What have you done to your CX-9 today?

Yep! Somewhere in my build thread I have pictures of the brackets I 3D printed to hold the DD SSC1 in an SAE fog light pattern.

My wife has a hard time seeing at night or in adverse conditions and I hate being blinded by oncoming drivers so vehicle lighting has become a passion of mine. I want the brightest and most functional lights I can get while still adhering to the laws and not causing issues for other drivers. There’s a guy over on the TacomaWorld forum that is a vehicle lighting engineer and does independent tests of just about every aftermarket pod and light bar available (ignoring all the cheap Amazon specials) so whenever I am looking for a new type of light, I just hop over and read through his objective reviews. I have a drawer full of lights I’ve bought over the years that are going to go on my CX-9 in one place or another once I get this dang patio done 😆
That’s awesome. Alright. Thanks for the input. I’ll start doing some research. I like the idea of what you’ve done to your CX-9.
 
Oil and filter change yesterday. Spark plugs are up next.
 
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I made my own rear reflector lights. My idea came from, MGMGT16. Not as bright though. So I cut up the rear reflector and got a Jeep Wrangler side marker housing and also cut that one up. The reason I did that was so I’d be able to pick and choose what 194 bulb goes in there. I tried 921 bulbs but they were a hair too long. I also got a bulb socket for the jeep so everything matched up. I used silicone to seal everything up but now that I think of it I should’ve used JB Weld. If it comes apart one day that’s what I’ll do. For now, I’m leaving it. I haven’t mounted it back on the car yet but it looks promising! The bulbs in there right now aren’t bright but I have some brighter ones ordered coming in.
 
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I made my own rear reflector lights. My idea came from, MGMGT16. Not as bright though. So I cut up the rear reflector and got a Jeep Wrangler side marker housing and also cut that one up. The reason I did that was so I’d be able to pick and choose what 194 bulb goes in there. I tried 921 bulbs but they were a hair too long. I also got a bulb socket for the jeep so everything matched up. I used silicone to seal everything up but now that I think of it I should’ve used JB Weld. If it comes apart one day that’s what I’ll do. For now, I’m leaving it. I haven’t mounted it back on the car yet but it looks promising! The bulbs in there right now aren’t bright but I have some brighter ones ordered coming in.
Probably way cheaper and still gets the job done! What did you use to make the hole in the reflector? Looks way cleaner than mine. Judging by the hole saw in the picture, I would guess that was used
 
Probably way cheaper and still gets the job done! What did you use to make the hole in the reflector? Looks way cleaner than mine. Judging by the hole saw in the picture, I would guess that was used
Yes it was a 1 1/4 hole saw. I know for sure it isn’t as bright as yours!! I can’t wait to see what yours looks like when it’s done. I’ll just play around with some 194 LEDs for now. Seems like they’re bright enough for me now though with these new LEDs I picked up. Here it is on the car currently. I purchased a Curt trailer hitch harness and tapped into that. I didn’t want to really mess with the stock wires. Plus, I just wanted the lights to turn on when the parking lights turned on. Stock, when the parking lights are off and you step on the brakes the halo part of the tail lights turn on so I didn’t want the reflectors to turn on with the brakes. Anyway, here’s the outcome.
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Nice work!

Interesting that your halos light up as the brake lights, I wish mine did that. Looks much nicer. On the 2018 and earlier, there's a small LED cluster near the outer edge of the halo that lights up instead. I had no idea they changed it lol
 
Yes it was a 1 1/4 hole saw. I know for sure it isn’t as bright as yours!! I can’t wait to see what yours looks like when it’s done. I’ll just play around with some 194 LEDs for now. Seems like they’re bright enough for me now though with these new LEDs I picked up. Here it is on the car currently. I purchased a Curt trailer hitch harness and tapped into that. I didn’t want to really mess with the stock wires. Plus, I just wanted the lights to turn on when the parking lights turned on. Stock, when the parking lights are off and you step on the brakes the halo part of the tail lights turn on so I didn’t want the reflectors to turn on with the brakes. Anyway, here’s the outcome. View attachment 310875View attachment 310876View attachment 310877View attachment 310878View attachment 310894
That 1 1/4 hole saw was a much better idea than what I did!

Just so I understand, there is a parking brake wire on the Curt harness that you tapped? So these are on whenever you’re driving then? I went with the lower powered Diode Dynamics lights but I don’t think I’d be able to get away with running them all the time 😂
 
Nice work!

Interesting that your halos light up as the brake lights, I wish mine did that. Looks much nicer. On the 2018 and earlier, there's a small LED cluster near the outer edge of the halo that lights up instead. I had no idea they changed it lol
Looks like they have the little cluster on the taillights still so it’s interesting that Mazda chose to rewire them
 
there are really nice shots i get happy when i see how you take care of your cars. I have had a nano coating done for my car
 
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Ugh.. tried to change the spark plugs yesterday. Turns out the spark plug socket I bought was a piece of junk. The rubber insert doesn't "grab" the spark plug well, so I had to be really careful pulling the old plug out and putting the new one in. On top of that, the insert was really loose, and after installing the second plug, the insert fell out of the socket while it was coming off of the plug 🤬 I had to remove the spark plug to get the insert out. By that time it was starting to get dark, and I didn't want to have to deal with pulling old spark plugs out without the rubber insert in the socket, so I just bolted everything back up. I'll do the remaining plugs once I can find a half-decent spark plug socket.
 
