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Figured I'd ask here rather than start a new thread... Has anyone ever used a Sylfex Auxmod? MY WIFE just got an '03 6 2.3 and from everything I've read the adapter Crutchfield sells that lets you mount a single DIN headunit is a glorified piece of poo poo that costs $150, and all I really need to add is a line in to the stock stereo.
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Nov 9, 2010 04:18
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CharlesM posted:I have one, it works great for me. Easy to install. I didn't do the actual cable very elegantly though, I just have it hanging in the passenger footwell. Did you end up putting in a ground loop isolator/is there noticeable interference if you have your device plugged into a cigarette lighter?
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Nov 9, 2010 23:13
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Buckeye posted:OK. I'll ask...why is the Mazdaspeed3 not a viable commuter car? It's what I commute in every day. I find it to be an extremely fun "commuter" that still averages 24+ MPG. I'm going to assume the 24 MPG figure is what makes it not viable. My midsize '10 Fusion with a 2.5L I4 and weighing almost 500 lbs more than the MS3 gets high 20s/low 30s per gallon depending on the time of the year. Most subcompact/compact cars are now reaching upper 30s/lower 40s. Low 20s on the highway is rapidly becoming the realm of full size trucks.
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May 25, 2011 19:07
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SiB posted:Now we didnt do any diesel stuff because they will not be here til next year.... We only get one diesel here and that will be the 200hp, 300tq twin sequential turbo, 2.2L I think and of course the fuel economy will be outstanding. Will that be available in a car or only the full-size SUVs (CX-7/9)?
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Oct 8, 2011 18:43
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IOwnCalculus posted:Maybe it's just because I'm looking at this on a smartphone but I don't see anything to worry about here. Seconding this...all I'm seeing is a picture of normal wear on a rotor.
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Nov 16, 2011 04:01
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Seconding the HPS pads. I don't have any experience with them on a MS3 but they've been excellent on my Focus. Might not be the same on a heavier car but they did just fine in a couple of autocrosses and during a HPDE.
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Dec 1, 2012 07:27
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Turd Nelson posted:Also, I'm interested in getting HID lights, but I don't know what I should look for in a kit. Has anyone installed an aftermarket kit and how did it turn out? Unless you're talking about retrofitting HID projectors into your stock headlights don't bother. Installing a rekeyed HID bulb into a non-HID housing results in beam scatter that not only blinds everyone else on the road, but also lights the road ahead of you inadequately.
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Dec 26, 2012 02:05
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Self-leveling/cabin controlled leveling is a nice touch but not necessary, as long as you can manually aim them. Cars sold in the US typically lack these unless they're more or less a direct import from the European/world market. AFAIK factory 3 HIDs are very hard to come by, and are obscenely expensive when you find them (I saw a pair once on ebay for north of $1500.) Dealer parts department rates are going to be even worse, I'd guess a junkyard is going to be your best bet.
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Dec 27, 2012 20:41
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What are the symptoms of a worn out side engine mount on a MS3? My little brother's '08 has increased vibration when changing gears and increased noise at idle. He did install an aftermarket rear mount but says it was fine for months following installing it.
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Jan 13, 2013 04:40
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Laranzu posted:Losing both low beams at the same time make me think its something with the HID electricals and not the housing itself. Seconding this...HID bulbs generally give you plenty of warning when they're on their way out. They slowly color shift over their lifespan but it increases sharply just before the bulb dies, and you'll have one start to turn pink or some other off the wall color. I don't think I've ever heard of two HID bulbs dying off simultaneously. Aside from the bulbs each housing will have a ballast (probably mounted externally) and an igniter (typically attached directly to the bulb, looks like a small box directly mounted on the back of the projector.) Again, the odds of having either component in both housings go out at exactly the same time is exceedingly unlikely, and any issue is probably going to be upstream from the housings. I'd start with a volt meter and check for voltage at the headlight pigtail before diving into the housing(s.)
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Jan 31, 2013 21:24
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My little brother just shipped out to Ft. Sill on Tuesday, and until he reaches his first (semi) permanent duty station I've been designated caretaker of his '08 MS3, about 5-6 months. He has a laundry list of things he wants me to do once he has money to do it with, but for starters he's been having an issue where there's a momentary loss of power when changing gears. I've only experienced it going from second to third, its like the car is in gear and the throttle is closed for an instant and then you're accelerating again. Is this a common issue or am I going to be chasing a gremlin?
