LashNeo

That's nice to hear brother. But; are you sure about the fuel efficiency? 6 kmpl is way too low for the BJ5P. It should do around 8 within city limits. Would you mind sharing few details such as Price & YOM as well?

If you buy a used car manufactured in early 2000; you may have to do few repairs here and there. No matter how well maintained they are; it is usual to come across a repair or two here and there. But; definitely you won’t have to spend the additional 10 lakhs you save by not buying a brand new one on those repairs. There will be few other benefits as well and it’s up to you to decide. The comparison would be as follows; Buying a reliable used car for 20 lakhs Low cost in spare parts. Easy diagnosis and low labor costs for repairs as the models are well known by local mechanics More spacious than the brand new hatchbacks Some may even have more options than the brand new ones Better value in resale You can remain debt free (invest your cash, go on a trip or too, By some fancy stuff, donate to charity Oh.. the possibilities :D) Buying a new car for 30 lakhs Better fuel economy Peace of mind due to less repairs and company warranties Sense of accomplishment in owning a new ride Opportunity to Impress the neighbors, “Pretend” friends, relatives, nagging in-laws etc. etc.

Yeah. only the Alto and probably the city (highly unlikely though) would achieve 10Kmpl within colombo.

Yep. Won't be easy to get rid of the additional layers of fiber on most of them hence would be much easier to find a well kept EK3 in original condition.

For Sofa’s I’d also recommend Damro. We have a fabric 3 piece set which has been abused for nearly 10 years now but still holding up well. Cushions have not lost their shape as well as softness. Only the fabrics have faded due to exposure to sunlight. Are you serious about stuff like big Horses, Huge Clocks, Vintage Pictures of old english musicians, moose heads and fancy Chandeliers etc? Coz; nowadays the trend in interior design is towards low cost minimalistic stuff. For an example Ornaments with simple shapes, Coffee tables out of old wooden pallets, simple drawings, soft and pale color schemes etc. These designs are simple and easy on your eye which eases up your senses as well. So, you might wanna do some research on these stuff before committing a fortune on fancy expensive stuff. Maybe you have already done the research but it’s not your cuppa tea. But I would seriously request you to re-consider ?

Yeah.. as long as no one else rides with you. Not even your mother

I do the same but in a slightly different way. I mix up the natural oils to my liking and dip it in a small cotton cloth and put the cloth inside an empty Godrej aer' airfreshner can an fix it near an A/C vent. I prefer the smell of natural oils over artificial substances.

Only the hold light blinking? Nothing else like gears not shifting, engine hesitation etc??

Mazda Familia/323 was manufactured from the 1960’s up to 2003. The BJ series was the last series of the familia/323 which came out of production on 1998 and continued until 2003. BJ5P has an engine capacity of 1500cc while the BJ3P has an engine capacity of 1300cc. BJ series has two variants. A pre-facelift model which came in 1998-1999 and a face-lifted version which was produced from 2000-2003. Face-lifted model is famous as the ‘Prado’ light model in the local market and it shared the same chasis as the pre-facelift version. Only difference is the front face which looks newish due to the differences in headlights, grill and fog lights etc. and some interior trims like door handles, steering wheel etc. however; there are plenty of pre-facelifted familia’s that have been converted to look like face-lifted ones as the modification is fairly straightforward. The price would range from 1,600,000 to 2,300,000 based on the age, condition and options etc. The high spec versions with full options such as VVT engine, Trip-tronic gear boxes, climate control A/C, all disk brakes etc. would be priced over 2,000,000. I know the prices are way too high for a car of this age. I know this for a fact as I spent only 14lakhs on my BJ5P in 2009. But; that’s how our crazy local car market operates. Then again, If you think about the absurd prices you have to pay for a reliable brand new family sedan; these prices might look OK right? There were plenty of variants of the BJ series with minor differences. Do some searching on the net and also in auto lanka. You will find plenty of information on the variants. I think there were plenty of discussions on this in auto lanka.

Have been an owner of a Mazda familia for nearly a decade now. Car is almost 20 years old and closing in on the 200,000km mark as well. I really don’t have any major complaints on it. In-fact it was one of the best purchasing decisions I have made in my life. It covers 50+ Km’s on a daily basis and I haven’t noticed any drop in performance, power etc. so far. It’s a well thought out design. Simple and practical. Still looks newish in design for its age compared to its counterparts of the same age. Interior also holds well and would look newish on well kept specimens. Engine is responsive compared to the Nissan’s and Toyota’s of the same league which is very handy. I don’t think you need experts to scan this model. It has been in the country for so long and there are plenty of them around too. Any mechanic who has been in business in the last few years would know about this model and hence any place with a good OBD scanner will be able to perform an engine scan easily. If you are so keen on seeking experts; you can take it to M*zna Motors at Aththidiya who specializes in Mazda’s or else to a place like C*r Checks for a full report.

Well.. I had no issues with the assessor who did the on the spot assessment. He was a very polite fellow who noticed the damage and promptly put all the damages in the claim document which also included the damage done to the buffer. The dispute is with the assessor who came to the garage to assess the repair estimate prepared by the garage once i put the car for repairs several weeks later. He has mentioned that the owner has to pay 50% of the repair cost of the buffer repair. At the time he visited the garage i was not even there so how can i show a bad attitude towards him without even seeing the fellow??. So please do not make false assumptions and for your information i have also made several motor claims during last 12+ years without any issues. I have already informed this to the agent who sold me the policy and he said that the assessor who visited the garage seems to have messed up things and he will do his best to correct things. The main duty of the managing director of a company is to protect his customers not to hide errors of his employees/colleagues. And if you don't have the guts to raise hell for your rights; Good luck being a flimsy

Yup. its been the same with all the friends and colleagues i know as well. I will be heading to Al*i*nz in few days with the claim documents and will be raising hell if they don't give me the due compensation.

