Hey guys,

I am brand new to this forum and to the Mazda 3 Hatch. Got in a accident with a deer last fall and lost out on my Jetta TDI. Looked high and low and finally came across the 2005 Mazda 3 hatch ( think its a sport). It was the car i wanted as its got room for hockey gear and is also sporty. It is not as good on fuel as i am used to and i am not even sure if its good for the car or not right now for about 60 bucks of fuel i get about 450-500 KM. I do have some questions as i am new to this car so bare with me and i thank you all in advance as i get used to this new world of ZOOM ZOOM.

1. I notice on the clutch in order to get the car to start it has to be completly to the floor. Is that normal?

2. Reverse is hard to get into, i notice that it will i need to play a little with the clutch to get it to go at times and others it slides right on in. is this normal?

3. Where in the world is the cabin air filter? I assume its filthy the dash gets dirty fairly quickly.

4. Thrird brake light. I notice that what appears to be a clip is off on the plastic that goes over top of the light as when you are driving it is not even but rather it is sagging a little to the driver side. how do i fix this?

5. Steering seems really loose, dealership here in New Brunswick (Canada) advised that i need to get both control arms replaced, amazingly they screwed up on rims for my car so i worked out a deal to do a winter tire switch over and well now the car is not aligned, had a second opinion by another mechanic and he said that he does not see a problem with them. VW in this area could not be trusted anyone have thoughts?

6. Any neat easy mods that can be done to this car? Ie: there was a mod that one could do to the TDI's that allowed for more fuel to be held in the tank.

Thats about it for now.

 

1. I notice on the clutch in order to get the car to start it has to be completly to the floor. Is that normal?

I've noticed this in my car as well, I have a 2004 Mazda3 s, I assumed it's a safety feature to prevent you from starting the car without the clutch fully engaged.

2. Reverse is hard to get into, i notice that it will i need to play a little with the clutch to get it to go at times and others it slides right on in. is this normal?
I also noticed this in my Mazda3 s, I'm assuming it's another safety feature with the syncro's to prevent you from shifting to reverse by accident, destroying your transmission. Since I have the same issue with reverse I doubt it's a problem.

 

2. Reverse is hard to get into, i notice that it will i need to play a little with the clutch to get it to go at times and others it slides right on in. is this normal?

This sounds normal to me. You may have to go to neutral, release the clutch for a second to position the synchro ring just right. The synchro rings have "dogs" that have to slide into recesses in the cogs in order to complete the shift. If the dogs are not lined up with the recesses they can't drop in.

 

Yes I also have a little bit of a hard time getting into reverse myself. It's normal. Straight-tooth gear vs helical gears

 

Congrats and welcome!

Yup, normal

Sometimes it helps to double clutch as someone else noted. Put it in neutral, release and then reengage the clutch and it should work wonders. Also helps if you're having issues going into first.

The cabin air filter is located in the air conduit sort of behind and below the ashtray. It's accessed by removing the left front kick panel on the passenger side, the PJB and it's mount and then opening the side of the white panel/conduit there. Sort of a PITA but certainly doable yourself. It's possible that your car doesn't have the cabin air filter and just has plastic blanks in those slots. At least in the US the cabin air filter only came on certain models in '05.

I'm assuming you have a hatchback. The center panel along the top of the hatch window is held on by four tension clips. It's possible the last time it was installed one of the clips wasn't fully aligned. You can just grab the panel and pull on it to release the clips and then line it up properly and put it back in place with a few firm smacks.

Wait, so they screwed up your control arms while doing something with your wheels? What's wrong with the control arms? Is is the control arms or the bushings? Ball joints okay? I'd take it to an independent shop(s) and have some other quotes done. The 3 should have very tight steering. If you're misaligned that could be affecting things so definitely check on that, especially if any suspension work has been done.

 

Wait, so they screwed up your control arms while doing something with your wheels? What's wrong with the control arms? Is is the control arms or the bushings? Ball joints okay? I'd take it to an independent shop(s) and have some other quotes done. The 3 should have very tight steering. If you're misaligned that could be affecting things so definitely check on that, especially if any suspension work has been done.[/QUOTE]

No sorry i should have been more clear. I wanted 15" rims for my car and the dealer sold me some. I took the new tires and rims to a different company to get them installed only to find out they would not work on my car. So they exchanged them for 16 inch rims and gave me a discount to get the tires put on there. When doing the job they said that the control arms needed to be replaced as the rubbers were bad. After the tires were installed they advised me again of the control arms and as well the trailing arm busings needed to be replaced and after all that i would need all four aligned. Well on the way home i noticed it pulled quite well to the right. I had a mechanic here at my work give it a second look and he said even know the rubbers were cracked the control arms were not moving and he said to drive it. So i am confused to why after the fact that they changed my tires that it would want to pull so badly to the right. With my 17's i never noticed it all.

 

I'm assuming by "rubbers" they were referring to the bushings. It may be possible that just the bushings can be replaced without the entire control arm, but honestly I don't know. Luckily I haven't had many suspension woes on my 3, just blew a strut and a tire out hitting something on the highway. My wife's car on the other hand had a bunch of suspension woes.

If you do end up having any suspension work done then yes you will need an alignment. If you're planning on having other suspension work done, or if you live in an area with lots of construction or potholes (for instance me right outside of DC) then you may want to consider looking around in your area for someone who does lifetime alignments. I can take my car in every six months for an alignment, or if I feel like something is out of whack. The lifetime costs a little more, but pays for itself after two alignments.

As far as the wheels only the 3i model can fit 15" wheels. The reason is the brakes are larger on the 3s model and won't clear the inside of a 15" wheel. 16" is the smallest you can go.