1992 Mazda 626 LX from North America - Comments

Brakes:needed new calipers and rear brakes need total overhaul.

Front end makes a crunching sound when I turn the wheel to the right. As to be expected considering the high mileage. Guess I need new bushings.

Tranny slips slightly. Was rebuilt years ago. Still performing it's task for the most part.

The heat shield located below the spark plug cables gets very hot and burns the spark plug wires. They are still elevated (not directly laying on the heat shield),however, I keep a close eye on this.

The seats to me are very comfortable. The 4cyl. still has decent acceleration and runs strong.To my surprise, the engine does not overheat here in Alabama with our heavy summertime humidity and having almost 160,000 logged on the odometer.

I change the spark plugs each year using NGK. For some reason when it idles, the rpm's bounce around between 500 and 800 occasionally.

It has air cond. but I don't use it and I'm not willing to pay the outlandish fees to have it upgraded.

It's been a decent car and is still running strong considering it's age and mileage. From reading in other forums this was probably the last year for decent built Mazdas. This cars' relability has been great.

I bought it used 10 years ago. I would say that's a pretty good track record with no major breakdowns other than the tranny needing to be rebuilt not long after I bought it.Still, it gets me from point a to point b and for now that's all that matters.

By upgrading the air conditioning, if you are referring to modifying it to go from R12 refrigerant to R135A, I am pretty sure there is an additive now in R135A that makes an "upgrade" no longer necessary. But of course if you have a leak (if you lost your R12), you are most likely going to want to fix that anyway. If not, you will have to recharge the system all the time.

As far as the simple conversion is concerned, I would not swear to you that you no longer need the upgrade, but I am pretty sure it is in fact no longer necessary. I would do a little research that if I were you. I used to be up to speed on all of this and would have been able to tell you for sure, but perhaps someone else on this board can answer definitively...

By the way, I have been to Alabama in the summer. It is beautiful, but my hats off to you for being able to get by down there without air conditioning.

Thanks for the info regarding the air. This is by no means a fancy car. I have had two other Fords that were total junk. One was a 1986 Ranger and the other a 1986 Crown Vic. Not to contradict myself with the 626,however, it's not 100% Ford and I will never by another full bore Ford product. Just too risky from what I've read with the exception of maybe the ZX2.