Yep. that's the same scenario i'm also familiar with. Usually they deduct a percentage based on the age of the vehicle for replacement parts and therefore i have no issues with deduction on buffer clips. But never experienced a deduction on a paint job before. That's why i'm worried.

I have fully insured my Car with Al*i*nz insurance and it met with an accident several weeks ago. A motorcyclist crashed in to the car and damaged the front left hand side fender and scratched the buffer as well. I reported the incident onsite and the assessor who came to assess the accident approved repairs to the fender, buffer and alloy wheel. Yesterday I put the car to the repair shop to carry out the repair and they have quoted 16,000 for repairing and painting the fender and buffer. (Rs 8000 each). Later on the day the assessor who came from the insurance company has approved 7500 each for repairing and painting the fender and buffer. But, he has mentioned that the owner would have to bare 50% of the cost for repairing the buffer plus 50% of the cost of buffer clips. That means they will only pay 3750 for the buffer repair job and I have to bare the remaining 3750. I was rather surprised about this as something like this has not happened to me before. The dent in the buffer is a minor one and it has a few scratches on the underside which were caused by previous accidents. But, usually the insurance companies would approve the full amount to paint a buffer even though the accident has caused a minor damage to the panel. This is because you cannot spot paint it and you would have to remove the panel from the vehicle and do the paint job on the entire buffer. I was rather annoyed with this and I called upon the Head office of Al*i*nz and they told me that this is the usual practice although I have claimed the full amount from the same company in the past in similar incidents. Is this something new introduced by insurance companies? Has anyone faced a similar incident before with other insurance companies?

Yeah.. cannot agree more. But, the reason behind this is the boasted prices of new cars in the local market due to exorbitant taxes. Just compare the new models available in the market to a 20 year old corolla which you can buy within the range of 18-20 lakhs. What can you buy? I think only the Maruti Alto fits in that range. But, does it offer at least half the value in terms of features, space and looks to a 20 year old well maintained corolla? I guess no isn’t it? ?

As Davy has mentioned; Keep a close attention to the area where your rim meets the tire (tire bead). Sometimes teeny weeny leaks in this area cannot be diagnosed by submerging the tire inside a barrel as the water pressure would be too heavy. Instead try what Davy has mentioned or else keep the tire on a flat surface and pour little bit of water around the bead and observe carefully. The latter method helped me to diagnose a similar leak which was caused by a small sticker getting stuck between the rubber bead and the rim.

@mash1981 Glad to hear that you sorted out the issue. How much did it cost for the MAF?

Yep. You are correct. It’s the sponge. I honestly thought the hose was loose. This happened to me some time back. The car was stalling in the middle of the road suddenly. There was no hesitation from the engine but the engine was going off on idle from time to time. While taking a look under the hood noticed that this hose was loose and everything was back to normal once it was connected. I couldn’t recall that there was a sponge attached to the hose. After seeing your comment; looked at the hose in my car again and noticed that there was a sponge but it was slipped towards the other end. Probably the reason for the disconnection of the hose as it helps to grip the hose against the other hose near it.

Just now noticed.. Am i seeing a loosened connection in the highlighted location? Can you please check on this first? might be a Vacuum leak. Just push the hose forward to fasten it.

Idling issues in a BJ5P can occur due to several reasons; Some of the reasons i can think of are as follows; Issue with the MAF sensor Issue with the CAM position sensor Busted Ignition coil packs Busted spark plugs Vacuum leaks Loosened Air filter Since you have done a tune up recently; your spark plugs must have been already checked. Therefore, i would suspect it would be related to something else. I think the best thing would be to perform a scan first. Are you nearby colombo? if so; the best place to do this would be Mazna motors. They might diagnose the issue by experience even without scanning.

Hmm.. interesting. probably the procedure may have been changed.

Thanks Davy. I searched the forum before posting this. But, somehow I have missed this post.

My rear license plate is faded and doesn’t look good. Therefore; I have been pondering the thought of getting a new plate from department of motor traffic. Has anyone in the forum done that before? What would be the procedure and cost? Are there any third parties who would handle this? If I’m going to do this via DMT I suppose I would have to hand them over the old plate until I get the new one. Can someone who has done this shed some light please…

ROFL!! That’s damn hilarious man.. you just drove me nuts. Just the right kind of answer for that kind of a question

OK That’s good news. If you don’t feel anything unusual in breaking you may not have any issues in the normal breaking system. I just wanted to ensure that. Usually the handbrake light switches ON due to issues in the normal breaking system. I was thinking you might be having two issues here. One was related to the ABS system and the other related to normal breaking system of the car. So, it seems like issue is with the ABS system and as per the error code it’s most probably due to a loose connection in the wheel speed sensor. Mazda BJ5P is equivalent to Ford laser and the error code you got should be correct. But; just don’t replace the sensor or the control unit before ensuring that there aren’t any loose connections. Please refer the below link for details. https://euroesi.mazda.co.jp/esicont/eu_eng/mazda3/20060311105619/html/id0402a7805700.html