Hello All,
I just recently purchased a 1997 Mazda B2300 4-cylinder 2 wheel drive truck and have a couple of questions. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. First off the truck was a one owner and nicely taken care of. I don't have the service records or repair info available to me. So, what should I replace right off the bat. Obviously from most important to least. Also when I turn on the heat in the truck and use any setting other than the floor setting the A/C compressor kicks on and off every 3 seconds or so. One last thing, does this vehicle have 8 spark plugs or just 4 and how hard are they to change. Sorry for any questions that have been asked before or any dumb questions on my behalf. Thanks for looking!

 

Welcome to FTE!!!


That is normal for the climate control system in a Ford.

That motor should have 8 plugs. I'm sure some of the guys with 4 bangers will have more information on changing them or you can search the forum. I recall some of them are hard to get to.

How many miles are on the truck?

 

Thanks for the reply! The truck has 90,000 miles on it.

 

I would start with an oil change, coolant flush and fill, fuel and air filter, then plugs and wires. From there you could go to changing the fluid in the rear and manual tranny. If you have an auto it's a tough call on changing the fluid, if it's been done regularly then I would do it, if it's never been changed I would flip a coin, sometimes it can cause you problems. Opps, I almost forgot, check the brakes, replace as need and have the fluid flushed.

I'm sure some of the other users will have some more suggestions.

 

It is a manual transmission. The oil has been changed along with the air filter. Are there instructions for changing the fluid in the rear and manual tranny? Thanks again.

 

The basic repair manual will cover things. For the tranny, just a drain and fill hole. For the rear you can just pull the rear cover, replace and fill through the plug hole, if you have a posi you'll need to add friction modifier but I wouldn't expect a 4 banger to have a posi rear.

Also check out the link about the leaking shift rail plugs in the tech info thread at the top of this forum.

 

With 100K, it's probably time to also think about a timing belt, maybe a waterpump while your in there & O2 sensors, if they check lazy.

 

I'd do the timing belt, waterpump while I'm there, plugs, wires, tranny, oil, rear axle, air + oil filter, PCV valve, raditator + heater hoses if their original. That way you have a baseline for future maintence.

The plugs weren't the most fun thing to do, but they weren't horrible.

 

To do the plugs on these annoying 4 cylinders, go buy yourself a couple of universals for your sockets. They work _GREAT_ for getting to the back spark plugs, as they are kinda hidden underneath the intake and whatnot.

 

Anyone live near the Charlotte, North Carolina area that knows how to do these things? I am more electronically inclined. I can do probably everything but the timing belt / water pump. But that is what I would really like to have done as soon as possible. I bought this truck because my water pump locked up and took out the timing belt on my last car. It was not worth it to fix it. I would gladly pay in the form of Bud Light (LOL). Thanks for the reply's so far. Any and all info is greatly appreciated.