I stripped the interior removing mouse nests and trying to get rid of the smell. I was surprised to find oil on the transmission housing. The shift lever wiggles loosly but will still put the transmission in gear. I went under the car and the oil covers the whole houseing, running back from the motor. I can understand if oil was leaking from the motor it would flow backwards but I'm surprised that it would go up.



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Can anyone tell me what this bracket is hanging down next to the transmission? It looks too substantial not to have something attached to it.



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There is a very little play in the universal joint in the picture and none in the back as far as I can tell.



Next, I found a hose had melted off a mid pipe cat.



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I'm guessing it got clogged and too hot and melted. The attachment to the cat is clogged with what I take to be material from the inside of the converter. Does anyone have a stock mid pipe unit that they want to get rid of cheap? I'm in CT. By this I mean the three units in a row. Or can anyone recommend a free flow aftermarket replacement?



There is another apparent oil issue up front. I dropped the plastic guard and found this.



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Basically, the oil cooler on the driver side is clogged with crud and the foam liner on the bottom of the cooler and the radiator were wet and falling away. There seemed to be oil coming from above, possibly the air cond compressor or power steer (I haven't looked these up in the manual yet) I'll clean it up with some brake cleaner or gunk. Perhaps it's from the line to the cooler. Any opinions? How important are those sponges? I assume they are primarily there for air flow control.



Finally, the metal fuel lines from the gas tank look hella rusted.



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Do people replace these with braided line? I'm thinking about dropping the tank to clean it. Would it make sense to replace the fuel pump when replacing the lines. I don't know if the fuel pumps are prone to fail. At first I plan to keep the car stock but an up grade is always possible in the future, though I doubt I'd turbo, swap, etc.



Thanks in advance for looking. I know it's a lot of quesitons.

 

1. the shifter towers are filled with oil, if the boot fails the oil can come out. its an easy fix. get the shifter bushings while you're there



2. bracket is for the factory exhaust



i'd drop the tank, and clean it out. looks like your car was sitting for a while

 

This boot definitely failed. It was crumbling. I'll search this but other than a wrecker, where's a good place to order this stuff?



I am going to drop the tank. I also think I can bend up some new fuel lines out of solid brake line, or at least that's what my local auto parts shop suggested.



Thanks.

 

I just checked out Rockauto. Looks good but doesn't have the boot that I could find. Any suggestions?

 

Mazdatrix? http://www.mazdatrix.com/g4.htm

 

cool thing about these cars is that they sold well, so the dealership can get just about anything if you get stuck.

 

Yeah, shift boots and bushings are relatively inexpensive, even from the dealership. My dealership even had one in stock.

 

Nice! I can see a lot of time (and money) could be spent on that site. Thanks for the link.