Mazda Familia Bj5P 2003

[CarManiac]

Hello everyone,

I recently bought a pre-owned Mazda Familia BJ5P (YoM 2003) car. I'm a newbie to Mazda and also not much experienced in automatic drives.But I'm willing to get to know this car very well.

First of all there are few things which I would like to get advice from you Mazda experts.
The car has done 132000km(seems it's genuine) but the previous owner couldn't provide me with its proper service records.

• What would be the most appropriate services, Changing engine oil, filters, ATF etc?(The colour of ATF was quite good)
• The steering was a little too tight as if it was lacking power steering a bit. Wheel alignments and the power steering fluid level was OK. What might be the possible reasons for this?
• What is the function of the Hold button? Is it exactly the same as the OD on/off button on some other vehicles?(I could find a thread on AL on this hold button stuff, but the exact functioning of the "Hold" was not that clear to me)
• I got to know that this car has Mazda ZL engine. So is it ZL or ZL-DE? Is there any difference in those two?(I just found that it differs from the ZL-VE with variable valve timing)
• I would like to have an owner's manual and a workshop manual for this model.(I could find a 2003 Mazda Protege owner's manual but it was different in some ways, the engine was 1.6/2.0 there. Is it that Familia is the JDM and the Protege is US/European?) How could I get the exact owner's/workshop manuals for the Mazda Familia BJ5P?

I would like to share the experiences and knowledge with Mazda Familia owners/experts and also willing to join with good Mazda/Familia clubs or forums if there are any.

Thanks in advance.

[The Stig]

Hello everyone,

I recently bought a pre-owned Mazda Familia BJ5P (YoM 2003) car. I'm a newbie to Mazda and also not much experienced in automatic drives.But I'm willing to get to know this car very well.

First of all there are few things which I would like to get advice from you Mazda experts.

The car has done 132000km(seems it's genuine) but the previous owner couldn't provide me with its proper service records.

• What would be the most appropriate services, Changing engine oil, filters, ATF etc?(The colour of ATF was quite good) - Its generally a good idea to change everything if you dont have proper maintenance records from the previous owner

• The steering was a little too tight as if it was lacking power steering a bit. Wheel alignments and the power steering fluid level was OK. What might be the possible reasons for this? - This is quite normal for a mazda (im guessing your previous car wasnt a mazda), the steering is a little heavier than your average toyota or nissan which is what give it the sporty feel and good feedback on the road surface. Dont get me wrong, there could be an issue but its most probably this.

• What is the function of the Hold button? Is it exactly the same as the OD on/off button on some other vehicles?(I could find a thread on AL on this hold button stuff, but the exact functioning of the "Hold" was not that clear to me) - Its basically OD off which means the 4th gear is disengaged. This is purely my theory and i dont have any research to back it up but i feel that the ecu switches to a more rev happy profile when hold is on allowing the engine to rev more in lower gears, again purely my observation.

• I got to know that this car has Mazda ZL engine. So is it ZL or ZL-DE? Is there any difference in those two?(I just found that it differs from the ZL-VE with variable valve timing) - yes there are two 1.5L variants, the ZL-DE (non variable valve timing) ~110hp engine which is the most common one and the ZL-VE with variable valve timing on the intake with Mazda S-VT (mazdas version of vvti. only applies to advance timing thus increasing horsepower but does not apply to retarded timing so no benefit in fuel consumption due to vvti unlike Honda 3stage vtec or dual vvti of Toyota) with ~130hp.

• You can check the engine code in the VIN plate if you are not sure of the engine but if it is the ZL-VE it will have variable valve timing written on hte engine cover.

• I would like to have an owner's manual and a workshop manual for this model.(I could find a 2003 Mazda Protege owner's manual but it was different in some ways, the engine was 1.6/2.0 there. Is it that Familia is the JDM and the Protege is US/European?) How could I get the exact owner's/workshop manuals for the Mazda Familia BJ5P? - Pm me your email or something, ill mail it to you. The protege was the sporty version of the 323.

• The equivalent version of the Familia is the Familia RS which is the only version to come with the ZL-VE engine, also has all 4 disk brakes, trip tonic gears, two tone seats, white gauge faces and some bells and whistles.

I would like to share the experiences and knowledge with Mazda Familia owners/experts and also willing to join with good Mazda/Familia clubs or forums if there are any.

Thanks in advance.

Hi, please see my comments in red and congrats on your purchase.