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Nov 23, 2013 08:39
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So out of the blue my wife's '03 6i decided it needed to have the valves and pistons get together on Saturday night and now after re-timing it cylinders 1 & 2 have zero compression. I'm not really interested in throwing the $1200+ for a junkyard Mazda 2.3 at this car, and I don't trust the rest of the engine to behave as this isn't the first time the timing jumped (last time it was by a tooth and it resulted in it being dead on the highway followed by a no-start condition.) Coming from the Ford world I know the 2.3 Duratec and the 2.3 MZR are nearly identical so I started doing some digging, as the Duratec 2.3 is about 1/2 to 1/4 the cost of a Mazda engine, and I found this guide to swap the Ford engine into a 6. Seems pretty straightforward, just have to swap a couple of bits from one engine to the other. Can anyone think of a reason why I shouldn't do this? I'll have access to my father-in-law's garage, which includes an extensive collection of tools, an industrial air compressor and an engine hoist (in addition to my father-in-law who has been restoring cars for longer than I've been alive.) I'm basically stuck between doing the franken-fix on her current car, trying to teach her how to drive stick and then putting her in my Focus with a performance clutch and lightweight flywheel (  ) or seeing if I can qualify for a car loan (doubtful, my credit is a bit beat up after 6 months of unemployment last year.)
Geoj fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Dec 24, 2013 |
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Dec 24, 2013 05:53
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Geoj posted:franken-fix This is happening. My father-in-law is on first-name basis with every scrap yard, salvage yard and auto recycler in the tri-county area and just sourced a 2.3 Duratec with a broken valve cover (something that has to be replaced anyways) for $300.
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Dec 24, 2013 16:41
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CharlesM posted:I'd like to see some pics if you get it done. This isn't quite as much of a frankenfix as I was expecting. The Ford and Mazda engines are probably 98% identical, the only major differences in this swap are the intake cam (the sensor ring for VCT is different), valve cover & side timing cover (PS engine mount is integrated into the timing cover and is different between the two, valve cover is specific to timing cover) and the oil pan (Ford runs the dipstick through the head/block, Mazda has an external pipe that enters the front of the pan.  Engine out (yes I'm aware of the ricer CAI, the car came with it and I don't want to spend a few hundred on a replacement factory airbox)  Swapping the intake cam, original engine in foreground, Ford engine in background.  Ford engine awaiting oil pan swap.  Ford engine with swapped parts back in the car and bolted up to the transmission. This is as far as we got tonight, the transmission didn't bolt up smoothly and we're probably going to separate them again tomorrow and make sure everything is lined up right before putting everything back together again.  Bonus pictures of damaged intake valves in original engine. This is with the intake cam completely removed, three of four cylinders had bent valves that couldn't close. Geoj fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Dec 28, 2013 |
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Dec 28, 2013 05:27
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Geoj posted:the transmission didn't bolt up smoothly and we're probably going to separate them again tomorrow and make sure everything is lined up right before putting everything back together again. Found the problem - the new engine is out of a manual transmission car and we forgot to remove the clutch pilot bearing before installing the flexplate  Got everything about 85% back together, all that's left is a few more coolant/vacuum hoses, some wiring connectors, getting the accessory belt back on, putting the battery back in and filling fluids (oil & coolant.)
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Dec 29, 2013 02:10
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My Ford engine swap is 99% done, everything is in and the engine is running - much better than the original, finally got rid of a hard start and rough idle problem its had since we got it three years ago. In addition I'm hoping once it gets back on the road an increase in fuel economy and power and a reduction in oil consumption (it used to eat about a quart of oil per ~1,000 miles) will materialize as well. Today my father-in-law had everything else put together that we didn't get to last night and had been running it for a bit before I showed up. I had to replace a broken vacuum nipple with a barbed brass fitting for the DPFE EGR sensor, and we're kicking ourselves for not replacing the crank pulley seal while everything was out, as its now weeping oil (and the parts store only sold it as part of a $35 gasket kit  ) It should be back on the road tomorrow and I won't have to take my lunch at odd hours to chauffeur my wife to work everyday. Geoj fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Dec 30, 2013 |
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Dec 30, 2013 01:52
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Couple of MS3 questions - I have custodial possession of my little brother's '08 MS3 for the foreseeable future (he's in AIT in the army right now, and then is shipping off to Korea for a year in late June/early July.) He has a couple of maintenance issues that he wants me to address while I have it:
Any other suggestions as the car nears 60,000? Oil has been changed regularly, air filter is less than a year old and we already replaced all three engine mounts with aftermarket replacements.
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Apr 6, 2014 04:59
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opengl128 posted:Definitely check the endlinks, mine loosened up twice before I hit 30k. Otherwise, see if the rear shocks are leaking, it's a really common issue, and both of mine are starting to leak at barely over 40k. Should this be obvious, like hydraulic fluid leaking down to the bottom where the shocks hook up with the LCAs? I haven't had a chance to jack up the rear end and pull the wheels off but the shocks are dry at the bottom.
