Hey everyone, I just bought a 2004 Mazda 3 Hatchback. I really like the car, but I have some questions that I think you guys can answer for me.

1. When you turn the steering wheel does it always sound like its whinning a bit? Almost like the power steering is going out, but it doesnt feel like it.

2. The suspension, when you hit a slight bump does it feel like your struts are coming through? I had a Tahoe for awhile and not a car, so I thought may be it was just me.

3. I have a single cd player in my car without a aux plug in the front. Do they make something that I can hook up to the factory unit, so I can play my mp3 music off my phone?

Any help will be great, like I said I just bought the car last week, but Im looking to get the car looking good for summer and year round any help or ideas would be great. Thanks

 

Hi and welcome to the forums! If you could add your car to your signature it will help out future questions you may have

For #1 I would suggest checking your fluid level first, if its low top it off with what the manual says. If its low there is a reason, fluid doesnt just disappear so check for leaks as well. My 3 has a slight steering whine when I am close to lock but nothing out of the ordinary I think.

#2 I would again say check your shocks and front suspension, mine does not make any sort of clunks or thumps. Press down real hard on one corner of the car then release repeating on the other side, a bad shock will make that side bounce longer than the other.

#3 Mine also only had a single CD at the time, there is no way to hook up anything else to it other than a FM transmitter you can plug into your 12V power point. Best is just change the factory radio and put in one with navigation and a USB port/cable, the one I put in mine is a US spec Kenwood DNX7100.

 

Welcome and congrats on your purchase. I think we can probably help you out.

The reason for that is that unlike many vehicles the 3 uses an electrically driven power steering pump. The upside is you get very responsive steering with little of that "floaty" feeling other cars can have. The downside is it makes more of a whiny noise. You'll tune it out soon enough, and the precision of the steering will outweight any annoyance.

Like MazdaTirol noted you can check the suspension out to make sure it's all alright, or have someone check it for you. Remember that compared to a Tahoe the 3 is going to have a much stiffer suspension. One it's supposed to be more sporty, and two the shocks have much less travel than a Tahoe. It's probably normal though.

Absolutely. Depending on what you want it to do there are a bunch of options. If you just want an audio input (i.e. 3.5mm) check out the Aux Mod basic or the grom audio simple input. Both of those will provide you with just a simple input and you'll control everything from your Mp3 player. If you have an ipod or iPhone then there are a bunch of options for integration modules where you can charge your device and control it from the stereo. For those I'd recommend you check out the Audiolink or the grom ipod. If you go with the grom there are a bunch of other options such as an add on blue tooth module, or a 3.5mm input in addition to the ipod cable. Those of course drive the price up a bit so it's bit of a decision to make.

Where are you located?

There are a few things I recommend everyone consider:
-get a third key immediately. If you have two keys you can program in more keys yourself in about 15 seconds, but if you only have one (i.e. you lose one) the dealer has to program in a second key for you for lots of $$. If you have three and you lose one you can just replace it and add another one yourself. It's an easy way to save money in the future.

-think about adding or retrofitting heated side mirrors. These are useful for snow/ice as well as morning fog and rain splatter, so even great if you don't live in a cold area. For retrofitting all the wiring is present in the car up to the door connection to the mirror housings, so all you need to add is the glass with the heating elements and the wiring from the glass to the connector. I have a detailed pictoral walkthrough on the process. There are two options for glass: one go with the OEM glass, two go with aftermarket glass. The aftermarket glass is blue tinted to decrease glare and has a convex outer edge. I originally put the OEM glass in my car and later swapped to the aftermarket glass from thespeedline.com.

Beyond that you can swap out the entire housing for one that's already wired up. That costs significantly more (~$200 vs. $80) but makes the swap take about five minutes..... one plug and three bolts per side. Again you can go with OEM or aftermarket ones. In this case the aftermarket ones from thespeedline have the blue-tinted pantoscopic glass, LED puddle lamps under the housing, LED turn signals in the front covers and are power folding (read the housing will fold against the side of the car when you turn the car off). I personally never thought that last feature to be of much use until I started parking in DC and Georgetown routinely. Those housings run about $300 and require a bunch more wiring to hook up the other features. Nothing hard, just running and hooking up wire.

-Think about adding Variable Intermittent Wipers. I have a module built by an old member on M3F that adds this function. There's another member currently working on a module which will hook up to the OEM stalk with the VIW control (vs. the add on **** mine has).

Again welcome, and let us know if you have any other questions.