Mazda has a TSB indicating a problem with the 2.3 engine "losing time". The problem is that the crankshaft timing gear is not located on the crankshaft with any sort of keyway (like most every other engine in the world). The crankshaft timing chain gear is actually located by sandwiching it underneath the crank pulley and held tight by the crank pulley bolt. HORRIBLE design.....obviously. The TSB indicates the rubber swelling up on the crank pulley in some way causing the timing gear and the crank pulley to loosen up. When the crankshaft timing gear loosens it rotates on the crankshaft losing engine timing allowing the valves to hit the pistons causing lots of noisy bad things to happen. On mine the number 3 piston exploded into pieces so small they all fell into the bottom of the crankcase leaving nothing but a mangled conecting rod and piston wrist pin in the cylinder. The fact that this has been written into a TSB indicates it is a common enough problem that Ford (the engine manufacturer) and Mazda know about it and being due to an obvious design flaw should be a recall.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
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Mazda has a TSB indicating a problem with the 2.3 engine "losing time". The problem is that the crankshaft timing gear is not located on the crankshaft with any sort of keyway (like most every other engine in the world). The crankshaft timing chain gear is actually located by sandwiching it underneath the crank pulley and held tight by the crank pulley bolt. HORRIBLE design.....obviously. The TSB indicates the rubber swelling up on the crank pulley in some way causing the timing gear and the crank pulley to loosen up. When the crankshaft timing gear loosens it rotates on the crankshaft losing engine timing allowing the valves to hit the pistons causing lots of noisy bad things to happen. On mine the number 3 piston exploded into pieces so small they all fell into the bottom of the crankcase leaving nothing but a mangled conecting rod and piston wrist pin in the cylinder. The fact that this has been written into a TSB indicates it is a common enough problem that Ford (the engine manufacturer) and Mazda know about it and being due to an obvious design flaw should be a recall.
- Kris W., Colorado Springs, CO, US