The Ex-forum of several shiters 95 Mazda 323 coupé - for sale again!

[Lacquer Peel]

Easy enough to fix the CV boot. I’d take the opportunity to repack it as well. Tip for you if you use the proper metal clips, crimp it with a pair of carpenters pincers if you haven’t the correct tool. Give the CV body a degrease as well so the boot will hold tight to it.

I fugging hate doing CV boots, it's a horrible job.

[egg]

Lived the for 37 of my 40 years on this planet and never knew there was a large garage like that to rent. Wrotham Rd end? Only bit I know where there's an accessway behind the houses

 

Yep, Wrotham Rd end, behind the block of flats on the left. It was only changed recently - 3 garages into 1. I checked the planning permission, lol.

[dozeydustman]

Yep, Wrotham Rd end, behind the block of flats on the left. It was only changed recently - 3 garages into 1. I checked the planning permission, lol,

 

That'll be why I didn't recognise it. I know the flats you mean, there used to be a real miserable old cow that lived there a few years back. She hated the noise we made dragging paladin bins down the accessway, christ knows what she must think of vehicles going in and out of a rentable garage every day if she's still there

[sierraman]

I fugging hate doing CV boots, it's a horrible job.

If the boot hasn’t split it won’t need the driveshaft popping out. 10 mins cleaning it up, repack it and fit new clamp.

[egg]

In other news, OMGMPG update...

 

262.7 miles

40.09 litres

 

= 29.79.

 

it's a 30 MPG car...

[egg]

Sadly quite a lot of my Vactan has turned white - because I fell foul of the golden rule - don't apply below 10 degrees C probably! Stuff around the engine area was fine. Hey ho, I doubt it has done any harm as such.

[Sir Snipes]

Ramp for rent sounds very useful!

[sierraman]

I bet they get some right characters in. ‘Yeah 2 hours to swap a clutch on a Vectra, we’ll piss it!’

 

I can imagine it’s a useful service though if you know what you are doing and how long a job will ACTUALLY take. Especially for a simple but shit job on a driveway like an exhaust. Not sure they’d be over the moon with someone spraying Waxoyl on the ramps though.

[egg]

Booked in on Tuesday with a mechanic I've not used before for 2 x balljoints and the Boot fix. He's picking it up from my door which is always good.

[RayMK]

Booked in on Tuesday with a mechanic I've not used before for 2 x balljoints and the Boot fix. He's picking it up from my door which is always good.

 

Do you know where he lives/operates?  If not, fit a tracker.

[egg]

Do you know where he lives/operates?  If not, fit a tracker.

 

Yup, know where he is - just out of town in a rural setting, so hard to walk back after a drop-off. He comes recommended, so have a bit of backstory on him.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

Curious as to who this may be...?

 

I still need to give your VW licker a call.  Unless that's the reason the boot perished.

[egg]

I'd still recommend that guy (I can't be sure which boot he did, it might be the other one anyway), but I'm widening my options...

 

Rigden Autos

 

https://en-gb.facebook.com/maystreetct66tg/

 

As he has been working on this, I think he should be ok with my Mazda!

 

[mrbenn]

The Mazda is probably more rare. Make sure he knows it

[egg]

Well, it left at 9, and was back by 2:30pm, apparently no problems. Paid cash, invoice/receipt received. Hopefully job's a good'un.

 

Quick whizz just round the block (I'm full of cold) and all seems well, maybe the steering wheel is a little off centre, but otherwise happy.

[egg]

Let's just update the costs for the recent work. I'm scouting around all the normal places looking for a cheap rad. Obviously needs to be automatic specific. This is useful this list for one main reason, every time I look at it, I think, maybe 2 cars is enough right now!

 

Other jobs I could do are new plugs and leads, a little bit of 'parts darts' there, but plugs last changed Nov 2016. Leads I expect are fairly old. 

 

Total project costs to date = £415 (purchase price + MOT and associated fixing)

Other Labour costs = £367

parts spend = £255.05

tyres spend = £120

total costs = £1157.05

Estimated value of car = £450     

 

High Priority

Entire new exhaust Done, Complete new exhaust apart from catalyst, which has a small crack...Middle and rear section £76, front down pipe £30, used replacement Lambda sensor also replaced £25, Gaskets £7
Oil and Filter change Done, Unipart oil £8, Oil Filter £2
Deal with 2 worst rust areas Partially done - sticking plaster solution, Vactan applied to 2 worst areas, Bilt Hamber wax used on end of sills and rusty wheelarch. Jan 19, Vactan applied to most underbody areas on a ramp £20

New CV boot Done 24/10

Ignition switch replaced by main dealer following recall Done Dec 18 cost £0

CV boot re-mounted and new ball-joints both sides Jan 19 £132

Medium priority
Air filter change - done 17/5 (cost £5)
Pollen filter change - kinda done 16/5 (cost £11)
Fuel Filter change - done 2/6 (cost £6)
Get a spare key - done 15/9 (cost £35)
2 New Front Tyres and tracking - done 24/9 (Cost £120), 2 x Nexens at £45 + £30 for the tracking
Cambelt and aux belt (non-interference roulette)
New Rad/Coolant change

replace screws on exhaust manifold heat shield - Partially done £8.

