heater hoses. Will read the thread with interest from one novice to another. I am sure most the time it is a confidence thing rather than lack of ability.
Best of luck
Mike
I got the cambelt done on mine. I considered doing it, but the cost of paying someone was not a lot.
Mark at Freelance charges £90 or an extra £40 if they are doing a full service. Was an easy decision for me.
http://www.freelancemazda.co.uk/eunos.htm
Hope you get it back on the road soon!
Mark at Freelance charges £90 or an extra £40 if they are doing a full service. Was an easy decision for me.
http://www.freelancemazda.co.uk/eunos.htm
Hope you get it back on the road soon!
Hey,
It's strange, we're in the same position, except mine was because my car was overheating and had a slight water leak at the pump.
I had never done any mechanical work before other than oil changes and spark plug changes.
I'm on my who-knows-how-manyth evening, my car is almost back together!
I've done quite a lot though, it's cost me quite a lot.
I've changed the radiator (for an automatic, it's thicker), changed the water pump, cam belt, other belts, bought new (yellow) pipes to replace every water pipe in the car, as mine were all over 10 years old and none of them came off without ripping. Also changed the thermostat housing (I think this was actually the problem, but I went a bit OTT), thermostat and air filter.
I'll be watching this thread incase I can impart any advice. As I needed some while I was doing this. I used a combination of rod's book and these guides:
How to change aux belts: http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5...
How to change cam belt: http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5...
How to change water pump: http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5...
It's quite a few hours work (at least it was for me, being a noob), The only time I needed a second person was to crack(and tighten again) the crankshaft pulley bolt and needed someone to stand on the brakes.
It's strange, we're in the same position, except mine was because my car was overheating and had a slight water leak at the pump.
I had never done any mechanical work before other than oil changes and spark plug changes.
I'm on my who-knows-how-manyth evening, my car is almost back together!
I've done quite a lot though, it's cost me quite a lot.
I've changed the radiator (for an automatic, it's thicker), changed the water pump, cam belt, other belts, bought new (yellow) pipes to replace every water pipe in the car, as mine were all over 10 years old and none of them came off without ripping. Also changed the thermostat housing (I think this was actually the problem, but I went a bit OTT), thermostat and air filter.
I'll be watching this thread incase I can impart any advice. As I needed some while I was doing this. I used a combination of rod's book and these guides:
How to change aux belts: http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5...
How to change cam belt: http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5...
How to change water pump: http://www.mx5nutz.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5...
It's quite a few hours work (at least it was for me, being a noob), The only time I needed a second person was to crack(and tighten again) the crankshaft pulley bolt and needed someone to stand on the brakes.
Don't worry - I was also in a similar position back when I got mine, willing but nexperienced. You have the right attitude and that's the main but really.
Its honestly not a difficult set of jobs to do, and there's stacks of help available.
I'll cone back to this thread tomorrow as there's some excellent clipson YouTube thatvare very useful when refitting the new belt, I'll dig them out.
Its honestly not a difficult set of jobs to do, and there's stacks of help available.
I'll cone back to this thread tomorrow as there's some excellent clipson YouTube thatvare very useful when refitting the new belt, I'll dig them out.
OnlyMX5ives said:
Bear in mind you MUST torque the crank bolt up correctly.
So a good torque wrench and a method to lock the crank are required.
My car was almost done until you made me worried, Now I've just ordered a 2nd torque wrench, as mine did everything except this bolt. I was hoping 'really tight' was going to be good enough.So a good torque wrench and a method to lock the crank are required.
Yes, you'll need a torque wrench to do the crank bolt up, it goes pretty tight.
As for the videos -
http://www.youtube.com/user/MikesPlaceBiz#p/u
Is the Youtube channel - watch timing belt 1 and timing belt 2. Its incredibly useful to be able to visualize what your doing and see how all the markers etc line up.
The method of getting the belt tension correct on these videos is by far the easiest way IMO.
And remember you can easily turn the engine over by hand as many times as you like (at least 4) and keep checking your timing marks - if everything stays lined up after then your good.
As for the videos -
http://www.youtube.com/user/MikesPlaceBiz#p/u
Is the Youtube channel - watch timing belt 1 and timing belt 2. Its incredibly useful to be able to visualize what your doing and see how all the markers etc line up.
The method of getting the belt tension correct on these videos is by far the easiest way IMO.
And remember you can easily turn the engine over by hand as many times as you like (at least 4) and keep checking your timing marks - if everything stays lined up after then your good.
snotrag said:
And remember you can easily turn the engine over by hand as many times as you like (at least 4) and keep checking your timing marks - if everything stays lined up after then your good.
