Looking good..... The stereo speaker issue is above many people's comprehension. You happen to be ahead of the curve. The owner probably did mask the issue and nobody noticed until you so expertly exposed. I had it happen to me too on a Acura 5.1 system. The 8" sub speaker cone was completely seperated from the spider. The sub was turned completely off and the dealer never noticed.

Take a look for rock chips on the underside of your rockers and others. When you have time, hopefully before winter, plot a course to protect the bare metal if there are any spots hiding.

Take good care of your car and it will pay dividends.

 

No Rx7 updates today; just some more Mazda 3 information and my overall thoughts on the car as a whole.

My Celica sold tonight, which is convenient because between me and the family we were up to 8 cars in the driveway. 7 is about the maximum that we can feasibly shuffle around before things start to get really tight. Despite the fact that I bought the Celica as a daily driver and didn't really do much other than maintain it, I was admittedly a little bit sad to see it drive away. The new owners knew their way around cars, so I'm hoping they get many more years of enjoyment from it.

This evening I took a few minutes to really inspect my new Mazda (what I can see from above anyways) and see if anything needed my attention. To start with, coming from a 39 year old Rx7 and a 20 year old Celica, the features on this car are crazy. The coolest thing is that the steering wheel adjusts in and out instead of just tilt.

Something I find disconcerting is the lack of gauges:



Sure, it has everything you need (one can argue you don't even really need a tach). But the old car driver in me always likes to keep an eye on the coolant gauge and oil pressure. Range is nice I suppose, but I've never understood why the external temperature matters. By the time you get to the car you already know the external temperature, right? Plus I don't know anyone who checks the external temp and then changes in their car. I just don't really see a use-case for that readout.

The little heads-up display is neat. My brother test drove the car and found it distracting, but I kind of like that I don't need to avert my eyes from the road to see my speed. Plus it shows the cruise-control target when active.

One other weird feature is that the engine coolant warning light illuminates in blue when the car is cold. So blue tells you the car is not yet warmed up, then it goes off when the car is warm, and it turns red if the car is getting too hot. Kind of an odd choice to warn you when the car is cold but I guess with no actual gauge they needed some way to indicate that you shouldn't be thrashing the engine.

Factory weather mats front and rear are a nice touch:



The car was detailed before I got it, but as usual "detailed" is synonymous with "Armor-all on everything". So I'm going to gently clean all the plastics and use 303 instead (since it doesn't leave the oily residue). The seats are also genuine leather (at least I think they are) and Armor-all is shiny but not really the right thing to condition them with. See this picture for the shininess:



Even after cleaning with leather cleaner you can see the shininess in the creases:



So it's going to get a few more passes with the cleaner and I'll probably condition it this weekend.

Interestingly the door cards seem to be pleather:



It feels perfectly fine, just something I noticed.

The AC and climate controls work great. Full-auto is kind of neat, although I do miss the simplicity of having three dials for temperature, fan, and vent direction respectively.



The passenger airbag warning light is very distracting. I'm not sure why they feel the need to have that illuminate when nobody is seated in the passenger seat.

The center screen is working fine, although I did notice a slight bloom:


These screens are easily swappable but it doesn't bother me enough to do anything about it.

Moonroof is working well:



Weirdly the moonroof opens with one-touch, but then requires you to manually hold the switch in the close direction until it completely closes. A strange cost-cutting choice.

The center console is sized perfectly for CDs (which I still use on occasion):



This is convenient because the door-cards don't have slots for the CDs. Instead they have this large cupholder type pocket, except angled instead of upright. The rear doors are the same. This is a weird choice since the center console has two cupholders, and there are two in the rear fold-down armrest. Add in the doors (which can really only hold a sealed type of bottle due to the angle, not a fountain drink) and that's 8 total cupholders. I suspect this was done because they couldn't fit a larger pocket with the Bose door speakers. I can still use those pockets for storage, it's just a little odd they chose to do it that way.

Speaking of odd, the center console comes with this little insert:



It slides forward and back so you can access the CDs, or lifts out entirely. It has a little pass-through for a cable, which I assume is to leave a phone charging inside of it. But then why is the pass through on the side of the phone instead of the bottom?