Low priority
A general go over with the G3 scratch remover - one side done to limited effect 31/5 (cost £0)
new wiper blades - done rear wiper blade changed 31/10, fronts changed 11/11 (Cost £18)
paint wiper arms - rear wiper done 8/6 (cost zero - obviously some materials, but not worth costing!)
Bulbs for door courtesy lights - done 26/5 (cost £2.75)
Square front number plate
Refurbish/replace wheel trims
Replace GLX side badges - done 15/6 (cost £8.75)
Change gearbox oil (would be nice to do filter)
Clean/replace PCV valve - done 26/5 (cost £3.25)
Underneath rust prevention - sort of done now on ramp (see above)

new captive nut for side light - done 21/6 (cost £2)

Paint battery clamp

PAS fluid (oil cooling will need replacing long term - twosmoke has suggested bypassing them - and this could be done when the radiator is replaced) - done 9/6 (cost £6.99)
Soundproofing.... not going to bother, it is mainly used for town driving, not many longer runs.

Smelly (front) washer fluid - done 2/11 - flushed front fluid system and new screenwash (cost £0)

[mrbenn]

You've made good progress with this, nice work!

[egg]

I sometimes sound like I begrudge the 'investment' in this car. I don't, it's one of my favourites ever in fact.

 

It's not exactly brimming with character, but rubbish fuel economy aside, it's fulfilling a useful role and is vanishingly rare.

 

I hope Mrs Egg continues to consider it adequate transport, as I don't really want to replace it with a i10/Picanto in the summer.

[egg]

Here's one of the pics from the ramp time I had which I hadn't posted. You can see where my mechanic had to chop the new exhaust where it didn't fit properly. Also, that Cat is really on it's last legs. Another job for the long list.

 

 

 

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I can’t drive past my old house without thinking of tour 323 in the ramp now! Went to Gravesend the other day and was about to detour to find it until I remembered I had Lady Grumpius in the car...

[egg]

Egg, bringing you the tiniest of updates since 2015...

 

Arch liner like this...

 

 

Of course the clips I didn't have were these...

 

 

Ooh, big* improvement, that will last about a week!

 

 

There's a bit of an unrelated rattle under acceleration which I'm just ignoring for now...

[egg]

I rarely go on Twitter, anyway, in May when I bought this car, I Tweeted Mazda asking how many had been sold in the UK. I promptly forgot about it. But they had replied! And the answer is 971....

 

 

So, let's think about this - assuming a 5% survival rate - which might be generous I think, means there can be no more than 50 of these. And it may well be less.

[mrbenn]

Got to say, I do love a survivor. Makes me sad that cars like this will have just been thrown away when at the end of their "useful" lives, yet happy that this one lives on.

 

I once visited a scrapyard with a friend looking for bits for my mk1 Focus and was particularly offended to see one sitting there in better nick than my own car...

[egg]

Lol, mrbenn.

 

Although I have many flights of fancy of importing all sorts of ancient French chod, importing a manual one of these, that were never sold here I don't think, (ideally in 1.8 flavour but maybe 1.5 like this) would actually be relatively sensible, and would appeal to the JDM crowd.

 

https://www.autowereld.nl/x/x/x-29711876/details.html

 

[Dirk Diggler]

They were reasonably common here; always as base 1.3 manuals (this shape 323f were a very popular car and this was the car for those who aspired to one.)

 

Saloons were the most common; saw a 95 saloon with the Opel TD engine for sale lately (the saloons of that year were for some reason fitted with yellow fogs so want)

[Dirk Diggler]

Speak of the devil, here's one for sale sans fogs; look at that bonnet scoop

 

https://www.donedeal.ie/damagedcars-for-sale/mazda-323-1-7td-isuzu-engine/20652009

[500tops]

Spotted this locally registered example today in Lidl car park, Plympton.

 

Please excuse the potato-cam pic

[egg]

Brilliant! Thanks for that. What a day...

[Lacquer Peel]

Speak of the devil, here's one for sale sans fogs; look at that bonnet scoop

 

https://www.donedeal.ie/damagedcars-for-sale/mazda-323-1-7td-isuzu-engine/20652009

Good info there, I didn't realise they were fitted with GM diesels! That bonnet scoop is quite comical, surely not factory fitted?

[Rusty_Rocket]

It's an Isuzu diesel 

The bonnet scoop is just right for that top mounted intercooler... is the whole thing someone's lash-up?