Parts SYSTEM fail!

They went to install the new slave cyclinder, and it was the wrong part, clearly.
I saw one on Amazon and Ebay, so maybe try those if regular system fails to find the part anywhere.

Holiday Update

Slave cyclinder came in today, installing it tomorrow.

Slave update

Yep, the slave cylinder is toast. Seems it was ruined when the bolts connecting it to the transmission came loose/ pulled out. This is due to them being too short. No idea WHY they were too short. They found the part, but it'll take a few days to get in. They (may?) need to heli-coil the holes in the transmission. Total price about $300 out the door. This is the first somewhat major problem I've had. All the other problems have had easy inexpensive fixes.

cars are magic, powered by smoke and liquid

Let the smoke or fluids out, and they stop running. In this case, DOT 3 Brake fluid from the Clutch Master Cylinder. I noticed a pool of liquid at work, but didn't seem to be below the part of my car where it should have been to be the problem, although it was a recent pool.
The leak seems to be from the Release (Slave) Cylinder, as I can see it dripping from there. Towing has it, and it's on its way back to the shop.

UPDATE:
I'd need to go through the trash, but when I cleaned out the car, I swear there was a receipt from the previous owner for a slave cylinder.

Driving notes: Day 1

Did my morning chores and drove to work.
-Can't tell if the car pulls right, or if the steering wheel is offset left.
-Lost clutch for a bit. Playing around with the clutch pedal I pushed it all the way down. Heard and felt a clunk. Next time I drove the car the pedal wouldn't return after a push. I was able to get it back, and did another chore only engaging the pedal enough to shift (or enough to start the car). It was better on the way to work. We'll see how it is on the way home tonight.

-tires are loud. Shop notes say loud suspension, so I may be confused.

-Dome light out. Mentioned before. Keeping it in the middle position, which should be Light on When Doors Open.

-Battery weak? The car starts, but feels like it barely starts.

-Steering wheel is missing a thumb-nub. This is annoying.

Going to drive it after dark. The headlights turn on but are hazy. We'll see how bad they are. Also, my mailbox is on a steep hill, so starting after getting the mail may be hard.

UPDATE:
The car pulls right. If the steering wheel was off, the car would track straight.

Cleaning

Evidently, my car is black. Took it to the local quarter wash, and spent a dollar vacuuming out the interior, and $2 washing the outside. Didn't get it totally soap-free, but I'm not worried. Back at home, I took my California Duster and wiped the instrument panel and the dash. That helped a lot. Before all this, I cleaned all the parts from the trunk and threw away a couple (rusty cams, water pump, gasket boxes and gaskets). Weather was in the low 50s so I'm sure nothing froze. I also installed the license plates.

While both headlights work, they are hazy, and the right is cracked badly. That's ok as I have a replacement.

So, next on the list is checking the airbox for a K&N filter, downloading the manual for the radio, and driving it to work.

Extra parts

Here's a list of the extra parts that came with my GTX:

Used Water Pump (TOSS)
Mass Air Flow
Headlight Assy
Cam shaft (rusting) (TOSS)
Camshaft gears
Coil (core?) Ignition
Throttle Body
Rear Main Gasket Box (empty) (TOSS)
u/c (?) Gasket box (TOSS)
Alternator

The items with (TOSS) are ones I'm going to throw away.

Now my work begins

The Mazda is parked in my garage; made it home with ease. Given that I drove it an hour home after I bought it, and it's been sorted out since then, I wonder why the shop is still cautious about me going on a trip out of town in the 323. However, I'll follow their advice for a few weeks. In the meantime, I'm going to do some easy work on the GTX.

1- now that the extra parts have been inventoried, I need to offload them from the trunk. The list I have says to toss some of the parts as being bad, so I wonder why they were kept in the first place?
2- order a stud for the rear hatch, as my right one broke off.
2a- make sure the strut holding the broken stud can be reused. That is, can the broken stud be popped out of the hole.
3- Replace the headlight. This (according to the shop manual) requires removal of the grill.
4-Dome light. The cover fell off on the way up the first day, but the light was working. Last night when I was rooting around inside, it wasn't. Figure out why and fix it.
5- CLEAN interior
6- CLEAN exterior. They're both worse than I've ever seen a vehicle. When I closed the hatch today, it raised a cloud of dust.
7- Check air filter. The box is marked that it has a K&N. Does it? Dirty?
8- Tire Stud. I noticed that on the rear right wheel one stud is short, and that it seems to have a different style lug nut. I'm surprised that the shop, which worked on the rear brakes didn't notice or mention it to me. Check and see if it looks shiny, indicating recent (the shop's) damage.
9- Plug wires. I'm told the wireset on the car are rusted. It's easy to swap a new set. There seem to be generic wires that fit, and specific wires that also plug holes in the manifold. As LW says on the GTX group:

