929 knowlegable resource - 87-91 years

[vaughnc]

Hey 9ine Deuce asked me to stop by.

I've had my 1989 HC3S 929 for about 8 years now as the car never seems to die. I've gotten pretty familiar with the maintenance, repairs, and bugs on these cars.

If any of you need a service manual, order one through www.books4cars.com.

Here's a brief knowlege dump of these cars:

Accessories still available
- Chrome wheel well accents
- smoked & clear headlight covers
- generic aftermarket spoilers


The Good:
The 1987-1991 929 and 929S seem to have bulletproof drivetrain that can withstand ultra-high mileage. These cars are entry level luxury sedans and make a GREAT alternative to restoring or buying a used BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, etc.. Besides these cars being ULTRA affordable due to low bluebook costs, the parts are faily inexpensive compared to Lexus, BMW, & Mercedes. If you want to own or restore a classic luxury sedan, parts are still available and this car is an excellent canidate.

The transmissions seem to last forever. They shift smoothly & confidently. You never wonder "am I pushing the transmission to hard" as you'll feel when it needs to shift naturally.

Power & acceleration are great due to good gearing, 4 speed automatic, and "virtual 5th gear" with the automatic's torque converter, and a "manual mode" hold feature that lets you manually downshift without straining the transmission. The hold option is great for stop & go as you can keep the car in 2nd gear to cut down on unecessary shifting.

The base 929 has 170ft-lbs on the 929 and the 929-S ~210ft-lbs. Power delivery is smooth & confident. You'll always feel you can pass someone or pull out into traffic, you have the power.

Besides power the car's balance & handling are supurb. 50/50 balance front to rear & side to side makes the car handle well on the street and during autocrossing. The ultra-rare but optional manual transmission would be a great help during autocrossing.

The ride is touring which means it makes a great cruiser. Braking is excellent due to larger rotors that DO NOT warp up as quickly as other competing cars.

The interiors are supurb & well layed out. Optional leather seats, manual or electronic dash, and seat warmers in combination with the excellent leater dash give you that "cruising in luxury & style" sense.

The exterior does away with the "boxy" look of competing cars and hase a well schulptured and luxurious look. The dark color paint in contrast to the chrome door handle, chrome trim, and bright powder aluminum wheels make you heart melt & pulse quicken. Can you believe you paid so little for this luxrious semi-exotic car?

The exterior color comes in a "nakid" solid look or 2-tone colors with additional body panels for styling. There are several different OEM rims installed as well. My favorite color combinations are like my car, blue mica flake paint on blue interior. Also the deep purple paint on the 929-S with the cream interior is SOOO exotric & nice looking.

I've been impressed that these cars do not have many of the typical used car glitches like wiring harness shorts, grounding issues, bad master brake cylinders, corroded electronic sauder joints causing wiper or headlight issues, etc..

The Bad:
As with all 100K+ mile cars the suspension & handling need a bit of restoring. When you hit 125-150K miles on these cars good shocks, allignment, and balance won't be enough to restore that "riding on rails" handling & feel you expect from a new car. You'll need to replace the springs, bushings, and tighten up the steering so the car won't pull from side to side on rough road or at high speeds. Trust me the OEM "on rails" handling & feel can be restored.

Also remember the car body of most cars "float" on top & bottom of the engine, transmission, suspension, steering, & drivetrain. This foating technique cuts down on NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) by having soft rubber bushings/grommets/mounts sitting between you and what moves. These rubber mounts only last 125K before they begin passing that noise & vibration into the body of the car (your butt). When this happens you'll begin feeling vibration from the engine, steering, transmission, etc... These rubber mounts should be replaced to restore that new car "quiet as a mouse" feel. When they fail completely at 180-300K miles you'll hear the engine "bang" against the frame when accelerating, the shifter may move slightly when accelerating, you might hear a "thud" sound when shifting gears, etc..

These cars are designed to give you a sense of the road, so you'll never get that "completely disconnected from the road" feeling.... which is good in my opinion for saftey, fun, and feel. Also these cars are quiet but you do get a bit of wind noise with the radio off. There are no air leaks, this is just standard and it's not distracting and you'll be able to hear, talk, and listen to the radio at normal volumes.

