1987 Turbo II
61,000 miles

Out of broke-*** desperation I took my car to a cheap shop for a clutch replacement when the Mazda dealer quoted me $2800, and the guy took forever to do it and then when he gave it back to me there was a turbo leak from a loose hose. Even after clamping the hose though the turbo is just not delivering power with the consistency/immediacy it was before. God knows what else he did in there because it also has this new stutter when the gas pedal is lightly depressed. The car starts bucking just barely. I'm not a gear-head I just have good taste in cars, can anyone tell me a short list of likely culprits that would cause these issues? (Forgive me if that in itself is a stupid question) My wholly ignorant assumption is that it could need a new fuel pump or injectors.

Here she is:

 

welcome to the board.

first ... lovely car!

more than likely, a vacuum hose has either been left off, or was in poor shape before he did the job and then broke when he handled it. he would have needed to separate the engine and transmission, so you'd be looking any hoses that would have been in the way for him to do that. i wish i could be more specific, but i don't know the T2 engine bay that intimately.

if the car was running fine before the clutch job and is now acting weird, i think i can go out on a limb and say your pump and injectors are probably fine. there would have been no need for him to mess with either to install a clutch.

 

Beautiful Car.

Yeah - they knocked a vac line off. By that, I mean one of those vacuum lines that are super hard and super brittle.

The emission system is actually pretty simple, but it is a difficult thing for today's R&R guys. Do they have a "top/diag tech" that can look at it?

 

Agree that something vacuum related has been disturbed. If you post some pictures of the engine bay, we might be able to help you out. It's unlikely there's going to be a technician that knows whats going on with your vacuum system.

 

Thanks guys, my inclination is that the fuel stuttering is just coincidental timing—correlation rather than causation regarding the clutch replacement, since it started stuttering about 3-4 weeks after I got the car back w/ the turbo leak. I did just hit 60,000 miles. I'm gonna try to find someone in my area who's wise in the ways of the 13B-T and just tell him to molest my ****. Get in there deep like and tell me everything what needs done.

 

Pictures from several angles of the engine bay might let someone that knows what they are looking at identify it easier