Hello kidz,

I'm new to the forum. A big hello from the east coast. I've been a 3 owner since '04. Got the Sedan in April of '04....must have been a month or so after they hit the mahket. Been lovin the ride ever since. Got 110K miles on it and its my daily drivah.

Anyways, I just had some fresh paint sprayed. Had some rust on the rockers and inner fenders, trunk lid around the 3rd brake light. Replaced the lights all around, upgraded to LED's in the back, new units in the front with angel eyes. Well, here's some pix. I hope you like. Yea my tag says KEG-TAP for those who are savvy enough....534 on your celly is KEG.


Mods
Exterior

17" ASA AR1 dressed with Bridgestone Potenza
Custom Grille
Two Tone custom painted hood
Upgraded Headlights-angel eyes
LED Tail lights-3rd Brake light

Performance

Fujita Cold Air Intake
Magnaflo stainless Cat-back exhaust

Interior

Short throw shifter
GReddy shift ****
Custom boots-shifter and E-brake. Black/silver stitching

To-do list

Shocks, Struts and Springs. Going with Tein with a modest 1" drop. New England roads and Condo complex with speed bumps talking me out of any more of a drop. That will be it. Maybe some tint somewhere down the line. When the motor dies I will consider a speed3 swap. Of course I would have to beef up the brakes, suspension and adding strut tower bar(s). It's all paid off and I decided to keep it.

 

dam dood nice, i see that you got the ebay headlights with the angle eyes already in em, i was considering them as well but i wanted a ring around the low and high beam as well. fyi its less of a pain to boost your motor than to swap a spd3 and better bang for your buck. But yea very nice sedan you got there, trust me its gonna be a while before the motor goes up, i have a 06 and i got it brand new in 05 and i have 97k miles, same serp belt, same trans fluid, same motor mounts, 8th oil filter, yea you get the picture heh, welcome and if you have any performance questions let me know heh

 

Thanks Tracker.

Got the lights off of Xtralights.com. Decent. I had the guy at the body shop put them in while he did the paint. He hooked the angel eyes up to the head light when I wanted them tied into the running lights so all you see is the amber and the angel eyes with the running lights on but he tied them into the low beam. Whatever. I may swap it myself at some point.

At about 60K I blew the tensioner pulley. In '04 they were made of injection molded plastic. The flippin thing blew up. The replacement was made of metal. Go figure. Could have been Fords decision to save a couple bux on a cheap azz pulley. I don't think the Japs are that stupid. The original brakes in the rear I got about 70K miles on them before replacing them. Got about 85K on the fronts. I'm a big fan of downshifting. The original pads in the rear were metallic based, not ceramic so the brake dust on the rims was unbearable and they also chewed up the rotors something awful too. The replacements seem better. Again, a decision to save some bux on cheap azz pahts. It's still got the original clutch, shocks, struts and springs but I'm changing the shocks struts and springs in July. Other than that it's been low maintenance. And back in April of '04 I was one of the very few on the road with a brand new 3. They've come a long way and have won the hearts of many. For me, it was a no brainer purchase and I didn't regret it for the most part. I did have an issue with hard starting a couple times. If I started the car cold, moved it real quick and shut her down and let her sit, when I attempted to fire it up again it didn't want to start. Happened a couple times. Had the fuel pump and in tank filter screen replaced under warrantee and when it happened again I found I had to hold the pedal to the floor and let it turn over until it started. Weird random problem but rarely happens anymore. Also had a strut mount replaced under warrantee. Bad wheel hop coming out of a toll booth one day.

 

ah good deal man, yea ford didnt build the motor but they told mazda what material to make the parts out of go figure. all in all didnt seem that you didnt have too many problems with yours vs the 07+ models heh.

 

Yea that doesn't make any sense to me though. You would think that the first of the first would have the most problems and as the years go on they tweak it and make it better.

Also, I never really liked the styling of the Honda Civic, the VW or especially the Corolla. I mean for the longest time the Corolla had a solid rear axle. They still might have, actually. Who does that anymore? LOL! And then there's little things like the external trunk lid hinges. I mean it's brilliant! You can stuff the trunk full to the top and not worry about the lame old fish-hook hinge crushing your groceries.

And its a good thing Ford didn't design and build the 3 motor. By now with 110K I'm sure it would be leaking, burning, or puking some kind of fluid if it was done by Ford. I have the 2.0 and I must say its pretty damn solid. Of course, I'm inclined to think this way about Ford because I grew up running 302's in mustangs and pickups. Without fail at about 40-60K miles SOMETHING went amiss. I always loved it when the rear main seal took a permenent vacation....lol

 

ha ford guys dont even like ford , the motor wasn't built by ford but they do share some common things like the brake system and also suspension with the focus, if you wanna nit pick 70% mazda 30% ford.