So I've had the car for a few days now and when I bought it seemed to work fine. It started up right away and didn't have any obvious (to me) signs of anything wrong. I got the owner to drive it to my place for me and it was a 45 minute drive on the highway. It was still fine. Soon after the owner left, I noticed that the engine seemed to idle a little high, soon after that there was a ticking noise. I looked at the engine while it was running and I saw one of the wires that come out of the distributor vibrating. Fast forward to now, the ticking is there but when I'm turning the car on, the engine doesnt stay on unless I hold the gas and it just idles poorly.

Another thing is that the break pedal is pretty loose but the master cylinder is full. If the car is off and I pump it I can feel it stiffen but as soon as the car turns on it goes back to being loose.

Any ideas on what's wrong with it? It's a 1989 b2200 5 speed rwd.



quick video

 

Well..... I'd suggest full everything. Tune up, service, then go from there. Brakes, inspect, probably need new pads to start with.

 

I am with Kevin. But: if you are lucky the brake booster hose is leaking and replacing it may fix both the brake and the engine problem.
More likely you will have to go through one system after the other. Old Mazdas make great teachers.

 

Generally with the older b truck brakes it usually just needs new brake fluid. Once the fluid in there is aged it breaks down and gets moisture in it causing it to start lacking hydraulic properties and give u a soft pedal. Replace the wires plugs and distributer cap and rotor. Tune up is always good to do after buying older vehicles.

 

I've had similar problems with my 89 B2200. Spongy brake pedal ... I bled the brakes and checked pads and shoes. I bled the brakes again. Still spongy - I'm gonna replace the master cylinder with a new one.

My engine has always been weak on power - it's old. And it vibrated. With more driving the vibration got worse and power got less. I removed the exhaust system, punched all the stuff out of the front cat and completely removed the rear cat, then re-installed the exhaust system. The vibration went away and it runs a LOT better!
I don't advocate removal of cats from your exhaust. It will make it fail emissions test, and clean air is everyones responsibility. But they plug up on older Mazda's, should be replaced with a high flow unit, and increase exhaust system size to 2 inch.
JT