The "Quick Question" Thread

[tearingaway123]

I cant find anything really pertaining to my situation so here I go. I have a 1992 mx3 gs manual, it looks to have a tb spacer and a big honkin muffler. I went to replace the tb, and a new battery, did tb first then put my battery in. car is basically stock has a cai and doesn't seem to be to well maintained by previous owners, anyway tightening up the bolts for the battery my wrench touched the tb and gave me a spark show -_- now it wont even crank, I have a spare tb and ecu I am by no means a mechanic but I try to do most of my own work. any help is greatly appreciated!

[Ryan]

Check your fuses.


And post a picture of your "TB spacer". People have different definitions of this.

[tearingaway123]

Okay will do, maybe later today my fuses weren't bad, but taking them out and putting them back in got it running, and I had a couple vac lines crossed. thanks for the help! it's just a plate that I haven't seen before between the tb and intake about a few mm wide.

[Ryan]

That plate is normal, I'm not sure what it does. Never put any thought to it. May block off some of the IAC/BAC/ETC passages for some reason.

[Ryan]

TTT!

Feel free to post in this! Actually, please do!

[MrMazda92]

Right rear corner problem Ryan.

Stripped lug nut, drilled to perfection. No problems yet.
Stripped rotor mount bolts? Drilled to perfection. Couldn't remove without moving brake caliper and bracket. No problems yet.

Brake caliper removal went smoothly. Mounting bracket? Not so much. The top mounting bolt wouldn't budge, and I snapped the head off the lower one. Just the head, and about 1/8" of the shaft...

Now, how the *$%@ do I get the bracket off, short of cutting it, removing the entire hub, and drilling from the inside?

I figured I'd ask, since it's been 2 weeks and no amount of effort(frustration led to desperation, as well as MANY broken tools) has yielded success...

[Ryan]

I did this not so long ago!

If I remember correctly, the bolt threads into the bracket, not into the hub. If this is not the case, you're effed.

I wound up replacing the bracket with a parts bin spare. I may had to destroy the rotor to get it off

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hp ... 8115_n.jpg

[MrMazda92]

How did you break the rotor like that?

I was thinking of grinding the caliper bracket, and then simply pulling the rotor off, then drilling the bracket portion that was remaining, and replacing it.

If I can break the rotor like that, I'll do it. I'm swapping my '92s brakes onto the '93, and doing some upgrading to my '92s.

[Ryan]

Back of a maul, so basically a sledge hammer

I tried redrilling the bracket, but I couldn't make it concentric, so I dug through the parts bin and... voila, a replacement.

I don't remember if breaking the rotor was required to get the bracketoff... I only did it like 2 months ago too .

If you can do it without, you'd be better off, lol.

[MrMazda92]

I have no quam breaking the rotor, it's my preference if it won't harm too much else. I'll grind into it lightly so I have an easier point to break... Any chance you have another replacement if I can't break the rotor?

I'm swapping some new rotors onto my '92 compliments of MoonEggs, so my '92s rotors and pads will be going on the rear of this car anyways. Breaking the rotor would feel nice too, after all this nonsense trying to remove it...

[RobMinhas]

What do you guys think about straight piping and bypassing the catalytic converter? I think I see that in my future and I hear it's cheaper then getting another Cat and installing it. Also when my car gets warmed up, my steering wheel(i think it's the part that wraps over the bottom and bottom of the steering wheel and has the mazda logo on it) expands and squeaks when i turn the wheel. It's mostly a problem in the summer when it's warm but it happens occasionally in winter after long drives with heat on. Anyone know why this happens? If i can't track down a fix for the problem I'm probably gonna grab a boss kit as I found an aftermarket Momo steering wheel at picknpull last week.

[Sleeper6]

Straight pipes are nice and have no ill-effect except failing emissions if its something you have to worry about. I did it on mine after installing headers simply because I know enough shops that will pass my car without putting it on the lift

As for the wheel, no idea but if your going with the momo wheel you probably wont have to worry much longer (nice find btw!)

[RobMinhas]

Straight pipes are nice and have no ill-effect except failing emissions if its something you have to worry about. I did it on mine after installing headers simply because I know enough shops that will pass my car without putting it on the lift

As for the wheel, no idea but if your going with the momo wheel you probably wont have to worry much longer (nice find btw!)

I heard something about the necessity of having an o2 bung or my check engine light will be on? Any idea about that? The car I heard about it having that issue was a 2000 Celica GT-S. For reference my cars specs are in my sig.

[Ryan]

Straight piping the second cat shouldn't effect the emissions. There is a primary cat built into the header that you can't bypass without it freaking out.

Yup.

http://www.mx-3.com/manuals/showimg.php ... F1-005.gif



About the steering wheel, thats a fairly common issue with a comical fix.

Plant one foot on the dead pedal, and jam your other knee against the bottom of the steering wheel and the foot on the floor. Grab the top of the steering wheel and pull and wiggle as hard as you can for like 5 seconds. Make sure no one is watching, you're going to look like an idiot.

Then enjoy the squeak-free-ness.

[RobMinhas]

Straight piping the second cat shouldn't effect the emissions. There is a primary cat built into the header that you can't bypass without it freaking out.

Yup.

http://www.mx-3.com/manuals/showimg.php ... F1-005.gif



About the steering wheel, thats a fairly common issue with a comical fix.

Plant one foot on the dead pedal, and jam your other knee against the bottom of the steering wheel and the foot on the floor. Grab the top of the steering wheel and pull and wiggle as hard as you can for like 5 seconds. Make sure no one is watching, you're going to look like an idiot.

Then enjoy the squeak-free-ness.

Thanks about the second cat info. And that fix is quite comical, I'm gonna have an interesting time straightening it out. I wonder if I should still swap out for the aftermarket one though, I think it's a bit smaller but I don't know if thats a good thing or a bad thing quite yet.

But Ryan, you have the answers to almost all of my questions hahah! Thanks a lot man.