Mazda 323 BJ-II Astina SP20 Hatch

[Davy]

I've sort of been off the grid for a few weeks because of so many personal matters including moving house and what not. Finally found the time to post this.  

Meet the newest addition to our family. A 2003 Mazda 323 Astina SP20 BJ-II J48.

It's a 2003 Mazda 323 (JDM version is known as "Familia"). I guess that's pretty clear. "Astina" is the name used for the hatch. The sedan is called the "Protege" (Remember the Mazdaspeed Protege anyone? ?) SP20 is the top of the range model with a 2.0L FS engine (131 horses), sports suspension, different body styling, white gauge cluster, automatic AC etc. BJ is the series. BJ-II (BJ2) is the facelift version. J48 is the very last revision of the BJ series. 

I was on the lookout for a car to be used as a point A to B car and to be driven on a daily basis to the train station etc. I didn't want it to be boring, hence the SP20. I wanted it to be a small hatch so that my wife can easily drive it (she finds the RalliArt a bit too intimidating due to the power). It was between The 323 and Lancer CS VR-X. Gave up on the Lancer after seeing the options on the Mazda and how popular and rare the SP20 is (sounds like blasphemy I know). After about a month of hunting down one, finally found this beautiful example in Titanium Grey, just 139,000km (remember, we are talking about Australia here and that is a really low mileage). The icing on the cake is that I even got it with 1 year dealer warranty (car had been a trade-in).

Of course there's signs of age - a few scratches here and there, wheel paint flaking off, front rotors need to be replaced etc. But it certainly is a zippy little car that's fun to drive.  

 

Nardi Torino steering!

 

White gauge cluster

 

The different front end with large fog lights. 

 

The FS engine. Note the factory fitted strut bar.

 

I've not seen bonnet and headlight protectors in Sri Lanka, but the car has them installed from the dealership. So the headlights are like brand new -no yellowing. 

 

A couple of the SP20 stickers are faded. I've ordered a new set already.  

Edited May 12, 2023 by Davy

[Hyaenidae]

 

[K.o.N.o.S]

Congratulations @Davy. She’s a minter and Looks like an excellent buy. Back in the days my best friend used to have a Red Astina and I remember how it got me hooked. Brings back loads of memories!! cheerz!

[mash1981]

Nice

[MrCat]

Nice Buy.!!  

was thinking about replacing the "train station" car myself, what other "kind-of-fun" options are there around this price point? similar sized /aged cars?  There are SO many cheap/awesome European options from Alfa 159`s to Renault Clio`s , but just dont have the time to spend on upkeep required for Euro`s at the moment. :( 

The Swift Sport is quite high in my list. Didn't think about the SP20 before, this got me thinking. Too bad Toyota didn't sell a mild-performance oriented Corolla here, the Levin is just a cosmetic exercise.  Quick list below, I may have missed some ?? 

• Swift Sport - said to be a brilliant chassis, not too sure how good the auto gearbox is
• Pulsar SSS - older platform
• Lancer VRX - prefer the 2.4 liter 4G69. Thirsty and noisy, but has got plenty of torque. CS series auto gearbox is a letdown, dont know whether the CY/X had a better box. Non-VRX hatchbacks are cheap as chips though.
• Civic Sport - owned an FD series 'sport' before, but in manual form. Mechanically bulletproof, but interior and paint does not age well. Too bad the hatchback (FK) doesnt come with the 2.0 K20Z, though I think the FK series is better made compared to FD
• Mazda 3 SP23/SP25 -  Possibly the best bang-for-buck, but i dont think the interior bits age well on the BK and later series compared to the older series 323

 

Edited June 17, 2019 by MrCat

[Davy]

21 minutes ago, MrCat said:

Nice Buy.!!  

was thinking about replacing the "train station" car myself, what other "kind-of-fun" options are there around this price point? similar sized /aged cars?  There are SO many cheap/awesome European options from Alfa 159`s to Renault Clio`s , but just dont have the time to spend on upkeep required for Euro`s at the moment. :( 

The Swift Sport is quite high in my list. Didn't think about the SP20 before, this got me thinking. Too bad Toyota didn't sell a mild-performance oriented Corolla here, the Levin is just a cosmetic exercise.  Quick list below, I may have missed some ?? 

