I'm about to do a tune up, what should I get?
 

Hiya!

I'm going to be doing a tune up this week, and I wanted to know what types of fluids, what brand of filters, etc to get. I've got an 84 GSL.

I'd like to:

Replace Air/Fuel Filters
Replace Transmission Fluid
Replace Diff Fluid
Change Spark Plugs

How much fluid will I need for the diff/tranny? What else should I do? I just got an oil change, but I want to do everything else.

Tune-up normally refers to ignition, fuel, and air - the necessary components for internal combustion engines to work at peak efficiency. For your tune-up, it sounds like you're including some drivetrain stuff, which never hurts. I'll provide my quick notes, below, but since you didn't state a budget, I'll assume you have enough money and time to do the job right, rather than just doing the job fast;

Replace Air/Fuel Filters - AF elements can be purchased from the Mazda dealer for a high quality part, or your local parts house for an acceptable part. K&N is a good afermarket manufacturer and will likely provide all the filtering that you need, and with minimal maintenance. With the K&N design, the oil traps the particles, so the dirtier it gets, the better it filters - but this also means that you'll flow more air throughout it's use before you need to clean and re-oil it.

Replace Transmission Fluid - tranny fluid can be changed easily with 2x14mm (IIRC, could also be 2x17mm) bolts located on the bottom and driver's side of the transmission. BEFORE YOU START, remove the 'fill' bolt on the side - if you can't get this one out due to stuck or seized bolt, it's better to know that BEFORE you remove the 'drain' bolt on the bottom! Once empty and with the 'drain' bolt back in, run new tranny fluid into the 'fill' hole until it drips out the 'fill' hole - make sure your car is on a level surface. I prefer the purple stuff that Mazdatrix sells - synthetic and has been recommended by them for quite some time for both tranny and diff.

Replace Diff Fluid - see notes above for 'tranny' section. The diff has a similar design, with a fill bolt (standard 1/2" drive socket fits), and drain (same). If you order 5 quarts of the purple stuff from Mazdatrix, you'll have enough to do both the tranny and the diff.

Change Spark Plugs - Nippon Denso; BR7EQ14 or BR8EQ14 - nothing other for me, anyway. Your parts house may tell you that they have a Bosch or Autolite plug that will work, but if you get the wrong ones, they can break off the tips and you'll be spinning those around your rotor housings in short order. Get the right temperature range for your engine, and pull your leading plug before you go so you can adjust temp range from there.

A tune-up for me and my 84SE usually also includes draining and refilling the coolant w/50/50 mixture of Sierra brand coolant, checking plug wires and replacing if necessary, and generally cleaning around the engine bay to make sure that there aren't any (new) leaks that I should be attending to.

Definitely have a look at your heater return line on the driver's side of the block, just below the oil filter tower. The tower can leak and cause oil to saturate the rubber line, leading to a blown out heater hose connection and sudden loss of coolant.

Squeeze the upper and lower radiator hoses to be sure they're firm, not spongy. Belts should be tight and not fraying or cracking. Battery maintenance should include checking the electrolyte level to make sure it's not running dry, and check your brake and clutch master cylinder reservoirs to make sure they're not low - if they are, start looking for leaks, and in the case of your brake MC, pull a front wheel and check your brakepads.

A little bit of preventative maintenance goes a long way toward reliability, so take some time to do a thorough 'pre-flight' check of your car from time to time. You just might save yourself a lot of money by fixing something early, rather than letting it go to wreak havoc on another day. HTH,

Don't forget about other ignition components that should be changed periodically. Distributor cap and rotor and ignition wires. Also DO NOT use sythetic motor oil in the engine. Use a quality mineral based oil such as Castrol 20/50. Sythetic oil is great for transmissions and rear diffs. but NOT in the rotary engine.

So the dif. doesnt use gear oil it uses tranny oil?

If you have a manual 5speed then yes, they use the same fluid. If you have an auto tranny then no they do not. YOu must use auto tranny fluid in the tranny and gear oil in the rear diff.

He said he has a GSL. If it has a LSD it also need the LSD lube in the rear.