Ugh.. tried to change the spark plugs yesterday. Turns out the spark plug socket I bought was a piece of junk. The rubber insert doesn't "grab" the spark plug well, so I had to be really careful pulling the old plug out and putting the new one in. On top of that, the insert was really loose, and after installing the second plug, the insert fell out of the socket while it was coming off of the plug 🤬 I had to remove the spark plug to get the insert out. By that time it was starting to get dark, and I didn't want to have to deal with pulling old spark plugs out without the rubber insert in the socket, so I just bolted everything back up. I'll do the remaining plugs once I can find a half-decent spark plug socket.
That sucks. This is the one I used earlier this year. Was very easy and no complaints about losing a spark plug
 
Nice work!

Interesting that your halos light up as the brake lights, I wish mine did that. Looks much nicer. On the 2018 and earlier, there's a small LED cluster near the outer edge of the halo that lights up instead. I had no idea they changed it lol
Yeah, I thought that’s how they all were. I guess they changed some things on the later model years

That 1 1/4 hole saw was a much better idea than what I did!

Just so I understand, there is a parking brake wire on the Curt harness that you tapped? So these are on whenever you’re driving then? I went with the lower powered Diode Dynamics lights but I don’t think I’d be able to get away with running them all the time 😂

On the wiring harness there is a ground, parking light, left signal and right signal wire. I tapped into the parking lights and ground. White and brown, just in case you get the same harness. White being negative/ground. So the rear reflectors are only on when the parking lights are on. During the day it looks like how it would’ve stock unless the headlights are turned on.
 
Finally got around to replacing the remaining two spark plugs after the new socket came in the mail yesterday. This style of spark plug socket with the spring retainers worked SO much better, thanks @MGMGT16. I was able to get the other two plugs done in less than 10 mins, very easy.

Also swapped the CS intake back on. I missed the excessive noise :giggle:

Next is wiring up and mounting the JB4..
 
Finally got around to replacing the remaining two spark plugs after the new socket came in the mail yesterday. This style of spark plug socket with the spring retainers worked SO much better, thanks @MGMGT16. I was able to get the other two plugs done in less than 10 mins, very easy.

Also swapped the CS intake back on. I missed the excessive noise :giggle:

Next is wiring up and mounting the JB4..
So its my understanding with previous jb4 experience, that this will be able to bypass all of the "relearned" settings inside the cpu?
 
So its my understanding with previous jb4 experience, that this will be able to bypass all of the "relearned" settings inside the cpu?

This is cut and pasted from the JB4 product page:

The JB4 is a plug & play tune available for turbocharged vehicles. The JB4 tuner installs between your car's sensors and its DME/ECU (computer) and manipulates vehicle performance through these connections making your vehicle much faster.

So it seems that it doesn't bypass the settings. I think it just modifies the signals from/to the ECU to get the engine to perform better? Not sure exactly.
 
This is cut and pasted from the JB4 product page:

The JB4 is a plug & play tune available for turbocharged vehicles. The JB4 tuner installs between your car's sensors and its DME/ECU (computer) and manipulates vehicle performance through these connections making your vehicle much faster.

So it seems that it doesn't bypass the settings. I think it just modifies the signals from/to the ECU to get the engine to perform better? Not sure exactly.
Right the issue I have heard about with other tuners is as the cpu sees the changes to air intake and exhaust it tries to readapt for efficiency.
 
Right the issue I have heard about with other tuners is as the cpu sees the changes to air intake and exhaust it tries to readapt for efficiency.

This doesn't seem to be the case for the JB4, according to some of the user reviews posted on their page. It doesn't seem to be an issue others are complaining about on this or the N54 forums either.
 
Well, attempted to install the JB4 yesterday. Got it all mounted up, but got stuck trying to disconnect the MAP sensor on the front intercooler. The instructions call for removing the bumper, but I was hoping to avoid doing that as I didn't want to crack it (there's a bumper crack TSB and my car is no longer covered under the basic warranty). Instead I tried to go through the small space in the lower grill. I can see and reach the sensor, but no matter what I tried, I couldn't get it unplugged. There isn't enough space to get anything except my hand in there, and I can't see how the sensor comes out, so I gave up for now. But here's a pic of how I have it mounted.

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A note - For the CX-9, the MAP connection wire could benefit from being an extra 12-18 inches longer for a cleaner install. I wanted to run the wire underneath the intake piping and across the engine, ziptying the wire harness to the existing engine harness under the engine cover. But if I do it that way, the MAP sensor wire is too short to reach the connector. Instead, I have to run the wire between the front of the engine and the fan, and it kind of just hangs there and looks sloppy. Maybe I'll look at different mounting places for the box.
 
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