• Swift Sport - said to be a brilliant chassis, not too sure how good the auto gearbox is
• Pulsar SSS - older platform
• Lancer VRX - prefer the 2.4 liter 4G69. Thirsty and noisy, but has got plenty of torque. CS series auto gearbox is a letdown, dont know whether the CY/X had a better box. Non-VRX hatchbacks are cheap as chips though.
• Civic Sport - owned an FD series 'sport' before, but in manual form. Mechanically bulletproof, but interior and paint does not age well. Too bad the hatchback (FK) doesnt come with the 2.0 K20Z, though I think the FK series is better made compared to FD
• Mazda 3 SP23/SP25 -  Possibly the best bang-for-buck, but i dont think the interior bits age well on the BK and later series compared to the older series 323

 

Thanks! I too steered clear from Euros because it didn't make sense to buy a car that is expensive to run for my purposes. The Audi A3, BMW E46 and VW Golf GTI were on my list, but I drove this and immediately fell in love with it and thought it would be a perfect match for the job. The car is small enough to park in tight places (you know how it is at stations) and my wife is happy that it's so easy to drive. When you need the power, it's there for a bit of spirited driving as well. I joined an Australian Facebook group for Mazda BJ series to get to know more about the car and found out that the 323 SP20 is highly sought after. There are more "wanted" ads out there than actual cars.  

As for your list of options, how about these:

- Honda Accord Euro Luxury (the one with the 2.3L engine and tiptronic tranny). Very comfortable car with plenty of power. A friend has one.

- Subaru Impreza WRX Blob-eye or maybe even a G3 hatch - need I say more?   

 

[Hyaenidae]

Jokes aside, congratulations m8! Seeing as you have a Demio in Sri Lanka I can totally see you buying this as a grocery getter for your wife (Although a VRX along with the RA would have made your garage look totally badass and drool-worthy)

[MrCat]

1 hour ago, Davy said:

Thanks! I too steered clear from Euros because it didn't make sense to buy a car that is expensive to run for my purposes. The Audi A3, BMW E46 and VW Golf GTI were on my list, but I drove this and immediately fell in love with it and thought it would be a perfect match for the job. The car is small enough to park in tight places (you know how it is at stations) and my wife is happy that it's so easy to drive. When you need the power, it's there for a bit of spirited driving as well. I joined an Australian Facebook group for Mazda BJ series to get to know more about the car and found out that the 323 SP20 is highly sought after. There are more "wanted" ads out there than actual cars.  

As for your list of options, how about these:

- Honda Accord Euro Luxury (the one with the 2.3L engine and tiptronic tranny). Very comfortable car with plenty of power. A friend has one.

- Subaru Impreza WRX Blob-eye or maybe even a G3 hatch - need I say more?   

 

Ah yes! the Accord Euro is a great package isn't it? Very well built because it`s actually made In Japan unlike the normal Accord and Civic at the time. One of my friends` had one with over 220k kms on the clock, ran like new with minimal maintenance. 

The WRX is a performance bargain, but a bit towards the 'project car' side of the spectrum for me at this point Something with a new/rebuilt engine/drive-train would be good. If not, the Mrs wont be a happy chappy when that boxer blows a head gasket('s' - there`s two)
 

[LashNeo]

On 6/17/2019 at 9:25 AM, Davy said:

but I drove this and immediately fell in love with it and thought it would be a perfect match for the job.

Aha.. tell me about it. Guess its normal to drive a mazda and then immediately fall in love with it. Welcome to the 323 club bro!
It would have been great if you were around to share all the 323 stories.

[Davy]

4 hours ago, LashNeo said:

Aha.. tell me about it. Guess its normal to drive a mazda and then immediately fall in love with it. Welcome to the 323 club bro!
It would have been great if you were around to share all the 323 stories.

Thanks bro. Imagine if I had this in Sri Lanka! Would have been great!  Do you still have your one?

What made me fall in love with is actually the power of that 2.0L FS engine in such a small car. You get wheel spin on occasion when you take off from a stop if you are not graceful on the throttle. Like I said before, it is fun to drive. It requires 95 octane to run, so I guess the higher compression ratio contributes to it to a point. 

On 6/17/2019 at 3:26 PM, Hyaenidae said:

Jokes aside, congratulations m8! Seeing as you have a Demio in Sri Lanka I can totally see you buying this as a grocery getter for your wife (Although a VRX along with the RA would have made your garage look totally badass and drool-worthy)

Thanks! It was honestly a very close battle between a CS Lancer VR-X and the 323. The only reasons the 323 won in this case is because A. Hatchback, and B. Found a good example of a 323 first and C. With one year warranty. There were only two Lancer VR-Xs for sale online in the whole of Victoria. One was a 2002 pre-facelift which looked weary. The second was a 2005 facelift with a bit of a high mileage (220K km) and the interior was totally wrecked. I honestly wanted a different experience from the CS as well, since I've owned one. 

