Hi everyone, I'm new here so take it easy on me for my first post...

I'm looking at a 1985 GSL-SE but it has quite a few problems and I would like to get some opinions on how much you guys think it will cost me to fix the problems before I commit to buying the car...

Here are the issues, I'm pretty busy so chances are I would have to pay someone to perform all of the work:
1. The power windows don't roll down (or up) entirely without some manual intervention, they just slooowly move.

2. The steering wheel has about 4-6 inches of play if I pull on it. I've heard of a telescopic steering wheel but there's no way to lock it into place.

3. The steering wheel has about 6-8 inches of dead zone where I can turn the steering wheel without actually moving the front wheels at all. This makes it really hard to drive the car down narrow roads at low-medium speeds.

4. The plastic cover under the steering column is broken, as if someone tried to hot wire the car at some point.

5. Sometimes while driving when I let off the gas the car gets stuck idling at a higher RPM, anywhere from 2000-4500, maybe it's an idle sensor or something.

6. The coolant light randomly lights up.

7. The cloth seats are worn and one has a hole so I would like to either get new leather seats or have the existing seats covered in leather if possible but I don't have any experience with upholstery.

8. Needs a Mazda emblem on the front.

9. Needs paint, in 1990 I owned a metallic gray 1985 GSL and I really liked that color so I would like to try to match that color if possible, I have no experience with paint either.

Hmm...I think that's about it. Thanks in advance for any help you guys can offer...

 

1. mine did this too so i took off the door panels and tightened a lot of the bolts that were loose.

2. there's a broken pin in the column that's a safety feature if you get in a crash, it's very common to break over time since it's plastic. i personally run a nail through mine.

3. there will be SOME play in the steering, but you can find in the FAQ how to tighten up the steering box. you could also have some worn out front end parts...reach down and tug on your idler arm and see if it's shifting.

4. try a junk yard, or mazdatrix i'm sure offers the part.

5. check your throttle linkage to be sure nothing is caught in it and it is operating smoothly by hand. the fast idle cam could be getting moved into place.

6. ....make sure your coolant is full. if its a smidge low it can flick on while going uphills.

7. people have even swapped in seats from other cars. check the archive

8. can be ordered at your dealership, salvaged from a junkyard, or ordered from mazdatrix

9. my car was originally silver, and i'd like to repaint it to that color some day

 

#1-Motor may be burnt out, it could be off track, or need cleaning. Try cleaning first and checking if it's on track
#2-http://www.mazspeed.com/faq3.htm ---Steering Play
#3-Wondersteer-Try the above FAQ.
#4-Try the for sale section, someone will have the parts
#5- Throttle Position Sensor-there are FAQ's for adjusting it.
#6-Thermostat, probably, if the coolant level is up to spec.
#7-Again, check the for sale section
#8-Black Dragon Auto has the emblem you need. It's OEM quality or may be OEM, but it will cost up to $30.
#9-Don't know.
Anyone, correct me if I am wrong on these. The repairs you are talking about aren't too bad and you could possibly do them yourself. It will cost not too much, the seats and the big mechanicals will be the most expensive. Again, anyone correct me if i am wrong on these points.

 

first off how much you paying for the car and second are you going to fix it yourself or pay someone because if you are going to have to pay someone to fix it better bend over

 

Ha, yeah that's the thing. I'm pretty busy and I don't have a garage or many parts so I would be paying someone to fix this stuff. Maybe even the Mazda dealer, who knows...

When you say bend over do you mean bend over for $500 or do you mean like $5,000?


[edit]
Thanks for the replies so far, btw.

 

Hi how are you doing bud? I will do my best with estimates and prices for you.
Could just be the tracks needed clean. Or could be the window regulator or motor testing for voltage would be required. The regulator will run $240 each side and a motor will run $160 per side and shipping will be required. EST time will be 1hr per door at $40 pr hour of labor to replace the items and approximately between 30min to 1hr to testing each component.
I would have to inspect this and consider replacing from another car.
The rack can be tighten but is short lived and takes 2 hours of labor. I would suggest upgrading to the rack and pinion conversion mod. Cost is approximately $950.

Will be hard to locate a replacement try hunting on the for sale section of this board.

