4. 'Spike'

'Spike'

  • Y

    From personal experience with buckets,
    They are great for driving and some are sooo
    comfy, However the novelty can wear thin after a few
    years as they can be a devil getting in and out of them
    everyday especially if your lowered!

    You may aswell take the rear seats out if your having two
    non reclining buckets :lol:

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  • M

    another month has passed and in that time i have been let down by 2 different mechanics :twisted:
    Both agreed to do the water pump and cam belt but both let me down the day before it was meant to happen :evil: !!
    i'm getting really pissed off now.
    So if anybody knows an affordable and reliable mechanic / garage in s.e london or kent please let me know .
    on a plus note though, the birthday fairy did visit this month and i now have a new steering wheel, stereo, black relentless decals and some groovy red led interior lights to fit now :)

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  • S

    @bf4ec14d37=youdirtyfox:

    From personal experience with buckets,
    They are great for driving and some are sooo
    comfy, However the novelty can wear thin after a few
    years as they can be a devil getting in and out of them
    everyday especially if your lowered!

    You may aswell take the rear seats out if your having two
    non reclining buckets :lol:

    Rear seats saves you about 30lbs.. I need it out to transport the trackwheels, but as soon as i've done both tracks its back in with the rear seats.. :lol:

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  • D

    @021e3d8592=Mazda-jeff:

    So if anybody knows an affordable and reliable mechanic / garage in s.e london or kent please let me know .

    If you can get it down to southampton for a day (weekends are fine) its £140 cash plus parts for water pump and cambelt to be done - parts can be got for £80-100 on the interweb

    The Apex springs are well recommended, have got those on mine and still a nice ride with them, also change over the wipers to flat ones that improves the exterior look a little and if you are looking alloys, look in the suspension wheel + tyre section as there is a fitment guide so you can find good alloys that are advertised for other cars that have the same fitment like vauxhall, renault + VW as the main ones with the same 4x100 pcd.

    Short shifter, I ordered one from the states, cost under £30 inc P&P and works well, only problem you may find is the gear stick sits in a badly designed bush and can start to drop through the floor when you disturb it and to replace the bush you need the whole assembly at £70 from Mazda.

    For better performance out of the V6 - decent plugs, K1 10mm plug leads and a good grounding kit along with a good induction kit does a make a good difference when fitted at the same time that you will notice.

    Swap the engine from a eunos or Equipe as they come with a higher rev range (an extra 1k) I am guessing that is controlled by the ECU but has anyone ever tried swapping the ECU's from a eunos to uk V6 to see if does change it ????

    Take front fogs out, if wanting grills to cover it up the holes I have some very rare JDM grills that I can do you cheap :wink:

    Clear indicator lenses can be done at home by taking the cover off and removing the yellow plastic bit from inside.

    If you are doing discs and pads check all round on the car if its new to you as these cars eat discs and pads.

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  • M

    thanks for the offer but i think with the amount that the pump is leaking i'm probably limited to about 40 - 50 miles max if i'm lucky before it starts causing damage !!

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  • M

    Ok so as usual most of my money is being spent elsewhere at the moment
    (not my choice) so the modding is going slow :(
    However i have put in the new gear knob and the steering wheel as pictured.
    although the part of me that never grew up has ordered a new horn push for the wheel to replace the normalone with a nice black and silver decepticon one!!!!
    also the cold air intake is in the post so hopefully that will be done soon too.

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  • M

    It's finally in!!!
    after waiting ages for it to turn up the c.a.i is finally installed.
    Not without it's pain in the a**e problems though!!!
    I thought i'd go for the universal type as the budget is tight and they dont break the bank.

    What a joke, they should say…...Universal fit for all cars except the mazda mx-3 :x
    and to top it off there was a bloody bit missing :x

    however after asking a couple of questions on here and getting replies from the usual suspects :wink: it is in with a bit of improvisation and creative use of the odd cable tie here and there.

    the eventual plan as i said before is to possibly move the foglights in the bumper and have a ram air type feed with an inline air filter, but for now this will have to do.
    I'll post up whether it makes much of a difference once i've been out and ragged the granny out of it properly :lol:

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  • H

    Looks good… did you have to trim the pipes down much? Also what did you do with the other little breather pipes?

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  • M

    @0bb839e24e:

    Looks good… did you have to trim the pipes down much? Also what did you do with the other little breather pipes?

    May seem a stupid question question hammy but….........what other breather pipes??

    the only breather pipe i encountered was the one which is attached to the top of the air intake near the throttle body and that is connected still.
    when i got the car it had already had the standard airbox removed and an aftermarket air filter attached.

    should there be more breather pipes?

    the shiny pipes for the intake kit come in different lengths and putting it together was kind of like playing with meccano!
    the only real problem was the diameter of the air flow meter being larger than the diameter of the intake pipe!
    this was overcome by a smart arsed plumber friend and some creative use of the tools of his trade!
    :wink:

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  • D

    there is usually a little vacuum pipe attached to the original airbox, I just ignored it and everything still worked so still I dont know what its for though

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  • M

    @819c99d95b:

    there is usually a little vacuum pipe attached to the original airbox, I just ignored it and everything still worked so still I dont know what its for though

    Another mystery solved by Dj marcopolo 8)

    cheers dude, i was starting to worry that i'd missed or lost something!!
    but considering i never had it to lose, and it clearly don't stop my car from running then i think i'll just add it to the ever growing list of stuff i really don't care about :lol:

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  • U

    If your water pump is leaking you should not be driving it at all.

    You can change the water pump on an MX-3 engine without taking off the cambelt. (done this a few times now bit fiddley but doable) Always had the engine out of the car at the time, but don't see that being a problem.

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  • M

    Soooo not posted anything up here for a while so i thought i'd do something to share with you all just for the hell of it :)
    she who must be obeyed laid down the law and said
    "NO you will not buy new wheels 2 weeks before your daughter's birthday, you must spend your hard earned pennies on her instead"!!!!
    What a buzzkill :lol:

    So i decided to revamp the stock wheels with a few cans of primer and good blast of the trusty old satin black spray paint :?

    What do you guys think???
    (be nice it was my first attempt at painting wheels)

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  • D

    looks nice, I always liked white wheels on a red car but thats just me 8)

    I am coming round to the idea of black wheels on cars

    i would suggest some rim tape around the edges to break up the blackness and they will look spot on :D

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  • Y

    They look spot on! agree with the rim tape though to define between
    wheel and tyre.
    Neon green, yellow or pink would look quite mental :D

    you dont need to clean black wheels so often :wink:

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  • H

    they look great i did the same on my 1.6 djmarco is right about rim tap it will make a big differance

    heres what i did

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  • P

    I may be a few months late with this, but my excuse is i'm new.
    Having only been back in this area a few months, i found a reasonable mechanic in croydon, he seems capable and he's fair with his prices.
    He charged me £80 to change CV joint, balljoint, oil pressure switch and give her a service, then let me use his workshop to fit some lights and dolly around with her for a bit. :D

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  • R

    I actually think it looks good without the rim tape myself, looks clean and stealthy. I'm also thinking it would look good with a black bonnet and spoiler 8)

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  • M

    Ok its been along time coming but the 17's are finally on!!

    Also the amp and sub are installed and it sounds pretty good if i do say so myself :)

    will get some better pics of wheels on soon.
    Next job- lower that bitch!!!

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  • R

    Im glad you mentioned next job to lower it lol,…nice looking 3 there fella good choice of rims too imo...

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