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I have a 1994 mazda mx3 with a DOHC 4 cylinder. For some reason when the timing is set at normal the car has almost NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO POWER. It accel's so slowly and its been getting horrible gas mileage. My dad advanced the timing and now the thing runs like a champ. Turned it back down to normal and once again NOOOOOO POWER. I asked him if he checked the timing and he said he was sure the timing was fine(not sure if he's right or not). Also the oil gets really black really quick. Looks like its been in there for years when its only been 3 weeks. I thought I might be running rich or lean. Not sure which of the 2. Also when I first start the car there is a really loud squealing noise. Only does it on a cold start. When I turn the steering wheel it gets alot worse. It also gets worse as I start to drive. After about 7-10 seconds it stops. It does it alot longer when its wet outside. Also for some odd reason when I jerk the steering wheel left or right the rpm's jump a couple hundred. Anyone ever heard of this or might know of any reasons why I would be having any of these problems. Thanks in advance for your time.

<small>[ October 25, 2004, 04:20 PM: Message edited by: war ]</small>

i had the same squeling problem. very annoying and embarassing. anyways, mine kinda stopped on its own...dunno why. but seems it worked for the best. i never found a reason except some ppl said it could be belts or pulleys.

The squealing is probably the power steering pump's belt. Spray some WD-40 on it and it should go away quickly. Or go buy a new one if it's worn or it really bothers you.

sounds like you are almost running off of only 3 cyl. with timing normal, then when you advance it it fixes the timing for the one cyl. that would explain the black oil. THats what happened to my friends Dads car. The person that redid his Cams messed up on a lobe so it was misfireing a lot. He advanced his timing and it fixed that cyl. and gave the rest a little more power. I wouldn;t know in your situation...

the squealing and the rpm jump is almost definately due to something with the power steering pump. it sounds like the pump is putting a major load on the engine when it needs to run more (i.e. truning) i'd check the power steering fluid level, and if that's fine, there could be something wrong with the pump itself. i don't really know what to tell you about the power issue, but one of my spark plug wires went bad a while back so one cylinder wasn't fireing at all, absolutely no power then. so there could be a cylinder not firing for some reason under normal timing.

Na I know all the cylinders are firing. I had a cylinder stop firing in my nissan 240sx one time and it made the car shake real bad. Anyway I just went and had the idle turned back down to normal and all the power is still there. It seems that it was the starter causing the power lose. My dad advanced the timing awhile back and while it was still advanced the starter went out so we had to replace it and I was thinking then that could be the problem, but he would never turn it back to normanl because he said he couldnt get close enough without it boging out. Anyway thats the only thing we fixed since the timing was first advanced and now everything is working good. But what could cause my oil to be so black??? Does that have to do with the fuel/air ratio. It gets very black really quickly.

I have a 93 4 cyl. I just bought it in March and am slowly bringing it up to speed. The squealing belt on cold starts was problem for me also. After replacing the belts twice within 3 months, using belt dressing/WD-40 and other things to "hide" the problem. I finally bought OEM belts from the dealership. The belts cost twice as much but it has worked for the last month.

jaw367, keep an eye on them belts still. I had the same problem as you and ultimately replaced with OEM belts too. However after 1.5 months it started doing it again. After checking the tension it seems like the belts had stretched a bit (others on this board have talked about this in the past). Had to retension to quiet things down again but be careful not to exceed the recommened belt deflection.