Here, I'll throw some names and brands forward to help out:

Spark Plugs - ONLY use NGK. The BR8EQ-14s are good for street, the BR9EQ-14s give a little better gas milage on the highways. These are about ten bucks apiece. It's worth the extra money. Whatever you do DON'T get Autolites... Ever.

Air Filter - If you've got a bit of money to spare right now, go for a K&N. If not, just any regular paper filter for our cars is good here.

Fuel Filter - I mention it because you should change it, but again any regular filter that's made for our cars is good here.

Oil and Oil Filter - Use 10w30 Non-Synthetic oil. This is a huge topic for debate here, but Mazda recommends 10w30 and there's been talk of the possibility that Synthetic oils can cause problems in our cars. Since non-syn is cheaper, just use non-syn and make sure you change it every 5,000km or sooner. For filters, use anything but FRAM. FRAM is the devil. FRAM filters have been known to up the oil pressure in your car to unacceptable levels, and they don't filter well. I only buy Mazda filters (same filter as the Miata, so they're not special-order), and so do alot of other guys. But any good name-brand filter should do.

PlugWires, Distributor Cap and Rotor - Change these. Any that are made for our car, but don't just change the plugs and forget these.

Tranny Fluid - Honestly, how often do you change tranny fluid? So you'd better make it damn good stuff for those times when you DO change it. RedLine MT-90 is the best damn stuff you can use when it comes to manual trannies for our cars. You need 2qt, fill it until it gets to that hole and a little bit starts to come out, then it's at level. That should be almost exactly 2qt. It's a bit more expensive, but it's worth it.

Rear Diff Fluid - For LSD I don't know. I know for my non-LSD rear I used 75w90 Synthetic Gear Oil (synthetics are good for anything EXCEPT your oil pan).

Run some carburetor/fuel injector cleaner through your next two or three tanks of gas to make sure you clean the inside of your carburetor. FI cleaner is basically the same as the carb one, so don't worry too much if they don't have in-the-gas carb cleaner products at your local parts place.

I hope that helped for the tune-up stuff. At some point you should probably flush all your coolant out and use some "Prestone SuperFlush" -tm to clean out your cooling system and keep it running well. Replace your thermostat (it's a good idea to go Mazda brand here) and gasket while you're at it. This will keep your engine running cool, which helps.

Have Fun,

Jon

Hi! First, thanks so much to everyone for all the good advice! Here's what I managed to do:

New NGK BR8EQ-14s
New NGK Wires
New Neihoff Distributor Cap/Rotor
New Fram Fuel Filter
Tranny Fluid Replaced with Redline
Diff Fluid Replaced with Redline/Ford LSD Additive
K&N Air Filter

I bought the Sierra coolant and some coolant flush, and I'm going to do that soon. I also got an oil and filter change the first day of owning the car, so that's good. Any tips on the coolant flush?

The car seems much happier now! Pulls a bit harder, but definitely pulls more smoothly through the whole RPM range, just feels much better to drive! I'm also happy with the peace of mind that now I know it's all been done right.

Thanks again!

I use 20W50., which is the recommended viscosity for my temp range. So the #'s will vary with the location.

I use FRAM oil filter and my oil pressure stays at standard levels. Not sure what your source of data is here.

ya, me too, just I try not to use the orange one, their cheapest, but then I'm 17, my car is not getting everything it should Oh if I had the mone...

I have to add my two cents here.......

This is a must for all you guys........I bought the Fumto engine drain valve from Victoria British.......

And while cleaning the engine bay looked down and said I can reach it.........So I put my drain pan under the car and reached down from above and the oil was draining.....

No more jacking up.........everything from up top......

I am going to try and find or make a little extension
so I dont have to reach so far next time.....

I also tapped a hole in the oil filter berofre removing.......

and waited awhile before taking it off......no mess......

I will try and take a picture tomorrow....

Typo Fumoto oil drain valve....

Yeah I knew that thing looked like a good idea :D

I want to get that and a couple other things from VB, like the wind deflector for the sunroof.... but that's not a tune-up item.

;)
Jon

jimtesla- check your PM's I got a question about the drain valve.