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Hi, I'm looking at buying a 2004 1.5L Mazda Axela. It seems good but was premium serviced a month ago (incl oil and filters) and yet the WOF report from 2 days ago notes that there is dirty engine oil.
The seller claims that the car has been serviced regularly, and one of the consistent things I've read for buying a car is checking that the oil isn't dirty - so I was wondering if this might be a red flag.

Also - are there any other concerns about Mazda Axelas/3s from the mid 2000s I should be aware of? I know about the fuel pump issues and have been checking with sellers about theirs.

Hi there,
It could be likely that the engine oil in any vehicle would be a little blackened after a month if the vehicle is used regularly, and I would expect the vehicle to have travelled 1,000km since the service.
If the vehicle wasn't regularly serviced in Japan, it may take awhile to flush out all the old oil and sludge before the oil will stay clean after service.
I'm not aware of any issues with these cars to mention. Dirty engine oil is often characterised by jet black colour and thick consistency. With new oil having a brown see-through appearance.

Thank you very much for that!

I also wanted to ask about the Axela's fuel pumps - if a car hasn't had it done, is it quite likely that it will happen soon? I'm looking at a different Axela, from 2004, with 94,xxx kilometres and it hasn't had its fuel pump replaced - my worry is that this issue would be quite likely to come up, is that about right?

Is there some time (in age or kilometres) that the fuel pump usually starts to play up? And is it usually the original fuel pump, i.e. could it have been replaced before being imported to NZ (and if so, is there some way of finding that out?).

Thanks!

Hi there,
Modern cars shouldn't really ever require a fuel pump replacement, there certainly is no set km replacement interval.
However some cars are prone to having fuel pumps fail, this can often be due to a lack of fuel filter replacement throughout its life.