Mazdaspeed 3 Journey for a non-owner

Hello all,
Thanks for accepting me into this forum. I am going to post this here as I am fairly new to Mazdaspeeds considering my wife is the owner of one for the time being. This will be a long post as my experience has not been a good one of adding this car to our collection.
2010 mazdaspeed 3 celestial blue, bought it with 145k miles and currently at 162k fair price (or so I thought at the time)
The first time I drove this car it was horrible, it would cut out erratically and vibrate like crazy at idle. My wife drove it and reported no issues other than vibration at idle which she was fine with. I did not recommend buying this car but she was really digging it and well she bought it. No issues with it for the first month until I bought some AWR motor mounts since the vibration at idle was annoying due to bad stock motor mounts. the motor mounts installed fine. First start up with AWR and the whole car was vibrating like crazy. My first thought was maybe its missing some sort of balancer, instead I got lower durometer bushings from AWR which one motor mount had cracked after a few weeks, so I welded it up. This only made the car somewhat manageable to drive. This would later prove to my ignorance/mazda engineering issues later. The car went a few months until another issue arose. I was driving the car on the freeway close to home when all of the sudden the car shut off. I coasted off the highway to a gas station. The car would crank but not fire. I towed it to the house where it would sit for the next few months while I would troubleshoot it when I would have time. The BAR fuse was blown and as soon as I would replace it and key the car on it would blow. I then proceeded to look for wires that were potentially grounding out. I checked every wire coming from the PCM harness ( hence why the car sat for so long and based on schematics I had tested grounds first then potential power wires that ran thru the BAR circuit) once i deemed wire harness ok I went thru each sensor on the circuit. MAP, MAF,CAM,CKP, TB,Pedal,Fuel Purge,Fuel pressure, etc. until finally the upstream O2 which according to the diagrams/schematics I had was not listed as a BAR circuit. I unplugged the O2 sensor put a new BAR fuse and turned the key on and it did not blow. cranked the car and boom it fired right up. Somehow the O2 sensor shorted internally and was going straight to ground the sensor from the outside looked fine. I then proceeded to order the OEM o2 sensor. the car made it about another month before the shifter arm at the transmission broke. I took it out and welded it and it proceeded to break 2 weeks later (not where I had welded it score 1 for me) I re-welded it and took off the shifter arm weight since I figured vibration probably the main culprit. The car ran fine again for about 1 month again until we started having having gear engagement issues. I took the cheaper route first since it was obviously clutch related. I replaced the slave cylinder first, that helped for a few weeks. Issue returned was getting some slight air bubbles in the line so I replaced the master cylinder(clutch) with a new one that leaked air right away, waited for a replacement installed and the still had no engagement. Ok its trans removal and clutch/Throwout bearing time. While I waited for clutch parts I dropped the transmission and oil pan to see if the engine still had the balance shaft installed which to my surprise it did have it. Took out trans and yup throwout bearing destroyed along with some flexplate fingers. I then looked at the abomination that Mazda calls a flywheel and to my horror it has way too many moving parts which were all bad. Mazda engineers suck. I bought a billet steel one that works with the stock clutch and installed everything and boom vibration is now gone. (+2 for me, mazda engineers -100,000) car now drives how it should, but only for a few more weeks. Next issue, fuel pump goes out(technically a lift pump) this happened on a road trip and am very thankful to a shop in San Antonio TX that specializes in speeds that had one in stock. This is where I am at now with the car. Fingers crossed that it can last us a while before I need to put money into it again. It could possibly be for sale in the near future tho.

 

welcome to MSO. sounds like you got done dirty by the previous owner and you have no love for the car, one might even say "you mad bro?". I'd just sell it and move on with your life.

as for awr, never heard of them for motor mounts I'd only ever recommend Damond Motorsports for engine mounts, corksport has a good rep, and my Cobb rmm has been good to me as well.

dual mass fly wheel has positives and negatives also Mazda just used a pre designed flywheel / clutch; LUK is the OEM manufacturer.

 

Awafrican It is a neat car definitely has put me thru the ringer. Not gonna lie I am sore. Honestly I dont see how the previous owner is to blame. Everything just kinda broke so gonna have to say its a Mazda thing in the sense its not built to last 150k without major repairs. I am aware that things break and I have broken many cars due to me, this is the first time a car has had its way with me. I guess maybe my luck ran out with this car and luck decided to give me a lemon haha.

 

Many of these cars have gone many more miles without anything resembling these issues. Seems like the previous owner beat it hard and got rid of it before it bit them.

 

If the passion is low or nonexistent then yes consider that one a lemon and cut your losses. Maybe look for another with impeccable ownership facts and try again.

 

nothing you have described during test drive or first bit of ownership is normal heck you didn't even want your spouse to buy it. previous owner(s) was not good to it.

definitely not a Mazda thing to not last, I'm sitting at 136k and have only done routine Mazda. not lasting is a sign of poor ownership (maintenance)

 

Some of us have been unlucky then. While I agree with you for the most part I had a different experience. I did take care of my car and well by 142,000 miles it was motor time.

I also think that expecting to get 200,000 miles out of any turbo high performance motor is a bit of a stretch especially the MZR. Does it happen sure, is it common I wouldn't think so. I've had NA motors run near 300,000 miles, but that's a different animal.

That being said maintenance and understanding these engines are finicky if you want them to hang out long term goes a long way.

 

Update: Ok a little over 2 months since I fixed all the issues that this mazda has had. It hasn't left us stranded so that is a definite plus for this car haha.

 

Update: Transmission shift cable broke in Oct. 2024, ordered a cheap used set and cleaned the bejeezus out of them and installed(shifter never felt better).The transmission developed a leak on the pivot shaft losing about 25% of gear oil on a 120 mile trip this early Dec. 2024. Fixed the issue and took a 2,000 mile road trip (praying the whole time) this past weekend with zero issues. I wish I could say its because its a good car but I know its because of all my effort I put into it. I look forward to a few more months with no issues and do appreciate how the car handles with the set of coilovers I installed. Cheers! Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

 

I’m pushing 140k in my Speed. Still on the original clutch and have only done my light mods and routine maintenance. I still have a new control arms etc. with performance bushings that I haven’t put in yet. I go back and forth about replacing it, but it’s been so reliable I worry about getting hosed by another vehicle that isn’t as reliable.