O.G. BFMR DOHC Turbo

[0R10N]

Mean dohca g.

 

Rescued it at the end of 2010 from a young fellow in Masterton who'd blown it up two years prior and didn't know what to do with it anymore. Towed it back to Auckland, set to work mending it.

 

 

Long story short:

 

 

Ended up replacing virtually everything, inside and out. If I didn't have plenty of spare parts left over from rebuilding my TX3 I would have been royally screwed. Even so, it still took me the better part of two years to track everything down. Here's a selection of things that done got changed...

 

- New rebuilt engine and turbo: Some numpty had fitted two headgaskets on top of each other, and a head stud had broken off in the block. Not only that but the engine that was in it was from a later model BFMR which had a whole bunch of incompatible sensors. Hello fried ECU, fried injector resistor pack, and fried igniter box.

 

- Replacement loom, ECU and sensors: The old loom caught fire shortly after the new engine went in, turns out it had been "modified" poorly to try and run all the incompatible sensors from the later engine. See above.

 

- New rebuilt gearbox: The spider gears were in about a hundred little pieces at the bottom of the transfer case of the old box. This was only discovered after fitting the new engine which meant I had to take everything out again. Transverse 4WD is the devil incarnate.

 

- Replacement front driveshafts: Both of the ones that came out of the car had busted inner CVs.

 

- Replacement radiator: Old one leaked like a sieve.

 

- Replacement front seats: The original seats had been stolen, and ones out of a front wheel drive BFMP had been fitted, which sit on a massive gangsta lean due to the chassis differences.

 

- Shocks, springs, and far too many interior switches and trim pieces to count...

 

Getting hold of some factory audio gear was a bonus! Thanks, Pick a Part. I have to send it to Axent Audio though, it ate the first tape I attempted to play (and some metallic bits came out) but at least the radio works fine.

 

Was thinking of applying my auxiliary mod but because the tape deck doesn't go anymore it's kinda pointless.

 

 

About the only things I didn't end up touching were the rear seats - they look like they've never been sat in; another small bonus I suppose.

 

 

Riding high with the old (busted) shocks and springs.

 

 

To be honest - if the body hadn't been in such good condition, I'd have consigned it to the pits of hell and would never have looked at it twice. In hindsight I probably should have anyway.

 

More later.

[jessemk2]

Mean az dohc turbs gee.

Haha this must be Ed,its Leon here another madaz dohca lover 

[Dell'orto]

So much pine for BFMRs

[Roman]

I glanced at this thread thinking it was in the for sale section, then thought "Worst salespitch ever"

 

However, it isnt.

 

I quite like these cars, the two tone looks great.

 

For better or worse, they are definitely iconic of being one of the common 'boy racer' cars back in the day, before all of the mid/late 90s stuff came flooding through.

 

Cheap cars, cheap gas, T'was a golden age of affordable hooning!
(Or more to the point, dollar down finance-able hooning)

Kinda feel sorry for kids now where just trying to fill your car to get to a part time job is probably running them broke.

 

Hope you actually drive this and enjoy it rather than sell it.

[cletus]

when i started my apprenticeship, the mechanic had one that had a burnt valve and half the side was in primer, i can remember thinking " thats fucked for such an expensive late model car" at the time they were on yards for 12-14k

 

looks tidy, rear spoiler appears to be pretty straight- i remember them getting wobbly looking fairly quickly

[0R10N]

It's amazing how many people you meet who have either owned one of these, or knew someone that did (in both FWD and 4WD guise). They definitely hold a place in NZ "boyracer" lore alongside the FX-GT, Cyborg and Pulsar.

 

I still have a bunch of Auto Traders circa mid '90s where these and the Laser TX3 equivalent were selling in excess of $15k, they were ubiquitous back then.

 

looks tidy, rear spoiler appears to be pretty straight- i remember them getting wobbly looking fairly quickly

 

Yeah the "picnic table" starts sagging if left exposed to the elements too long. Unfortunately the bottom of the spoiler has started crinkling as they all do, there's not much I can do about that

 

So anyway, at the start of this year the front driveshafts started knocking and wobbling and making unhappy noises, this combined with a WOF fail on worn shocks all round meant that I'd hit a brick wall due to having run out of good spare parts to throw at the BFMR. Turns out inner CVs are no longer available from Mazda, the only options were to rebuild (at exorbitant cost) or find a replacement second hand pair.

 

With that in mind, I chucked it on the back burner and tinkered with other cars for a while.

 

Fortunately it didn't take long before project completion was helped along nicely by the purchase of this TX3 4WD rolling body - thanks Raizer for storing it and Richy/Snoozin for the assistance in getting it back to Auckland.

 

Also thanks Mr. Mazda and Mr. Ford for making the Familia and the Laser completely mechanically identical!

 

 

It ended up donating its suspension and front driveshafts to the BFMR, and will provide body panels for my brother's TX3 - plus a few bits for my own - before it heads to the crusher. I'd like to say I could rescue this TX3 from oblivion too, but sadly it's been so mercilessly hacked apart that nothing short of another complete donor car will ever get it running again.

 

Also, see the thing about Pandora's Box above

 

Cue a couple of solid weekends' effort in between rebuilding, tuning, and prepping my track car, and here's the end result.