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Apr 14, 2014 03:35
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Is that the $20/quart "honey" MTF Ford sells? If so it's highly regarded in the Focus community as the last transmission fluid your MTX-75 (5 speed manual gearbox on zetec/duratec MkI focus models) will ever need, to the point of Ford not even publishing a change interval. Unless there's something weird about the MS3's gearbox it should work fine.
Geoj fucked around with this message at 04:27 on May 1, 2014 |
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May 1, 2014 02:40
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Star War Sex Parrot posted:I assume my Mazda dealer won't have that now that they're divorced from Ford? I doubt Mazda dealers ever sold it, TBH. Also Mazda isn't totally divorced from Ford, Ford just owns less of Mazda now than they did about 10 years ago (about 10% now vs 30% then.)
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May 1, 2014 04:30
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MetaJew posted:Eh, if it's really the sensor, screw it. I have a decent idea of what kind of mileage I average, and I always reset the trip odometer. That being said, it'd be pretty lovely if the sensor was already going out on a 5 year old car with less than 50k miles. As long as you're getting an accurate reading as the tank nears empty it shouldn't matter. I'm actually surprised that in this day and age of dumbed-down gauge clusters where pretty much everything has been replaced by an idiot light that fuel gauges haven't been replaced by a standalone low fuel light.
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Jun 4, 2014 18:51
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MetaJew posted:Has anyone done a coolant flush or brake and clutch fluid flush on their gen 1 ms3? I'm at about 45k miles and thinking that couldn't hurt. You should probably flush your brake fluid every other year or so, unless you live in a very dry climate. Brake fluid is hygroscopic (absorbs and retains water,) if you let it go for too long you're asking for your brake lines to rust from the inside out.
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Jul 5, 2014 23:26
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So opposite of the above - my brother's MS3 has had a nasty clunk in the front end for a while and I just brought it home again tonight (he had it a few weeks ago before shipping off to Korea) and jacked up the front and went hunting and found that the bushing in his aftermarket rear mount was pretty much non-existent. I put the stock mount back in and the clunk is (unsurprisingly) gone, but should I be worried about accelerated wear on his aftermarket side mounts now? I'm going to put in a replacement bushing relatively soon but I'll leave it sitting in the garage if I'm going to hurt something by driving it. Also is bushing wear on aftermarket mounts accelerated? It went in about two year/25,000 miles ago, the manufacturer (Sure) sells replacements for cheap, I just figured it would have lasted a bit longer.
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Jul 6, 2014 07:39
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Google Butt posted:Is anyone a VIP on mazdaspeedforums? Is there anything cool or useful in there? I usually jack up the rear directly on the subframe and support it on the control arms at the spring seats. The front is a pain in the rear end, I've found lifting on the front LCA where it connects to the subframe works best and then there's a reinforced point on the floorpan about in line with the front edge of the front doors that works well for support.
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Jul 6, 2014 21:34
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Anyone know of a source for OEM (or OE-spec, doesn't have to be genuine Mazda parts) replacements for MS3 suspension components? I'm fairly certain at this point the rear-end clunk in my brother's MS3 is a bad strut (already replaced swaybar endlinks) and I'm not entirely trusting of RockAuto after they sent me a regular 3 lower grille after selecting it from the "2.3L turbocharged" category. e: did some research on some Mazda-specific forums, seeing a lot of references to SenSen shocks/struts being better than the OEM parts at $160 for the full set. Anyone have anything good/bad to say about these? Geoj fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Jul 7, 2014 |
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Jul 7, 2014 21:13
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What's the hivemind consensus on replacement sparkplugs for the MS3? My brother's is about to hit 60,000 miles and is (AFAIK) still running on the factory plugs.
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Jul 14, 2014 16:15
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Kraftwerk posted:So I don't get it, my 2014 Mazda3 is extremely fuel inefficient. I'm well above the promised mileage claims. Right now my trip computer tells me I have an average of 9.4l/100km. I'm supposed to be getting something like 7.4-8.5. What gives? I have the 2.5L engine. For starters take the trip computer with a grain of salt. If you want to know your mileage maintain a spreadsheet (or there might be an app now, it's been years since I needed to worry about fuel economy.) As far as worse than advertised, published economy numbers tend to be grossly optimistic. Your driving style can also have a huge effect on economy - basically, if you aren't driving it like a grandma on the highway you're not going to hit the advertised economy. Geoj fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Jul 19, 2014 |
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Jul 19, 2014 00:07
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Google Butt posted:So the po stripped the gently caress out of the filter. I went through this on my wife's '03 6i. Remove the cap with this, then buy one of these and always remove/tighten it using only this.
