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**Safety Guy** · 01-03-2006, 01:53 AM

Well, we now have some detailed pics of a 1992 Mazda 121 "Bubble." First, let me thank Gtd for his pictures.

Gtd, your lack of power is probably just due to the design. It appears that your engine may be a Mazda B series, with a 16 valve SOHC head.

Then again, go here and read some reviews:

Error 404, Page Not Found - Carsurvey.org

http://www.carsurvey.org/othermodelyear_Mazda_121_1992.html

Maybe your engine does need some help?

Karl

**Safety Guy** · 01-03-2006, 02:09 AM

Lemme make some comments:

FI or carbed? Looks like a carb to me, but I suppose it could be a single point fuel injection system. I had that on my K-car, but I haven't looked at it lately and forget what it looks like.

Your engine looks like it could be a B series. They could have fit a 16 valve head on it I suppose. If so, it should make around 80 hp or more. I don't know what the kerb weight is on these things. I should get a representative "Bubble" pamphlet some day.

That instrument panel of yours looks a lot like an Aspire to me.

Your front struts look like they could interchange with an older 121. (Two bolt strut mounts.)

Here is an Aus Ebay ad for rear struts:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/FORD-FESTIVA-MAZDA-121-REAR-GAS-SHOCK-ABSORBERS_W0QQitemZ8027331327QQcategoryZ55437QQssPageNameZWD9VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Apparently, Ford Festiva (Aspire) and Mazda 121 rear struts interchange?

Not sure if that's one of those "representative pictures" though.

Your top radiator mounts look real familiar!

If I had to guess, I'd swear that's a B-series engine.

Sorry I can't help you more on your power issues.

Karl

**gtd2000** · 01-03-2006, 02:38 PM

Originally posted by Safety Guy

Well, we now have some detailed pics of a 1992 Mazda 121 "Bubble." First, let me thank Gtd for his pictures.

Gtd, your lack of power is probably just due to the design. It appears that your engine may be a Mazda B series, with a 16 valve SOHC head.

Then again, go here and read some reviews:

Error 404, Page Not Found - Carsurvey.org

http://www.carsurvey.org/othermodelyear_Mazda_121_1992.html

Maybe your engine does need some help?

Karl

Hi Karl,
I think I've reached the end of the Internet looking for the clue to this particular issue and read the articles on the Mazda 121 everywhere.

The car is actually my mothers, I bought it for her back in early 1998 when I was living in Hong Kong and had it shipped over. She always said she'd like a small cute blue convertible car and this one almost fit the descrpition to a tee!

She loves the little thing but the fuel economy and the performance are the only real negatives. I've driven lots of small automatics in the past from Mini 1000cc's to the latest Nissan Micra's and Hyundai Getz and all pretty well would blow this car into the weeds.

Even with the pathetic 26mpg US/30 mpg UK that it achieves, she does not do that many miles and it's not such a big deal. The car has only done 56,000 miles which is pretty low.

Her previous cars include:
Mini 1000cc Auto (40mpg ave) pretty slow but could get decent speeds out of it.

Honda Civic 1335cc Auto (40mpg ave) very nippy and could top 100mph no problem at all.

Nissan Sunny 1600cc Auto (35+ mpg ave) very fast for a small car - felt more like a 2000cc engine

Back in the day I had a little Mitsubishi Mirage with a 1250cc engine and it was a flyer! It was only 55bhp!

I guess I need to see some pics of a verified 1324cc 121 with FI to check if it is the carb or FI edition?

There are two possibilites here that need checking:

How does it run with smaller wheels?

Did some sneaky China-man swap the 1324cc engine for the 1100cc variant???

**gtd2000** · 01-03-2006, 02:53 PM

Originally posted by Safety Guy

Your engine looks like it could be a B series. They could have fit a 16 valve head on it I suppose. If so, it should make around 80 hp or more. I don't know what the kerb weight is on these things. I should get a representative "Bubble" pamphlet some day.

That instrument panel of yours looks a lot like an Aspire to me.

Your front struts look like they could interchange with an older 121. (Two bolt strut mounts.)

Here is an Aus Ebay ad for rear struts:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/FORD-FESTIVA-MAZDA-121-REAR-GAS-SHOCK-ABSORBERS_W0QQitemZ8027331327QQcategoryZ55437QQssPageNameZWD9VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Apparently, Ford Festiva (Aspire) and Mazda 121 rear struts interchange?

Not sure if that's one of those "representative pictures" though.

Your top radiator mounts look real familiar!

If I had to guess, I'd swear that's a B-series engine.

Sorry I can't help you more on your power issues.

Karl

I'm familiar with the Aspire - I've lived in the States too - I get around as they say

The first time I saw an Aspire I thought, "that's a Mazda 121 with a hatchback on it!" a bit of research and I found that it was made in Korea by Kia etc...I'll not bore you with the details

I can make a scan of the specifications for the handbook so you can see all the factory details.

I'm off to Spain for a couple of days and need to pack tonight but I'll get onto it at the start of the week.

Is there anywhere on the engine that will tell me if this is a 1300cc engine or not? As mentioned elsewhere the plate for the engine number "appears" to have fallen off as I just have a nice smooth shiny flat surface where it should be.... :?

