mazdaspeed/se-r
Member
- :
- Nissan, Sentra SE-R
mazdaspeed/se-r's 03 Mazda 6 Sport
Im back in the Mazda Scene since ive taken a break from the se-r due to mainly to financial reasons I picked up this 03 Mazda 6 Sport 5 speed from the dealer I work at. It was traded in and while the body was in great shape it ran like crap due to a massive vac leak from the pcv hose. This is the 2.3L with a 5 speed manual with 104k miles on it. Interior would be a 10 if it wernt for the saggy headliner. Ill be fixing that later with something pretty sweet in mind.
Here it was the way I got it.
If any of you know about the common issue with these pcv hoses on these 2.3L engines you will know how much of a PITA they are to replace. It requires removing the intake manifold to do the job and removing the intake manifold is relatively straight forward except about 2 bolts, one of which is an absolute b**** to get to and really requires some thinking to do it. Got it done in about 2 hours taking my time. Here is the culprit of why it ran so bad. It is a MAF based vehicle so any vac leak especially one this big is gonna make it run like crap.
Here is the car all washed up after fixing the pcv hose. The car came with MB Weapons 17X7.5 wheels and basically new Yokahama YK580 tires. The vehicle has absolutely zero leaks from anything. The drivetrain looks almost like its brand new and it runs and drives great besides one engine mount I need to replace thats causing some vibration.
My first order of business to clean the car up a bit was getting rid of the chrome. First the front grille which the honeycomb was also faded and looking pretty rough. My paint of choice is VHT High Temp Wrinkle Black Finish. Here is how the grille came out.
After seeing how well that came out I knew I wanted to do the chrome badges and wheels in the same paint. The thing about the wrinkle finish is it allows some of the original color under the paint to show through in the wrinkle. So I figured it would look pretty sweet. Also ordered some CF inserts for the rear badge. Here is how the wheels and badges came out.
My one other thing I needed to take care of was the lack of airflow from the vents. I knew the cabin filter had to be clogged but geeze....what I found was more than clogged. I believe this is probably the original cabin filter that came with the vehicle. It was that bad.
Its like an icy hurricane inside the car now. Overall the car drives great, nice and smooth and gets great gas mileage.
My plans for it are mainly cosmetic just to clean it up some more and make it a really nice looking daily driver. I want to lower it on some Tein S-techs which are a progressive rate spring that keep the ride comfortable yet increase the handling and drop the car 1.7" in the front and 1.5" in the rear. Perfect for what Im looking for.
I am gonna get some black housing oem style/fit fog light kit that come with the full wiring to tap into the front relay box and factory switch to plug into the existing harness. I also want to get the black housing LED tail lights and dark housing MS6 headlights to cap off the exterior look. I also plan to change the mufflers out to something a little more stealthy and give it a bit more rumble.
My next thing with the interior is to fix the headliner. For that I think im gonna do the 3M CF vinyl wrap and do the headliner, a pillars, b pillars and c pillars in that wrap. The 3M cf wrap is by far the best and closest look to CF out of any of the wraps Ive seen. We had a customer car come in the other day with it on their hood and at first glance you cant tell its not real CF. lol. I think it will look pretty unique and definitely be better than a saggy headliner. In the car the interior is all black with some silver on the center console but they did the pillars and headliner in white. WTF! lol So time to darken it up and make it look good.
Im back in the Mazda Scene since ive taken a break from the se-r due to mainly to financial reasons I picked up this 03 Mazda 6 Sport 5 speed from the dealer I work at. It was traded in and while the body was in great shape it ran like crap due to a massive vac leak from the pcv hose. This is the 2.3L with a 5 speed manual with 104k miles on it. Interior would be a 10 if it wernt for the saggy headliner. Ill be fixing that later with something pretty sweet in mind.
Here it was the way I got it.
If any of you know about the common issue with these pcv hoses on these 2.3L engines you will know how much of a PITA they are to replace. It requires removing the intake manifold to do the job and removing the intake manifold is relatively straight forward except about 2 bolts, one of which is an absolute b**** to get to and really requires some thinking to do it. Got it done in about 2 hours taking my time. Here is the culprit of why it ran so bad. It is a MAF based vehicle so any vac leak especially one this big is gonna make it run like crap.
Here is the car all washed up after fixing the pcv hose. The car came with MB Weapons 17X7.5 wheels and basically new Yokahama YK580 tires. The vehicle has absolutely zero leaks from anything. The drivetrain looks almost like its brand new and it runs and drives great besides one engine mount I need to replace thats causing some vibration.
My first order of business to clean the car up a bit was getting rid of the chrome. First the front grille which the honeycomb was also faded and looking pretty rough. My paint of choice is VHT High Temp Wrinkle Black Finish. Here is how the grille came out.
After seeing how well that came out I knew I wanted to do the chrome badges and wheels in the same paint. The thing about the wrinkle finish is it allows some of the original color under the paint to show through in the wrinkle. So I figured it would look pretty sweet. Also ordered some CF inserts for the rear badge. Here is how the wheels and badges came out.
My one other thing I needed to take care of was the lack of airflow from the vents. I knew the cabin filter had to be clogged but geeze....what I found was more than clogged. I believe this is probably the original cabin filter that came with the vehicle. It was that bad.
Its like an icy hurricane inside the car now. Overall the car drives great, nice and smooth and gets great gas mileage.
My plans for it are mainly cosmetic just to clean it up some more and make it a really nice looking daily driver. I want to lower it on some Tein S-techs which are a progressive rate spring that keep the ride comfortable yet increase the handling and drop the car 1.7" in the front and 1.5" in the rear. Perfect for what Im looking for.
I am gonna get some black housing oem style/fit fog light kit that come with the full wiring to tap into the front relay box and factory switch to plug into the existing harness. I also want to get the black housing LED tail lights and dark housing MS6 headlights to cap off the exterior look. I also plan to change the mufflers out to something a little more stealthy and give it a bit more rumble.
My next thing with the interior is to fix the headliner. For that I think im gonna do the 3M CF vinyl wrap and do the headliner, a pillars, b pillars and c pillars in that wrap. The 3M cf wrap is by far the best and closest look to CF out of any of the wraps Ive seen. We had a customer car come in the other day with it on their hood and at first glance you cant tell its not real CF. lol. I think it will look pretty unique and definitely be better than a saggy headliner. In the car the interior is all black with some silver on the center console but they did the pillars and headliner in white. WTF! lol So time to darken it up and make it look good.
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