What have you done to your MS3 today?

Lets see. Last two days:

Wash, claybar, compounded bottom 1/3 of car, polished whole car, applied BlackFire Wet Diamond, applied AutoGlym SRP, applied AutoGlym EGP
Total: around 12 hours into this detail. I'm putting another coat of the BlackFire on top, but it's just too crappy outside right now.

RESULTS:





And oh yeah, my paint dries itself now!

Dayum......CLEAN!!

My 2007 Mazdaspeed 3 just hit 56K miles and I am going to replace front brake pads. I don't Autocross or do any racing, but my MS3 does have a reprogrammed ECU, relocated intercooler, and cold air induction. It is pumping out 300+ HP. Any suggestions on aftermarket pads...I was looking at Hawk and EBC. Also, are there any tricks to the remove and replace process? Thanks for your help.

Goalpath said:

My 2007 Mazdaspeed 3 just hit 56K miles and I am going to replace front brake pads. I don't Autocross or do any racing, but my MS3 does have a reprogrammed ECU, relocated intercooler, and cold air induction. It is pumping out 300+ HP. Any suggestions on aftermarket pads...I was looking at Hawk and EBC. Also, are there any tricks to the remove and replace process? Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

I'm at 71K and need a brake pad change too.

I'm planning on going with EBC Yellowstuff, I've heard really good things about them.

I use Hawk HP+ on my Miata which is my track/autocross/weekend driver and I really like those pads. I probably wouldn't put them on the MS3 because I don't think it's necessary on a DD. I'd consider the Hawk HPS though.

Might want to consider changing your rotors as well. New pads like new/turned rotors generally.

Here are some detailed how-to's: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/pr...speed3/step-step-brake-tech-our-mazdaspeed-3/
http://**********************/index.php?topic=91786.0

Goalpath said:

My 2007 Mazdaspeed 3 just hit 56K miles and I am going to replace front brake pads. I don't Autocross or do any racing, but my MS3 does have a reprogrammed ECU, relocated intercooler, and cold air induction. It is pumping out 300+ HP. Any suggestions on aftermarket pads...I was looking at Hawk and EBC. Also, are there any tricks to the remove and replace process? Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

I hope you are talking at the crank rather than at the wheels. Because a tune, intercooler and CAI do not give you 300 wheel horsepower... other than that, hawk pads are the way to go, oftentimes cheaper than the OEM replacements from a dealer!

Goalpath said:

My 2007 Mazdaspeed 3 just hit 56K miles and I am going to replace front brake pads. I don't Autocross or do any racing, but my MS3 does have a reprogrammed ECU, relocated intercooler, and cold air induction. It is pumping out 300+ HP. Any suggestions on aftermarket pads...I was looking at Hawk and EBC. Also, are there any tricks to the remove and replace process? Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

Pray this post doesn't make it to mazda$peedf0rums.0rg...

Already linking it over...lawl

I went with the EBC red stuff and theyve been great so far. EBC > Hawk IMO.

Washed her and put her to bed for two weeks as I head to Haiti. Sleep well my precious, cuz when I'm back your summer tires are going on and I'm gonna ride you hard and put you away wet.

flyingMS3 said:

Washed her and put her to bed for two weeks as I head to Haiti. Sleep well my precious, cuz when I'm back your summer tires are going on and I'm gonna ride you hard and put you away wet.

Click to expand...

Have an awesome trip and that last part was Epic!

My MS3 has 300 HP at the Front Wheels? Well, not exactly.

I understand you questioning my claim of 300 HP at front wheels and my claim was not exactly correct. It is actually 290HP. My MS3 has a Cold Air Box, FMIC, XEDE Computer, Pop off valve, and a hard motor mount. The work was done by Bell Engineering in San Antonio and the claimed horsepower was based on their dyno readings after they completed the upgrades and did the final tune.

it feels good to be honest

what have i done to my ms3 today?

that's kind of a loaded question right there. LONG STORY ALERT

whilst driving i guess god decided to be lucifer-enough to smite my tire. but not just smite, no, He found it necessary to lay down a chunk of concrete that rivaled the last 100 feet of summit at the top of mt everest.

essentially, it was unavoidable. there was no way to straddle, and i attempted to swerve last second. i was still able to hit it with the passenger tire, with a "slam" so bad it was like hitting a neighborhood speed bump at 50mph

i think the tpms light kicked it's spidey senses into high gear because i swear it lit before i hit the b****. at this point, aside from safely pulling into the nearest parking lot, i was worried about the wheel. i was assuring myself that i was in need of a new tire, but how was the wheel?

pulled into the lot and did this....