To be continued

 

I found some space in the spare tire to fit my emergency supplies. Jumper cables and ratchet straps are usually my go-to. I used to keep a tire-slime kit and a rubber traction grip, but couldn't find a convenient place for them. I've never used them before anyways.



While in there I noticed a small crack in the plastic inside of the hatch:



Not something I'm going to worry about. If I hear anything rattling I'll remove the plastic and JB Weld the back of it, but everything seems pretty secure so I'd rather not risk damaging it further for no reason.

Here's the one dent in the rear bumper (disclosed by the dealer and photographed for me before I purchased):



3 stage paint never looks right with a touch-up pen, so I'm leaving it as-is. It's not very noticeable.

Speaking of touch-up pens, I did find a tiny tiny spot of rust that my dad missed, right at the driver's door sill trim:



Fortunately it's still very small. I'll strip that back and treat it sometime soon.

One thing I like about this car is that it handles really well. The electric power steer is pretty communicative (although not as much as a hydraulic rack), and the multi-link rear suspension really keeps this car planted. My brother has a 2nd gen Mazda 3 with the trailing arm rear, and it doesn't feel quite as confident through the corners. It came with Pirelli P-Zero, about which I have a pretty positive opinion so far:



And other than adding my Parks Canada pass to the rear-view mirror, that was it for the night:





In the next couple weeks (particularly once the warranty from the dealer is up) I want to start systematically checking every area. I have no maintenance records in the glovebox, so I don't know when any of the fluids were last done (other than oil at the dealer) nor the spark plugs. The serpentine belt has been changed but everything else will be thoroughly inspected, documented, and then dealt with one-by-one. There are no symptoms of anything amiss, it's mostly just for peace of mind.

Until next time

 

you mentioned the lack of gauges and i was going to say use an OBD app. Lo and behold i see the elm in the last pic, lol.

pair that sucker up with this:

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568...980000686422_1

and this

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568...Cquery_from%3A

and boom, all the gauges you could want on the dash.

myself on the other hand, just ordered new fuel rails, plumbing, injectors and TGV deletes for the Baja. holy **** ID1050's are expensive.

 

I'm definitely getting that Android Auto kit at some point. I recently went on a trip and the rental car had it - what a difference in convenience compared to regular nav.

Those Injector Dynamics are really expensive, hence why I spent so much time designing those little adapters to use the ID725s. I got that set for <$200 I think, so it was a bargain (not accounting for my own time).

 

these newer Mazda's are eerily good, there just isn't much that goes wrong. belt tensioner is probably the biggie.. maybe wheel hubs being second, maybe
its so different from the old cars

 

Belt tensioner seems fine. I'm assuming it was replaced with the serpentine (which looks new). No weird noise from the wheel hubs so far.

One thing that I'm still debating is the transmission fluid. Apparently it's "lifetime" fluid, but my definition of "lifetime" is about 3x what the manufacturers probably consider to be lifetime. Changing it seems like cheap insurance.

On the other hand I've never owned an automatic car (nor worked on an automatic transmission at all), and I've heard some horror stories about people changing fluid on healthy transmissions and then having issues shortly after. So I'm debating just leaving that fluid as-is.

 

btw if you need any service info shoot me a PM, i've got access to all the manuals and such

 

I made a small change on my Rx7 recently. A long time ago I purchased this rear camber link:



It's the common style for the FC you've probably seen 100 times. By pulling the back of the rear subframe up or down, you can use it to adjust static camber on both wheels. This is a neat design that has a right-hand thread on top and a left-hand thread on bottom, so by loosening the lock nuts and rotating the center sleeve you can adjust it in-situ without having to remove either end. This makes it a lot easier to get an alignment at some known point and then dial it in later however I want.

There's only one problem, which is that it transmits too much NVH to the cabin for my liking. Now, there is an off-the-shelf solution from Mazdatrix:

https://mazdatrix.com/product/susp-c...86-92-rear-rb/

But frankly I think that's a bit expensive for what it is. Almost $200 USD, and it still requires you to unbolt one end to adjust it. So I started making my own solution.

