Back in a Mazda in Knoxville

Well after four years of suffering through a 2002 VW Jetta 1.8t I am back in the seat of a Mazda. I previously owned a 2005 Mazda 3 and loved it, despite the lack of power. It was the first car I ever purchased brand new off the lot. I put 250,000 miles on it and enjoyed every one. It got demolished by a redneck in a pickup truck who apparently has no understanding of red lights or braking. Any way here I am about a month in to owning my 2010 MS3 and I am loving it. I bought it from the second owner and it is completely stock. I'm from the Knoxville, TN area.

 

Welcum!

 

Welcome back!

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Glad you joined the forum. Best one around in my opinion and great people on here so join the mazdaspeed party!!

 

Welcome to mso, I love my gen2 speed!

 

Yeah I'm digging the gen2 as well. Now that I've spent the money to purchase, it's time to start saving towards upgrading it.

 

Rear sway bar and rear motor mount will make your driving lovely, RMM first mod. Then when you go get into the power mods ensure you upgrade your hpfp (internals are needed auto Tech gets my vote) then you're set for for fueling for most bolt on power mods.

 

RMM is first on my list with rear sway being #2. I want to focus on suspension and handling first. Then hopefully I can save up to start making gains in power. I've spent everyday since I've joined here reading every thread I can and taking in all of the knowledge you guys share. Honestly it's nice to see a community where people aren't d bags when someone asks a question. Hopefully I can break out of my introverted shell and do more than creep on everyone's old threads soon.

 

Yeah raider has built a good community over here, very low tolerance for shit heads. Some guys doing some interesting stuff with the platform. Definitely good call on #1&2 mods, they make a huge difference for driveability.

The other thing if you don't know full service history of the car is do a full fluid change (all of them) and swap those spark plugs out.

Motor mounts you cannot go wrong with damond, if I had to replace my RSB I'd be going white line over JBR personally.

 

Damond mounts for sure.

I would do all 4 Shocks and Struts first before swapping the rear sway bar. They will go a lot further in improving the handling and ride quality, unless of course you already have some aftermarket ones from the previous owner.

 

Shocks were replaced by the previous owner, but everything he replaced was with OEM parts. I plan on doing shocks and struts soon. I just want to wait and save up more money to get a good set and not go cheap then regret it.

 

Anything is better than OEM, they are too soft and blow easily.

If you can, spend the extra dime and go with Bilstein. Even if you stay on stock springs, you will love the ride.