I'm kinda excited but I've heard mostly bad things about these cars and want to know what you guys think. If you have any tips to make it more reliable let me know! This is going to be my daily driver, and i have no intrest in making it fast, but just doing minor upgrades(intake, exhaust, boost controller).

This is a stock longblock from mazda with about 900miles on it.
Any info will be appreciated. TY

 

Welcome to the 3rd Gen ownership. You better start selling your house to keep up with the maintenance for the FD.

 

The FAQ's and stickies at the top of the 3rd gen section are your friend. You should start reading them, there is a lot to read and it will answer everything you just posted. Yes the can be reliable, yes there are things you can/should do to improve reliability. Congrats on the purchase, some ppl love em, others sell them after a few months out of frustration. Good luck.

 

lol is that why yours is for sale?

 

Thanks, i hope i learn to love mine. Id like a keeper for once.

 

LOL! Actually the opposite. Selling the FD to save up for a house.

 

^good luck!

 

Start reading up on it here by using the search feature. Buy a shop manual, read it. Understand the car and where the problem areas are. Learn how to maintain the FD, and belive me it will take some $$ to repair it. By doing it yourself through knowledge, research, some skill and a little help from the forum you'll enjoy a really nice exotic car. I have three of them and have done every modification/repair myself. Steer clear of the dealer. Meet ray...


Later

 

i have ray on speed dial....i think this is a must

BTW; i don't think i would use the FD as a daily driver; get like a $500 beater

 

first thing to do is buy a reliable daily driver lol then enjoy the fd on your spare time, congrats on the purchase, u say u will leave it stock, but i bet we see a list of mods in the near future, once u start u can,t stop

 

it's true..once you start you can't stop. You can put it off.....but you can't stop. I 've had mine 8 years while slowly modding as it breaks down over minor issues. Actually went a whole year while barely looking at it in the lot as I drove past in the daily driver....it was sooo neglected. To now spending every f'ing weekend for the last 3 months working on it!! Basic stuff: radiator, ast, stereo, gauges. Next up: suspension. Like I can do a suspension? But people say I can.......we'll see. Love/hate is sooooo true......a garage would be nice.

it does pay to understand the basics... I learned it from http://robrobinette.com 8 years ago. It's up but not maintained I don't think.

This site is where you get the nitty gritty......Enjoy.

 

good luck! mine is a dd and it has been fine so far (just be sure you read up and learn about maintenance and reliability mod) take your time on your upgrade!!

 

congratulations the third gen is a lot of fun

 

Grats You wont regret it, I drive my rex daily....Had to get the push bike out only once so far

 

Too many people buy an FD and then become invalids that depend on this forum to tell them ever wrench move to make.......you can be an exception and learn it !




Later

 

thanks for all the feedback. I did ALOT of reading last night and it doesn't seem to bad. So i guess i'll let yall know whats up later on when something happends..or breaks lol

 

dude its problems are never ending but at the end of the day its an awesome car.

 

Everyone is hitting the nail on the head. Its a great car but will cause you heartache. Even if you take care of it and do everything your supposed to do as per maintenance manual, the fact is that its a 15 year old car and things will go wrong. So like everyone has said before, get used to the search engine on this forum and learn about the car yourself.

Its well worth it!

 

ive never heard of a push bike i thought u just pedaled them...lol jk

 

thanks for the response. The car is stock and has a reman long block from mazda with 900miles so i should be set. I'm hoping nothing goes wrong to soon because i spent all my money on it but then again it runs fine and drives fine so im not to worried. I have a guy here in town that is really good with rotaries and im taking some of his advice to, he has a really good reputation. I do plan on taking great care of the car seeing as there are about 3 that i know of in my town.

cya

 

this is wat happened to my from daily driving the past summer.
front left springs got fu*cked from crappy road, no biggie, replaced front with stock springs, ECU wire shorts, took a while to find the bad wire, coolant problem, seems to be low on coolant, AST problem, fixed that, turned up boost from 8 to 10 pounds and IC hose pops rite off when i boosted, crappy roads screw up my alignment, fix that, rear hatch hydraulics starts gettin weak, meh, ill use my head to support it till it gets too heavy, BOSE stopped puttin out sound, check wiring, nothin wrong, turns out the speakers it self is malfunctionin, meh, i dont listen to music when i drive, changed to vented CF hood and windshield sprayer stops workin, fixed that, stupid seagle ***** on my car, ran over that seagle's baby nephew in my winter camry the next day ( accident )
lots of little problems dependin on how rough u daily drive it, i did put about
10 000km from this season, but no matter how many more problems comes, my god i'll always love it