NorCal member here

Wassup people, been a Mazda fan since my first regular 3 in 2006. That was eaten in the rear by a Dodge Ram and I contemplated buying a brand new MS3 after getting cashed out, but I opted for a "rare" regular 3. I say rare because the options on it were hard to come by in combination: moon roof, Bose, with manual, in Titanium grey. That car was eaten by a Dodge Caravan when it decided to run a red light. I am 0/2 for dodging Dodges.

Enter my silver 2010 MS3. I bought in November 2017 with 79k miles.


I was raped on the pricing, so I won't say how much I bought it for. I really wanted it and it came with Konig Kontrol wheels and the little rubber hairs were still on it.



I did the usual testing and looked under the hood and the only thing I noticed was some vibrations in the wheels. Car seems like it was never touched and was owned by some lady in San Leandro who's in her 40's. Creepy, I know. She left her insurance and extended warranty information in the owner's manual. The vibrations I think are coming from the shitty Tiger Paw tires that's on them. The vibration moves when I rotate the tires. Whatever, I want TSW Nurburgring wheels anyway and the tread is new so I'll wear these out and get new ones.

First mod I put in was a CPE Stage 2 RMM because I was grinding first to second on every shift unless I took it out of first, neutral, then second. After that, plugs, oil with PP 5W-30, transmission oil with Redline MTL, and power steering fluid change. Cleaned the headlights after a good wash, clay, and wax. There was a small rough idle and trouble starting a few months later that I fixed by cleaning the EGR valve and pipe, throttle body, and threw in a new gasket.

Second mod was a Damond OCC around 88k miles. That was a SOB to put on because one of the clamps decided to lose the zip tie holding it open for me and I didn't have a tool that allowed me to reach the clamp properly. Lots of cursing, contemplation of setting the car on fire, and a full ab work out, I got the hose to fit properly and sealed.

VVT done at about 90k miles by a well known guy in the community named Michael A Rockwell-Pate in Brentwood, CA. Stand up guy and if you want something done and don't want to do it yourself, reach out to him. I had him do it because my dominant hand has a newly fucked up middle finger that I can't close or open completely.



It now has 99k miles and I recently did a lot of things all at once: free coolant bypass,

injector cleaning by RC Fuel Injection in Torrence, CA.,



injector seals by Overspeed Motorsports courtesy of Jordan Keefover,



intake valve cleaning,





intake manifold cleaning,





Adapted Performance IM TIG,



throttle body cleaning, and MAF cleaning. There were a couple of SNAFUs doing the job,




but everything buttoned up well. If you do this job, separate all of the nuts and bolts and label them in baggies. If you think you've done enough separation, you haven't so separate some more.


I would have used Precision Line Fuel Injectors located in Canada who are the only ones who can test our injectors at operating PSI and install new SS filters, but I had exactly one week to do this job and that was about a week and a half turn around period. I heard a lot about RC, so I was ok with them doing the cleaning and test. Injector two worries me, but there's nothing I can do. I had one week and couldn't get more days.



After this, I did an oil change into Rotella T6 for the warmer times of the year, plus some B-12 made it inside of the cylinders along with forgetting to replace the oil dipstick during walnut clean up. So I pulled the pan and there was some walnut shells in there. Cleaned that with B-12 and waited for it to dry. Sealed with new grey RTV and bolted it back up. T6 24 hours later and she started up and running nicely. Coolant flush last week and here we are with no other maintenance needing to be done for a few thousand miles.


This was my first time doing anything this extensive mechanically and I say I did rather well. I mostly do detailing and car audio. I couldn't have done it without the people on California Mazdaspeeds on Facebook.

Next mod: car alarm and Big 3. Gotta drop in my audio equipment from my car crash. For the next two years I am commuting to Sac State and I am all about creature comfort before performance. Full time student, part time registered dental assistant.

Some glamour shots



More on my IG
ohgeekvee

Thanks for making it this far!

 

Welcome, nice intro post!

 

Welcome man glad you joined the party!

 

Thank you both! I thought about making a build thread, but I didn’t want to make one for simple maintenance and it’s hard for me to do anything outside of school work when classes are in session. I might when I do my sound system

 

Sweeeeeeet. Welcome man

 

Welcome!