...the SOHC & the DOHC wires are totally different, although they might physically work, the DOHC have seals on the wires to seal to the cam cover.

So, it looks like I should spend the extra $ to get the correct set. Looks like around $50 instead of $25.

Daily Update- END of Phase 1

Brake pads replaced, trunk inventoried, she's ready for me to pick up. Going to do that tomorrow morning. Then, drive it for a while and see how she does.

Still not sure about the SW switch, but I'll ask about that. Going to go down the original list with the mechanic and check off items. I hope to do this hovering over the car so I can get some direct interaction.

Not sure I can drive it to work until I replace the headlights, which require removal of the grill, so I may do both at once [I think one is dead and the other is cracked] once I have the other side (I think I have the right one).

The next post should have the cost for all this work and what I learned while picking it up. Depending on time I may go next door to the body shop and ask about rust prevention paint.

Daily Update- the end in sight?

He needs to double check his notes, but believes the SW is working like it should. Pads go on tomorrow.

After that, we may be DONE. I'm planning on picking it up Friday.

There are still problems, but at this point they don't affect reliability. The thermostat not displaying on the dash I hope is working otherwise, same with the locking diff not displaying. My original notes were:
Headlights
Trunk Release
Dome Light
Rear hatch strut
Thermostat
Pulls to left.

I'm also going to ask them to inventory the extra parts in the trunk.

daily update- brake pads

We're ordering ceramic brake pads for the rear. I asked about copper in the brake fluid (mentioned in the diagnosis), but was told it was mainly an ABS problem, and a maintenance problem, so back burner for now.



Brad read up on the AWD and SW locking center diff, and has handed off the manual to the tech. Tech is working on a Subaru, so may not be able to check the SW until Wednesday.

daily update- the Pow Wow

Dropped off the factory manual, and a printout of some choice posts from the GTX forums. The service writer, the actual tech, and I went over the original assessment, and deceided that replacing the rear brake pads was the most important thing at this time.

Told them to price up that pad replacement/disk refinish.

Also, wanted them to look further into the SW Center Diff Lock button. Now that they have the manual, this should be easier to diagnose.

daily update- More good news

Coolant system good, although hoses are old. Keeps pressure; going to test the pressure overnight.

AWD works on ground, not in air. On the ground in the gravel all four wheels will spin. On the lift, you can hold one tire and the rest will spin. I think this is normal in the unlocked position. I still don't think the SW center lock is working, but we're going to take one step at a time.

They don't have the GTX version of the 323 manual at the shop, so I'm taking the manual to them tomorrow. Not having it seems to be slowing down the work.

We're going to pow-wow on the next step, but they're leaning toward replacing the rear brake pads before they start damaging the discs. (I have 4 wheel disc brakes? Given the age and slot of this car, I'm almost surprised I don't have rear drums)

AWD emails

These are good notes from my exchanges with other 323GTX owners.

from Greg D:

when you press the center diff switch it should beep and the small light in the switch between the 4 wheel diagram should light up. If it only blinks and does not beep and go solid on, its not locked. If it does beep and the light goes on you are locked. To unlock it press the lock sw again and it should beep and the light goes out.

If you do not see a blinking/solid light then its burnt out. To know if its locked w/o a good light, it should beep and then if you try to turn a sharp coner the drivetrain will bind and the GTX does not like that. Its like an old school 4x4 when its locked. Lots of binding. Thats why the GTX has the planetary ctr diff so it can carve corners with a 50-50% power split. But, get one wheel in the air and you are dead in the H20. Thats where the ctr diff lock comes to the rescue. READ the owners manual if ya have one.

