Mazda Millenia S - Lost Srew and Cracked Plastic

[lianxi888fafafa]

I have a Mazda 1999 Millena S. It was leaking a bit oil, which didn't worry me so much.

Yesterday when I was checking the car, I notice one screw near the drive belt was missing? I bought the car like that. Is the car designed like this or there is supposed to be a screw? Should I go to a Mazda dealer (a bit far) or just a local Firestone to fix it?


After further check it appear that the plastic holding the dipstick is also cracked. Is it serious? Can it contribute to the oil leak?

[keninn]

those screws just hold the timing cover on, and the dipstick bracket. looks like this car may have had a timing belt done, and, as usual, shoddy work

[lianxi888fafafa]

Originally Posted by keninn

those screws just hold the timing cover on, and the dipstick bracket. looks like this car may have had a timing belt done, and, as usual, shoddy work

Do I need to worry about the cracked plastic part which holds the dipstick?

[keninn]

Originally Posted by lianxi888fafafa

Do I need to worry about the cracked plastic part which holds the dipstick?

dunno. personally, i like to put back all the fasteners that were there. i figger mazda put them there for a reason. the dipstick has another bracket that holds the lower part of it. i would check that one, too. if it is gone, then ask the po who did the work, and go kick him in the balls

[mazda-fla]

I also see that they used a plastic zip tie to secure the dipstick. You can remove one of the timing cover bolts and another bolt from the dipstick and take it over to the autoparts store and match them up.

Also, I don't think the missing fasteners has anything to do with your oil leak. If you have oil all over the front of the engine (were the serpentine belts are) or sides (where the exhaust manifolds are); sludge, grime, and oil all over the front and sides, then you might have leaking valve cover gaskets. That's what it looks like based on picture number 3. But hard to tell from the limited pictures. If the front and sides of the engine are clean, and just oil on the bottom of the engine, then it would either be the oil dipstick, oil drain plug (has a gasket that needs to be replaced), oil filter, or oil pan gasket.

Based on pictures number 2 and 3, I think you have leaking valve cover gaskets. That's a b**ch of a job, so if it doesn't leak that bad then you might as well wait until it gets really bad, because that's a lot of work. Or wait until you have something required to do like spark plugs, coil packs, fuel injectors or something that forces you to strip the top of the engine down. Then do it at that point.

Did you just get this car? It would have been nice if you could have got some kind of service records with it, just so you know where you stand as a baseline.

[bigb]

there are 2 sizes of bolts for the timing cover.

M6x50
m6x20

it should be fairly obvious which ones you are missing and also equally as easy to get a replacement bolt at a hardware store.

[keninn]

Originally Posted by bigb

there are 2 sizes of bolts for the timing cover.

M6x50
m6x20

it should be fairly obvious which ones you are missing and also equally as easy to get a replacement bolt at a hardware store.

the nice thing about the mazda bolts is that the tip of them are smooth, and act as an alignment tool. this is especially nice for the smaller bolts, no more crossthreading.

[TravisJamesBarrett]

the timing cover on mine is cracked to pieces whoever took it apart mad a big mess of it, all screws are there and it is held tight together with no gaps but I noticed doing other work on it its spider webbed with cracks. I also have all service records for the car before I got it. so I know where not to get the work done.
id replace the bolts personally they were there for a reason, and it would be nice to keep as much dirt and debris out of the timing belt as possible. At least it looks like you had the timing belt done

[lianxi888fafafa]

Thanks for everyone's reply. The previous owner doesn't have the service record for the belt change, so I have to buy the bolt myself. I only need the car for a year and I'm afraid that any repair would just make the situation worse. At least now the car runs great.

Another problem: The car has very bad MPG at around 15. If I use some fuel system cleaner, will that accidentally damage the engine?

[mazda-fla]

Join the club. I get 16.5 mpg.

Although I did just change a bad fuel injector out, and early indications from the first tank of gas is that my mpg may have improved to 19.8.

Vacuum leaks are going to be your worst enemy on the Milly S. Fix all the vacuum leaks and that alone will bump your mpg up 2-3 mpg. Also, driving with a heavy foot on the Milly S will really drop the mpg downward.