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

i know what you're thinking, a GOOD driver would have put the good rear wheel in the front, and the donut in the back. there was an NTB just up the road, so i made the executive decision to not do that

pulling out, however, was a different story. as i turned the steering wheel i heard very loud "clunks"

pulled into NTB, they had a goodyear eagle gt there for whatever reason so that took a matter of minutes, but when i went to inspect the suspension further i found bits of plastic just falling through the spring. i didn't have the slightest clue what they were from, but when i got my parents to come give me a ride i had my mother turn the wheel while i checked it out. the spring was moving freely around the strut...not good

so, AAA, do your stuff...



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

it took the collaborative efforts of my entire novice tool supply, my grossly underpowered air compressor, and more swings of a dead-blow hammer than public handshakes from a politician running for office to do this...



Uploaded with ImageShack.us



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

well...the top spring bearing is completely busted. in fact, i honestly cant belive the spring is still even compressed. it really looks like it could blow out any moment...



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

<sigh>

so...the plan is to see if mazda can hook me up with, i believe, just a new bearing. since i did and am doing 90% of the work, and don't have any way to compress the spring to remove it, i wonder if that could compute to only paying 10% of the entire process amount to have this done

when i had my gixxer and had a shock blown i took the whole fork assembly to the dealer to fix, but they charged me the same amount regardless of the labor i had already put in, which sucks

we shall see....it's gonna wait till monday anyway

here in NY they are covering s*** like that from this past winter, go take a pic of the pothole and your damage, see if the city/state/county will compensate you

It wasn't a pothole...it was really a chunk of concrete in the middle of the lane. The entire road is asphalt. So my thought is it fell off the back of some vehicle

Honestly it could have been worse. I could have NOT swerved and thus allowed it to go down the middle of the car. And that might have damaged everything from bumper to bumper and everything between. Probably would have busted the oil pan, exhaust components, trans, whatever

And the reason why it was unavoidable was due to multiple aspects of the event. For 1 I was unaware at the time of any possible vehicles around me, so lane change or extreme braking wasn't in my thought process, and 2 I was in disbelief that something that size was really in the middle of the lane. The only choice I had left was to try to go around it on the left as best I could without losing complete control. Just so happened I didn't avoid it by inches. The puncture on the tire was on the very outer tread

make sure you look over your control arms and strut tower for damage as well

sucks man

Sucks. Did you go back and remove the obstacle so someone else wouldn't hit it?

Sorry oakland....

8.5MS3 said:

make sure you look over your control arms and strut tower for damage as well

sucks man

Click to expand...

yea i've looked around and believe that nothing else is damaged. initially i thought the impact had also bent part of the strut/shock, but i think it was designed to have a flat spot on the wheel side of the unit, as diagrams seem to suggest.

i am, however, a little worried about the top strut plate (seat back, holds spring in) not being completely straight, although that also might be a design trait as well

lyonsroar said:

Sucks. Did you go back and remove the obstacle so someone else wouldn't hit it?

Click to expand...

either some one else did it, or the force from me hitting it sent it over towards the median, because when i backtracked and looked for it it was no longer in the middle of the lane. and after impact i didn't look in my rearview to see where it was. i was only concerned about getting over and out of the road safely, then finding a parking lot to go to


i looked up the part online and on the genuine mazda parts site it's saying the "bushing" is $45, but the site doesn't specify for the ms3. however, the diagram they are using is for the ms3, so i don't know. can't call up any dealer today to find out, and pepboys could not specify just the bushing when they were pricing it out for me. the only thing they found was the strut itself, and no info on what all comes with a new strut like hardware or that piece i need.

so i'll get with a dealer tomorrow, with part in-hand, and see what the deal is. i really have no way of compressing the spring unless i do some realllllll ghetto s*** to do it

^^^rent a spring compressor from autozone or any parts store