To all the PO's

[Secondtyme]

You SUCK! I put my "new to me" 5 up on ramps to do an oil change and general once over this afternoon. And i discovered that the previous owner had so FUBARed the oil filter cartridge that I very nearly couldn't get it open. The Allen head drain bolt was completely stripped out, the o- ring was leaking as well. When I did get it removed from the block, I found that the filter hadn't been changed in a LONG time. It was dirty enough that it had begun to collapse from the oil which couldn't flow through it any longer. The under tray was held on with a motley arrangement of fasteners, all quite rusty. The front sway bar end links are SHOT, which is actually good news as I would rather replace the endlinks than the bushings. While i had the car up in the air I removed the front wheels and painted the brake calipers metallic copper (wooot) And cleaned all the rust of the front hubs. She looks much better already! Any one else have tales of a careless, or hopelessly ignorant Previous Owner?

 

[mbaha_mz5]

Any man who uses the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward, anyone who cannot take care of himself without that law is both

LOL try putting the car on the rack BEFORE you buy it...

 

[mazdadude]

Any man who uses the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward, anyone who cannot take care of himself without that law is both

LOL try putting the car on the rack BEFORE you buy it...

Who did it? The previous owner? The previous servicing dealer? The quickie oil change place? What do the reciepts say?

The oil filter setup is touchy, the wrong make of filter element does collapse as you saw. Also there is a kit available from mazda to replace all of the splash-pan hardware that gets FUBAR'ed easily. I would worry more about the splash-pan that had untouched fasteners...(detect)

 

[Secondtyme]

I bought the car at an auction how do you suppose I was to put it on the rack first? And do you perform an oil change on all your cars before you buy them? My intent was to be humorous, not accusatory, apparently that didn't convey well. In any case, the damage appears to be minimal, the car runs beautifully, shifts as it should and has thus far returned about 26MPG. The aforementioned endlinks are clunking and the rear sway bushings are shot, but at 110K that was probably to be expected.

 

[Robotazky]

I thought we were about to have an ex-con berate all of the parole officers out there. Darn.

I think your '06 will have the old style fasteners on the splash thing. They have bolts that are very poorly attached and start spinning freely eventually, which is a total PITA for the ones that are at the front. Once broken they have to be held on one side and turned on the other. Obviously a total PITA. Change them to the new style if you can. The dealer will probably give you some like they did me.

 

[Secondtyme]

For now the splash pan is occupying a slot in my garage, it half fell off on my drive home about a week ago. I haven't talked myself into putting it back on yet. I didn't know that there was a difference in fasteners from year to year, I will have to remember that. Thanks!

 

[Robotazky]

I have an '09 and mine came with the old style, if that helps.