What did you do to your Mazda2 today?

[eyeballs]

^ lookin' good! I wanted to do that but instead I spent entirely too long trying to bleed my brakes with the mityvac bleeder kit (the $30 one at HF). No matter what I did I kept seeing a ton of air coming out of the bleed screw. I finally (after multiple hours) got Katie to come out so I could check with the standard method (foot on brake pedal) and sure enough, no air and all was fine! So the cheap mityvac kit does technically work, but there's no way to know for sure without checking another way.

Did you install the break lines? Did you notice any difference?

Finally did, and noticed no difference. I wonder if you still had a little bit of air in the lines when you swapped the stockers back in.

 

[CbusBspec]

new wheels!

 

[DanR]

Eyeballs sorry to hear that. I am pretty anal about bleeding brakes. I do it before every track day. The two things I noticed was a more immediate response when pressing the pedal and greater braking force with a given pedal pressure. My friend who drove the car with stock pads and SS lines thought he was driving the car with the carbotech pads.

 

[DanR]

I attached a picture of the Cobra Imola Pro seats I removed from the 2. Let me know if anybody has any interest.

 

[eyeballs]

Eyeballs sorry to hear that. I am pretty anal about bleeding brakes. I do it before every track day. The two things I noticed was a more immediate response when pressing the pedal and greater braking force with a given pedal pressure. My friend who drove the car with stock pads and SS lines thought he was driving the car with the carbotech pads.

Well the stock pads feel really good, so that doesn't surprise me. And when I installed the stoptech pads, it felt even better. I'm not disappointed, I actually didn't expect any improvement since the brakes already felt amazing. I just like the idea of having brake lines that are more resistant to damage.

 

[DrWebster]

Got the front pads and rotors replaced on Aoi yesterday. I was going to do it myself -- I had even bought the parts already -- but then it got pretty cold here. Out of curiosity I called the dealer to see what they'd charge, and to my surprise they only wanted an hour's labor ($100). The pads had about 40-50% of their material left, but the rotors were starting to get warped (which apparently is typical around the 50k mark).

 

[daedalus_zero]

Drove mine for the first time in a week and a half. It's been sitting in the garage while we were on holiday vacation, for which the Touring served driving duty. 2700 miles from FL to PA and back; not a peep. Even with 60k miles on the clock, it runs like new. Badly needs a bath, though.

I missed my car, however, and it missed being driven. The four flat spotted tires from sitting made that obvious. A quick jaunt around town solved that, no problem. It's good to be home.

 

[eyeballs]

Had time for a mountain run during my lunch break (thurs), and came across a half-dozen m3's and m4's in a group doing the same. So naturally I gave chase and I was surprised that I could keep up with my overinflated 185mm all-seasons on. This bilstein/CS setup is fanastic, though the car desparately needs more rubber now.

 

[flatlander937]

Did an oil change yesterday with PP 0W20 and a Fram TG7317(larger than the TG6607 that is specified).

I cut open the old filter(a Purolator PureOne PL14612) due to many reports that they have been reading and not filtering properly. I was relieved to find no tears and everything was good after ~5100mi of use.

Full details and more pics here:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/3965689/Purolator_PL14612_-_5154mi_-_C

 

[jasyatz]

Fixed my f******* seat noise! Peace level has been reached. Both noises coming from things so simple. Not sure how Mazda overlooked them.

1) creak from seat bottom. The inner seat rail is rubbing on the seat belt buckle attachment bolt. You can get to the bolt by raising the seat all the way up if you want to just replace the washer, but I removed the seat and then recessed the lower seat pan tin when the bolt rubbed. You "can" just use a thicker flat washer to space the bolt out. Leave the wavy washers there. It still allows proper (and legal) bolt penetration in the rail for safety, and also fixes the noise.

2) creak/squeak from seat back. The metal retaining cage in the seat back has metal to metal contact with the seat frame at its attachment points. Unzip the left side of the seat cover and unclip the bottom of the cover. Put pressure on the cage to verify the noise. Insert white grease In the frame sleeves where the cage slots in. You do not have to remove the cage, just squirt some in.

 

[BigBlueDart]

Installed my DDM Works rear torsion bar. It's longer and thicker than the Corksport bar. Requires drilling out two holes to fit the bolts through, too. Haven't had a chance to test it on any twisty roads, yet.

 

[DrWebster]

1) creak from seat bottom. The inner seat rail is rubbing on the seat belt buckle attachment bolt. You can get to the bolt by raising the seat all the way up if you want to just replace the washer, but I removed the seat and then recessed the lower seat pan tin when the bolt rubbed. You "can" just use a thicker flat washer to space the bolt out. Leave the wavy washers there. It still allows proper (and legal) bolt penetration in the rail for safety, and also fixes the noise.

Funny, that was a common problem with the 1st-gen Mazda3's too. The spring washer would crush down over time and the buckle would get loose, then start making noise.

 

[eyeballs]

My front springs finally stopped creaking! They just needed to have some fun I guess, as I don't think I've heard it since the mountain run on thurs.

 

[utmorpheus]

Replaced the stock Crapohamas with 4 Blizzak WS80 winter tires and reset back to stock alignment. Good thing too since Buffalo is getting its first measurable snowfall of the season over the next 5 days.

Speaking of, anyone looking for 4 stock Yoko S34 tires with about 4-5k on them hmu. Local pickup only.

 

[Co.CarSpotter]

WS80s makes the 2 look like a rally car!

 

[eyeballs]

Blew out the rear speakers the other day. I had the fader set to the rear so I wouldn't have to listen to my kids' music and then forgot about it. Bought some 6.5" polk db's this morning that were on sale at crutchfield. I actually liked the stock speakers, but figure these shouldn't blow out as easily.

 

[Tzfardaya]

Didn't do anything too exciting, gave my 2 a winter bath last night. Oil change tonight.

Will look at Mount points to try and fabricate a belly pan for it.

Oh, and I had to bump start the car in reverse last night too... Turned the car off at the bath house, waited for the bay to empty, had the radio playing, lights on, and was fiddling with an obd2 BT adapter connection to my phone... Didn't think it was that long, but there wasn't enough juice to start the car when the bay cleared.... Fortunately, I was a slight incline... Enough to bump start... Zipped off, drove around the block in low gear to keep the rpm up and alternator spinning for a quick charge before I ducked in for the cars bath.
Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[Zach@DDMWorks]

Productive weekend on getting the car ready for the first track day of the year. I got the oil changed, pulled the lower control arms to change the bushings, re aligned the car, bled the brakes, and pulled the lower lip off. The lip was hanging down from a couple of months ago where I hit a tire tread while changing lanes in the middle of the night.

Old

New

Zach

 

[Co.CarSpotter]

Today I installed some DDM Shifter Bushings. I have to say they don't really feel that different when I shift gears puttering around town, but when I'm driving in the mountains and hooning around a bit it is much more noticeable and immediately feels sportier! It also took me about 15 minutes to install.

 

[eyeballs]

Drove about 30 miles of dirt roads slightly rougher than this car was intended for, especially lowered with the bilstein kit. Skid plate came in handy. Only minor damage noticed so far to the front bumper than can be easily touched up. On the upside... it gave me a good excuse to wash the car and I had an awesome day of kayaking in a new place.