Be aware...locking the center diff in slippery conditions is not advised. Because it locks the center diff the front/rear axles are now connected together. You lock up the front or rear brakes for any reason and all the axles lock up and the engine can die. Makes for one scary moment if you are not ready. Spin city!

the way the AWD system works is its all open diffs with the fancy center diff. Get one wheel in the air like in a snow bank and all the power goes to that one wheel. That's where the ctr diff lock comes into use.

From Bob M

To answer your question, the SW burron SHOULD lock the center differential. There is a light in the drivetrain diabram on the switch that will be dark when the diff is unlocked and will flash when the switch is pushed. There is a sensor that tells the switch when the diff has been locked and the indicator on the diagram on the switch should stop flashing and stay on solid. This assumes two things: that your diff lock motor is working properly and that the switch is functioning properly. To test if the diff is, indeed locked, just try to make a very tight slow turn. If the car bucks like a bronco, your center diff is locked. You can remove the center diff lock motor and clean it up and bench test it. You can pull out on the diff lock shaft and manually lock the diff to test it. Push the shaft back in then bench run the diff lock motor until it bottoms out turning inwards. Now, reassemble and test.

These should get me pointed in the right direction. I'm going to thumb through the shop manual.

update

5:30p contact today.

Engine power ok. They replaced the plugs and tightened down the distributor and that seemed to fix that problem, although they still are leaning towards me getting new plug wires. Seems there's rust down there, most likely due to pressure washer.

Next item to be checked off is the coolant system. the overflow/ was empty, and the tech couldn't see any coolant in the radiator. I gave permission to do a pressure test to see if we have any leaks. It may just be low.

I gave them a third item to diagnose, the awd system. I want to know what is and isn't working with the system. 1- is the rear drive shaft spinning at all, and 1a- are the rear wheels spinning. 1b are all the wheels spinning. If the all open diff system is working we go to 2- the locking center hub. 2a- Can we lock it manually. 2b- is the motor working.

We put off working on the brakes. The rear needs new brake pads, but since that's a known issue, I wanted to figure out the unknown stuff before we replace them. If all the unknown stuff is ok, we'll do this important step.

No update

Talked to the garage just now. They drove the car Friday, but hadn't talked about the results to the service writer. Should have an update later today or TUE.

Fork it?

I'm putting the cart before the horse a little bit here, but I keep asking myself: When should I take it out back and put a bullet in it? At what point (dollar-wise) should I give up and sell the GTX off? I'd rather stick to it keep it running. I can see having this as a project car, slowly working on items myself, and I'd enjoy working on it, but I know little about working on cars, and have few tools to do it with. I am planning on doing the little, easy things like replacing a headlight, replaceing the hatchback struts and fixing the dome light. But there are easy sounding this I might shy away from like replacing the steering wheel (because of the airbag). This isn't even getting into the harder problems like the 4WD system not engaging or the suspension getting old.


So, when do I cut bait, when do I stick a fork in it, as it's done?

The Engine problem

Had them inspect the engine problem. They tightened down the distributor, which may have been causing the power problem. They did a cyclinder vaccumm test and got 145,140,150,100, so I don't have a dead cyclinder. In doing that they found rust in the spark plug tubes, terminals and plug wires. Going to do further tests tomorrow.

The BAD.

Took the 323 to a local garage for their Used Vehicle Inspection. It barely made it, as it kept losing power on the hour drive home. It seemed to have the power back in the morning when I drove it to the garage, but they reported differently. Here's the summary of their summary:

Engine runs poorly
body in poor condition, floor rusting out.
suspension noisy
pulls to left
clutch feels weird
no coolant in radiator?
lots of bolts missing on engine
sway bar bushing coming apart
AWD/4WD not working

These are the serious things. They listed the small things too, and they missed some. They feel the engine power problem is the most serious, so we're tackling it first.