First I measured the threads on the existing rod ends:



M14x2.0, 40mm threaded length. Finding appropriate threaded rod would prove to be a bit of a challenge, but certainly doable.

I purchased a stock camber rod a few months ago and finally got around to seeing what it was made of:



The inside is actually 13mm so you could possibly find some way to tap it for threads, but I wouldn't end up doing that. I actually thought this was a solid rod originally, and I had a weird idea to cut the link in half along the centerline and lathe it down to 14mm before using a die to cut threads. The hollow rod ended up making this easier because the new threads would self-center.

Speaking of new threads, I had some trouble finding 14x2.0 threaded rod near me. But I did find something on Amazon that would work:



Yup. I found it was actually cheaper to buy and cut up two new rod ends than it was to buy threaded rod in that size. The angle grinder made quick work of it:



I felt a bit weird cutting up a rod end to get threaded rod. Sort of like I was unmaking something rather than making something? It's like taking apart a cake to make flour.

After cleaning up the end using a bench grinder, I checked the alignment 10 times and then clamped it firmly in the vise and checked another ten times:





Then I went to work welding it. I didn't want to put too much heat into this piece lest I damage the bushing, so I did four tacks and then dumped it in some water. Then after it cooled I dried it off and did the remaining welds. Fortunately there was no damage.

Here's a comparison:



So you can see my idea here. All the benefits of the Mazdatrix piece except at a total cost of about $110 CAD (not including the camber link I already had). I had measured the link carefully so I could adjust it back to the desired length, and here's how it ended up:



And we're done. With it reinstalled, there is a noticeable (if not dramatic) difference in NVH. I think the next step is to replace my remaining poly bushings with OEM rubber ones, and I already have most of them in a box waiting. Since it's almost winter I might find the time to do it before spring.

More urgent though is the painful amount of body flex. Driving my Mazda 3 has made me used to a much more solid chassis. The FC is very bendy by comparison. My frame of reference is always skewed on this sort of thing since it was my first car, but the FC could definitely use some improvements. There are off the shelf braces available but of course I've decided to do things the hard way, so that will probably the next thing I post about once I have made more progress.

Until next time

 

that was an interesting way to do that,

for the bracing there is the obvious front strut upper brace, easy to get these and they used to be cheap.
i like my Infini one, its really light, and its a bright color, lol but there are plenty of others.

the next one, is the rear, Mazdaspeed made the good one, it bolts in, Cusco requires cutting holes in the speaker tower. again plenty of copies, and the Cusco stuff is still available
the Mazdaspeed, and its copies have a bracket that installs on the shock, and then the bar bolts to that through holes that are already there in the sheetmetal.


then there is a front LOWER bar too. it goes between the rear front control arm pickup points.
again Mazdaspeed has the good one. not sure there are copies of this. Cusco makes something, and then you can use the convertible subframe and its brace too

Mazdaspeed,


and then there are fender braces too, i've never run these, they bolt to the door hinges, and then go to the frame over the wheel.

 

Cusco or bust.

 

I actually really like the Cusco ones. I have their front under-brace. Unfortunately I don't think any of them (Cusco or otherwise) will satisfy my needs.

I really want a front brace that triangulates to the firewall, and also doesn't have any hinges or threaded adjustments. I have my doubts the adjustable rods do much, and the hinged ones probably have some flex in the hinge regardless of whether it's tightened down.

As far as the rear, I don't think most commercially available braces are very effective. The rear has shocks instead of struts so the top mounts being braced to one another is not really that important, and it's too far back to address the large void in the rear of the cabin. I think an effective brace needs to be further forward to help mitigate the flex in that void.

I think the front under-brace has been more effective to me as a perch for the transmission when the engine is out than as actual bracing, again due to the hinge.

I have some ideas for custom braces to remedy all of the above, but it's going to take some time for me to work out all the designs.

 

in the Miatae Mazda puts braces in the trans tunnel, https://www.roadster.blog/2015/06/mx...ctiv-body.html

ive thought about doing the chassis foam on mine, but its actually hard to find anyone who has done it and been successful.

 

I have a small update about my Rx7, but there's also some Mazda 3 related stuff that people might find interesting. So I'll post that first and finish up with the Rx7 update after.

