Hey Guys,

I have just recently acquired a 2008 Mazda 3 Speed GT (hatchback) and I thought I would join the online forum!

I am considering doing a few mods to the car over its lifetime. I am currently a little broke from the purchase, so for starters mods would only remain small. But I was wondering if anyone had any good advice about what kind of direction to take with this?

I am thinking the near future may have some inlet/outlet flow improvements.

Any ideas?

Also look forward to contributing to this forum!

Proud Mazda Owner

 

Intakes are always a good first mod. It's more sound and appearance than anything else really. Maybe a muffler. It just depends on what you want from the car. You could keep it stawk though which is always nice. Unless you're looking for street cred then there isn't much to do. Haha I'm not much of a help it seems.

 

Parabolous, maybe you are right, keep it stock and it'll look nice. I don't really want to do much aesthetic stuff to it. Anything I do would mainly have some performance grade to it... I don't care much for sound or look so long as it can pull its own weight.

One thing that I am noticing, not sure if its the weather though... but the stick shift is starting to feel stiffer. Any thoughts on that? I've thought about maybe taking the stick apart to re-grease it.

Just wondering.

 

cold weather makes the clutch & shifter a bit stiffer until it warms up on mine.

Is this just performance mods, or adding 'nice' things like a stereo or auto up / down windows (see my signature for ideas).

 

new to the mazda world but ive always found the KnN intakes worked best and didnt cost an arm and a leg. i was blown away at the cat back exhaust prices for the 3, seemed a bit much.

I like the intake idea, best bang for the buck in my opinion

 

djs, in your signature it says you have "low beam aiming switch adjustment (t=47722)," does this mean you are able to manipulate the location of light coming from the low beams? Also, what is the true hidden hitch?

 

https://www.mazda3club.com/how-tos-96/headlight-level-switch-adjustment-47722/
yes, the stock hid lamps have a height adjustment motor built in so the driver can aim the lights lower with added trunk / passenger weight. It's a switch connecting to multiple voltages, easy enough to change - the stock range was way too high for anything i'd use.

as for the hitch... look at the link, there are pics
https://www.mazda3club.com/mazda3-mazdaspeed3-98/truly-hidden-hitch-53213/

 

Haha that's so badass

 

WOW DJS, that looks awesome!

How hard was it to add the Auto Up/Down Windows and Back Up Sensor to the system? Not that I NEED them I just think they are always handy to have.

I will have to look into the KnN parts for intake...

 

The one touch windows are from adding autoloc's WC1000 modules. It's very basic functionality, hit the switch in whatever direction you want the window to go, and hit the switch again in either direction to make it stop... or it'll sense the stall at end of travel at window full open or full closed. They were $30/pc off ebay, looks like they are ~$40/pc now.

The wiring needed an additional ground run to the door for all but the drivers door. There are extra holes in the wiring harness connecting to the doors, so I fed a single seperate wire through one of the unused contact locations to a ground inside the car.
The wiring otherwise taps into the motor connections only, so in total there's power, ground, motor + (from the switch), motor + (to the motor), motor - (from the switch), motor - (to the motor)... and I think that's it. You don't need to get a wiring diagram for the car to figure it out.

This project took me about 1 hour per window, pulling the panel, running wire, soldering & heatshrink the connections, and mount the control boxes. BTW, the boxes PC board rattles around on these a bit, so I had to silicone it in a couple spots to keep it from rattling.

Good luck, the 1 touch add is a feature i'll do again with any of my vehicles and i've had no issues with them so far... though when the windows stick in the winter or when they get dirty it can take a few up/down attempts. but clean & unfrozen it's a great thing - and they confuse the passengers when it keeps going after they lift the switch lol