Mazda3 - think I spun a bearing...
 

I am pretty on top of car maintenance and was planning on changing the oil in my 2.3l Mazda 3 this past weekend. Seems I went too long between fluid checks and was about a quart low on oil. Have been reading that the Duratec motors burn oil, which I did not know. No idiot lights came on.

Anyway, was taking a fairly aggressive turn. Looks like I starved the engine of oil due to the lower level and spun a bearing or something. Got a nice knocking noise now. Changed the oil when I got home and sure enough.....metal flake....bummer.

Take her to the shop on Thurs. Any idea what I am looking at cost-wise?

Anyone ever have this happen??

TIA!
-Brad

It's an issue with almost all the modern smaller displacement fours.

My opinion would be to rebuild your motor. I'm not sure how mechanically inclined you are, but it's not rocket science. Even if you pay a shop to have it pulled and stripped to a long block then you bring it to your machine shop. You don't have to turn a wrench, just act as a general contractor. It's likely that all you'll have to do is grind the crank, resize (or replace) the effected rod, test/mic everything else, and put it back together with new bearings, rings, and gaskets. That's what I'd do anyway. No question.

Otherwise you're looking at $1500-1800 for a used motor, another $500 in labor to R&R, and a couple hundred more for the incidentals (fluids, filters, bolts, etc).

What year is that car?

Fark, I'm way over the oil change interval on my DD 3.

My wife put 130K on her 2004 2.3L Mazda3. I put >80K on my 2006 2.3L Mazda5. Neither of the cars ever used a drop of oil. I changed them at 5000 miles intervals and used dino oil (ie, not synthetic).

Oil issues and spun bearings unfortuantely are common with the 2.3 Mazda. It seems to be very hit or miss, some engines are great, some misteriously lose oil. Genreal concensous points to either the PCV or horrible plastic filter cartridge cap.

A quart low, no idiot light, and that was enough to take out the engine?


Note to self: don't ever buy a mazda.

Mostly it's due to very short piston skirts, compacted ring lands, and insufficient drain-backs in the pistons.

They are VERY sensitive to oil. You need to do it every 3000 miles (5000 synth). You need to ditch the 5W20 they chose for efficiency/low friction and go to a 5W30 or even 10W30. The best is the Mobil 1 "High Mileage" 10W30 in Summer. Not the Dexos or Extended Interval version, the formula specifically for high-mileage cars.

Would rebuild it like Eric mentioned. Even if it was on the high end of his estimate it's still worth it. Really not hard to do yourself on this motor either. Or get get one used and drop it in, get a few more miles out of the car.

Thanks all. Mine is a 2005 with 74K miles on it. I used synthetic 5w20 and had about 6K miles since the change. I typically check every 1000. I was lazy and just did not check enough. Plus I drive the car pretty hard thru the local canyons. Sure that did not help.

2005? i wonder if there are any of those japanese motors in the system yet..the low mileage ones..?

man, i had no idea that motor was so sensitive..i had a speed3. briefly.

If it's a manual transmission version, there's a 68K mile motor in Bakersfield for $1850

I'd still rebuild the one you have

And absolutely do not go that long on an oil change, even with synthetic, and especially if you continue to use 5W20.

Please consider going to 10W30 in the Summer. Your car will run quieter and cooler, use less oil, and be better protected.

There's only 4.1 quarts in the sump, so when the engine is running there's only 2.5-3.0 at the pickup. Being a quart or so low means you're under two, and you're one long hard corner away from starvation.....as you found out. You can't afford to be 25% low (1qt of 4).

Just looked up my Ford parts prices (the 2005 Focus ZX4 ST hadthe exact same motor)

$30 Lower overhaul gasket set
$60 Upper overhaul gasket set
$44 Head gasket
$48 Head bolt kit
$46 Timing chain
$48 Timing chain tensioner
$18 Tensioner guide
$18 Chain guide
$53 Oil pump (shouldn't need it)

A set of four pistons with wristpins and rings should run about $225
Your rod and main bearings should run about $125

You'll likely need one new rod, maybe two....figure $50 each, new from Ford or Mazda

You'll have $700 in machining and labor to disassemble from longblock, mic everything, clean everything, pressure test head, bore/hone block, grind/polish crank, hone rods, fit wristpins, assemble shortblock, fit head, and reassemble everything else.

Soooooo...... it's possible to rebuild YOUR engine for about the same as buying a relatively unknown used motor

That's the route I'd take

Wow. Thanks Eric! Still gonna suck to spend money for something I could have prevented. Hope someone else will learn :-)

Different Mazda model with different motor I know,;but I had Mazda Premacy diesel, year 2000, did 268,000 miles in it from new until the head gasket blew, which blew the radiator and I then scrapped the car (in 2009) as the rear wheelarches were rusting badly from the inside outwards(double skinned).
Couldn't fault the car until it failed.

All of that makes me love my El Camino. The original 305 went 301,000 miles and still ran fine but had a lot of blow by and oil leaks. A brand new crate engine was $1,700. Plug and play. I have 308,000 on it now.

And the vehicle is worth way more now than I paid for 20 years ago.

Sigh

I'm at 90k with the 2008 2.3 hatch I bought new. I've been doing 5w/20 dino juice every 5k. And I beat on the car.

Was really hoping to get this one to 200k...:(

You're not doing any damage with 5W20, you're just not protecting things quite as well, nor helping oil consumption.
As long as you have enough oil, it's all good.

Why not just switch to heavier 30 oil? Maybe switch to synthetic? It'll make it to 200K

Which corner was it? (Note to self.)

Well schitt. Just got an estimate. 3800 bucks for a warrantied rebuilt engine through Jaspers and another 2200 in labor for a total of 6000.00.

I don't have the time to do a rebuild myself.

There's gotta be a shop that can rebuild it locally.

Damn.