Hi. The name is Steve. New to the forum. Had my 1999 1.8 Auto Premacy a year now, 98k km when bought, 110k km now (she's a Jap' import to New Zealand. Been great. Good little work horse. I only noticed the "banging" shortly after buying her. Had to do a quick U turn. Into reverse, quick bit of accelerator, fine, then it "disconnected", then "bang", it reconnected. It's fine if I accelerate slowly in reverse (fortunately I don't spend a lot of time driving in reverse at any great speed). Forward, she's always fine. You could say, "well, don't accelerate hard in reverse", but I just want to know if it indicates a major problem. I don't know if the trans fluid or filter have ever been changed. Should I get a flush? Next......... Don't know if the cam belt has ever been changed. Do I just bite the bullet on that one and get it done. I don't drive hard, but I don't know any of her history. Next...... the air con is not blowing cold air. (first car I've after had with air con!). All the "bits" in the engine bay are looking and sounding okay. Does the freon(??) just wear out? I was going to get it re-charged but thought I would try to find out if there might be another reason. Last.... Where can I get a workshop manual?????***!!? Don't even know which oil is preferred in the engine. A 10w40? Help with any of the above would be appreciated. Steve.

 

k to start off you should have your timeing belt changed at 100,000km so yes it would be time to change it, next your air conditioning yes its out of freon all you need is the proper freon your car manual will tell you what it takes and load it on the low side not the high side the low side is the valve closest to the compressor, next for oil wise you can use 10w30 or 5w30 cause 10w40 is pretty heavy it all has to do with your climate the workshop manual won't tell you what oil to use i would recommend using 10w30, i personally use 10w40 but thats because im turbo charged and i need the heavy oil to cool down my turbo,if your turbo charged use 10w40 or 10w20 depending on how cold is gets in your area of the country. and your tranny it could be a major problem because in the automatic tranny you have 3 gear looking things connected to the final drive shaft then on the opposite end you have the reverse gear with its own shaft so it can spin backwards from you discription my best guess is the reverse gear is slipping which is a major problem and unless you know someone who is willing to rip a tranny apart for cheap to find out why its slipping, you will just have to drive it till the gear finally quits then just put a new tranny inside. and the workshop manual you can get over the internet you can get it at any parts store but don't buy a haynes manual on the mazda it is the most usless manual.

 

Thanks Darkstar. Should the oil be synthetic? Done a lot of searching on the internet and just found a lot of people selling owners manuals which tell you what the ***** and buttons do in the car. Do you know of a site where I can download a pdf? Repco (New Zealand car accessory shop) are unhelpful/don't know of a manual. Haven't tried a dealer yet, but will. Will take it careful with the trans and change the belt PDQ. Steve

 

are you turboed or no? cause if your turboed use synthetic is not just regular oil and what you could try on the tranny is draining out some of your fluid into a pan and look for metal shavings that might give you an idea of how bad the damage is. if you see anything, umm im not sure of any manuals that are good the whole problem with the haynes is they show you how to do everything with the motor out so they avoid all the obsticals depending on how your car is on my protege the car in the pic and the description and my car are not even the same like they talk about distributor caps and stuff and i have ignitions coils so yeah its a hit and miss witht he book depending on how your car is set up.

 

Thanks again. Steve.