I just bought a 2004 Mazda3 1.6 automat. Sedan. Very nice car, I love it.

But I have some questions which I hope you can answer on:

- is it normal that the trunk doesn't open itself when you lock it up? I mean, i have to lift it up by myself... and if it's normal, why the h.. didn't Mazda put a handle there?

- is it normal that the car doesn't want to start on P-gear, just on N-gear?

- is it normal (for the third time) to hear some metalic noise when I start the engine, just while I'm holding the key to get ignition?


And some extra questions:
The dashboard light is off by default, it turns on only when the lights are on. Can I do it automaticaly on when I start the car? Program it or something?


Greetings,

 

Welcome. I can give a few answers to your questions, but on some others it could just be the difference between the country.

By 'lock it up' I assume you're talking about using the trunk release in the cab? If so yes it's normal for it to not open up. Not all cars do that, and the ones which do tend to be a little nicer than even nice economy cars. It should pop enough for you to get your hand under the bottom edge of the lid. As to the lack of handle, call it poor design. Mazda later added a little notch in the center of the bumper similar to that found on the hatchback model so that you could more easily grab the lower edge of the trunk. The change was made in 2007.

No, that is NOT normal. It's likely that one of the micro-switches in the gear shift assembly which tells the car which position the lever is in is faulty. So even though your car is in park as far as the starter is concerned it isn't. The car will only start in Park or Neutral and obviously the switch for Neutral is working fine. Shouldn't be a super expensive repair I'd think. For the moment think of it as an extra anti-theft feature.

I think that would depend on the metallic noise. It could just be the noise of the starter. Possibly you're holding the starter for too long and grinding it's gears. Also possible there's something wrong with the starter and it's starting (no pun intended) to get ready to die. Can't really say without hearing it.

That's something that depends on the model. In the US there are two different gauge clusters, one for the 3i model and one for the 3s. The one on the 3i model is like the gauges in many cars where when the lights are off the gauges are unlit and illuminate when the lights are turned on. The one on the 3s model is always lit whenever the car is on (there are some adjustments to change the brightness) and are blacked out when the car is off. You literally can't see the gauges if they aren't lit...... at least not enough to drive with. Assuming you have the same style that's on the 3i here in the states then the only way you'd be able to get the electroluminescent gauges would be to find a set of gauges and swap out the ones in your car. It would really depend on how much you want that style of gauges. Note, if you have transponder keys then the new cluster will not operate until a dealer program it for you as the PATS information is stored within the cluster.