This also stretches the belt a tiny tiny fraction as well apparently, which gives you just that extra bit of confidence to put it all back together knowing it's not going to move anywhere.The best way to put it is probably that this is a hard job to do, on the easiest possible car to do it on....
Job's pretty straightforward, although appreicate it can be a little daunting for the first time.
I've had to do a repair due to the 'short nosed crank' issue (if your car is not an early 1.6, it won't have the marginal keyway they had) - but I'd had a look at this and in truth, I'm not actually sure you need to remove the risky crank bolt. I think taking the four smaller bolts from around the accessory pully means you can slide the belt on, and you avoid disturbing the main bolt.
Many advocate putting a new bolt on, I don't belive it's a stretch bolt (like most cylinder head bolts on modern engines) - but if you do take the lot off, put a little thread lock on the bolt before you torque it up.
Rads - I know the auto rad is an upgrade but in general I'd say (for a 1.6 in stock form) the standard manual rad (in good fettle) is more than adequate. If you're verheating anywhere either your rad fans stopped working, you've got another issue (leaky water pump) or even a head gasket problem/other water leak. (Oh, or the wonderful blocked bypass pipe issue) - I can say this having given mine a jolly good thrubbing round Cadwell Park yesterday, 110 miles of track driving and the only thing bringing me back in was the road tyres going off (I was suprised too, stock brakes as well!)
I've had to do a repair due to the 'short nosed crank' issue (if your car is not an early 1.6, it won't have the marginal keyway they had) - but I'd had a look at this and in truth, I'm not actually sure you need to remove the risky crank bolt. I think taking the four smaller bolts from around the accessory pully means you can slide the belt on, and you avoid disturbing the main bolt.
Many advocate putting a new bolt on, I don't belive it's a stretch bolt (like most cylinder head bolts on modern engines) - but if you do take the lot off, put a little thread lock on the bolt before you torque it up.
Rads - I know the auto rad is an upgrade but in general I'd say (for a 1.6 in stock form) the standard manual rad (in good fettle) is more than adequate. If you're verheating anywhere either your rad fans stopped working, you've got another issue (leaky water pump) or even a head gasket problem/other water leak. (Oh, or the wonderful blocked bypass pipe issue) - I can say this having given mine a jolly good thrubbing round Cadwell Park yesterday, 110 miles of track driving and the only thing bringing me back in was the road tyres going off (I was suprised too, stock brakes as well!)
Stripped mine down last friday as the front seal had done and pissed out oil everywhere after the Turbo was fitted.
Just take your time and make sure the timing is right before you put it all back together!!!!! you dont want to be taking it all apart again trust me.
I had access to a neighbours pit which made life a lot easier, especially when it came to the crank bolt.
Just take your time and make sure the timing is right before you put it all back together!!!!! you dont want to be taking it all apart again trust me.
I had access to a neighbours pit which made life a lot easier, especially when it came to the crank bolt.
Cheers for the replies and advice guys.
Not had any time to work on it until last night but then got an hour or so in.
Most stuff is now removed ready for the water pump removal:
All the belts look relatively new and it all came apart without too many difficulties. The cambelt looks newish but I may have found the cause of the problem below:
Any ideas on what could cause this?
Off today to carry on. First water pump change and then hopefully start putting things back together.
ETA: I was dreading the crank bolt but it came our relatively easy on mine with the use of a nice long breaker bar. Chocked the front wheels and put into fifth a gear. A simple tug and it was loose (Could the problem be that the bolt wasn't tight enough?). I did have to slightly undo the roll bar to allow me to get the breaker on and off though. Luckily didn't need to remove it. A couple of mm lower and that did the trick!
Not had any time to work on it until last night but then got an hour or so in.
Most stuff is now removed ready for the water pump removal:
All the belts look relatively new and it all came apart without too many difficulties. The cambelt looks newish but I may have found the cause of the problem below:
Any ideas on what could cause this?
Off today to carry on. First water pump change and then hopefully start putting things back together.
ETA: I was dreading the crank bolt but it came our relatively easy on mine with the use of a nice long breaker bar. Chocked the front wheels and put into fifth a gear. A simple tug and it was loose (Could the problem be that the bolt wasn't tight enough?). I did have to slightly undo the roll bar to allow me to get the breaker on and off though. Luckily didn't need to remove it. A couple of mm lower and that did the trick!
Edited by TryingHard on Saturday 10th July 09:07
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