Had mine serviced yesterday. £150 inc Cam belt change and VAT. He also replaced a CV boot (not with a stick-together one either!) and repaired the distributor gasket that was leaking oil all over my top pipe.

Quite pleased. Though I did have to cycle 5 milesin the rain for it!!

Mark

WOW!! where on earth did you go? The best price that I have had so far is £175 for the Cambelt change ONLY!!

Lemme know!

Thanks.

A garage near me. I've taken my cars there for the past 10 years.

Mark

i also asked him to check the brake pads/shoes (i know they do it anyway, but the front brakes were starting to squeak and i thought it might be a sign of worn pads). he said they rear shoes were ok, and he'd cleaned and adjusted them, and that the front pads were (thought he was going to say 'barely ok') barely half worn - they've been on the car for 3 years!

is this normal? i know i'm fairly sympathetic on the brakes (i use engine braking instead of braking braking).

mark

Hmm.... weymouth may be a little far for me; probably spend the saved costs on travel instead!!

not sure about the brakes; i tend to be quite 'sympathetic' to the pads and discs too; but at the cost of the clutch, engine and gearbox so i'm not sure if it isn't a false economy!

...either way; i'm just getting into using my brakes a bit harder nowadays (just for fun!)

Thats is a fantastic price, are you sure hes done a service and a cam belt change?????? it just seems to good to be true, good for you anyway.

as for the brakes, i only wish mine lasted That long, i use my brakes (a lot) and i'm lucky if i'm still on the same set of pads after 12months/10,000 miles, but they are good brakes on the v6

best price i had for a cam belt change was at the mazda dealer £125 inc vat parts and labour. pretty good price seeing as its a bugger to get to on the v6.

Ha! my local dealer wants somewhere in the region of £500+ to do the service and cambelt cHange!!

they say tHat all the country's wealth is in the south east, but [b]i[/b] don't Have it!!

Just had my Cambelt done. £328 poorer (not including having paid £50 for the cambelt already and supplied my own oil at about £40! ).

Car feels much smoother now but new problems have come to light and I will have to have a new sump fitted next week at the cost of about £260!!

How much do CV joints usually cost as they say that mine are perishing..... is this a mojor problem? Should I have gone down to Weymouth to have the whole lot done?!

Mine were about £180 - for both sides.

What's up with you're sump?


Mark

My car is in the garage right now for it's 108K. It's in for a clutch change (I already brought the kit), cambelt, full full full service (excluding the sparks I already got) and changing the brake pads/shoes all round (which I got myself). Very nice garage, nice people but not nice price. Currently stands at £700 inc VAT. Already need to pay £20 extra for a bearing needed for flywheel, and £225 for a complete replacement gearbox from a scrappy; my previous mechanic decided to destroy one of the screw threads in my old gearbox housing. ..

Painful. Going to go to the garage down at Kew Gardens www.kewwest.com on saturday morning to check on progress

but I aint giving up on me 323f, noooo sireeeeeeeeeeee!

Thanks, that does make me feel a little better!!

Mark: My oil sump is pourous (a legacy from a scratch sometime in the car's history, which started rusting. Fairly common situation I hear....)

The garage had to support the engine with the sump and it didn't like the extra strain and is now crying Castrol RS .... at £40 quid a sump-load!!

Booked in for next Weds to fix.

Knew of the problem before but it was only 'moist' and not actually leaking before.

Holding back on the ZX1 in case it makes the leak even faster!!

Wai.Cheung

How did you get on with the sump problem, ive got the same thing at the moment, the parts alone are almost £100, ive found a scrappy thats got an mx3 V6 sump, its not great condition but its not as bad as mine and its £35, if i do it myself it might end up at £60ish including oil and the sealent.

Not that bothered (or confident) about doing it myself but carnt take the risk of the sump going and blowing the engine. Sounds like it might be a common problem after all.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think the V6 in the MX-3 ia 1.8 V6.

Mark

I think your right. I believe in UK cars only the 323F got the 2.0litre

323Mark,

I don't think that the sump rusting away is as much a common problem as it is an inevitable one as it's almost the lowest part of the car and i fit gets a little scrape, then the surface paint will be gone and rust will start to set in.

Parts, Labour and VAT came to £248. If you have a V6 then they have to remove the down-pipe for the exhaust as well in order to get teh sump off as the pipes go around a part of it. You will need a new gasket and some new bolts as part of the 'parts' list.

I went to a fairly posh garage so I'm sur ethat you could get a smaller one to do it for about £200 or so....

Worth it for me as I have about £40 worth of oil in the car at any one time so, aside from the annoyance of leaving oil patches everywhere, I could place a decent price tag on the puddle on the floor!!

Ive been quoted £90.00 for the sump (oil pan), 10w/40 oil at £15.00 for 5 ltr (mazda special offer) which is the recommended oil for the V6 and approx £117.00 for the labour. apparently there is no gasket you use a sealent. Thats Mazda dealer prices, i'm going to phone another garage on monday for a comparative quote. Will let you know how I get on.

...unfortunately I'm a sucker for marketing so I put 0W 40 Fully synthetic Castrol RS in mine...

Almost £30 for a 4 Litre can.... and the car takes about 5! (I have checked, the book lies when it says 4L!)

I use to use synthetic in my old car (primera GT) but i bought my V6 with nearly 100,000 miles on it so the damage is most certainly already done, i'm saving money this time round

Your right about the sump rusting, it looks like mines had a bump in the past and its rusted once the paint has come off. Still woring on that labour price. Got the parts from Mazda on saturday so just need to find a garage to fit it. Dont think it will be till next week though have a lot of mileage to do this week.