calteg

Did all mazda3 S's come with remote entry? I just bought mine used, and I have both keys but no remote.

Olestra

Do a little search on www.mazdausa.com and you'll find the answer is yes except for the base model Sedan (i sport). Go back to the dealer and get some remotes. =) It should come with 2.

ivo

Before you buy them from a dealer check ebay.com . They sell cheap there and on google.com you can find how to program them yourself. I read it a while back and it looked pretty easy.

icspots

What year/trim is your car? Like he said only the base i model doesn't have remote entry.

If you have a pre '07 then you could buy a flip key remote for your car for about $80. The regular remote for the three costs about $70, so why not get a full flip key for $10 more?

EDIT: Check out this thread. It has details on what part numbers you need for the regular remotes/keys, and for the flip keys. Also at the bottom are links to the self-programming walkthroughs.

calteg

It's an 04 S. Thanks for the help guys, actually bough it through Carmax...they recently supplied the remotes, but they don't seem to be programmed. I might give it a shot myself if it isn't too difficult.

edit: Just did the programming, took all of 5 minutes...wow, that's awesome.

icspots

Glad we could help out. Now go get yourself a spare key. If you get one now then you can program it yourself, but if you only have one key (and are adding a second, say if you lose one) then you'll have to have the dealer do it.

Olestra

Awesome! Yeah, I'm glad you didn't buy the remotes b/c you should have gotten them with your car (I wasn't clear on that when I said "get" them)

I think calteg said he had two keys. (The programming's super easy eh?)

icspots

I believe he has two keys, but my suggestion for getting a third one now is because of the programming.

If you have at least two keys for your car (that are programmed) then you can program more keys in yourself for a total of 8 keys. If you only have one key (i.e. you lost one) then the dealer has to plug into the car's computer and program them in for you. It only takes a few minutes, but they'll probably charge you $50-100 to do it unless they're nice guys. If you buy an extra key now so you have three then if you lose one you can still just buy another key and program it yourself. That way you never need to go see the dealer for programming.

As for the ease of programming it's incredibly simple. I programmed both my new flip key, and the integrated remote in less than five minutes. Did both on the first try. Check out the programming walkthroughs linked in the thread in my above post.