Howdy,

Am close to purchase of an 84 GSL-SE with 24K orig miles. I have wanted one since I used to sell them new in 84.

I checked the FAQ's and did not see what the gotcha's are for this year and model.

I am aware of possible idling issues, etc, but for someone who is going to own this car for a long time and drive it as well (not just store it), what should I keep an eye on?

Much obliged (please no flames, just hoping for an owner to pipe in with few words of advice for a prospective comrade)

Jeff

 

From what I've heard, 84 & 85 were the best 13b motors Mazda built!
Are you looking at the one in Cincinnati Oh?

 

Extreemly low miles can often be as bad as very high miles.

Do a compression test, look for coolant/ oil leaks ect.

They are reliable little cars. Several people on here have very high milage original engine examples. Longduck (or something like that) comes to mind.


Good luck,

--Alex

 

Yep, cincinnati..tender blue, 24K miles...

 

Yep, its true that the 84-85 13B was the most reliable. The simplest of the FI systems on the rotaries with only two injectors, and still had the same electronic distributor the 12A had. I haven't read about too many problems with these engines, and any idle issues is normally fixed by a TPS adjustment.

My car is a good example of a higher mileage, original, never rebuilt rotary. Granted it is the 12A, but at 275K KM (about 180K miles), the only reason the engine blew was because of an undetected pinging problem and a couple of unintentional over-revs (9000-10000 rpm range). The engine was reletively strong before it went out, so I guess it would have gone probably another 50K miles.