Could be binding linkage or vacuum leaks.
Please view my page for pricing on long block assembly for repair prices of the vacuum lines and lines under the UIM. Also look into external services.
Probably low on coolant sloshing around on the sensor.
I have a wonderful upholstery guy to redo them great prices. However I can not quote for him.
39.99 is price of emblem
Paint can be cheep or expensive. I have one of the most awesome painters and body man. That would depend on if base is needed and body work. Color changes are more involved if you want jams and seams and engine bay the same color, between 500 and 3 grand. I don’t blame you that grey is an awesome color.

 

There's gotta be a junkyard in FL where you can get some of those parts cheap.

Someteimes you can fix sticky power windows temporarily with some Silicon Lube sprayed in the channel. The best new channels come from mazdatrix, they're OEM.

Never let a DC motor like your PW motor stall out. You can easily burnup the windings. Motors are easy to remove from a 7 in the JY. Regulators usually can be refurbed by hand, usually just requiring appropriate lube, like a persistent grease.

I get emblems at the JY, but mazdatrix has OEM.

 

I would suggest you look around in the 'For Sale' section. If you're not going to do the repairs yourself, it will cost you far more to fix the car than it's worth. I bet you can find one that's in a lot better shape, and the right color for a very good price. Spending an extra $1000 bucks on car that's been fixed up (or just well maintained) will save you several thousand and a lot of headaches.

 

sounds like the car is in good shape.
the first gen steering is just like that, get use to it.
if you need any of those parts used in excellent shape pm me.
you should be able to do everything but the paint and appolstry yourself with simple hand tools. take a sat. and do stuff yourself, for real man. this is really simple stuff your talking about, **** i would feel comfortable letting my girlfriend do it, lol.

 

When you say bend over do you mean bend over for $500 or do you mean like $5,000?



I think this is a $5000 bend over. Sheesh.

As suggested by others, if you can't do this work, spend the money up front on a better vehicle.

 

I know some of the parts are pricy but the truth is any first gen he finds will suffer the same fate of parts. In all honestly it really is not that bad of prices to fix on a car. You have to consider if the car is one you are wanting to keep to achieve your moneys value.

 

$1000 to fix windows on a $2000 car is not that bad?

 

What do you thinik it would cost in any other car? It also may not be that exstream. What do you think the dealer would charge? Or another shop?

 

FB s are really cheap and easy to fix compared to any other car I know of. And the price difference for JY parts is usually enormous. If a PW motor is $120, you should be able to find a JY scrounger (maybe even me) who goes to the PnP on half price day, picks one up for $14 (what I paid a couple days ago for a spare) and will ship it to you for $50 postage paid. Hey, if you really need a drivers side PW motor I'll sell you my spare and ship it for $50 to prove my point. I KNOW I can get more very easily, and there's nothing (well almost) I like more than a trip to the JY to pick up some parts!

Anyhow, my next project is to cleanup the bodywork on my 83 with a $10 RF fender I got a few months ago at the PnP, bump out a couple dings elsewhere, and spray it all with the $30 spray can of U6 I got from paintscratch.com. Probably, I'll train my Apprentice Mechanic into an Apprentice Bodyman on the way. For the paltry compensation I give him (mostly just good meals and access to a whirlpool bath) I tell him to take his time, do nothing rash, I'll get any tools or materials whatsoever, and I save a lot of money.

But, like any car, mechanics charge $80/hr, or whatever, and it can be expensive having them do anything, unless you know exactly what to do, which is usually achieved by doing it yourself a couple times, and use this BBS, the best I've ever seen. Hey, we're all fans of the car, and we're all pretty cheap!

The toughest thing is diagnosis. The actual work is pretty easy once you know what's wrong and how to fix it. But if you start a project ignorant you will have lots of problems as you disassemble things. Don't rely on trial and error because you'll waste time and money. Research on the BBS, and then think out what the problem could be, given the symptoms and then construct a simple experiment to narrow down the possibilities. For example, my 85SE is making some bearing noise in the driveline, so I want to pinpoint the problem and replace exactly what I must to get rid of it. So I have in mind a simple experiment with the rear wheels up off the ground, the car on jackstands not the jack, and apply a simple stethoscope (actually a length of vinyl tubing) to various wheel bearing areas, etc. I suspect the UJoints on the driveshaft and I know I can get a new aftermarket shaft from mazdatrix for $200, or drop the shaft and walk it into a driveline shop to have it rebuilt for $50-$100 or even install new needle bearings myself (I've done it several times in the past).

