My 500 dollar ride.. Meet.. Old Peppy

[SeasonalEclipse]

Bought this thing Monday, she drips a little tranny fluid (automatic) and slips a little if she isnt warmed up first thing in the morning but other wise shes a decent car. I travel about 10-20 miles 5 days a week so I hope she will get me through until tax season with a little tranny work (fluid/filter/pan seal change).


A bit miss matched in the front end but the interior is in good shape..



Shes a 94 with 199K miles and has the 1.8. What do you guys think? And with her leaking a little tranny fluid do you guys think I should even bother with getting it changed? The color is.. well.. not good color, its a dark gray, Iv thought about changing out the fluid, seal, and filter with hopes that the leak is coming just from the seal around the pan.. But if there is a big chance of her never going into gear again after that I dont know.. Part of me wants to just drive her like this, adding in a bit of tranny fluid as needed until she stops going.

[Mazda_Powered]

not bad for $500 if the underbody's in great shape.

as for the slipping trans, I wouldn't recommend a fluid change to be honest...especially if it's high mileage. The current fluid is probably the only thing keeping it together lol...changing to new fluid would remove some (not all due to TQ converter capacity..ect) of the friction particles from the warn internal components, which may be currently helping the slipping issue...make sense?

Either way, you should look into a manual swap, as they're fairly basic in these cars and there's some good info on here about what's involved with the swap. A member "ace" started with an automatic DX and swapped to MTX, then boosted it...so check his thread about information as it's all there.

welcome to the club tho!! she's a good start!

p.s. does it have a straight hood on it? I can see a 94 headlight and a 90-93 headlight on it lol, and the pixle count is off...so it's hard to tell wtf is going on lol

[SeasonalEclipse]

Yeah its got the 93 hood and a 93 headlight and a 94 headlight. Its a 94 though. Thats why theres a gap and all that.. But it functions. The car is still running. I guess ill drive her till she dies or i get enough money to take her for a trade in on something else.

[nickz]

I'm no tranny expert but I'd drive er till she dont drive. I also have no idea how cold it gets in Missouri in the winter(sorry)I'm in Canada,but let her warm up a bit in the morning if it gets real cold go easy on the first few up shifts and you will most likely end up a happy camper.
Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm curious myself,but don't mazdas start off in 2nd gear on automatics if selected in 2nd gear on the shifter?That could also help if so,no?

[nickz]

I'm no tranny expert but I'd drive er till she dont drive. I also have no idea how cold it gets in Missouri in the winter(sorry)I'm in Canada,but let her warm up a bit in the morning if it gets real cold go easy on the first few up shifts and you will most likely end up a happy camper.
Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm curious myself,but don't mazdas start off in 2nd gear on automatics if selected in 2nd gear on the shifter?That could also help if so,no?

[Mazda_Powered]

If you use the "hold" option while in 2 it will take off in 2nd. Otherwise you'd just limited to 1-2, or 2-1 lol

[SeasonalEclipse]

Well, just to update everything shes still running alright! She acts like she starts off in second and shifts to first though or something goofy sometimes.. Like she hesititates for a moment then takes off.. I put in about a quart of fluid every couple weeks. Im half way tempted to see how much it would cost to get her fixed, im thinking it just might be the rear or front seals going out.

[SeasonalEclipse]

I decided to do a couple youtube videos on the car.. Since no ones really done much on the 500 dollar craigs list car. lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVdRs90aSWw&feature=channel_video_title

enjoy!