Hi, I've been lurking on rotary forums for the past month or so and trying to take in as much information as possible.



I drove an fc last night, and there were a few problems that couldn't justify my buying the car on the spot.



1) Clutch needed a bleed. There were supposedly air bubbles in the lines, so it wasn't grabbing as hard as it should have been. As a result, it was easy to grind into 3rd and reverse. Owner said he could have this done by next weekend. Would the bleed help out in the grabbing and grinding aspects?



2) Hard to shift into first from a stop. Owner recommended that I go into 2nd, and then into first to make it easier. Don't know if this is normal.



3) Shifter feels sloppy and weird. I was told by my cousin that this is normal, and is just the way the FCs are. Is there any way to fix this, perhaps with a short shifter or something similar?



4) Peeling paint in some areas. Mazda paint back then was bad, I know that. However, there appears to be a bit of rust around the sunroof, as well as a tiny bit around other areas of the car.



5) Front crossmember appears to have been bent, and then bent back into place. My cousin suspects that it was involved in a front end collision.



Other than that, the car is not TOO bad, just damn hard to drive at this moment. They claim that the motor is a rebuilt unit, with 20k miles on it and it still has the warranty. The turbo was also rebuilt. Intercooler looks fine, car boosts fine and runs fine.

 

sloppy shifter is easy to fix. just get new bushings from Mazdatrix or get one of their short shifters. personally i dont like the short shifter i put the stock one back in my car with new Mazdatrix bushings, it is nice and tight now. clutch problem could be more serious. could be a bad master or slave cylinder which are easy to replace but it could be a bad clutch. the grinding gears and 1st gear problems are related to this. if your not sure take it to someone who can diagnose it. DONT TRUST THE SELLER.

 

1,2 it needs the clutch master and slave, bleeding it might help, if the fluid was really old, but 99% chance the hydraulics are bad, they really almost bleed themselves. the grinding is prolly from the clutch not being disenguaged all the way cause the hydraulics are bad.



3. there are bushings that wear out in there, its a 15 mnute, $15 fix



4. peeling pain and a rusty sunroof are kinda normal.



5. id be looking closely to see how big of a wreck it was in....

 

ok, thanks a lot. Any idea how much the master/slave cylinders would cost?



Also, I assume that you are around the Bay Area in california? This car is in hayward. Do you know of any local places that I could take it to be inspected further?

 

master and slave are prolly $200 for both...



lots of places to take the car



in hayward, pr motorsports.



menlo mazda in redwood city, we all have fc's....



ivan the goat





who's selling the car?

 

the car is being sold by a private seller. Honestly, his entire group of friends is trying to sell the car, so somehow, I don't know the actual owner's name. However, I can tell you that it is a white 1989 FC Turbo II, with a new motor (still under warranty) swapped into the car. The motor was probably a rebuild, and they told me that the turbo was rebuilt as well. The rest of the car is stock, except for a blitz ss bov and hks turbo timer. Here are pictures of the car included with the craigslist ad.

 

A group sell huh? That sounds a little....fishy.

 

it looks like it has been hit in the front

 

well, it's really just a group of friends. Can't really fault them for it.

 

Yeah, that's what my cousin told me. Do you think such a collision would have bent the frame? Anything else I should look out for because of the collision? Thanks a lot.