When we left off I had said that I had a blown driver's side front door speaker. I searched and it turns out this is a common issue. The speaker itself isn't actually blown, but a piece at the back separates from the metal frame and then it starts to rattle. Here's what you see when you take the door apart:



This thing is absurdly big. 9" driver, and apparently (although I didn't test it) it handles from the bass all the way up to 500+ hZ. For reference, here is my hand:



Thinking about it I guess that only works as a frame of reference if you've seen my hands. Oh well.

The speaker comes out really easily. Four bolts and one connector:



Looking at the back you can see the issue immediately:



The metal starts to rust around the back of the frame and then the paint lifts away, taking the plastic back piece with it. I cleaned and sanded it as best I could, then reinstalled the plastic piece with construction adhesive:



Finished product:



Let me tell you, that thing is ON there. I wasn't sure how strong the construction adhesive was until I tried it, but man does it grip. I'm not worried about this coming loose anytime soon.

Since I had the door apart I added some sound-deadening:



And also took the opportunity to spray grease in all of the crevices to prepare for winter:



Conveniently the previous owners have had the spray done before. You can see the opening for one of the body plugs on the left of the photo.

Lastly, I replaced a lot of the broken door clips with new ones from Amazon:



And then I did the remaining doors the same way. The passenger front speaker was only delaminating a little bit, but I used the adhesive just the same. The rear doors just received a cursory inspection and then everything got sound-deadening.

I also did sound-deadening in the hatch floor area and rear wheel wells. If anyone is doing a similar project, don't use Kilmat. I found that the Noico stuff on the doors reduced ringing a lot, meanwhile the Kilmat I used in the rear was not as effective. In fact, I read some really compelling testing data on Resonix's website that makes me want to try them for my next project.

With the door speakers fixed, the sound in this car is a lot better. I did have to replace the 3.5" dash speakers with a set of Pioneers (the treble on the stock ones was awful) but I'm now reasonably happy with it. The bass is a bit muddy, but the 9" door drivers are 1 ohm and also not strictly sub-woofers. So I would need to find 9" full-range drivers (or other size with an adapter), replace the stock amp with a new one (that would have to have minimum 8 channels + DSP so I can tune it), add a sub somewhere else, etc. That is not a project I want to tackle anytime soon.

On the maintenance front, I have no records for this car. It runs great and seems well taken care of but it's better to be proactive. I started with spark plugs:



All of the ones I pulled out seemed okay. They looked to be original. Replaced them with NGK rutheniums:



Should be good for awhile. I know modern cars only need these every 100k kms or so, but I will probably end up replacing them sooner out of habit.

To be continued.

 

Next I had planned to do coolant and ATF. However my closest dealership was out of FL-22 and Type FZ ATF last week, so it was a waste of a 45 minute drive (one way). This week I called to ensure they had both (and was told that they did), drove up on Saturday morning, then it turns out they were already out of FL-22 again.

The parts guy was really apologetic and kindly gave me a discount on the ATF. Apparently Mazda is changing suppliers for their fluids. It's not a big deal but it does mean another trip will be in my future. I decided to do the ATF today anyways and put my car over our oil-change pit:



I'd never changed transmission fluid on an automatic car so I was a little bit nervous. I've read a lot of horror stories of people changing the fluid and then having a transmission failure shortly after. I have also heard of shops that either don't recommend changing it or sometimes refuse because they have too many people claiming that it damaged their transmission.

The more I read about it, the more I became convinced that this was actually due to neglectful owners and selection bias. People rarely remember to change their car's fluids outside of the engine oil (and sometimes not even that!). They forget that brake fluid should be changed every 3 years, coolant every 5 years, ATF every 100,000km or so, etc. The first time most people even think about their transmission is the time it starts shifting hard, clunking, or otherwise behaving strangely.

Of course by that point it's already damaged internally, but they change the fluid thinking that will "fix it" and then it fails shortly after and they blame the fluid change rather than hundreds of thousands of km on old fluid. So I made up my mind that changing it was a good idea.