 

The paintwork is tidy for a 28 year old car - luckily the first two NZ owners had kept it garaged its entire life here, and the third owner (whom I bought it off) stored it in his dad's shed after it got taken off the road. There are the usual bumps, nicks and scrapes of course, but one quick polish was enough to bring back the sparkle.

 

 

Forgot to mention, the front bumper on the car when I bought it is different to the one that's now fitted. One of the hardest things to find is a stock "zenki" bumper - most of them have been chopped up for giant intercoolers, and they're different from the regular non-turbo model. I got this one from a friend in the Mazda club who discovered terminal rust in his BFMR and was in the process of wrecking it.

 

 

Two-tone is iconic. Would have liked a white one to match my TX3 but the silver is still a nice shade.

 

 

Another item which proved difficult to find, even though you wouldn't think so: the factory steering wheel...

 

 

I basically ended up exercising all my powers of OCD and tracked down the factory blow off valve, every original sender and pressure switch that I didn't already have spare, and by some giant fluke, even the factory cruise control actuator module.

 

Yeah, this thing has cruise, which combined with power windows/mirrors/sunroof is pretty damn baller spec!

 

The one thing I did leave out was the adjustable height control, as you can't rebuild this system once it craps out. One of the previous owners had already removed most of it.

 

 

I also need to take it to Kevin at Alert Auto Air to work his magic on the A/C system which needs a new dryer, seals and gas. But all in all I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

 

Performance-wise it doesn't hold a candle to either of my TX3s which are both pushing in excess of 200hp at the wheels, but you know what? I actually don't mind because it's comfortable, quiet, handles well enough with the full time 4WD system, and still has enough pep to put a grin on my face every time it gets driven.

 

Hope you actually drive this and enjoy it rather than sell it.

 

In a perfect world I'd keep this for a while, but realistically it needs to be sold because bigger and better things await. I'm not in any great rush to get rid of it though, and really want it to go to a good home, so who knows - it might still be kicking around in a year's time.

[milkspec]

Im interested, how much are you looking at? Can you please PM me a price. Guaranteed OCD home like yourself. 

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=624618344

[Snoozin]

CV rebuilds are only exorbitant if you get ADL to do them up here, if you send them down to NZCV's in Christchurch it's a super reasonable cost, just in case you find yourself in this situation again. Turnaround is fast too.

[milkspec]

Sorry I was supposed to be showing you a trademe link to prove im a little OCD haha

[Spencer]

CV rebuilds are only exorbitant if you get ADL to do them up here, if you send them down to NZCV's in Christchurch it's a super reasonable cost, just in case you find yourself in this situation again. Turnaround is fast too.

 

Yes I was just thinking it can't be that bad to get CV's fixed, they aren't magic. Strange/annoying that the CV's weren't used on some other model of mazda/ford over the years.

[0R10N]

There's a place down the road from home that a friend who works at BNT recommended called "Drive Inn" - they quoted me $475 to rebuild both driveshafts. Considering the parts car above cost me $300 (plus transport costs) it was a no-brainer really.

 

I want them eventually rebuilt to keep as spares for my TX3, so sending to the jokers in Christchurch sounds like a good plan.

[KIRK]

go to that drive-inn shop in new lynn. Dudes there are way cooler than ADL homos

 

edit: lol didn't see ur post above

[Roman]

Sorry I was supposed to be showing you a trademe link to prove im a little OCD haha

Well you cant be that OCD then, if you missed the link

[Dell'orto]

Hmm, you selling this and me selling the RX-7 may coincide. This would please me greatly.

[0R10N]

Hmm, you selling this and me selling the RX-7 may coincide. This would please me greatly.

 

Perhaps.

 

Anyway, taking the OCD a step further - here is some original documentation which will come with the car if/when it sells.

 

 

Clockwise from top left:

 

- owner's handbook

- air-conditioning manual (how to operate the heater controls, pretty much)

- original sales catalogue

- service booklet.

 

The service booklet is the only mismatching item, as it's from a different BF Familia I used to own, but still period correct.

[P_Star]

I would love one of these, my uncle would pine so hard... he loved his one... actually, what sort of cash you looking for ed? I will send him a link

[0R10N]

So I foolishly drove the BFMR to the supermarket the other day thinking "I'll be gone ten minutes, it'll be fine." Came back out to find this had happened:



Bastards. Fortunately there isn't anything of value in the car so nothing was missing, but whoever did this managed to leave the mechanism jammed halfway between locked and unlocked.

Climbed in through the passenger door (which got me some odd looks from people passing by), and once I got the car home I pulled off the door card and succeeded in freeing up the lock so it actually works again, but the barrel is rather fucked from the break-in attempt.

Fortunately the parts car has a set of these... don't want to ruin the stock look, but I have no choice really so will swap them over on the weekend. These were all the rage in the '90s! (Both my TX3s and my brother's TX3 have them fitted... lewl)

[CaMpylobacter]

solex lol me and rule me at the same time.

had the keys to my crown stolen by local twats just after I got it back in the day so got some VL commy solexs and slammed them in.

rofl.

[yoeddynz]

Yep a sweet as mint little Mazda like this would be a target these days- I would get one of these if someone is importing them. I brought one over- such a good deterrent. Takes all of 5 secs to fit and my theory is that if the fuckers see this they might not even try to bust the locks.

http://www.disklokuk.co.uk/

[yoeddynz]

Oh- and you need one of these stickers for period coolness...