While most of the interior is leather, like many other cars plastic is used in areas to save weight to improve fuel economy & acceleration. A small portion of the dash tends to crack and the headliner trim may come loose. These parts are inexpensive, so replace them. Just be sure to add rubber grommets/washers to the OEM screws so the new dash won't crack. Also the leather interior will be in good shape ONLY if the previous owners clean, conditioned, & moisutrized it. If not, you'll get the typical cracking & spiltting. A leather shop should be able to restore it to prestine new, but a mild tint job on your windows will help keep out the harmful sunrays as well to prevent future cracking. I like to use a neoprene seat cover on the drivers side seat to protect my original leather seats from rubbing.

Like the German cars, the power window motors will wear out. Don't replace them, send them off to be rebuilt for cheaper.

Like all used cars eventually you're OEM radiator will get bits of rust in the fins and you'll begin noticing spikes in your temperature. I added an aftermarket coolant gauge to my car for piece of mind to make sure it's running near 180degress. When you do begin having temperature spikes it's a good idea to have a radiator shop clean out your radiator with acid. For you DIY people removing the radiator & soaking it in a good strong liquid rust remover for 3 days should work. If you have any plastic sections built into your radiator though, make sure the anti-rust solution is safe on plastics. The radiator cap should be removed when you soak it.

These cars use a combination of old & new techology, so there are a few things to check if the car is runing or idling rough. Your car should have Distributed fuel injection, not fully electric. I still have the OEM distributer and it's never gone bad. But if it ever has problems, the car will not run correctly until it's fixed or replaced. In addition to the computers on this car there are also vacuum lines used to monitor & control the engine & surrounding systems . Should these vacuum lines become loose or leak the car will run & idle roughtly. In addition should the wiring connecting the MAF (mass airflow sensor) between the air filter box & rubber intake tubing become corroded, the car may not start or run very rough. Finally since electric radiator fan technology didn't become reliable in everday cars until the mid-late 90's, these cars have belt driven fans with a "fan clutch" that "spins up" the fan while idleing or at lower RPMs. Fan clutches usually only last 90-120K miles, but you'll know when it starts to go because you won't hear the fan "spin up" during the startup process after you crank the car. You should replace this immedialy when it goes to avoid the engine running hot while idleing and/or at low speeds.

With higher mileage & hotter climates, the high pressure fuel injectors or fuel rale may begin leaking (another used car annoyance). If the 929 you buy has been well maintained, this has probably already been done by the previous owner. But, if you ever smell fuel you need to take the car to a mechanic immediatly. Legally I must tell you to tow the car to a mechanic, but I drove mine. I've not heard of engine fires from this, but with any car you should always keep a high quality fire extingquisher in the car and check it quarterly that it still has pressure as indicated by the extinquisher's gauge. Don't buy the cheaper "pop up" indicator fire extinguishers, yours should have a nice gague on it.

I should remind you here that used cars are MUCH more affordable to buy & maintain, but you will deal with similar bugs on any high mileage vehicles. The more DIY you become, the cheaper & more satisfying the used car experience will be. Maintaince should come in spurts so your not always working on the car. If you maintain the car and look/listen for the "tale tale" signs of a part failing, the 929 won't ever leave you stranded. Show her some love & she'll keep loving you back.

Finally as with all high mileage engines the lifters tend to tick. I've cut down on this by switching to "thicker" 10W40 oil, using LUCAS oil addative, and running a quart of diesel fuel during idle only before I changed the oil... which helps clean out gunk in the lubrication system. Do that every 3-4 oil changes. Besides the ticking Mazda mentions in a TSB (technical service bulletin) that you'll hear a "piston slapping sound" during cold startups. White it's a bit distracting when starting up the car it's nothing to be worried about and should go away during the warmup process.

In closing, follow the 30K and 60K mile types of recommended tune-ups & maintenance, replace the various engine gaskets ~125K miles to stop engine leaks like you should on any car, wash, clean, polish, & wax the car every quarter, don't pressure wash the wheels as you'll remove the painted wheel caps and clearcoat wheel finish, when the brakes begin squeeling replace the brakepads, turn/shave the rotors, & add stop-sqeek to the back of the pads, replace the front tie-rod boots when they split, replace the PVC boots when they crack, use the recommended types of tires & have the wheels balanced, follow both the recommended maintenance, familarize yourself with these cars so you can do more DIY to cut down on costs & avoid mechanics from overcharging or unecessarily charging you for work.