I've learned the hard way to always make sure you can fill the transmission before you can drain it. So I started out by finding the dipstick / fill port. Can you see it?



There it is:



I did have to remove the two 10mm bolts holding the intake tube in for access, then use three extensions to actually reach the bolt holding the dipstick in. Then I struggled for about 10 minutes trying to actually get the dipstick to pop out before finally succeeding:



I observed two things:

- The fluid looks fine (subjective of course, but there is nothing obviously wrong I mean)
- The fluid has been changed before, as Mazda Type FZ fluid is a pale blue colour

The colour of the ATF doesn't actually indicate whether it was suitable for the application. It could be that this fluid meets Mazda's requirements. But for the small increase in cost I'm glad I picked up the OEM fluid for this job.

The drain plug is easily accessible with the skid plate removed:



You can see some surface rust on the subframes. I scraped that away with a steel brush and hit it with rust paint, then sprayed the creeping rust spray inside of all the drain holes.

I drained all the fluid out:



I saw nothing concerning. The drain plug was also clean and free of any metal shavings.

Then I filled with OEM fluid:



There's no "after" pictures. I'm not really sure what I would even take a picture of.

I wasn't sure how much to add, so I ended up adding one container at a time as I was measuring the fluid I drained out. Once I added the exact amount I had taken out, I added about 100mL to account for fluid lost. The dipstick was supposed to be measured with the fluid at 50C, but my ELM327 didn't want to connect today. So I started the car and idled it, then cycled the shifter a few times slowly. Then I measured with the car warmed up and the fluid was right between the two lines.

After that I went for a test drive and I felt no difference at all. This is exactly what I'd hoped for. I might have felt slightly quicker shifts when using the paddles but I think that's mostly my imagination.

Speaking of which I've noticed something interesting about the paddles (or rather my perception of them). Most of my drives in this car are about 2 minutes long (to and from work), so rarely do I really push the engine at all. Most of the time the car happily shifts at 2000rpm and I don't even think about it.

A few days ago on a longer drive I put it in Sport mode, and the car is noticeably quicker. It drives a lot more like an older car (or rather it shifts in the same way I would shift an older car), shifting at about 3750rpm and not shifting into 6th as soon as possible like it normally does. Fun, but honestly I like normal mode enough that I generally don't worry about Sport mode. Particularly since I get average 30+ MPG in normal mode, even with my really short trips.

Which brings me to the paddles - has anyone else noticed that they make the car feel slower? Obviously they don't actually make the car slower. But when you shift in a manual car you feel that instant "click" and then you're in the next gear. With the paddles, you feel the instant "click" in the paddle and then it takes about 1s until you're in the next gear. It isn't shifting any slower than normal, but it feels a lot slower since you're manually telling it when to shift and then feeling the delay.

My dad has noticed the same thing in his car. I think the paddles might feel faster for someone who doesn't actually drive manual, but for someone who does they seem to be kind of counter-intuitive. They still work to hold a particular gear in manual mode when needed, but I never use them for fun.

With the ATF changed I just need to do the coolant and then brake fluid (which I will combine with winter-tire installation later this month) and I'll be 100% up to date on maintenance. But there was one modification I wanted to do for my own convenience.

To be continued

 

When I purchased my Mazda 3, one of the features I was set on getting was the infotainment screen. Normally this isn't the sort of thing I would care about, but I knew that the infotainment screen could have one of these installed:



An Android Auto kit that doesn't require swapping the head unit. Complete OEM appearance and all. The hub I picked up is a little different than the one pictured here; mine has a USB-C connection and a fast-charger.

Android Auto wasn't even something I thought about until I used it in a rental car on a trip I took recently. I'm sure I'm late to the party on this, but it's a game-changer. Way smoother and more convenient than any OEM nav system I've used, plus you can natively use a music app of your choice (in my case Poweramp). I recently picked up this kit and finally decided to install it.

This kit requires software version 70 or higher, and mine was already up to date:



I think there might be a newer version but I can't think of a compelling reason to upgrade. So I'm leaving it as-is. Pulling out the screen, there's a small single-din-esque box behind it:



I put the screen aside and then pulled the center console apart:



It's weird, everything on this car is held together with clips. You just firmly pull and it comes off without tools. Meanwhile nothing rattles at all. Kind of impressive.