[Davy]

During the first weekend, I had to make sure the timing belt looked okay. The car does have a fairly regular service history, but unlike Sri Lanka, owners don't really handover actual repair invoices to the next one. The only thing that goes with the car is the service booklet that has the mileage and stamp by the dealer/garage that carried out the repair. So if you wanted to find out what they really did, you can call up and ask them. If they have it on record, they'll tell you. For things like the timing belt, they usually paste a sticker on the timing belt cover indicating the date and mileage of replacement. But no sticker found here.

Given that 100,000km could have been several years ago, I didn't want to try my luck asking previous dealers, so I took out the valve cover and did a visual inspection myself. Cleaned out the spark plugs, ignition leads and coil packs a bit as they were covered in dust and grime. 

I was happy to find out that the valve body didn't have any sludge or dark oil residue or anything. It looked pretty clean and the oil was nice and gold. The timing belt looks brown in the photo. Must be due to the over-exposure from the flash or something. It looks black in person. The belt itself looks okay. There's a bit of wear and belt dust on the cam cogs, but no fraying, cracking or anything like that. Should be good for another 50,000 kms. 

 

I also got the SP20 stickers. Only one set was for sale on eBay Australia. So snatched it quickly. Will paste them once I have the time for a cut and polish. There are a few things I will attend to during the next couple of weeks. There are a few places that have the paint chipped off (on the bonnet, roof, A pillar). I will get a touch up paint kit and touch them up before doing the cut and polish.

Last weekend I also replaced all wiper blades. 

The drive belts look brand new and it looks like one of them hasn't been tightened properly after installation. The loud drive belt noise comes about a minute after the car is started in cold weather. So I will be tightening that also during the weekend.

I also discovered that the driver's side rear view mirror has an aftermarket mirror on it. I saw this during the test drive because that mirror looked like it was less convex than the other one. Objects in the mirror are further than they appear . So I will be replacing the mirror as well. Will probably source one from a salvage yard and transfer the housing from the current one to avoid having to paint. 

Maybe I'm too used to the RalliArt's whiplash-inducing brakes (they are really strong), I feel like the brakes could do with some TLC. So rotors and pads will go in soon.

And finally, I am going to take it to a Mazda dealer to get the transmission oil replaced. There is no record of it being replaced during the past 40,000km and the 4th gear is a bit notchy when cold. Hopefully an oil change (maybe filter as well) will solve it.

[matroska]

That my good sir is a great looking car. Looks in excellent condition. Congratulations.!

[LashNeo]

On 6/19/2019 at 4:48 PM, Davy said:

Thanks bro. Imagine if I had this in Sri Lanka! Would have been great!  Do you still have your one?

What made me fall in love with is actually the power of that 2.0L FS engine in such a small car. You get wheel spin on occasion when you take off from a stop if you are not graceful on the throttle. Like I said before, it is fun to drive. It requires 95 octane to run, so I guess the higher compression ratio contributes to it to a point. 

 

Of course. She's still with me and will be with me for a long time as well. Even if i want, my kiddo won't let me part with her.  She has this unconditional bond with it and cries like hell whenever i talk about selling. Did few cosmetic mods recently. Got herself a protege body kit etc.

And as for your one, if that thing was in Sri lanka, that would be the one and only Mazda 323 hatch running a 2L under the hood as far as i know and it will be a good contender to Amesh's (M*na Motors) 323 hatch which is arguably the best kept 323 hatch around SL.

[Davy]

A little update on the Mazda:

I've been driving it on a daily basis now for the past two and a half months or so. The car feels so good to drive and I'm glad I went for the SP20 with the 2L engine. The Mrs also absolutely loves driving it. 

Apart from filling her up with petrol, I haven't done much to the car. I got rid of the bonnet protector because it was giving the car a grandpa look, and I waxed it once after a wash. The bonnet has a lot of stone chips which are really hard to see from a distance, but you can clearly see them up close. I plan to get a touch up paint kit and cover them up soon.

I paid a couple of visits to the salvage yard just 15 minutes from where I live and found four 323 hatchbacks there. I wanted to pick up a AC blower motor (the one on the car is noisy), a wiper arm, driver's side mirror (as mentioned in a post above), centre control ashtray bezel (the one on the car is cracked) and a tailgate gas strut as the left one appears to be leaking a tiny bit although it holds up the tailgate up.

The red 323 here is a 2002 car and has only minor damage to the front right. If it were in Sri Lanka, this car would be back on the road within about a week or so.  Look how clean the interior still is. The trims and glove box were removed by me to take the AC blower motor out. Otherwise it was pretty neat.  

