Just bought a 1993 LX!

[jeg0024]

Just picked up a 1993 LX, it has 141k miles and was still owned by the original buyer. It's pretty much 100% stock still but he did say the clutch was fairly new and he rebuilt the shifter. I've been daily driving a 1979 RX-7 (95k original miles) for the past 20 months or so and I got tired of not having power anything, A/C, radio and wasting so much fuel, dying from fumes and having to pre-mix. I don't think anyone cares to see my RX-7 but if you want I have plenty of pictures. Before the RX-7 I drove a 2002 Protege DX for 9 years during which I did a complete exterior MSP swap and more, it was a really clean and nice car but it was an auto. I gave it up for the RX-7 but now I'm back in a Protege! I don't have any good pictures of it yet but I'll post some soon. Oh, and I also have a 1991 Miata prepped for DP class autocross so I am FAR from being new to Mazda or the Protege.. but new to this forum! I don't really have any intentions to spend much money on this car, I still have 2 other Mazdas that'll probably get more attention. I really just wanted a decent DD I could pile up miles on and save money instead of spending so much on fuel for the Rotary, I'll have pictures up soon I still have to work a few more days.

In case you're impatient here's the CL ad, enjoy it while it's still posted: http://orlando.craigslist.org/cto/3562024267.html
(No, I didn't pay that much for it.)

[Ace]

Did it come with the fuzzy seat cover?!@?

[jeg0024]

Haha yes it did, he also threw in a Hayes manual and 4 spare keys (aside from the broken one).

[ThatGreenBG]

Welcome to the fold, mon frere.

[MazdaNoob]

looks to be in great shape

[Mazda_Powered]

nice score! welcome to the club

[bogaut]

very nice. i had an lx in that same color. these are great DDs if properly maintained

[jeg0024]

Thanks guys, it looks better in the CL ad than in person so I took some better pictures of some of the worse off parts. I also did a quick clean up under the hood, it was pretty dirty. It's nothing that I can't fix but it's also not much that I care to fix. Of course I'll take care under the hood with some new spark plugs and wires, flush the coolant, change the oil and I'm going to take off the VC to paint it and replace the leaky VC gasket. I'll stop talking though, here's the pics!



































The first thing I did was remove that junk hanging on the underside of the hood, it really doesn't need to be there.








I really didn't want to spray down the bay but it was so dirty there was really no other practical option. Overall it's a great little car for the money, I'm just not use to the clutch yet.. it grabs really close to the floor and seems to drag a bit until I'm mostly off the pedal. I'm thinking maybe it needs a new slave? My RX-7 is the only manual I've daily driven and the clutch on it is either on or off, there's a very definite spot where it engages about half way up. I guess the pedal could also just need adjusted, the guy said the clutch had been replaced not so long ago.

Oh, and if I want to have a thread with updates about this car should I make a new thread or just keep adding to this one? I'm not really planning on doing much modding so it won't be very interesting lol.

[ThatGreenBG]

Just keep adding to this one. I'm sure a mod can change the title for you.

[jeg0024]

Guess we'll see what they say

Also I developed a slight problem after hosing down the bay.. the motor wants to stall when I hit the gas pedal. If I press it very very slowly it'll go up through the RPMs but if I press it fast or even with enough normal pressure to get the car moving it will stall out. I've probably gotten something wet with the AFM and screwed it up? I've had AFM problems with my Miata and I know they can be temperamental. I pulled up the top of the air box to have a check at the air filter and the AFM but nothing seemed to be wrong or even wet. The intake tube is all taped up and has some silicone on it so I'll be needing an intake for sure but I don't think that's the problem as I drove it 60 miles home last night.

Edit: I think maybe I got some water in the distributor but I don't really feel like checking it right now. The PO said the CEL it has was for the distributor, maybe I just need to buy a new one. I'll read the code myself when I get the time though.

[Ace]

It's likely an ignition component that got wet. I usually leave the car running when I hose the bay down.

[jeg0024]

Yeah, I thought I let it sit long enough before starting it up but I guess not. I made sure to do it after it had sat all day so nothing was hot and then let it sit a bit before starting it up to try to get rid of any extra water. It's all dry now and every time I go try again it gets slightly better. If I still have the problem tomorrow after work I'll worry about it but it's still nothing major. I need to pull the CEL as well but I'm going to pick up a few things like plugs, oil and a VC gasket for sure. There was a tiny bit of oil on top of plug #4 but I'm pretty sure that's just from the VC gasket that's gone bad. I just need to make sure this thing is 100% DDable before I swap tags, my RX-7 has no issues it's just bad on fuel.

[Ace]

Go for an OEM gasket. Usually able to be found pretty cheap on ebay. Fel-pro gaskets just don't last. Make sure you seal the corners on the cam caps with some rtv. BP's love NGK V power plugs too. Cap and rotor can be had pretty cheap too. Did you want those lowering springs I have?

[jeg0024]

Yes I'll take the springs, I'm going down to Josh's to watch the Daytona 500 so maybe we can meet up either on my way there or back. I plan on replacing all those parts you mentioned but I was just going to see if advanced had them in stock.. Or maybe that place by my house where we got your front seal or whatever it was? Is there a specific spark plug I should get or just whatever v-power is recommended?

[Ace]

Yep, just get the stock V power, any auto parts store should have them. I've just never had good luck with felpro VC gaskets, they always leak and the OEM one I've got now has been on 2 different engines and even removed a handful of times and it doesn't leak a drop. Grab a distributor O-ring too. It's only a couple bucks. I can help you change out all of this stuff really easily.