The shifter trim lifts up, and then the little plate that sits in front of it pops out as well:



There's a lot of wasted space there. I was wondering why this car has no good place to put coins or anything, and this seems like an opportune location. Maybe I'll make something in the future. Then the old hub pops out of the center console:



And the new one pops in. I forgot to take a photo and it's a cold and dark now, so I'm not going back out there. It looks almost exactly like the one in the picture above anyways.

The new hub requires two new cables. One replaces an original cable, the other is a new cable entirely. I'm not sure why the previous cable needed replacement but if I had to guess I'd say it's probably a USB 2.0 cable and the new hub might need USB 3.0.

Weirdly the two new cables come bare, and then they also include these foam strips that you're supposed to use to wrap the cables so they don't rattle. But again, both cables are required. So I'm not sure why they don't just wrap them for you from the factory rather than adding this and having you do it manually. Here's what I ended up with:



I ran out at the end, and I also wasn't confident about the little foam strips staying in place at the ends. So wherever a foam strip ended and another began I decided to add some anti-rattle tape I had around. Ran the new cables from the hub up behind the dash to the head unit:





I used the included zip-ties to secure it every few inches, and I bundled up the excess under the flat panel in front of the shifter. You can see what I mean about all the extra space. I'm thinking I might put a wireless-charger under here.

And with that, I plugged my phone in and it just works:



One thing I should have thought about before this project though is that these exist:

https://www.caraudiocoho.com/product...riantsId=10728

The 3GB ram / 32GB model is $339 USD, which sounds like a lot. But the hub was $100 CAD, a wireless Android Auto adapter will be another $75 or so. For an additional $150 I could have had a much cleaner solution which seems to include the stock Mazda firmware (not sure how they managed that) as well as a 10" HD screen.

I don't think I'm going to worry about upgrading anytime soon, but I might have done things differently if I knew that. Overall I'm really happy with the performance of this hub so far.

 

inverted bose woofer. bleh the part you glued is called the spider.

fun fact, it's the same one in the 'vette(maybe c5's?)

 

And lastly, the Rx7 update I mentioned. I talked about wanting strut braces in my last post and I started on that project, but I realized there was a related issue I should address first. The alternator sits way too high.

For anyone who hasn't read that part of this thread, I'm using a Ford 3G alternator out of a Ford Taurus. This requires a custom bracket I made like 8 years ago and a small adapter for the wiring harness, as well as an upgraded 4 gauge alternator cable. This worked very well and got me 130A of charging power, but unfortunately it does sit a little high:



This is an old picture, but it illustrates the issue. The alternator is physically larger of course, but the bracket also moves the mounting ear up and to the left. This basically results in a translation of the entire alternator up a couple inches from stock. When trying to find a strut-brace solution, this means that off-the-shelf braces might not fit and any custom solution I build will need to be further forward and upward. It also probably won't fit with a top-mount intercooler so I would have had to find something else before swapping the engines.

Fortunately there is a solution:



If this looks familiar, it should. It's the exact same alternator internally but it's from a Ford Contour. The case design has a few things I like:

- Saddle mount so I don't need an adapter
- Adjustment ear lower so the alternator can tuck lower
- Positive terminal pointing upwards so I can easily install the cable

I wasn't sure it was the right one (some Contours apparently have a different front case design so the pulleys won't work) but it was $50 on RockAuto so I decided to gamble. I haven't even seen a Contour in about a decade, so I don't think I would be able to find a better deal on a used unit anyways.

I have a box of 3G spares to raid for a regulator and dual-v pulley:



Why do I need a regulator? Well, I don't exactly. The alternator came with a perfectly good one, but the Taurus plug matches the adapter already on my car:



Really it was just a time-saver vs. finding the Contour specific plug. Installed:



Then it was just a matter of swapping on the appropriate v-pulley:



And the alternator was good to go install on the car. I used many (many) washers for the saddle mount as it's a lot wider than the original one. I had read that you can just use the air-pump adjuster in the place of the stock alternator adjuster, but it didn't fit quite right for me. I ended up finding a spare alternator adjuster bracket I had, and then hammering it flat and shortening it. Then I added a mounting hole and bolted it up:



Sure, the adjuster looks a little weird. But it works fine and you can see how much lower it tucks. I'll also need to get another charge cable as mine is a bit too short to be routed neatly behind the alternator. The current routing is ugly but it did let me drive the car for now.