After bringing the parts home, I thoroughly cleaned the blower motor before installing it. That took me about an hour or so. This motor is also noisy, but not as bad as the one that was on the car. All of these parts cost me about 20 AUD (that is around 2500 LKR I think).

I went to the same salvage yard again to pick up a front door speaker (passenger door speaker was not working), a couple of lug nuts (one lug nut was damaged for some reason) and a few clips for the engine under tray. Lug nuts and clips were just lying on the ground and they didn't even charge me for them. Only paid a couple of dollars for the speaker.   

I first took out the door card of the same red 323 I picked out the other parts from. Since it was my first time removing this particular door card, I remembered where all the clips and screws are so that I can carefully do the same on mine.

 

Took out the door card and installed the speaker. Now I've got all four speakers working.

[LashNeo]

oh man !!! all those cars rotting away!! my jaw is dropping to the floor ?. Wish i was there too pick up few bits and pieces for my 323.

[Davy]

It's been over 6 months since the last post on this thread, so I thought of giving a little update about the car. It's been the daily since the day I got it and as I may have mentioned before, I drive it more than my wife does, mainly because I love driving the thing! All I ever did since getting the car is just pump petrol and drive. Nothing else. The 15K km oil change was due (6 months came before 15K, so I stuck to that) and as I mentioned before, there were a couple of other things that were due. So I ordered these parts:

Front brake rotors and pads, Front wheel bearings, Engine oil and filter, Transmission oil and filter. 

I changed the brake pads and rotors at home, was a 30 minute job once I had the car up on jack stands and wheels removed. Since the wheel bearings are press fit onto the hub, a hydraulic press is needed take them out and slot the new ones in. So I had to take the hubs to a garage to get the bearings press fit. Did this while I had the front wheels and brakes out. Found a PDF workshop manual which helped me torque the nuts and bolts to spec.

Then came the engine and transmission oil change... I could have done this at home, but draining the oil at home and properly disposing off the oil was a headache, so I took the car to a friend's workshop and got the fluids replaced. 

Got a wheel alignment done after everything was completed. Then gave the engine a good clean and detailing. 

The car feels so good to drive now. The groan from the wheel bearings has gone and it feels so much quieter. I managed to tighten some suspension linkages and stuff as well and the steering feels a bit precise and direct now too. The transmission shifts well with no more jerks - even when cold. As I said in another post yesterday, a good transmission oil change goes a long way.

Then a few weeks after that.. I saw this on the website on one of the local wreckers. A 323 SP20 in the famous yellow! ?

When the car was put on the website, it even had the front pumper and everything, but by the time I got there, someone had ripped it out for the highly desired SP20 fog lamps. The car had suffered a frontal (very minor damage), and written off. Interior was all intact and the engine was also there. I also discovered that the car had just undergone a full front suspension and brake repair. Soon realised I could have swapped the entire brakes and knuckles (which has the bearings) without spending money on that myself, but oh well. 

But did I just leave? Nope... ripped so many parts from that engine (ignition coils, injectors, crank and cam sensors and even air flow sensor). I thought to myself "if only I had a truck to take this baby home for parts..." ?

So that's it so far. I'll be replacing the rear wheel bearings, rotors and brake pads in the coming months. Due to the lockdown situation, I just might do that sooner. I also want to paint all four rims in the stock silver. All four wheels have flaking paint. Also noticed a slightly cracked lower arm bushes, but not too alarming for now. 

Oh and there's this... ?

When the car was sold to me, the front windscreen was replaced as the roadworthy inspection found stone chips on the original one. It's a pretty strict inspection point for roadworthy here in Australia. So anyway, I suspect the dude who installed the windscreen mucked it up because I noticed condensation on that very spot on a cold day as the engine warmed up and I knew there was a leak there due to missing adhesive. So on a very warm day last year (in Summer, I think it was in November), I found a really small crack that had originated from the bottom edge of the windscreen. Then over the months, it kept growing... increasing by about an inch on every warm day. If you look at the crack and notice the spots where the crack has changed direction, those are the spots where it had stopped previously. This is where it's up to now. So now I have to get the windscreen replaced before I am stopped by cops and they mark the car as defective. 

Will try to share more photos and work in progress if possible. Thanks for reading. ?

[AVANTE]

Just saw this. Lucky guy, Truly a sweet car, that interior reminds me of the early 90s sports car like the RX7? hope you are smiling everyday when driving it. 

BTW those junkyards make me envious?

Could bring down some Swift Sport parts for cheap chips and just convert a standard swift here?

