New Speed6 Owner

Hello fellow Mazdaspeed contributors. I joined the forums as a new owner of a completely stock 2006 Mazdaspeed6 with 142k miles. I purchased in July of 2024 and got it registered here in STL about a month ago. I had been faulting a high mileage 2006 Altima for a few years, and had been on the look out for Speed6 for a while, but when they popped up they were either needing a ton of work, or modified and throwing so many CELs that I would spend more money getting the car past emissions. Eventually a running and driving example popped up with a great price tag so I jumped on. The car drives excellent, but has a few minor cosmetic issues. I’m ignoring the hail damage until I fully paint it once we set up the paint booth in our garage, but I already fixed the worst of the fender rust with my welder and a surprisingly cheap but accurate quarter patch panel I found online.

My goal with the car is to daily it for a while mostly stock (bought HPFP internals to install) while getting parts together for big overhauls. Soon I will be doing the valve cleaning with my blaster and walnut media, fuel pump internals, injector cleaning (bought OE style seals and stud kit for the moment since I plan to get a JMF or CS intake once I can start getting emissions exemptions in 2 yrs) catch can, and upgraded TMIC. Then probably start in spring dropping the rear subframe while I’m able to bike to work. Then work my way to front of the car.

For a bit more background I grew up working on cars as a hobby. I have a nice low miles RX8 for summer fun, track, and car shows (I have been tuning it recently with Versatuner). Also I’m slowly making progress on my VQ37 swapped Datsun 240Z (my first car I bought from a neighbor for $1k back when that was still possible). I look forward to learning a bit more about DI and turbocharged vehicles as I drive and tinker with this one.

if you guys have any suggestions or words of advice for any reliability mods or maintenance to think about I’d definitely appreciate it as it sounds like the huge MazdaSpeed forums before this one is lost to the ether.

 

at that miles just look for worn out rubber everywhere.

 

Thanks, that reminds of another thing I forgot to mention. After I bought it I took it to my local Mazda dealer for a multi-point inspection while getting the safety and emissions done. They mentioned some bushing were starting to show wear, especially on the rear half which is why I intend to drop the rear subframe first. At the moment nothing about how the car handles our terrible roads screams the rubber is dangerously bad.

I have started collecting bushings for the car as I find them because it appears the only options are OEM or poly from a Russian supplier. It seems like the Russian bushings come from a reputable company but it looks like a convoluted ordering system so I’m shying away from those ATM. I was able to source the reportedly unobtainable OEM rear subframe-to-body bushings through some channels at a good price because I didn’t want to have to resort to delrin if mine ever went bad.

 

@phate can provide insight on the bushings. I'm pretty sure he's ordered from the Russians before

 

Ordering straight from Russia is really difficult now. @Atoms4Piece recently sourced them from a supplier state side, though. He can probably shed some light on it.

They're a great alternative to stock. The front LCA's have integral ball joints, so I recommend just replacing those arms altogether.

 

Thanks, I’ll reach out to him. It looks like some of the SPC suspension parts come with poly bushings built and I was planning on using there parts to replace a few of the factory control arms and rods. The rest I may stick to factory rubber.

 

Did the HPFP this past weekend. Got together all the OEM gaskets and seals, and PCV valve, for doing valve and injector cleaning this weekend after work Saturday. And of course I go to purchase Versatuner for the car now that it can keep up fuel for a a bit more boost and the prices increased $100 since just a few months ago… ugh! It’s now $400 per car to get the self tuning package! I was planning on getting a Freektune tune done for a strong tune and then make a more laid back myself for the snowy months but that just ain’t gonna be cost affective anymore.