The car will last forever if you treat her right.

-- vaughnc
Atlanta, GA

1989 HC3S Mazda 929 Luce - Tranquil Blue
1989 FC3S Mazda RX-7 Convertible - Nobel White
1989 FC3S Mazda RX-7 Convertible - Blaze Red
1991 FC3S Mazda RX-7 Turbo II - Brave Blue
1977 SA Mazda Rotary Pickup - RE/PU - Flare Yellow

[9ine Deuce]

Thanks for the write up, There are 929 enthusiusts out there, you just gotta find them...

The 929S had 191ft-lbs of torque

I noticed that my power windows work fine in the warm and are slow in the cold

So your saying it has a 50/50 weight balance ?

I like the white/silver 929S color combo, even the rare dark green 929s

I need to replace some suspension parts for sure both front struts and the front springs are too high (I wanna get the 929S front springs which are slightly lower than the base 929, do you think they will fit ??? I also wanna go to the non adjustible struts). I wouldnt be susprised if I have to replace some bushings

I know I need a driver side engine mount, I feel I vibration when I make bad gear changes into first

Im getting some leather conditioner right now...

I do smell fuel sometimes I think it might have relation to my poor economy

Suprisingly I never hear my valves ticking even in our cold climate

How many kms/miles on ur car ?

[vaughnc]

176,000 miles which I believe is 283,360KM.

The problem with lowering a car more than 3/4-1 inch is the allignment shop may not be able to properly compensate & "run out of adjustment." You'd probably need to swap some suspension components from 1990-1991 when Mazda lowered the car.

My car's doing good but I know cylinder 3 is getting low on compression and I think I have a bit of coolant leaking in cylinder 5 from when I let the car run hot to 230-250F degrees several years ago when my clutch fan went out. I've noticed a greent tint on that cylinder's spark plug, but no bubbles in the radiator and I'm not adding coolant. I'm getting ready to soak the radiator in Iron Out as my current 929's radiator is getting clogged with rust particles and I'm seeing spikes to 195-215 in warm weather.

Before I tackle my 929's engine I've got two things to do first. I've got to complete my RX-7 Convertible's rull suspension restoration & then replace my RX-7 Turbo II's motor & tranny mounts which will hopefully fix that annoying clutch squeel while engaging in 1st gear.

After that I'll pull the 929's engine & hunt down cylinder 5's coolant leak. Hopefully it's just a leak in the valvetrain. I'll also drop my engine by a engine shop to measure tolerances and let me know what's out of spec (ie needs to be machined). Then new gaskets, seals, etc.. and the 929 should be ready to go for another 180K miles.

[9ine Deuce]

what kinda components do you think I could use to lower the front ??? is there an easier way to lower the front ?? how bout chopping the coils ???

my rad has a leak on the top, jus right of the rad cap, Ive been using JB weld but it never stuck form the begining so Imma gonna have to redo it as soon as it warms up

[Castle4kq]

Hum, thanks for posting. I was wondering where to start looking for that gas smell. Injectors having a problem narrows it down, hopefully that is it.

I'm starting to have more issues with my car. This winter seems to have been very harmful to it. My exhaust is now in need of replacement which is no biggie. I had to replace a bearing, now I have a shimmy up front. I need to get a good look and see if it is a ball joint or tie rod. I'm sure as well that my bushings are getting bad.

Are the bushings off the 929s any different? If it needs replacing might as well upgrade, yes? Also, what changes were made between the 929 and the 929s? I hear that the springs are different but what suspension pieces changed other than the crazy shocks which I'm glad I don't have.

Thanks.

[9ine Deuce]

929S has

- DOHC 3L which puts out 190HP and 191lb-ft of torque

- sport suspension, stiffer springs, slightly lower suspension, not sure if sway bars are bigger. Anyone know if the 929S came with AAS suspension ?

- vented rear disc breaks

- 15x6 mesh alloy rims (also found on MPV) with lower profile 205/60/15 rubber

- lower body mouldings, redisigned front grill

- slightly different design with interior and steering wheel

thats all I can think of