General maintenance?

AMENDEZQ

MEMBER
MAZDA PROTEGE

I have a 2002 Mazda Protege5, 110,000 miles. Since I've had the car I've had no major problems. But at this point I'm thinking the car is 5 years old and I should probably take it in for other general maintenance things that I've never done before. I'm clueless when it comes to routine maintenance so other than regular oil changes I don't know what else my car needs. I've replaced the radiator, the battery, and the tires but nothing else. I'm hoping to keep the car for another 3-5 years, so I'd like to go ahead and replace or service what's needed now so that I'm not stuck on the side of the road one day and have a costly repair that could've been prevented through maintenance. I'd like like some advice on where I should take the car to get an idea of what needs to be done. Also, I'm a girl and I always feel like car service providers try to take advantage of this and sell me on things my car really doesn't need. So I'd also like some advice on how to determine if what I'm told is truthful? Thanks.

Thursday, December 28th, 2006 AT 1:57 PM

1 Reply

COSMO

MECHANIC
347 POSTS

Well at 5 years or 100 km's you are sheduled to change the timing belt and do a tune up on the vehicle by Mazda's recommendation. I would also have the water pump checked at the same time, since it should only be another 1/2 hour of labor to replace the water pump.

During a 96km (1ookm's) inspection we would:
replace the timing belt, check the water pump, checkthe accesory belts, replace the spark plugs and air filter, service the front and rear brakes, checkthe timing, checkthe lights, check the other fluids on the car, lube all the latches and hindges, perform a pressure test on the cooling system, and generaly check the car over.

Now this can cost around $550-600 CND. So you might want to break it up a bit. Most people go for the timing belt and water pump and then come back for the tune up and the reat of the service over two oil changes.

Cosmo. Mazda Tech

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Thursday, December 28th, 2006 AT 9:39 PM