Thinking is easier than doing. You don't get skinned knuckles and you don't have to lie on a cold driveway in the rain. Use your head.

 

i sell used power window motors for $25 each and i have a stack of them.
same goes for the regulaters.
i think thats about what you'll pay on ebay as well.

 

i just think it would be silly to drop that much $$ on a cheap car.
$1000 is probably more than 1/2 the car is actually worth.

if he were closer to here i would put the motors in his car for a 12 pack of heineken. (yes, it's that easy. 30min job to do both windows) but i work on cars for fun, not as a job.
stealership... no thank you.

 

Entirely new steering components will run you about $160 at RockAuto. That will restore quite a bit of the steering. The ball joints will probably run you from $40 - $80 additional depending on where you get them. The labor is what's going hurt. Personally, if I wasn't willing to do all the work on my GSL-SE because I love it to death, I wouldn't own one as it would be a money pit.

Nobody has asked this yet but how many miles are on the car itself as this can help determine what is going to fail in the near future or what may already be failing? Plus you'll want to do the rust inspections to see how much more this can cost beyond what is visible on the surface.

 

^^^^^^
No kidding.

These cars hide their rust very well, and what they hide can be serious. Pull the storage bins from behind the seats and inspect the metal behind and under where the bins live. If you can see daylight from here to the rear wheel wells you have a labor-intensive and expensive repair ahead of you.

Also check the unibody frame under the hood, especially down where the steering box and idler arm are bolted on. Serious rust in these areas can often hide under an otherwise innocent-looking coat of paint. A good tap test with a ball-peen hammer would expose it though. If there's serious rust here just walk away. It's very difficult and expensive to properly repair and the last thing you want is for an area where steering components attach to just break away.

On a lighter note, if this car is a 20-footer (ie: looks good from 20 feet away but has the usual flaws expected from a 20-year-old car) it's worth around 2k. But if it's in pristine condition, has no accident history and has service records it's worth at least double that amount.

Also, especially since it's an SE, it will likely be worth much more in a few more years. Ten years ago a pristine (if you could find one) early-'70s Datsun 240Z could have been had for 5 to 8k. Now they start at over 15K. The first gen RX7s seem poised to do a similar feat as flawless examples become increasingly rare.

As for leather seats, the stock ones are just as prone to wear and tear as the cloth seats you wish to replace. On top of that, leather will give you the enjoyment of sliding around on the seat during spirited driving, as well as that sweaty sticky feeling on hot summer days. This is one car where cloth seats are better in every respect except prestige.

Power windows on these cars do not wind all the way down. There will be about an inch of glass protruding above the sill when they are in the down position. Your '85 GSL would have had the same affliction.

BTW, what color is this car currently? If you're concerned about resale value in years to come repainting the car (especially a different color) will compromise its value in the eyes of an appraiser.

 

Wow! That's a good price. Same price for regulators?

 

yep. i base most of my prices off what stuff sells for on ebay.
parts are used but tested and in good working order.

 

Thanks for all the replies, guys. I'm going to pass on the car. It has 151k on the chassis and the guy was asking $1500 but said he would go down to $1250 if I could buy it this week.

The car is currently a dark metallic rust'ish color, not sure what the technical word for it is. It's in Jacksonville if anyone is interested in it, since it doesn't seem to fit me very well.

Here is the original ad, I hope this doesn't violate any forum rules, it's just to show you guys the car and the color...
http://orlando.craigslist.org/car/257126469.html

 

thats a pretty good price, looks like poss a southwest car too.

 

Midwest, did you even read what he said about his steering play? That's not normal even for a 1st gen. That's a MAJOR SAFETY concern. Most worn out boxes or steering need ones have 1-2 inches of play and I consider that alot. He is describing what could possibly be broken teeth off the sector shaft in the box or a combination of other very worn out components.

The steering column moving in and sounds could be the main mounting bolts for the steering column are not even attached.

 

i figured it was just sloppy and he was exagerating.
after driving other cars it fells like 4-6 inches, lol.

the steering moving in and out could be the combo switch is just not bolted down snuggly too.

both minor problems i'd say.
if theres no rust and good compression i'd say its a steal for 1200.

 

I'll agree that the price is good but that's all.