Faults:

Head gasket blew at about 77,000 miles.

Lifters, once in a while, "click".

General Comments:

We have had this truck in my family for 16 years now. My grandpa bought the truck, but then gave it to my dad in 1996. May of 2004, my dad gave me this truck as a gift. I did some work on it(lowered, paint, ground effects, etc) and it was pretty cheap to do. The only "bad" thing about the truck is the speed. Acceleration wise, slow. Overall, I love my lil' Mazda. I would never sell it.

Faults:

Part of the emission control went out, the dealer wanted $40.00 for each part (which is a filter with a butterfly valve on the back). I went to a wrecking yard and bought 3 of them for a $1.00 each. I only needed to use one of them, so I have back ups if ever needed again. The clear coat has come off the driver side of the bed. I think it had been repainted before I got it, but it is still not that easy to see the clear coat missing on one part of the truck.

General Comments:

I bought this truck at a dealer for $1500.00, they were asking $2500.00 but that was over my spending limit so the dealer came down to make the sell. It was a 1 owner truck, the couple traded it in to buy a new Ranger...ops, I mean Mazda truck. They sure made a mistake, Mazda trucks aren't anything like they used to be when Mazda made them. If I wanted a Ford Ranger I would buy one. The truck has been very reliable and is my daily driver. I own an Isuzu VEHIcross and leave that parked in the garage to save the mileage. I did buy a new instrument cluster with a tach on it. It looks more complete now. I just can't figure out how to get the digital clock on the guages to work. Anyone know how to hook those up? I also installed a center console with cup holders and a larger lockable storage area from Walmart for like $20.00. It matches the interior perfectly and looks factory! So if anyone knows about hooking up the clock let me know please. trevorcarlson@hotmail.com.

Faults:

Well I payed $500 for my truck and the paint still shines, has no rust, good tires, with nice interior, rebuilt motor, new clutch. The guy I bought it from said the head was cracked, I found out after buying it that it was a little piece of hose down by the rear of the engine, near the heater core. So I got an awesome deal.

General Comments:

It's just a practical little truck, that is cheap on gas, easier than a Chevy S10 to work on, get a lot better gas mileage than an S10. I had a couple fullsize Chevys that I liked to work on, very nice to work on, but then gas is too expensive to afford a fullsize anything these days. So I bought a Chevy blazer S10, then a Chevy S10 pickup, then another Chevy blazer S10, and to be honest they rate it at 17 MPG, but its closer to 11 MPG. One of my S10 blazers had a total rebuilt motor and was still only 11 MPG. My Mazda has the same amount of power, except smoother, and it gets at least 20 MPG. I am a Chevy guy converted to Mazda guy. It wasn't until I had a friend that bought his second Mazda pick-up that I realized these things don't die and they are great.

Faults:

New clutch at normal (50,000 miles.) intervals.

Front brake pads at 50,000 miles. intervals.

Entire exhaust system behind catalytic converter at 152,000 miles! Phenomenal!

New master cylinder at 126,000 miles.

At 152,000 miles needed major engine work: ring job, all new valve dampers, replaced 2 valves and ground other 6 valves, did all work without pulling block. (the hard way!) Replaced rod bearings even though they had no discernible wear!

Fabric seats are starting to rip and sag at 162,000 miles.

Rear wheel bearing and 2 universal joints at 145,000 miles.

General Comments:

This is the best vehicle I have ever had. It is supremely dependable and economical. Although I was a little disappointed that it started to smoke on start up and proved to have uneven compression at 152,000 miles, when I tore it down I discovered that it is extremely well made. The rings had started to give out, but the cylinders showed almost no wear. I have never believed in just doing ring jobs, but this convinced me that it may sometimes be possible -- it was in this case! This engine is actually made with a block stiffening plate between the oil pan and block, something I had never seen or heard of except in some racing engines. Like a Mercedes, it requires no pan gasket, just a little sealant. I could measure no discernible wear on the rod bearings and my machinist told me the same about the wrist pins. The weak links in this motor are all in the head and they are easily remedied. These are the valve dampers. They started giving out, one at a time, at about 80,000 miles and would sometimes really clatter when the engine was very warm and traveling at highway speed. After I rebuilt the engine the remaining ones gave out one day on my way out of town so I went back, ordered the whole set (about $18 - $20 each) and replaced them. I was able then to see the problem. They have an "O" ring seal around the outside on the bottom that seems to disintegrate when they get old. When that happens, they don't hold pressure and rattle in their receptacles. When they do this long enough it "mushrooms" the top of the valve stem and eventually the damper striking surface begins to disintegrate.

A few months after the rebuild I got a mysterious slow coolant leak into the engine interior. (into the oil) After many frustrating attempts to find it including removing the head and replacing the head gasket, a mechanic found it for me. It seems that the tower bolts that hold the camshaft and rocker arm shafts run clear through the outer shell of the head into the water jacket. They must be put back using a special sealer/lubricant to prevent coolant from leaking up the threads.

The radiator has very narrow channels that clog very easily. Every time the head has come off I have ended up needing to have the radiator core rodded out.

I run a good gas system cleaner through it once a year and the carburetor still works well. It gets about 27 miles per gallon on the highway and I expect to keep driving it till at least 300,000 miles. It's power is very adequate. How fast do you need to go, anyway? It is the largest of the small trucks of it's time and I find it very roomy. I am 6'4". It still has almost no rust and I live on Puget Sound.