Questions and Answers
Mazda 323 And Nissan Stanza Questions
Q. Hello my name is Chris. I love the site and I was wondering if you would be kind enough to answer a few simple questions.
I have a:
1989 Mazda 323
1.6 liter engine
Manual transmission
120,000 miles
No ABS brakes
Cruise control and A/CRight after I bought the car it began blowing light blue smoke, very light. It did this once or twice, bad for a few seconds before it was warmed up and hasn't done it since. Although once in awhile it smells kinda bad. from what I read this is ring seals or valve seals right? if I continue to run the car like this (its runs perfectly fine) will it cause any damage? Or just be a nuisance? I just had an emissions test done on it and it passed perfectly fine.
My next question is for my girlfriends car and it doesn't run fine.
1992 Nissan Stanza
The idle is a little rough and seems a bit low. (500 rpm) when the gas pedal is fully pressed it doesn't go anywhere. When the gas pedal is pressed lightly it goes a little. Once it gets moving it seems ok till you pull to a stop light again. It is worse when it rains. A sputtering noise can be heard from the exhaust when you accelerate. One mechanic said fuel injectors, another said plugs/wires. The list goes on and on. No one seems to agree. Can you help?
Not sure about the engine
70,000 miles
Fuel injected
ABS brakes
Cruise control and A/CA. As for your car, what you describe sounds like the beginning of the valve seals going bad. The bad valve seals will cause the plugs to oil foul and quit firing. This may or may not lead to other damage.
They are fairly cheap and easy to replace so the best thing would be to have them replaced at your earliest convenience.
As for your girlfriends Stanza, knowing that car as I do, the first thing I would do is replace the distributor cap, rotor and ignition wires. Nissan had a problem with distributor caps cracking and this is probably the only instance where I would recommend replacing an OEM cap and rotor with aftermarket parts. I would still recommend using Nissan plug wires however. I would also recommend using NGK ZFR5E-11 spark plugs in that engine, they work the best.
Once you replace the cap, rotor and wires, I would give the throttle chamber a good cleaning and I think she'll be back on the road in no time.
Additional Information provided courtesy of ALLDATA