Edited April 16, 2020 by AVANTE

[mazdaspeed]

Brings back a lot of lovely memories 

[Davy]

It has been a while since I updated this thread, but I didn't have that much to say about the car - until now. COVID surely slowed things down. The car has only been driven around 5000km since the purchase in June 2019, but some noteworthy events prompted me to make this post. 

About a month ago, a good friend of mine borrowed the car to run some errands. He had just moved to a new home, and wanted to pick up some stuff. Given that the Mazda has good boot space once the seats are folded down, it can comfortably move quite large items - even small furniture. So I lent him the car. He picked up the car in the afternoon and let me know that he might not be able to return it the same day if he runs too late. I was happy with it and said it's fine.

Around 7:30pm, I called him because I was about to head out myself. I wanted to check if everything is okay and that I'll not be home if he plans on returning the car the same evening. At that time, he was 90km or so away from where I live, so he said that he's likely to return the car the next day. I asked him about the car and he said (and I quote) "everything is very smooth considering the age of the car, and it's zippy even with the trunk full of stuff!". All good. Okay machan, thanks bye.

A couple of minutes pass by... my phone rings. It's my friend.

Hello machang!

- Mey machang... the car is suddenly lost a bit of power ne. It's struggling to idle and shaking like crazy. I am about to enter the freeway and head back, but it looks like.... sh!t, it died.... um...

[I hear him try to start the car... a couple of times and it putters back to life and he floors it to keep the engine running]

- Okay it started, but it dies as soon as I let go of the gas.

Um... okay, don't enter the freeway, can you try to drive to the side of the road and stop the car?

- OK, let me see

[ I'm on the phone and I hear rattles and a racing engine and my friend swear in the background every time the car almost dies. It's an automatic, which makes things a bit tricky]

After he safely stopped the car on the side of the road, I asked  him to open the hood and show me what's happening on a video call. He called me and showed me the engine wobbling like crazy. It was as if the car was running on 2 cylinders. 

As soon as I saw that, I narrowed down the possible issues in my head. Now my friend is the type of guy who would call a tow truck as soon as something like this happens. I knew this and I had to handle the situation in such a way that it was not too intimidating for him. It looked to me like it was an issue with the ignition system - a faulty ignition coil maybe? So if I could get him to take out each of the ignition leads to try and figure out if that was the issue - that'd be a good start. But the engine has a plastic cover held on by four 10mm nuts that need to be removed. 

I was pretty confident that it was a faulty ignition coil. But where do I find a replacement ignition coil at this time of night? If only I had a couple lying around at home [Read this post] . 

So I told my friend to sit tight, and drove 90km to him with tools and an ignition coil from that yellow 323 which is probably long gone now and reincarnated as a washing machine or something. On the way, I called up one of my cousins living in the area who is pretty competent and asked him if he can go to where the car is - just to provide moral support to my friend. In the meantime, my friend had called a mechanic friend of his who also lives in the area who said will be there within the hour. When I was about 10 minutes away from them, I was told that the mech had come and taken out the engine cover to find a melted ignition coil and said:

Yeah sorry man, she ain't going anywhere today

- No no... the owner of the car is coming with an ignition coil

What the!?? 

 

By the time I got there, it was around 9:30pm. I found the Mazda with a trunk full of stuff, rear suspension all stooped down, sitting on the side of the road, hazards on and hood open. The ignition coil was swapped in within a matter of seconds and the car started and was back to normal. 

I thanked everyone and we headed back. I was on the phone with my friend the whole way, talking about events of the day and we made it home safely.

THE END?

No

When life gives you lemons, it gives them by the metric ton. So there's more drama.

We're doing 100km/h on a 5 lane freeway and my friend goes "mey machan... onna aapahu it's missing". 😐 I told him to let the car coast and to cross the three lanes and stop in the emergency lane/shoulder.

Popped the hood to find the new ignition coil almost smoking and too hot to even touch. What do we do now? We're on the freeway, about 40km away from home, it's 10pm.

It would have been stupid to not bring both the ignition coils I took out from that yellow 323.  So I swapped in the second coil in. She started again.

My friend goes:

Ado machan, I'm scared to drive this now. Can you drive this and I'll drive the RalliArt?

- Sure, no worries. Let's just exit the freeway and take normal roads where we can drive slowly and limp our way home.

So we exited the freeway and I piloted the Mazda. I was very light-footed and made sure that I let her coast as much as possible. I decided to stop the car on the side of the road once to check if the coils are heating up. They seemed fine, so I drove a bit more confidently from that point onwards and made it home.

Was quite the day.

But stay tuned for chapter two. Yes there's more.  

Edited January 21, 2021 by Davy