Has anybody had any experience with good aftermarket valvestem oilseals?
The OEM Mazda ones are just too expensive!
Any recommendations would be greatly received.
Many Thanks,
Simon
Too expensive???
MX5 parts, exhaust seals £6.23, inlet seals also £6.23.
£6.23 x 16 is still £100 give or take. Aftermarket ones are £20-£30.
I know I maybe cutting a corner here, but I fitted OEM ones last time around and was wondering if anybody had successfully used any alternative… It’s quite possible I will be changing the engine in a year or so anyway, so just trying to get it running on a budget!
My apologies i didn’t realise the prices were for individual seals…who would buy a single seal anyway.
Have you tried somewhere like Eurocarparts or a complete head set.
I’ve ordered a set of Elring seals (same as the ones eurocarparts sell) so we will see how they go on!
I’m going genuine Mazda for the head gasket and cam seals, and attempting to reuse both manifold gaskets which are genuine and not that old.
Lets hope I don’t blaze a smokey trail on this one!
A few years ago, I burnt out an exhaust valve on one of my mk1’s. Decided on a top end overhaul by myself. Bought an eBay top end gasket set which had absolutely everything included, exhaust/inlet/rocker gaskets/O rings other ancillary gaskets plus the valve stem oil seals for around £30! Not sure it’s still available now. Anyways, installed them all and 2 years on, were still doing there job when I sold it 
Interestingly, I used Kia Mentor 1.6 valves as genuine Mazda were on back order from Japan at the time. Wonder if the stem seals are the same dimensions 
Barrie
Cheers Barrie,
It’s good to hear you had a good experience with aftermarket seals and using non OEM parts was not an immediate disaster!
I think you’re right about the Kia parts, as in the searching I’ve done, the particular Elring seals I’ve now ordered seem to fit loads of vehicles…Kia, Ford, suzuki…etc etc.
I’ve had problems with aftermarket cam seals leaking, and a cam cover gasket that was so bad it didn’t remotely fit! But hopefully these seals will work:)