I've noticed the stain/dirt at the underside of the engine hood. The stain runs from the front the hood all the way to the back toward firewall. The stain is road salt/dirt. It's on the passenger side, and the line of stain seems to aligned with the serpentine belt. It seems that the water splash is thrown by the belt to the underside of the hood.....anyone else notice this?
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Okay, you made me look. Yes, I have the same stain. Or I should say had, because I just wiped it off with a wet paper towel, came off easily. I'm sure it is kick up from the belt. I also noticed some crap hadaccumulated on top of my radiator overflow reservoir (which is on the same side of the engine compartment as the belt), which probably got there by bouncing off the underside of the hood. It's interesting to notethat the belt side of the engine compartmentis noticeably dirtier than the opposite side. I'll have to give it a gentlerinsewhen the weather gets a bit better.

 

Urb, Thanks for confirming this for me. It *is* dirtier on the passenger side. I tooks a closer look trying to find the real cause. I am worried that if the water can get on the belt pulley it could cause slippage. My second thought after looking the underside of the car is that it could be the drive shaft boot which (and other members in the vincinity) all get wet. The culprit seems to be the underside shield does not extend further back enough (it covers only upto the A/C pulley, leaving about 1 ft space btw the A/C pulley and the chasis cross-member, from which water/salt/crap can all rush in. Does this make sence to you? Thanks again, Urb.
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Urb, Please see the attached twi pictures, one is a 2.3L engine, which has a much wider engine cover (covers belt and extends further back). However, you still see "crap" on the cowl panel in the picture. The other picture is the 2.0L engine, and the cover is much smaller.



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[IMG]local://upfiles/13140/118592D592F64697B4D4AE67F2F271C5.jpg[/IMG]
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Actually Win, the top pic looks like my '042.3L as you say, but the 2.0's also uesd to have the same cover. Mazda replaced them both w/the smaller one on both engines in '06, I believe. They no longer use the big cover.
My friend's '06 HBuses the smaller cover and relocated dipstick too. They are not interchangeable.
The engine cover wasthe third thing (within a week) to be removed from mine... after the rear seat headrests (same day as pick up) and the hatch area shelf cover (same or next day.) I hated it.

 

the second one looks exactly like my engine bay lol. i have also seen this stain. and i do believe it is from the pulley. or perhaps from the wheels kicking dirt up into there

 

The smaller cover is my engine compartment. I see what you mean, wineye,about the bottom cover not extending back.

I wonder how much watercomes up through the oil filter access hole. And no matter how extensivea bottomshield is, if you drive when it is raining, or sleeting, some water is going to come in through the front grill. If you drive on congested, very wet freeways as Isometimes do, and there is a layer of "spray" extending a couple feet into the air, I am thinking water is going to come in from a variety of angles.

Iassume the belts would be fine even if they got soaked regularly. They are rubber, they'll dry, no damage done. I am more worried about something electric getting wet, which could cause stalling. Ifelectrics getwetregularly, even if it does not cause stalling, it couldcause corrosion issues.

I looked in my enginecompartment with a flashlight, and realized the last set of knuckleheads whochanged my oil spilled a bunch of oilon the top side of my bottom shield when they were doing my filter. Another thing to clean...

 

Urb, you are right. water could just come in from anywhere. even if the undercarriage shield extend further back, water could still come in from the wheel well opennings (where drive shaft and power steering, etc go). I share your concern about the electronics, may be we can find some protective cover for the connectors we have on the passenger side. Most of the electronics stuff is on the driver side.
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I think Bill Clinton has something to do with this...