Mazda Mods II: Maintenance

Intro

I did basic maintenance on the Mazda - here's a TL;DR:

Changed all fluids

Oil
Coolant
Power Steering
Transmission
Brake

Cabin and engine air filters
Interior and license plate light bulbs
Spark plugs
New caliper (just one)
Window rain guards
New all-season tires

Here are a couple of pictures:

Oil Change

Even took the liberty of using a new crush washer

Cabin air filter

Bit of a pain in the butt to find

Power steering fluid

Not a true flush, just sucking out what I could and replacing a couple times

Transmission fluid

Pumping in 3 litres of gear oil took a while

Helper lady

Useful for bleeding brakes and holding tubes in place

Coolant

One flush with distilled water then filled with a 55/45 mix

All season tires

Old ones were cracked - new Continentals

The Caliper Problem

I wanted to bleed the brakes - for all I know the brake fluid could be 15 years old. Problem: I live in the rust belt. I sprayed all the bleeder valves with penetrating fluid the night before I went to bleed them (I love penetrating fluid), but I still ended up stripping one of them.

Unluckily for me, I didn't strip the bleeder valve: I stripped the threads inside the caliper itself. No valve would screw in.
Options: try to repair the hole (buy a kit or buy taps and a drill), or buy a new caliper ($60).

A few days later the new caliper arrived (thank goodness I wasn't working that week). It was friday night and I had to leave sunday night. I'll skip the yapping and tell the story with images:

Holding new caliper with old one still installed — Getting started - new caliper in hand

Two people next to car on jack stands — A neighbour who works as a mechanic stopped by with some useful tools (like a better brake bleeder)

Night time, ebrake cable soaking in penetrating fluid — Ebrake cable was firmly stuck - I let it sit with penetrating fluid overnight

11mm socket being used as a punch for ebrake cable — Used a 11mm socket as a punch to punch the cable out

Ebrake cable removed, very dented by punch — After 2 hours of hammering the cable came out. Look at that damage...

Blue threadlocker on bolts — Threadlocker on mounting bracket bolts

Torque wrench set to 50lb-ft — We torque things to spec here because we aren't cavemen

New caliper hanging by brake line — Installation was easy... except for that dang ebrake line. Took some hammering and sanding to get it to fit.

New caliper fully installed — Voila! New caliper that doesn't spit brake fluid everywhere

Summary... and some sneak peaks

I'm keeping this as a short and sweet post. Regular maintenance isn't what I'm excited about but it's still lots of fun when the weather is nice.

I'm getting ready for the next steps (the fun stuff). I'm struggling to find where everything should fit but I'm working on it.

Interior completed gutted of trim, wires hanging — What happened here!!!

The interior will be reinstalled once all my whatsits are in place... First up is the fuse box!

This'll be for the myriad of devices hijacking the car's aux port

I've also been tinkering with more of the modules for the car. You'll get a better taste in the next blog :)