Mazda parts reviews

ABSOLUTELY REPLACE THE CRANKSHAFT SEAL AND MAKE SURE WHOEVER DOES THE TIMING JOB REPLACES IT. Even ask for the old seal back.

I learned the hard way. Paid premium prices for a timing belt and water pump. They didn't replace the crankshaft seal, but said they did. Oil was leaking out. Found a mazda tech. They knew the problem on the spot, replaced seal, and gave me the old one which still had the original mazda part numbers.

Excellent time to learn to do it yourself and buy a $65 water pump and timing belt kit. Dirty cheap for the miata. Just find a kit with a GMB water pump and a name brand belt.

Denso Designer hybrid low-profile frame wipers. The Denso wipers are what came OEM on my 2009 Subaru Forester and they just work great and last. They also look great on cars that have the traditional hook attachment. You don't get that big center block with extraneous mounting holes. The wiper sits flush with the arm. I've used them on a Miata, a Mazda 2, an Odyssey, and a '97 Accord.

A better carb and 2" exhaust will make it quite a bit livelier.

If it's a stock engine use 5-30. I use Mobil 1 full synthetic 5-30 in my b18c and it's been good for thousands of miles.

Use a good quality synthetic engine oil; I use Eneos.

Ours has been pretty reliable, had some issues with odd stalling once which was cured with new plugs/wires/carbon cleaning, rear shocks just went recently.

At 100,000km I did Koni STR.T shocks, Eibach springs and a Progress rear sway bar. It's a riot to drive with decent tires now however I'm not overly impressed with the Konis, they don't have the best small-bump feel but the car feels ridiculously planted 100% of the time and stays flat through corners.

Roughly 12 months ago, I upgraded the radiator on my 2000 Series 8 (~65,000km/40,000mi) to a Koyo R1443N 48mm N-Flow. The coolant seals blew because the radiator's design allowed air to accumulate, creating hot-spots and leading to seal failure. My water temps never exceeded 90C. After a rebuild, a valve was installed on the radiator elbow, making it quicker to bleed the system, and water temps are now around 77C, about 10C cooler than before. The Koyo radiator's design prevented proper bleeding of the coolant system, causing seal failure.

As also mentioned above the rear shocks suck. I got Koni for lifetime warranty and already lost one rear shock after 2.5 yrs.