Just got done doing the timing belt/water pump/rad hose/etc etc change out on my gf's '99 ES. Would have gotten done sooner but the local dealer gave me the parts for a 1.6 liter engine (morons!). It was a good thing I did this, as her alternator belt was looking pretty ragged. Also good that I finally got it done, as she no longer likes driving my '03 ES (says it is bouncy now that I have the rear sway bar bushing relocation kit installed. Hey, I like how it handles!).

 

were you two role playing? you're the gruff country mechanic and she's the lonely stranded damsel..... did you "work out a payment plan"?

 

Ahahaha, good ****. . .

Timing belt must be fun, ive had all my **** to do it for the last month or so but have yet to get the chance, any tips from the recently finished?

 

ALWAYS replace the water pump when you're in there...might as well do the following also.

t-stat
upper and lower hoses
coolant flush (add 1 bottle of redline water wetter)
accessory belts
valve cover gasket
plug well seals

 

Couple things might help you out. #1, remove the radiator fan located on the passenger side. Two bolts and one electrical connector and it's out. This opens things up quite a bit over there. #2, if you are doing your timing belt you have to do this any way, but even if only doing your alternator/water pump belts it helps to remove the passenger side engine mount. Just be sure to have something holding the engine up (I used a jack with wood under the oil pan, I have to get one of those engine supports one of these days). #3, remove the tensioner spring before moving the tensioner, otherwise you will distort the spring and it will be worthless (guess how I know that?). #4, removing the spark plugs makes it easier to turn the engine over (and have it stay in place, otherwise compression tends to make it move on you. I was lazy and left them in, but then I am special!). #5, it is easiest to reach the mounting bolt on the alternator by laying down and coming in from the bottom. If you have never adjusted the belts on your car, you must loosen the bolt that the adjustment bolt threads into, as well as the pivot bolt. These are located on the alternator and the steering gear pump for the two belts. I like that the A/C compressor is fixed on these cars so you don't have to mess with it, plus the adjusters used make it easy to properly tension the belts.

Air tools are a must in order to remove that engine mount and the crankshaft pulley. I have read several tricks to get the timing belt on easier, nothing really worked for me due to the problems I had with wrong parts and the resultant way I did the job. Basically I was up and down, lining up the crank mark and the intake/exhaust cam marks. Make sure you rotate the engine clockwise twice and recheck the marks to be sure you have it right. Then do it again once you reinstall the tensioner spring. A factory manual is a must.

Be prepared to bleed, unless you have tiny hands you will be scraping them on various things. All in all it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

 

Oh yeah, Matty that was pretty good. I will relay that to my gf, she complained recently I have been neglecting her. I have too many demands on my time while home, it's hard keeping everyone happy!

 

I did everything but the valve cover gasket and plug well seals. Probably do that at some point in the future. I am going to be doing the Seafoam treatment on hers and want to see how the cams look once I have dumped it into her oil.

 

valve cover gasket only has about 8k miles on it so i wont bother, but wtf are plug well seals. I don't even know what you are talkin about so they definatly havnt been replaced. . .

 

When you remove the valve cover and flip it over, you will see rubber surrounding the holes for the spark plugs. That is what Matty is talking about. As long as the rubber is pliable and there are no signs of leakage you can get by without changing them. Of course if the cover gasket is new chances are it will be slightly thicker than the plug well seals which might cause leakage around them. Since most people in this country have little clue where their engine is even located (I know, all of us on this board are mechanical geniuses!), it is better to change that sort of thing out when you have it open. Get it all done at once, as it were. Especially if you are doing the job for let's say, your gf who will call you a hero if the car is done right, and an imbecile if anything goes wrong afterwards. Not that I would have any experience with that!!

 

are those easy to get locally or do you usually have to order them? I am going to try to get everything done tomorrow, but If I have to wait for parts again. . . well yeah

 

All you can do is check with your local dealer. I would hazard a guess that you will have to order them from anywhere. If you don't mind shopping online, I can recommend www.onlinemazdaparts.com. Jason is a good man to deal with and they have quite a lot on hand. If they don't have it it doesn't take long for them to get it in stock. They are located in NC, any order over $100 has free shipping.

I would say you could go ahead and do the rest of the work if you were planning on it, it doesn't take long to change those seals and you don't have to pull off other stuff to get the valve cover off.

 

Ok well i got going a little over a half an hour ago, and i go to the point where i need to begin removing pullys so that i can get to the timing belt to pull it off.

Reading the fsm on protege5.ugly it says to use the SST to remove the crankpully. . . is there a way to do this without one or do i need to start callin autoparts stores to see who can rent me one??

 

Sorry this is so late, just got home from a date. I used an impact wrench to remove the crank pulley, that is probably the easiest way. The SST they talk about is basically a long handle that has two pins that fit into the pulley to allow you to hold it still while removing the bolt. You actually do need it if you want to get the bolt to the proper torque upon assembly. I just hit mine again with the impact.

 

No worries, I actually had tickets to the nuggets game tonight so i wasnt really around later, they pounded the raptors into the ground(ugly as hell basketball, but what is the NBA for). I don't have any impact tools so tomorrow morning ill go hit up the stores that have tool exchanges and see if I can get on of these SST things, if not, i may have to get creative. . .

Thanks a ton

 

Is the spring available seperately from most Mazda Dealers, or should I check the Auto Parts stores tomorrow?

I did disconnect my spring; seemed like it was already distorted! I have 125,000 miles on my Pro5, so either I bent the spring, or the guys I trusted to do the timing belt and W/P did it last time!

I hope I'm not S.O.L.!!!


Help!


Thanks,
Target, Super-Commuter