Fun in the junkyard :)
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 15,622
Likes: 2,724
From: Pensacola, FL
Fun in the junkyard :)
Hey everybody -
I had an inspiration today, so I grabbed my dollar cover charge and headed to the local pick n' pull junkyard.
A previous owner of my car played Mr. Car Stereo with it, and did a so-so job on a number of things. Most notable was the numerous missing fasteners. Detail stuff like that drives me crazy
. So, I figured that there's probably a number of parts on the FD that's shared with other Mazdas - I doubt that Mazda reinvented the wheel with EVERY part on the FD.
So, I browsed through the junkyard, looking for Protege's, 626's, 929's, MX-3's, etc. Found quite a few. I walked out with a good 10 of those small plastic pop fasteners - just like the ones that hold the kick panel over the ECU. My car was missing quite a few of them, so now I'm hooked up.
My car also didn't come with the nice R1/R2 storage pocket under the stereo, so I was looking for something like that. Didn't find one with a lid, but found a plain pocket from a 626 that will fit just fine.
The passenger side window switch on my car doesn't work, which is either the switch or the window switch wiring that previous owner hacked and spliced for a remote window down. Anyhow, found a 626 and noticed the window switch on the back door - IDENTICAL to the passenger side RX-7 switch! Scored that as well. The switch has more wires, but that could easily be remedied, guts swapped out, something - regardless, I have a victim for experimentation.
Total cost? A buck to get in, and 2 bucks for my handful of parts. Can't argue with that at all. I'm sure there's quite a few other parts that could be used, but I was going pretty quickly, since I was playing hooky from work.
Has anyone else discovered any "swappable" parts among the Mazda lineup?
Dale
I had an inspiration today, so I grabbed my dollar cover charge and headed to the local pick n' pull junkyard.
A previous owner of my car played Mr. Car Stereo with it, and did a so-so job on a number of things. Most notable was the numerous missing fasteners. Detail stuff like that drives me crazy
. So, I figured that there's probably a number of parts on the FD that's shared with other Mazdas - I doubt that Mazda reinvented the wheel with EVERY part on the FD.So, I browsed through the junkyard, looking for Protege's, 626's, 929's, MX-3's, etc. Found quite a few. I walked out with a good 10 of those small plastic pop fasteners - just like the ones that hold the kick panel over the ECU. My car was missing quite a few of them, so now I'm hooked up
.My car also didn't come with the nice R1/R2 storage pocket under the stereo, so I was looking for something like that. Didn't find one with a lid, but found a plain pocket from a 626 that will fit just fine.
The passenger side window switch on my car doesn't work, which is either the switch or the window switch wiring that previous owner hacked and spliced for a remote window down. Anyhow, found a 626 and noticed the window switch on the back door - IDENTICAL to the passenger side RX-7 switch! Scored that as well. The switch has more wires, but that could easily be remedied, guts swapped out, something - regardless, I have a victim for experimentation.
Total cost? A buck to get in, and 2 bucks for my handful of parts. Can't argue with that at all. I'm sure there's quite a few other parts that could be used, but I was going pretty quickly, since I was playing hooky from work
.Has anyone else discovered any "swappable" parts among the Mazda lineup?
Dale
Full Member
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 242
Likes: 0
From: Portland, OR
I didn't think of going to the junkyard to look for these parts, but a few random interior pieces I've ordered from Mazda such as the plastic covers for the screws that attach the sun visor to the roof start out with part numbers that are GA instead of FD - I would assume anything that doesn't start out with a part number FD would be found on other cars.