You can see how close it fits to the water pump housing now:



And comparing the height, you can see just how much space is gained up top compared to the Taurus alternator:



This alternator now fits 100% below the ridges on the dynamic chamber. I've also seen pictures of it bolted up with a stock intercooler, so I know it'll clear that too.

In other news it's officially winter:



I know winter has come when all the leaves fall off of the Ginkgo tree. They always fall all in one day, and that's not even 1/5 of them.



I'll update as soon as I neaten up the wiring for the alternator and hopefully I'll have a strut brace solution by then as well.

Until next time

 

The more I think about it, the more I'm impressed that it works as well as it does. That's not to say that it's good - only that it's a lot better than I would expect from this setup.

 

All of my recent Rx7 projects have stalled, so here's a bit more Mazda 3 content.

When I originally purchased the car it came with only one key fob. This is a problem, since there is no way to start the car without the fob. It has an emergency key built into the base of the fob but this just gains you access to the vehicle and doesn't actually let you drive it anywhere (there is no ignition cylinder). So I went and purchased some additional fobs used on eBay:



Some new blanks from Mazda:



And since I accidentally found a set for very cheap, two new remote-start fobs:



Now I had to figure out how to program the new fobs. Here I hit a bit of a roadblock. Mazda doesn't provide any convenient way to program these. On my brother's Mazda 3 (the prior generation) you just put the new key in, turn to Ignition, and hold unlock for 10 seconds.

With these fobs you need a compatible programming tool to plug into the OBD socket and put the car into programming mode, then hold the fob against the start button until it pairs. I priced out the programming tool at $800 and decided I'd rather outsource this, so I found a guy who did it for $220 (including cutting the replacement keys). Unfortunately he was an hour away and also two hours late to the appointment, and one fob just flat-out failed to pair, but hey, it's taken care of now.

To program the remote-start fobs I needed to find the valet button. I looked in all of the obvious placed and didn't see anything, so then I put the driver's seat to it's rearmost position (which is surprisingly far back and lay on my back looking above the steering column:



That's the remote-start unit, and the little thing next to it is the valet button. Turns out I also have an aftermarket alarm:



I had no idea that was there. My insurance gives a discount if you have a professionally installed alarm system, so I guess I should give them a call (although really what kind of "professional" doesn't snip a zip-tie?)

I have no information on this unit and no fob for it (I'm assuming it just uses the stock fob for arm / disarm based on when I click the lock / unlock button), so I'm not going to touch it. I now have three OEM fobs and three remote-start fobs, so I'm happy.

I bought some brand new steel rims and a set of Blizzaks for the winter:



I went with 16" since the ride is smoother and I want a chunkier sidewall for the winter. I could probably get by without winter tires since I live only a few minutes from work (and the Canadian winter isn't what it used to be) but in snowy conditions they make a huge difference.

In my continual efforts to prevent rust, I removed the plastic panels from the undercarriage and inspected it. The only rust I saw was surface-rust in the usual places around the drain holes in the frame rails. I cleaned everything with a steel brush and then used rust inhibiting paint, and also purchased more Eastwood internal frame coating for the inside of the rails. Then after letting all of that dry it got a thorough coating with rust-preventing oil.

I also popped out every body plug and sprayed inside of them:





Even months (and multiple washes later) there is still grease coming out of the doors. Not dripping, but turning into tiny droplets and migrating all around the runner:



Hopefully by spring and with additional washes it will have stopped dripping. I don't care much in the winter, but I'd like the car to be white again in the spring.

To be continued

 

thats a directed brain and the smaller box is the can interface. the white wire with missing fuse would be parking lights. if you want the wiring schematics let me know.

 

My Mazda 3 also came without a cargo cover (standard on GT models), which is kind of a weird thing to lose. How does one even misplace it? On the few occasions where I've removed a cargo cover from my car I almost always put it somewhere in the car and then put it back when I'm done.

