In keeping with GRM tradition, I am writing this before I've actually taken possession of the car. Or sat in it. Or seen it in person... I've already purchased it though 
Like every car purchase there's a bit of a story behind it. After many years of excellent service, my Celica has finally accumulated enough small issues to justify replacement. It still runs drives and stops. But there is an evap code that comes and goes, the front brakes will need replacement soon, it burns some oil, the AC doesn't blow very cold, I can feel the engine moving around a little every time I shift, etc. Most of all, there is rust on both rockers. While it's hidden by the side-skirts, it would be a very involved repair. So I've decided to part with the car and hopefully someone else will either decide to fix it (unlikely) or the parts will live on in their project.
Also, I no longer really need a small two-door car as my daily. At the time I purchased my Celica my Rx7 was living on jack-stands in my garage. I needed to scratch that itch somehow while fixing my Rx7. These days my Rx7 is my most reliable car.
So with the decision made, I set out to find the replacement car. There were a few candidates but I eventually decided on a Gen 3 Mazda 3 Hatch for the following reasons:
- I like Mazdas, and I think this generation of 3 has aged really well
- Still somewhat sporty with multi-link rear suspension (driving my mum's NC Miata has spoiled me)
- Off the shelf trailer hitches available (for my bike rack)
I was, however, disappointed to find that almost all of the more affordable examples already had rust issues. I know that's how it is with Mazdas, but it's always easier to prevent rust than to remediate. Twice I went to look at cars that were nice in the pictures but then had panel rust when I saw them in person. A third time I went to a dealer with 6+ Gen 3 hatches, all of them rusty. These excursions did present me with the opportunity to test drive differently optioned cars, and I further narrowed down which options I cared about:
- 2.5L is fine with either automatic or manual, but 2.0L would have to be manual to be tolerable for me
- Sunroof was almost a must-have
- Needed the infotainment system with a touch-screen (the other one is not easily upgradeable)
After spending some time on this I realized that I would need to raise my budget a bit to get a clean example, so I did. Even then it was tough to find a clean one that didn't sell quickly (missed out on one by only a business day).
This past Tuesday I saw a Kijiji ad from a smaller dealer advertising a 2014 GT. It was posted that morning and had no photos attached at all, nor any details other than that it only had 130,000km and was an optioned-out 2.5 automatic (I think GT always comes optioned-out but the trim levels on this car confuse me). I called the dealership on my lunch break and the salesperson was kind enough to send me some photos of the chassis:
These are actually photos my dad would take later, as the ones the salesperson sent me were compressed when sent by SMS. But I got plenty of photos and saw nothing concerning in any of them
Minty-fresh. I figured this was an opportunity I had to jump on quickly, but I obviously couldn't leave work in the middle of the day to go look at a car. Conveniently my parents were going to be in the area of the dealership. I asked my dad to inspect the car for any issues and let me know what he found, and if he found the chassis was rust-free then to negotiate on my behalf (and to go up to asking price if necessary). I'd already test-driven an identically specced car (one of the rusty ones I saw) so I knew that I liked the car, plus my dad knows what he's looking for so I trusted him to find any issues.
Turns out the car was as clean as it appeared and I e-signed the purchase agreement from work. The car comes certified and the dealer has excellent reviews, plus both of my parents had a very positive opinion of everyone they dealt with there. They wouldn't budge on price, but I'm very happy with what I get for the price I paid. This car had the one biggest factor I cared most about (a clean chassis) and as a bonus came with the following configuration:
- 2.5L (auto with paddles)
- Sunroof
- Leather seats
- Factory window tint
- Dual zone climate control
- Backup camera
- Heated seats
- Factory weather mats and trunk liner
- Fully optioned infotainment system with nav
- Heads-up display
- Even came with a trailer hitch, exactly as I wanted
I only will probably only ever use about three of those features (sunroof, infotainment, trailer hitch) but getting all of those others is a welcome bonus. And maybe I'm getting old, but while manuals are more fun, I don't mind a decent automatic for my daily. Plus it's easier on my left knee (which all medical professionals seem to agree is in perfect health but continues to have random aches and pains).
Also, jumping on this car quickly was a good idea as my dad saw another salesperson pulling up the car's info for a customer when they were leaving the dealership (only a few minutes after I signed).
This car will remain stock, so the only posts I'll make about it will probably be maintenance. I intend to install my dash-cam and at some point do the Android Auto upgrade, but otherwise it will remain materially unchanged. Updates to come once I pick it up
Best looking Mazda 3 gen, imo. Nice find!
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Great little car. Supposed to get 39mpg on 87 octane fuel too.
In reply to OHSCrifle :
With the 2.5 I've been able to get as much as 37 highway, but most of my trips are short so I'm currently averaging around 35. Either way it's still pretty good in my book. My Celica never got more than 31MPG, and that was with over 1000lbs less weight and a 1.8L engine making 40hp less than the Mazda. Pretty impressive what 10 years of engineering advancement can do.
Tasca never responded when I asked where my moldings were, but then they arrived on Thursday so I guess that answers my question. As I mentioned in my previous post the originals have no openings for the roof rack mounting studs:
Yesterday morning they were still frozen in place, but this morning it had warmed up a bit and I was able to remove them easily. I used a plastic spudger tool to pop the front free, and then just lifting and wiggling the molding was enough to free the other clips. With it out, I found there were a fair amount of leaves and pine-needles stuck underneath. Here's the front mount point:
There are these little rubber clip things stuck to the roof as well:
The little valley at the top seems to catch water and let it pool, and on all four of them I noticed a tiny bit of surface rust. I think this part was assembled with adhesive before paint, and then over the years the adhesive has cracked as it contracted and then allowed moisture to get to the metal.
These are the actual rack mount threads (as well as a little black spacer that fell off of the original moldings:
I gave everything a good scrub and then a little bit of rust paint around the rubber clips. Then I popped the new moldings on and removed the little black covers:
Which let me pop in the studs:
I wasn't sure if there was a torque-spec for these, and if there is it's likely in inch-pounds for which I don't have a torque-wrench. So I just put a little anti-seize on the threads and then installed them snugly. After installing the four studs I dropped the front bar on:
The little red plastic thumb-screw (or whatever it's called) is larger than the gap between the stud and the rack when installed, so you actually need to start threading it on before seating the bar all the way. Then the plastic cover goes on:
On both the roof and pillar side the rubber base extends onto the paint a bit. The previous owner kindly included some 3M clear film that would protect the paint but I found it was very noticeable when installed, so I decided not to put it on. Instead I'm going to ceramic-coat the car in a few days. I doubt the rubber will cause any issues anyways.
And with that, they're installed:
I took a drive and didn't notice any increase in wind-noise, so I'm going to test it out for a bit and if I don't hear anything I'll probably leave them on there semi-permanently. Will I actually put anything on them? Well, I don't know. I already have a bike-rack for the trailer hitch so I don't need another for the roof. On the other hand I've been considering buying a set of skiis lately instead of continuing to rent, so maybe they'll find some use soon.
Until next time