In addition to your queries somewhere down the line of owning this car you will realize that this car has very stiff suspension, take your car outstation on a winding twisting road. The heavy steering and suspension will all start to make sense then

Edited May 12, 2016 by The Stig

[Quiet]

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[CarManiac]

Hi, please see my comments in red and congrats on your purchase.

In addition to your queries somewhere down the line of owning this car you will realize that this car has very stiff suspension, take your car outstation on a winding twisting road. The heavy steering and suspension will all start to make sense then

Thank you very much for the nice informative comments.

• Yes, I'd better change almost everything.
• It's really good to know this stuff in steering, and yeah, I'm quite new to Mazda and the previous ones were Toyota and Nissan. Anyway I'd check if there're any issues in the steering system and update.
• I got the idea of the Hold button and I'd better feel it myself now
• This is an ZL engine. Probably not an ZL-VE with variable valve timing. But still I'm confusing with this; http://protege323.com/content/24_engines/index.php ; which shows two different engines as ZL and ZL-DE
• I have PM my contacts to you.

Thanks again.

Edited May 9, 2016 by CarManiac

[The Stig]

Thank you very much for the nice informative comments.

• Yes, I'd better change almost everything.
• It's really good to know this stuff in steering, and yeah, I'm quite new to Mazda and the previous ones were Toyota and Nissan. Anyway I'd check if there're any issues in the steering system and update.
• I got the idea of the Hold button and I'd better feel it myself now
• This is an ZL engine. Probably not an ZL-VE with variable valve timing. But still I'm confusing with this; http://protege323.com/content/24_engines/index.php ; which shows two different engines as ZL and ZL-DE
• I have PM my contacts to you.

Thanks again.

Sorry its too big to email, i uploaded to dropbox instead - https://www.dropbox.com/s/drpi4m5jtw6zo1b/Full.pdf?dl=0

On the ZL engine the Familia which is the JDM model gets the ZL-DE

[CarManiac]

Sorry its too big to email, i uploaded to dropbox instead - https://www.dropbox.com/s/drpi4m5jtw6zo1b/Full.pdf?dl=0

On the ZL engine the Familia which is the JDM model gets the ZL-DE

I just got the PDF. Thank you

[NRX]

You missed the most important item in your check list it seems ? "The Timing Belt"

[CarManiac]

You missed the most important item in your check list it seems ? "The Timing Belt"

Yes of course, "The Timing Belt"..!! When I purchased the car, since I couldn't have any proper maintenance record, I myself thought of replacing the timing belt asap. Anyway thanks for reminding.

[CarManiac]

Hello,
I started this thread when I purchased my Mazda BJ5P in May last year. This forum was really helpful in getting to know the car very well and I have to say that I'm having a great experience with my Mazda by now. 
I've done some minor running repairs and almost all the proper maintenance except the ATF replacement. For the moment, I'm using the car only on weekends and for the last period of time I've done only around 3500 kms (odo 136000km now). Since I didn't get the maintenance records from the previous owner, I changed the engine oil/filters/Timing belt etc, and carried out all the proper maintenance and services accordingly but not the ATF. The reason was that the colour and the smell of the ATF was fine, there were no oil leakages from the gearbox and also there was no any sign of gearbox faults. I wanted to change the ATF as well but I was told at the service station that since I'm not using the car frequently and the ATF and the transmission itself was looking fine, just to use the car for some time and then change the ATF.
Now I'd like to have your advice on the following. 

• What are the locally available ATF brands and grades for this car? I've referred several AL threads saying that the recommended ATF for Mazdas is the M-V and there are no substitutes in local market. Now in my case the workshop manual says something like this:  ATF type M-V or equivalent (e.g. Dexron® III). So isn't there a single possibility of getting an equivalent grade for M-V in local market for this car or else shall I have to get the original M-V oil from a Mazda dealer?
• I've said that there're no oil leakages from the gearbox and the transmission itself seems to be trouble free. But still I need to clarify this. When I press the accelerator smoothly while driving, I feel the gears change very smoothly. But when it comes a bit hard on the pedal or press it irregularly I can feel a little jerk in changing gears. But there are no signs of gear slipping or lacking of pulling power. When the car is started in mornings it takes around 1 second to move after engaging D or R but when it heats up there's no any delay. Are these conditions normal or is there any possibility of a fault?

Thanks in advance

[caesarprime]

Keen to know, did you have the RPM meter on your meterboard?