College Student First Car Build

Well, ran into a wall yesterday. A few of my valve cover bolts ended up being too short and small (bottomed out as soon as I put them in the hole) and some were stripped.
I'm also concerned about the wear on the timing belt, mind you this belt has about 1500 miles on it if that. I'm wondering if it is running untrue and scraping on something.
But in all my issues with the car, 323 told me to come by and grab some extra bolts he had laying around. Also had another intake manifold sitting around he sold me. Living 15 minutes from an OG protege owner definitely has its advantages lol
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got the kitty bump of approval
 
pcb said:
Don't over tighten the bolts. My car came with one of the cover bolts broken with the stud stuck in the hole and my parts car came with two bolts broken.
The bolts have metal spacers on them that keep you from squashing the gasket too far.

Use a torque wrench if you have to or put a socket on a screwdriver handle to turn them in.



Keep track of your bolts too, some are different lengths.
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Did you keep track of your bolts.??
There is three different lengths...

You can see the difference in the diagram.

If you put a long one in a short hole you'll strip it.
If you put a short on in a long hole it won't reach.
 
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That may be just the way the belts are made...
You can see the edge.

If there is no new rubber dust in there then it's probably the old belt that left it behind.

You did get new pulleys and tensioner with your new belt right ??

Old pulleys can wobble and make the belt move off kilter.
 
I took a picture of my old T-belt and it looks scuffed up on the sides as well.
My old pulley and tensioner were quite sloppy and I replaced them. I don't know what my newer T-belt looks like... It's been 3 or 4 years and I haven't had the valve cover off.



This is the T-belt from my parts car..
It doesn't look like it's too bad.



So, rubbing on the edges a bit might be normal but I'm not sure
 
sigh. Im going to put it back together and remove the cam position sensor and run my fingers on the inside or something to see if there's new residue.
I did keep track of the bolts though. used a shoe box and poked holes in it to keep track of everything
 
The Mazda guys that did your timing belt may have mixed them up.
Your valve cover wasn't replaced correctly either.

I hope they didn't stretch the hell out of your tensioner spring too.
 
Well, its been a long time coming, but an update:
Saturday I got the valve cover back on, changed my terminals to some I got off Amazon (best ones I've ever used), even changed batteries from my sedan to the wagon. Started the car and it ran fine. Mission accomplished right? Nope, too good to be true. I let it warm up and revved it up and it start misfiring. P0340 again, so I grabbed the camshaft position sensor off of the sedan and cleared the code. It came on a few minutes later again. I was going to run to pick a part to splice in another connector thinking the connector might be bad, but 323 found a forum post about how it could be the timing belt is off and the computer sends a dummy CPS code. Not wanting to take it back to Mazda, it is at his buddy's shop for the time being. Once I get word back on the issue, I am going back to Mazda to get my money back as I don't even want to drive on the road they are located on due to them ******* up so much. Driving the car to the shop felt great as it is the first time in over a month the car has moved, and hopefully, I can get it back on the road next week! she and the truck have been sitting just like this for over a month.
I think my next steps are wheels and lowering the car as since I have a DD I no longer have to worry about bumps. Hopefully more to come soon!
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Wow, that paint is immaculate. I'm so jealous..
What are the terminals that you got? I've had replacing them in the back of my mind but didn't know where to start off brand wise and such.
 
grffn said:
Wow, that paint is immaculate. I'm so jealous..
What are the terminals that you got? I've had to replace them in the back of my mind but didn't know where to start off brand wise and such.
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that's camera magic lol the car is effectively 4+ shades of yellow lol
lip is one shade, hood is another shade, metal around the car is another, and finally the plastic bits are another lol hood and lip is new paint. As for the terminals, these are the ones I choose https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)
works out well and I feel my sub/amp have a better connection
 
I swear you and 323 are not good for my wallet lol he's giving me advice on what to buy and here you are with the parts lmao
how many miles on the springs? I'm going to drive his P5 when mine is back from the shop to see if I like the spring feel. I'll let you know tho
 
pcb said:
Make sure you let us know what 323's buddy comes up with.
I'm quite curious.
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will do! he messaged me and said another one of his buddy's was at the shop yesterday and the car is being taken apart. Hoping to have an answer soon!
 
Well, just got the call from the shop that the car is ready to pick up! Girlfriend is on her way to pick up the keys and I'm going to drive over there to pick up the car once I get off. Feels good to have it back, the sedan is boring the hell outta me driving it. I have to look at the paperwork but it seems the timing was off from what the secretary said. Which I tried to tell Mazda in the first place, so I'm going over there tomorrow probably to give them an earful and try to get my money back. And I'm usually not the customer to b**** about stuff cause I deal with those customers all day and don't want to be that guy, but this is ridiculous. At this point, I've done nothing but pay them to take apart my car and put it back together.
Going to put some miles on the car tonight and give her a great bath. Kinda annoying all the money and time I spent trying to fix the car myself, but I'm glad its back on the road.
 
Gabe710 said:
Feels good to have it back, the sedan is boring the hell outta me driving it...
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I remember taking out a protg sedan for a test drive and I just didn't like it.
It was a trade in at a dealership and they just wanted it off their lot.
It was $2,000 less then what I ended up paying for my P5, 2 years newer with half the mileage but it was an econo box and the worse thing was it was an AUTOMATIC !! ewwww !!

I'm glad I got the P5... It still love the rusty turd.


I guess I learned something from your thread in that you can throw a cam sensor code if you skip timing.

It does mention the timing belt in the list of causes for your problem but you would think having it replaced by the professionals at Mazda that it wouldn't be a problem..
Plus it's quite involved to check the timing to make sure.

 
I enjoy the "put it in gear and drive" part but good lord lol shifts slow as hell, is slow as hell, and just boring!
however, the car has been in a shop since like Tuesday lol I felt like I had done everything I could and after spending $100s I could have done this first and wouldn't have put a bunch of stuff in the car
 
Well, the timing was way off. The mechanic also said there were bolts and hardware missing from the timing covers and stuff. I'm going one day this week to try to get my money back. I don't expect to, and honestly spending another $260 to not have that Mazda **** up my car more is worth it IMO. Id like to thank pcb for his endless supply of charts and guides, and 323 for the mechanic recommendation and finding the post that stopped me from splicing in another connector to my car lol First 2 pics are how far off the timing was and the last is it corrected.
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Gabe710 said:
. Id like to thank pcb for his endless supply of charts and guides, ...
Click to expand...

No Problem.. I enjoy it. Although I feel a bit like I was leading you on a wild goose chase.

Too bad the cam sensor code didn't include the timing belt being off as a possible cause.

At least now it sounds like you've got a good mechanic you can trust.
 
Just an FYI.. (although it's too late now,... I thought I mentioned it earlier but it must have been a different thread)
You can check your timing with your valve cover off by looking at the timing marks on the cams to see if they point at each other. You can rotate your engine with a socket on your crank pulley bolt (rotate clockwise)

It's kinda hard to see in there at an angle but their are timing marks on the backside of the cams that lineup perfectly with the cylinder head when viewed from the other side.



If they don't lineup, then your timing is off regardless of where your crank gear is at.

If they line up and you think the timing is still off, you need to remove the crank pulley and check the marks on the gear underneath. (the timing marks on the T-belt cover are unreliable.)

 
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It's fine! Your charts didn't tell you to go there (and I was hoping it wasn't going to be that serious as I didn't want to check the timing cause I don't trust myself going that deep in the car yet). In a sense, I know when everything was changed and whatnot now and what can potentially be the issue in the future.
I figured there was a way to check it myself, but figured if I got that far I might as well retime it
 
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