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Jul 27, 2014 05:47
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Nodoze posted:There shouldn't be much difference between the 14 and 15 models, With the '14s being the lead year of their generation there might be some minor kinks worked out with the '15s. Only reason I could think of to hold out for one.
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Aug 4, 2014 21:17
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Any advice for changing out headlight bulbs on a first gen MS3? The driver's side lowbeam on my brother's '08 burned out the other night...I was able to remove the battery & battery box, unbolt the engine compartment power distribution box and roll it to the side to get at the bulb. I'm assuming the passenger side bulb will follow shortly but it doesn't look like there's any such shortcut on the passenger side short of removing the washer fluid bottle (which may be easier than taking the front bumper off to pull the headlight assembly.)
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Aug 5, 2014 18:21
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Regular halogens. I already have the driver side bulb removed, just curious if there's an easier method for the passenger side beyond "remove bumper, then headlight assembly" as I suspect the bulb on that side will blow relatively soon.
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Aug 5, 2014 21:19
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Nohearum posted:I just wish Mazda had considered front license plates when designing the new 3 and 6. Most cars look bad with front plates, but I think the new 3 and 6 look exceptionally awkward. I honestly wouldn't install a front plate unless you get a fix it ticket. I live in a two plate state and haven't had a front plate installed for nearly 10 years, never had a cop say anything about it even when pulled over for something else. Most cops view it as busy work/not their problem and won't enforce it unless you give them a reason to.
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Sep 7, 2014 03:51
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Anyone have a good online source for OEM parts? My wife's 6 is leaking oil where the dipstick tube enters the pan, the tube is going to need to be replaced as it was damaged back in January when I did a longblock swap. There doesn't appear to be any aftermarket support (none of the usual local parts chains list one and I'm striking out on RockAuto) so I'm going to have to buy OEM.
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Oct 14, 2014 17:46
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Can anyone ID what these wheels came off of: For an '03 6, lug pattern is right (5x114.3) but I'm not sure on offset... For sale on Craigslist for $130 (tires are done but the wheels appear to be in decent shape.) My wife's 6 is rolling around on the stock 18s off of my brother's MS3 and will need new tires next spring when we cycle the snow tires that are going to go on in the next month or so back off again, and the tires I'm looking at buying are about $30 cheaper each in 205/50 16 than 215/40 18. Smaller tires + these wheels would cost about as much as bigger tires for the wheels I have now and I'd get better fuel economy to boot... Geoj fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Oct 24, 2014 |
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Oct 24, 2014 03:51
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Yeah, you guys nailed it - late model Protege. Offset is +50, factory offset on the stock 6 16x6.5 wheel is +55. Any reason why I shouldn't do this?
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Oct 24, 2014 04:14
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No, if I get them they'll get all seasons. We have a set of steel wheels with winter tires already mounted. Not sure if the seller still has them, made multiple attempts to contact him today and haven't heard anything back so...
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Oct 25, 2014 04:10
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Pretty much every computer managed engine runs pig rich when its cold and still in open-loop mode, since until the O2 sensors warm up it cannot accurately adjust the A/FR so it just dumps more fuel than the engine could possibly need. This explains the black smoke. As far as the lovely idle, that's likely because the Skyactivs are high(er) compression and will run worse than a normal engine when cold.
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Nov 24, 2014 00:12
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If you're using the stock stereo (and I'm assuming stock speakers) you aren't going to degrade the audio signal substantially enough to notice with a ground loop isolator.
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Dec 3, 2014 02:19
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IOwnCalculus posted:This. The only problems I had with an isolator were due to the 1/8" jacks on the isolator itself failing. My solution to this was to bury the ground loop isolator in the center console and use a female to female adapter to connect another 1/8 stereo cable to the near end of the isolator cable. Although this was on a first generation 6, using a sylfex auxmod so the whole thing was easy to route & bury.
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Dec 3, 2014 06:54
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Somewhat Heroic posted:2005 mazda 6i automatic. The battery light kicked on yesterday...bought another remanufactured unit to swap out...the light is still on. What else could it be? Where else should I be looking? Exchange the alternator. Remanufactured units have a dismal failure rate, I just went through this with my wife's '03 6i about two months ago and had similar results - first reman unit from NAPA failed two days after I put it in, the second is still going but I'm hanging on to the receipt just in case.
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Dec 6, 2014 20:55
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