Feeling Bad, retarded, happy and worried all at once

So today was eventful with the kids MS3. Took it to our local trusted mechanic to see if he could diagnose the front end clunk that has returned and he said everything looks good but the steering rack seems to be the culprit. This was replaced at the Kia dealer prior to purchase and my mechanic did confirm that it is new but most likely defective. Now mind you the dealer is a 2 hour drive from us so they might cover it under warranty but its a gamble hoping to drive up, them confirming what my mechanic said, ordering and installing the part and us driving back same day, we might have to eat this one and pay out of pocket.

The bad is that I was going to buy @StreetSpeed6 TIP but money needs to go towards more important things such as steering rack.

The retarded is I contacted Derrick at CS about the compatibility of the CS short ram that came with the car with their TIP and he said make sure you get the right TIP as there are differences in the breather valve from some MS3s to others. So I go out there to look and see in fact a CS TIP is already there but its painted black, I thought they were all polished but looks like the PO sprayed this one black. DOH!

The happy is well there is a TIP already there.

The worried part is does the kid need a tune? @JTDay was kind enough to give my kid an AP although it has to be relicenced and since we thought we didn't need an AP at the moment he would hold off on spending the money to get it relicensed until he did mods that required a tune.

So after all this my question to the community is should I get the AP relicensed so he can at least run a albeit shitty OTS map for the time being? He doesn't have the money on hand to do it but Ill obviously pay for it if it means not damaging the car. I obviously also need to speed up the HPFP internal install that another kind member @L337TurboZ hooked my kid up with before running any OTS map. The PO seems to be not as straightforward as I once thought as they said the only mod done was the short ram intake or maybe they didn't know the SR and TIP together was a something very different. Any guidance as always highly appreciated.

 

Always nice to find the tip, my CS tip is black from them directly.

If you get those hpfp internals installed you should be alright to keep running the intake without a tune given that it's a stock sized maf and hpfp internals will keep you good no tune needed for them.

If you do get the Lic sorted on the Cobb at the very least get a freektune ots+ map for him to go with it.
Get that rack fixed

 

Thanks for insight and yes the rack is the priority. Waiting to hear back from Kia dealer. My hope is they are willing to outsource it to another dealer within their network or possibly a full or partial reimbursement, not holding my breath on full reimbursement but hoping for partial. Fingers crossed.

Also now wondering could it be possible the PO did do HPFP internals? I know that pulling it apart will give me the answer but is there any way by monitoring fuel rail pressure or some other parameter give me the answer without pulling it apart? Since upgraded internals allow more fuel I'm wondering if there is an easy way of knowing.

 

My corksport tip is black

As I said in shout the other day I have run a corksport stage 2 Sri with no tune for over 100k miles you'll be fine

The only way to verify internals is to look at them

Don't run a Cobb ots tune they are garbage

 

@L337TurboZ gave @PeteS a set of autotechs so he's set just gotta install them by the sounds of thing's. Or be surprised that the PO upgraded when he goes to install them.

 

Well if the internals are there someone else will be very happy as I’ll follow L337s and pay it forward.

Been reading up and the only way to know is getting in there and looking at the internals.

 

Yup unfortunately, good time to clean the pump while you're in there though

 

yeah I have the rebuild kit and internals ready to go and finally looks like we have a weekend of decent weather so fingers crossed we get to it this weekend. Also depends on his work schedule as everyone knows trying to teach him as much as possible.

 

Good luck with the install. The bolts on the HPFP housing are super easy to break so watch out when torquing them. They said it was your steering rack that was clunking? Did they say which part of it?

 

No he did not mention a specific area just steering rack in general.

 

@PandaMS3 is right about the hpfp bolts for sure. I think they only call for 8ft-lbs and mine actually stretched without even feeling them starting to snug up. I honestly just would install new ones but that's just me lol

 

Pete has the rebuild kit with new bolts....also they're fine Torque wrench is your friend, done sets with and without the TQ wrench but you do need to be careful yes

 

Yeah I replaced all of them. Had one break off and had to be drilled out

 

damn did Mazda make bolts out of hard shell candy on these cars? I never read about so many busted bolts as I have on this forum.

 

I think it's because half the bolts in the engine bay are m6 threading lol it would've been much better to just run m8 on stuff but oh well..... I have broken or replaced half the bolts new anyway now.

 

As SS6 said m6 bolts on stuff, look I've busted the odd rusted bolt on the under side because I'm in the rust belt and sent too much Ugga Dugga.

Yes the m6 one's I'd certainly use a TQ wrench and not go for absolute max torque spec even though I like to, now I did break the bolt that holds the black box onto the intake manifold with a torque wrench... So that was cool.

My buddy broke a throttle body bolt and hpfp bolt both without torque wrench on his car in our very early days of learning to wrench since then I've had both off numerous times without issue.
While I think it may be a little over stated I'd still reccomend a torque wrench in m6 to most, I know there's the experienced wrenchers that are very good at feel out there.

 

Hey @PeteS, I think you've been given some good advice in this thread. HPFP internals are highly advisable. I'm not sure if you can log fuel rail pressure with something like an OBDII Bluetooth dongle and torque app but maybe others can chime in.

Your absolute best bet is to install those HPFP internals before you go further.

My mod path was - AP --> Intake/TIP --> Internals -- Test Pipe and exhaust. Stratified S-OTS+ tune back when they did those. I did hundreds of logs and always live monitored 6 parameters with my AP plugged in always making sure things looked good. This may be overkill for almost everyone but I enjoyed looking at the info. If my motor was gonna ZZB, it wasn't for not being a diligent owner.

Long story short, get those internals installed and you probably have nothing at all to worry about until you get the tune and test pipe. Then get religious about datalogging.

Also, the front strut top hats/bearings in speed3s are junk. Mine were popping and clanging at 60k miles. Once upon a time someone found that there was a Ford part from maybe a focus or one of those small ford work vans that fit in the MS3 struts. Might be around on the internet somewhere. I'd rule out the top hats before replacing a steering rack.

Godspeed!

 

@JTDay struts and top mounts are new. My mechanic who I trust diagnosed defective steering rack. Oddly was searching everywhere and nothing other than a Cardone Industries rebuilt union but I avoid parts from that company like the plague. Then yesterday in Shoutbox Awafrican lists prices for the 2 same brands on rock auto which earlier was showing none available. Head over to Rockauto and all the sudden one from BBB Industries is all the sudden available and all the sudden gone again because I snapped it up. Mind you I have no idea on quality of BBB Industries but at this point I found a rack and I'll take the chance.

 

Honestly my car has had a noise for a good while that I am not sure what it is. If I had more $$$ to spend I would replace the steering rack too. Mine is a possibility of a few things though so I am addressing other things first

 

I can't stand odd noises, drives me up a wall and I have always been that way. I know people that shit is clunking and banging and Im just like WTF! I need the car to not be making any odd noises before I spend money on other things.