Recent content by DougNuts

Your mechanic needs to be more liberal with the brake quiet in any spot that the pad touches the caliper.

Nice!

It's about time for a drain and fill, yes. I do a drain and fill every 15-20k miles, using only Mazda fluid. Every single time, the car has shifted better afterwards, even if I think the fluid looks OK. When I bought my Mazda5, with 47k miles, the fluid looked grey. Now it usually looks like...

I continue to drain the pan (3 quarts) and refill every 15-20k miles, using only Mazda MV (M5) fluid. I didn't even think it was necessary this last time, but I was surprised when the shift were slightly smoother afterwards.

Well done!!

(For those who didn't read the above HID planet link) Turned out to be that the bulbs were not properly seated. After looking at the pictures, that makes sense.

Just look up youtube "how to" videos, that helped me a lot the first time. All you have to do is start at the back of the console and move towards the radio. You'll also need to remove the knee panels on either side of the center console. Good luck!

After a few hours with the battery disconnected, it works fine now. We'll see how it does, I'm still interested to hear opinions.

Other than it being hot and humid today, I don't know what could cause this. Our 1.5 year old Pioneer radio stopped working properly the fourth time we drove the car today. It turns on, but nothing works except we can change between source. Now, the weird part is that when we turn the car...

I installed the Corksport rear sway bar for the Mazda3 and absolutely love it. I had to set it at the stiffest setting because the softer settings had the end links at an angle and touching the lower control arm. The only comment from my wife so far is "it's fine", but she doesn't know what I...

What size are those tires?

How about some solid Mazda3/5 steering rack bushings? While trying to find the source of my bump steer and pulling on a crowned road issue, I found that the steering rack bushings deflect quite a bit. I assume that a couple small pieces of aluminum to replace the rubber is all it would take to...

Upping the tires to 36psi helped with the front bump steer and pulling on crowned roads. However, that's a little too much pressure for the rear, I'll probably take them back down to 34psi. Today I ordered the Corksport rear sway bar, I think this will help reduce spinning the inside front...

I haven't rotated because the ones on the back already got noisy from spending too much time on the front. That's the price we pay for having a mini-van that handles this good; even with good rotating habits, they'll still cup the tires after 30-35K miles of use. We haven't had any vibrating...

I believe you are likely on to the issue. I added a few pounds of pressure to the front tires and a lot of the bad behavior went away, but not all. This has me wondering if my pressure gauges were reading accurately, so last night I ordered a Longacre gauge from Amazon. Our current tires are...