What have you done to your Mazda5 today?
- Thread starter Rockin03mp5
- Start date
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- 2008 Mazda5 GT
Spent 4hr vacuuming and leather seat cleaning+conditioner. Cleaning 6yrs of oil/dirt build up on the seats and carpets sucks. Prob could have used two cleansing before conditioning but arms are tired from rubbing... Now to sort my do to list for the upcoming week 
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- 2015 Soul Red 6 Sport Auto 2016 Accord EX Auto
Got the USB charger mounted and wires ran. Sacrificed a little access door directly behind the handbrake. Not sure what that is there for, there is nothing behind the door.
Found the 2nd row dome light is a b&#$h to work with. Only way I saw to reinstall it was to partially pull the headliner. Ambient lighting is on hold for now, and will be second row only...
...because it's not needed for a row of seats just used on occasion. What IS. needed is a much better cargo area light. Poked around this area tonight and realized the only thing the light does is blind me. I shrouded the top edge with electrical tape temporarily and it's a good improvement.
What is needed is better lighting. Found some high output 10mm LEDs that will be great. Looks like the light is triggered by the latch on the hatch so if there's switched power there I might just add lighting here too as a sort of puddle lamp.
Found the 2nd row dome light is a b&#$h to work with. Only way I saw to reinstall it was to partially pull the headliner. Ambient lighting is on hold for now, and will be second row only...
...because it's not needed for a row of seats just used on occasion. What IS. needed is a much better cargo area light. Poked around this area tonight and realized the only thing the light does is blind me. I shrouded the top edge with electrical tape temporarily and it's a good improvement.
What is needed is better lighting. Found some high output 10mm LEDs that will be great. Looks like the light is triggered by the latch on the hatch so if there's switched power there I might just add lighting here too as a sort of puddle lamp.
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- 2015 Soul Red 6 Sport Auto 2016 Accord EX Auto
Do you plan to have these illuminate with the door open/keyfob unlock lighting or just turn on with the parking lights?
jetstreamblue
Member
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- 2012 Mazda5 GS
That's the door to access the adjustment knob for the parking brake. As long as you can still pry it open if needed you're fine.
pawesomegirl
Member
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- 2006 Mazda5 Touring
I'm a dog walker!
My "new" 2006 M5! I'm a dog walker and this is how I use my 5!
Did this
Some info here http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123842223-New-radio&p=6316751#post6316751
Some info here http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?123842223-New-radio&p=6316751#post6316751
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- 2015 Soul Red 6 Sport Auto 2016 Accord EX Auto
That's what I thought (Honda in the 80's and 90's mostly all had this) but it seemed too far down to get to?
Went back and frosted the top 1/4 of the lens in the cargo area. Much better now. Will have to do until I add more lighting.
Put 400 miles on the car in 24 hours all highway. Next area of road noise abatement will need to be firewall, front wheel arches, doors, and floor. Pulled a door panel today and found a pretty decent blanket on the back of the door panel, not bad. I filled the area between the outer and inner door panels (dry areas) with particular attention to the speaker area and panel in the A pillar that houses the tweeters. Mid and bass slightly improved. Dunno about noise yet but the doors do slam a lot nicer and the power window motors are much quieter.
The car started to pull to the right, so I had the alignment done by a local shop. As expected, a lot of negative camber on the rear but the alignment checks out, so they did some tire rotating to find the bad tire. A trip back to the tire dealer and one new tire later, and the pull is gone. The other 3 tires are 2/32" less tread so hopefully it's not an issue.
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Wow, congrats - you've got a decent alignment shop if they only confirmed the alignment before troubleshooting and diagnosing a bad tire.
Most tire shops where most people get their alignments would realign the car multiple times, blame the employee, then blame the car, then blame the alignment equipment, (then possibly give up), before looking for other causes for a pull. Too many places doing alignments are staffed by trained monkeys who only know how to turn the wrench on the tie rod until the numbers on the computer screen are green, not red - while knowing little about alignment or what impact they are actually having on the car.
Most tire shops where most people get their alignments would realign the car multiple times, blame the employee, then blame the car, then blame the alignment equipment, (then possibly give up), before looking for other causes for a pull. Too many places doing alignments are staffed by trained monkeys who only know how to turn the wrench on the tie rod until the numbers on the computer screen are green, not red - while knowing little about alignment or what impact they are actually having on the car.
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- 2015 Soul Red 6 Sport Auto 2016 Accord EX Auto
Yeah, I was surprised, too. I dropped it off, and went a few doors down to breakfast. I didn't expect them to start swapping tire positions and road testing at all. Also surprising is they said they could get the same tire same day, and that if I wanted a tire I should not buy a different one, even though they had one in stock. They earned my future business for sure. I was just barely in the warranty period with these so I returned to the tire dealer I got the tires from. They, too did several tire positions and road tests to make sure it was just the one tire needed. I have been buying tires from these guys since I was 16 and continue to do so.
I find the cargo light to be pretty useless, too! I put a much brighter LED bulb in the stock location and now there are two functions:
1. Blocked by whatever cargo I'm carrying, therefore useless. ...in other words, just like stock only there's a BRIGHTER light being completely blocked!
2. Shining directly in my eyes, rendering me blind.
My plan is to put the stock bulb back in the stock location and run wires up behind the D-pillar panel from the stock light to one of these https://www.ebay.com (commissions earned) (intended for fake-Audi running light applications,) installed at the roof, just in front of the plastic trim around the hatch opening. This should provide plenty of light shining DOWN on the cargo area! Hopefully, I'll get to work on that this weekend. I'll post pics when I get around to it.
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- 2015 Soul Red 6 Sport Auto 2016 Accord EX Auto
That would work well. The route I am (hopefully) going:
Obtain another dome light identical to the 2nd row. Cut rear plastic panel above cargo area by hatch and install. Power this by the 12V outlet on the driver's side. Feed power to this as well from the existing cargo light and also the 2nd row dome light. This way the light can be turned on by 3rd row passengers, and it will also power on with hatch opening or front/side door opening. This is all dependent on how the dome light fits with the somewhat curved trim piece. I would also like to install some 10mm high output LEDs in the hatch to illuminate the ground behind the car while the hatch is open.
On other news, had my wife cycle to driver's side window today while on the phone with her to program/cycle the auto feature on her window. I have yet to drive the car after last nights extra sound deadening but she did ask if I had done anything to the car as it's a lot quieter up front now. If she noticed without provocation I would say it's a success.
sweatervestswag
Member
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- 2012 Mazda5 Grand Touring
Used the 5's Curt hitch and Thule bike rack to transport 3 bikes.
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- 2008 Mazda5 GT
What's the name of the Thule bike rack? I'd like to see how it attaches to the receiver.
Used the 5's Curt hitch and Thule bike rack to transport 3 bikes.
sweatervestswag
Member
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- 2012 Mazda5 Grand Touring
It's a Thule "Hitching Post" and it goes into the receiving end of the hitch and included a simple 17(?)mm bolt instead of a pin. For safety we like to use a series of cable locks. All together, putting all the gear on including the rack and bikes takes only 15 minutes or so.
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- 2008 Mazda5 GT
could you let me know the name of the rack so I can look at Thule's manual online? I'm not looking for how it attaches to the hitch itself but rather how Thule design/engineers their rack at the bend that attaches to the hitch - long story. From you pic, it seems to have what I'm looking for, a slight upwards bend. If you could post the name of the rack that would be great or if you can post a pic of just the bottom part of the "bike rack", not how it attaches to the hitch. BTW "Hitching Post" is commonly known as "anti-rattle" setup - I hope it has integrated locks also.
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