DRIVES and DIFFS

I've been doing a lot of reading about what is 2WD, AWD, 4WD, 4x4, as well as open diffs, limited slip diffs, locking diffs. These are my conclusions and definitions as I understand it. It's confusing as people and makers regularly mis-state what a vehicle has, including my 323 GTX. Some makers make up their own terms, and the addition of electronics to the mix ads another variable.
Most vehicles are two wheel drive (2WD) with an open differential. That means, while both wheels have equal traction, they have equal power. However, as one wheel loses traction, the differential will feed it more power as it's the path of least resistance, and the wheel with traction gets less and less power (torque). This is why one wheel spins on ice and the other does nothing. However, it HAS to work this way normally, as when you turn, the outside wheel is going faster than the inside wheel and therefore they need to turn at different speeds.
All Wheel Drive (AWD) vehicles are all the rage now. They deliver power to all four wheels. I've never seen so many vehicles available with it. They generally add 100lbs to the weight of the vehicle. They claim to offer more control on poor road conditions. However, they can have the same problems as listed above: one wheel with no traction may cause the vehicle to have no other wheels with power.
Full 4WD is normally a bad thing, and retards control as it want all wheels to spin at the same speed, meaning it doesn't want to turn. Full 4WD may be useful on dirt, snow, ice, rocks, etc. A 4WD vehicle has all four wheels turning at the same speed regardless of traction.

A Differential controls how the power gets to the wheels. In normal conditions, any axle that gets power gives it to both wheels.
An Open Diff is the worst at keeping you moving forward when something weird happens traction-wise, but it creates the least problems when things are normal. With an open diff there is very little resistance to the wheels turning at different speeds. When you turn a corner, the open diff is happy to let the outside wheel turn faster than the inside wheel. The outside wheel is considered the one with less traction, so it spins faster. It does power both wheels, and makes sure all the power being given it goes somewhere.
A Limited Slip Diff (LSD) is a bit more picky. It allows the wheels to turn different speeds- to a point. After that point it will give more power to the wheel that has more traction. An LSD may work only when accelerating, only when decelerating, all the time, or even somewhere in-between. And the point that it engages may also vary. Finally, many LSD have an upper limit of engagement, after which it gives up trying to move torque to only one wheel.
A Locking diff locks both wheels together so they turn at the same speed. It's simple, but vehicles don't have their wheels turning the same speed when turning, so the vehicle won't like it when you try to turn and may buck as the inside wheel skips to keep up with the outside wheel. the less overall traction, the less it needs to buck as the wheels slide and skip to keep going the same speed.

With all wheel drive, and you have three differentials: Front & Rear- which drive the wheels, and Center- which puts power to the Front and Rear Diffs. The center diff, or Transfer Case, works just like the regular diff styles, so it may be open, LSD, or locking. It may also be disengaged entirely, sending power to only one axle. With all 3 diffs being open style, you can have 100% of engine power going to one wheel, the wheel with the least resistance. A center LSD proportions power front and rear, and may act as a 2wd drive vehicle until a loss of traction is detected. A center LSD may have an upper limit on how much power goes front or rear. A locking center diff sends 50% of the power front and rear. Once it gets there it's up to the other diffs where that power goes.

Finally, add in electronics. Until recently, all diffs worked in some mechanical fashion, through clutches, gears, or other spinning momentum for detecting loss of traction (slip). Today, electronic sensors can do it too. Once detected, the computer may engage an LSD (or 2 or 3), cut the throttle, activate the brakes, or any and all of the above. It may happen to drive wheels, turning wheels, or free wheels, to any wheel. In some vehicles some of this may be activated manually.


So, when my Mazda 323 GTX has a sticker on it that says All Time 4WD, it's lying. It has AWD, and a locking center diff. I assume the front and rear diffs are open. So, when I lock the center, I know that power is going front and rear, and that 2, 3, or 4 wheels will be rotating.

The GOOD.

This is a rare vehicle. 5000 made, 1243 imported to the USA. Cost double a standard 323. It was a homologation special, made so Mazda could go rally racing. It was detuned for production, so it is easy to modify for more performance without losing reliability.
Based on the 1988 323 2 door hatchback, it uses a turbocharged version of the original Miata engine hooked up to a 'full time 4WD' system with a locking center differential. 132hp stock and weighs 2645lbs. It's a real sleeper, and it cost me less than a Jeep. It has a active internet presence to help with working on them.

Intro

I just bought a sad, broken down, barely alive, 1988 Mazda 323 GTX. 168000 miles, faded paint, lots wrong and I paid too much. It's a rare vehicle, and I did research, but, in retrospect, I should have passed, as I've since found GTXs with less mileage and fewer problems for lower cost.

Still, I'm going to stick with this, and slowly resurrect it to full working condition.