I'll take a few more pics of the car when we get another sunny day here. As you can see by the bloody state of the interior, my mother is not exactly fastidious about detailing her car regularly

**mechanicaldj** · 01-03-2006, 06:07 PM

interesting, 16valve SOHC with throttle body fuel injection.

anyone notice the speedometer, MPH! not KM/h

looks like someone took a festiva, aspire and a Geo metro and put them into a blender :lol:

a/c, power steering and automatic, might as well be a B3 with a manual with the power sucking accessories :roll:

**ShadyRacing** · 01-03-2006, 06:25 PM

have a similar 121 (db) sitting in the rear yard.

its actually a b3 engine with single point inj.

but should run pretty fast for its 73hp.

mine did 160kph and used around 8liters/100kms.

but it had no a/c

it has a ecu somewhere too.

looks almost like the engine which came in european 121 (da) (=festiva).

only got that carb thingie with ecu and mech. fuel pump. very weird. but it has a cat.

best thing is to get it out and swap a bp in. ;-)

looks like the engine in my car B3(S) model code DB12D2.

stock wheel dimension is:165/70 R13

maybe the distributor is fucked up. or the timing is not rigth. cat clogged. plugs/leads... check all that first.

**gtd2000** · 01-03-2006, 06:36 PM

Originally posted by mechanicaldj

interesting, 16valve SOHC with throttle body fuel injection.

anyone notice the speedometer, MPH! not KM/h

looks like someone took a festiva, aspire and a Geo metro and put them into a blender :lol:

a/c, power steering and automatic, might as well be a B3 with a manual with the power sucking accessories :roll:

I have the original KMH speedo unit in the garage that you see in the pics. I basically bought the complete uk speedo binnacle and took the MPH speedo out then fitted that to the Jap-spec binnacle which has the rev counter etc.

When I lived in Hong Kong these cars were very common and many were "riced" up beyond belief. Everybody I knew that had one said they were amazed by the performance and economy of the cars....hmm...

**gtd2000** · 01-03-2006, 06:38 PM

I'm going to put the car in the garage and grab the owners manual and post a couple of scans for the wheel sizes and engine specs etc.

**gtd2000** · 01-03-2006, 07:38 PM

Originally posted by ShadyRacing

have a similar 121 (db) sitting in the rear yard.

its actually a b3 engine with single point inj.

but should run pretty fast for its 73hp.

mine did 160kph and used around 8liters/100kms.

but it had no a/c

it has a ecu somewhere too.

looks almost like the engine which came in european 121 (da) (=festiva).

only got that carb thingie with ecu and mech. fuel pump. very weird. but it has a cat.

best thing is to get it out and swap a bp in. ;-)

looks like the engine in my car B3(S) model code DB12D2.

stock wheel dimension is:165/70 R13

maybe the distributor is fucked up. or the timing is not rigth. cat clogged. plugs/leads... check all that first.

Your fuel economy (8L/100km) is 34.5 mpg UK or 31.05 mpg US so it's not a great deal of difference really.

The used car guides for this vehicle in the UK suggest fuel consumption between 38~51mpg. If we could achieve 38 mpg it would be excellent indeed!

Let me give you a run down again.

Car starts and idles perfectly. It does have a very slightly noisy top end when cold (similar to a diesel sound) but has been like that since day one.

It has been tested by a Bosche engine diagnostic system years ago and the tech said everything was running per factory specifications and no problems at all.

I had it check by my buddy that has a garage and a new Bosche laptop type OBD tester. He said that there were no error codes.

The AC is obviously never used here in winter so it's not that that's giving increased fuel economy.

The car has never failed any emissions tests so I assume that it is not running too rich. I've replaced the plugs when required and never noticed that the plugs were sooted up or running rich.

It really is a very strange situation - a flawlessly reliable little car that uses more fuel than my Nissan 240SX (2.4L) but almost zero nip to it.

I've sometimes suspected the O2 sensor but assume that it would then run rich and soot the plugs, the ECU was another aspect but without any error codes I assume that should be OK too?

**ShadyRacing** · 01-03-2006, 08:20 PM

the o2 sensor could be the problem too.

does the car has problems with power or is it just the fuel consumption that is the problem?

**25Horseplay** · 01-03-2006, 09:12 PM

[quote="mechanicaldj"]
anyone notice the speedometer, MPH! not KM/h

[quote]
UK spec Kia prides had a speedo/tach that reads in MPH and it goes to 110mph, I just got one for my Festiva!

**Safety Guy** · 01-04-2006, 09:33 AM

"Throttle body fuel injection." That's what my Dodge Aries had! And that's why it looks like a carb to me.

Gtd, these guys know way more than I do about this stuff.

Could you get us a kerb weight on your car?

You wrote:

Her previous cars include:
Mini 1000cc Auto (40mpg ave) pretty slow but could get decent speeds out of it.

Honda Civic 1335cc Auto (40mpg ave) very nippy and could top 100mph no problem at all.

Nissan Sunny 1600cc Auto (35+ mpg ave) very fast for a small car - felt more like a 2000cc engine

Back in the day I had a little Mitsubishi Mirage with a 1250cc engine and it was a flyer! It was only 55bhp!

Something tells me these previous cars were all under 2000 pounds. I bet none had 14" tyres or all the accessories that your present Mazda does.

Get us that actual kerb weight for your particular car and I think you'll have your answer as to the sluggishness problem!

I bet this thing weighs over 2100 pounds. Couple that with 185/60-14s and that spells S-L-O-W. Don't forget that suntop adds air resistance, too, compared with a smooth steel roof.

Karl

**Safety Guy** · 01-04-2006, 09:52 AM

Also, look on your tyre spec sheet and you'll see the 14" wheels should have 175/60 tyres on them. It's only a 6mm height difference, but it would help a bit with both mechanical advantage and rotational weight.

Karl

**gtd2000** · 01-08-2006, 07:29 PM

Originally posted by ShadyRacing

the o2 sensor could be the problem too.

does the car has problems with power or is it just the fuel consumption that is the problem?

OK I'm back from Spain now...freezing here by comparison!

The car is both sluggish (not much power) and gets poor fuel consumption - if it was low power and good fuel consumption that would be acceptable!!!

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