chuckk

Hello! I bought a 2004 Mazda3 Sedan last week and I absolutely love it!
The decision to buy this car was somewhat personal for me. I grew up in a GM family. My dad was an award-winning ASE GM service technician and we only owned Pontiac cars my entire life. Subsequently, I've owned 5 different Pontiacs in the 17 years I've been driving. But the last Pontiac I owned (2002 Bonneville) was such a headache that I had to go in a different direction.

My Mazda3 has been great so far, but not completely without issues -- which I expected having bought a 7-year-old car off Craigslist. So I'm hoping I can get some feedback from the forum on what these issues might be.

1) The low-beam headlights on my car are awful!
They look like they're pointing outwards on either side and the beams hit the ground about 5 feet in front of the car. At this point my fog lamps are doing most of the work when night driving.
I learned how to aim the low-beams on this forum, but I swear the beams don't move when I turn the screws. Are there known issues with the headlights on this car, or am I doing something wrong here?

2) My whole car shakes at highway speeds (65 mph and over).
t's not the worst I've ever experienced (re: 2002 Bonneville), but I can feel my cheeks jiggling when I'm driving. And that seems wrong.
With this, I'm not sure if I'm just used to driving much heavier cars, or if something's wrong. I also have no idea what kind of suspension service this car has had. The front tires seem OK but they're definitely more worn than the rear (which look practically new). Also, the aluminum rims look a bit chopped up from curb damage and the finish on the rims is starting to flake or crack in some spots but I don't know if they're damaged to a point where they'd cause this kind of shake on the highway. Any thoughts??

3) Totally optional - what's the easiest/cheapest way to add a little low-end to the stock stereo (non-Bose)? I don't want to take up my whole trunk with a subwoofer. Are there inexpensive speaker enclosures made specifically for the sides of the trunk? Or, has anyone ever tried to wire an OEM Bose subwoofer to a non-Bose system? Is this even possible?


Thanks, and I look forward to your answers!

djs2571

1: Do neither of the adjustment screws work? I know there's a linkage inside the housing that could be detached if the car had been in an accident for example - I had a test vehicle where the adjuster was not installed properly causing a similar problem. Though one of the two should be working properly. Do make sure you cover up the light that you're not trying to adjust, since they can overlap and one light can mask the movement of the other beam.

2: There should be no shaking or anything when you're at speed. alignment, suspension components (tie rods, struts, ball joint), or tire balance, maybe a bent rim if they are scraped up already.

3: I think the bose system is supposed to plug into the harness, though base models don't have a head unit that is sending signals to turn on the amp or anything, so it's probably a lost cause if you aren't into wiring something in yourself. I've added a sub under the passenger seat that works out ok, any amplifier can be added to the existing stereo. just tap into the speaker lines & run power (i'm not explaining all the details since it's involved).

Good luck

chuckk

It's been a couple weeks now but I just wanted to thank you for the response.
After spending way too much time trying to crank on the screws and aim the headlights, I decided to take the bulbs out to see if they were seriously underpowered or what.

(Queue up the theme to Benny Hill...)

Whomever put the headlight bulbs into this car before I bought it put them in ON TOP of the wire retainer spring!!!
On both sides, the bulbs were only being held in by the weather guard.
Wow.
Aiming the headlights got a LOT easier after I figured that out.

And regarding the rough ride -- it took me a month of owning and driving the car to realize the front tires are actually mismatched. The passenger-side is a Goodyear Eagle RSA - which I know are a tougher performance type of tire - and it's practically bald. I'm sure my ride will get a lot smoother once I can afford to swap that out and match it with the Unaroyal Tigerpaw on the driver side.

Thanks again for the help!