Anyhow, I conveniently found one near me for a reasonable price, and while I was there the guy also had these OEM roof racks for an equally reasonable price:



The only thing wrong with them is that he didn't have the keys for the locks. He told me he had tried to get someone to cut the key using the code on the lock, but apparently that isn't a key-code but actually the model of the lock cylinder. He then tried asking Mazda but apparently they don't keep records of the key-code for the racks on each particular car, so they couldn't help him either.



I asked him how he ended up removing the racks without a key, and his exact words were "I just pulled on the plastic covers and they came off anyways". I experimented when I got home and it turns out there is enough flex in the plastic panels that (locked or not) if you pull firmly they just come off. No key required, and no damage to the plastic panel.

Kind of weird that Mazda designed it that way (or rather Thule since they are the ones who manufactured these racks). I know that there is no way to really prevent theft but the whole point of the locks is to increase the time a person would have to expend to steal the things. Meanwhile it seems like this only slows it down by maybe 10 seconds per side.

Regardless I still decided I wanted working locks. So I started to disassemble them to see what it would take for me to cut a new key. From the inside, there are only two screws holding the cover panel on:



A free spider was included with the purchase of the racks:





Very thoughtful!

The cylinder is actually really easy to remove - there's a gold wafer at the back that presses in with a pick, and then the cylinder can be pushed out through the front. That leaves me with this:



This picture doesn't really capture how stuck some of the cylinders were. The front ones in particular seemed to be jammed up with a lot of salt or something. I don't really know how salt would make it's way into the inside of the cylinder, but I guess stranger things have happened.

From there all I really needed to do was get some key blanks and then cut them. This is a very simple lock design and it wouldn't be difficult. However, it turns out keys were like $20 on Amazon while a full set of 4 new cylinders with set of matching keys was a mere $10:



I'm not sure how they can be profitable on these at $10 for the set. I know it isn't a lot of metal, but even so it means that they must be building and assembling each cylinder for around $2. Pretty impressive.

Installation is reverse of removal and then I added some silicone spray to keep everything smooth. They turn freely and move the mechanism inside the rack as expected, so I'm calling it good.

Unfortunately my car came with the roof moldings that do not have holes for the rack fasteners. While I could drill holes, I want this to be reversible. They're expensive from Mazda so I ordered the two moldings for $16 per on Amayama. Amayama then sent me an email indicating that they won't ship roof moldings as they are too long and might get damaged.

Then I put an order in with Tasca, but it's been 5 days with no communication at all. So I've reached out to see what's going on with my parts. Alternatively I could find a set from a parts-yard and drill a hole in those (or try to find a set already provisioned for the racks) but all of my local yards have closed in recent years.

Oh, and the cargo cover that I was after in the first place:





The rear glass is already tinted so it doesn't really add much in terms of hiding cargo:





I find it blocks a good amount of noise. Something about the open-air hatch causes a bit of a thrumming noise at speed (a very slight but noticeable resonance), and the cargo cover cuts that out completely.

Updates when I finally acquire those roof moldings or finally complete something on the Rx7.

Until next time

 

I'd appreciate that, thank you.

I think that also answers something else that I was wondering about - do these units normally use the OEM fob? I'm assuming that's what the CAN interface is for. It must be intercepting the lock / unlock signals and using those to arm / disarm the alarm.

 

pretty much any car with CAN[or equivalent] will let you do the lock/lock/lock or lock/unlock/lock to start with the oem fobs. there's a bunch that is programmable if you have the interface. like run time, defrost, and other things.

can you tell me the model number on the Flashlogic module? is it FLCAN or some other model? what's the year of the car again also so i don't have to scroll.

also, that may not be set up as an alarm. the 41xx is just a brain and you program the functionality. may not have shock or triggers setup. its basically a' la carte'. brain in one box, interface another, and siren/shock sensor in another.

 

The car is a 2014 Mazda 3 GT. I don't know the model number on the smaller module (although I can crawl back under the dash tomorrow and find it). The Directed box has a 4X03 stamped on it