Mazda5 6MT - new to me. Intro and a few questions

[Fuzzel]

Hi all,
Picked up a 2012 Mazda5, 6MT 2 weeks ago for $2500. 155k miles. Pretty much rust free (I'm in the PNW).
Has a few bumps and bruises and was an insurance write off. Runs and drives nice, not even suspension work needed. Lovely!
Went through Inspection on Monday and it's on the road now. (had a 2006 5spd Mazda5 a few years back, generally familiar with the concept of the car).

About to do fluids, spark plugs, a few trim pieces today.
Already collecting some mods and parts info.

Working on figuring out ...

• The steering is annoyingly light (in ALL situations). Pretty much zero resistance. Is this normal?
  The PS pump was replaced by previous owner, possibly related to the pass. side accident it had, leading to the insurance write off.
  Replacement has JY writings on it. Is there an adjustment or sensor to tweak?
• I'd love to add the OEM hatch spoiler. Some holes would need to be drilled. Are hatches generally prepped underneath the outer metal to accept a spoiler?
  (reinforcements, extra holes, whatnot)
• Brake pedal feeling is subjective but are these usually pretty squishy on the CW gen.? Prev. owner changes pads but they feel like I should try to bleed them.
• My butt HATES the driver seat. The reinforced seam-lines )or whatever lies beneath) on the bottom are super annoying. I read Mazdaspeed3 seats / cushions can be swapped in. Are there any other good choices? I wasn't able to find much.
  Has anyone tried to put a Planted(TM) base for a Mazda3 in and then raise an afterwmarked chair, mounted on top?
• Fog lights: I'll check today if these are pre-wired. Looks like I need a stalk; is that just plug and play? If not pre-wired, what do I have to do?
• I want to take out the rear seat bench and build a deck that can be extended forward. Either with hinges that can fold partitions forward when taking out the 2nd row chairs, or can be added in a modular fashion per 2nd row seat. Ideally I wand a pretty much even floor w/o chairs but lower (and not haul those seats everywhere I go).
• A bit more noise from the engine would be nice, either via intake or exhaust or both.
• Shopping for a front bottom splash pan and sides...

Cheers & TIA for any hints, tips and welcomes!

 

[Fuzzel]

Picked up a pair of Mazdaspeed3 2nd gen front seats and got carried away a bit.

Harness for the airbag is the same but harness and el. components in the bottom are different. I'll end up swapping over the additional rail-profiles that elevates the seat and then can also bolt on the 'feet' from the original seat to them. With the additional rail-profiles swapped, I then also have all the bits to use the original harness.

Mostly plug n play so far, the rail-profiles have 4 screws each, two holes line up, two holes I had to elongate a little in the rails of the Mazdaspeed seats to fit said profiles.

I'll post a few more pictures when done with the passenger seat.
Wand to deal with some surface rust, cosmetics before putting it back together.

 

[Fuzzel]

Both sets of occupancy sensors are present. I cannot easily take out the ones from the MS3 seat without fabricating some bracket as they connect structural metal parts together.

Primered and painted the MS3 pan after removing rust. Mazda5 harness in place now.

I'll do a test fit in daylight tomorrow before continuing with this...

 

[dlarkin_dc]

Wow! That's a lot of great detailed work!

 

[Fuzzel]

Installed.
The driver side rails of the Mazda5 were quite a bit different.
I ended up drilling open the weld-rivets(?) in the feet of the original seat and transferred them toi the MS3 seat. I swapped sides on the front feet to make the spacing wider (they now face outward instead of inward. From there I had to only spread the holes side to side by ~1/4in manually during installation, which was easy to do.
Most of the original plastic caps for the feet fit, some I need to dremel a bit, either because of the foot-swap or they collide with the plastic trim of the MS3 seats.
No airbag warning light, yay.
(The driver side MS3 seat had no rust issues, I did not paint anything there)

Feel:
Well, it makes a difference in corners but not as much as you'd think. My butt is a lot happier as it's not feeling the bottom reinforced seams of the original seat anymore.
I think the 1st gen MS3 seats offer more support than these 2nd gen ones?!

 

[Fuzzel]

Collecting some parts to replace the stereo. Ordered two of these OEM JDM double din plates (C513-55231).
Have not yet decided on a radio though.

 

[Morf]

Nice! I have a 2014 Sport w MT - bought it in 2016 with 22K and only has 77K now. I added leather and seat heaters so I can't really comment on the old fabric seats. I also added an Alpine head unit with a low power Alpine amp (behind the glovebox) and a small Kenwood subwoofer under the passenger seat, with Kicker speakers and crossovers. (My first attempt was a JVC head unit but it didn't last long.)
I too am curious about fog lights - I was going to try adding them long ago but I think you have to drop the front bumper to install them (though others have said that they are prewired at least). I'd be interested in how you do it if you decide to take the plunge.

 

[Fuzzel]

@Morf , nice, good to know there's room behind the glovebox! I'll keep that in mind.

My 2012 was pre-wired for foglights - plug & play installation in terms of cabling.
Yea, the original Mazda installation manual shows dropping the whole front bumper. Completely unnecessary! Just jack up front, or drive onto ramps / lift and remove the plastic splash guard under the engine and you're set.
2014 MT?! That's not a US market car. Where are you from?
I would have went for the Skyactive 2.0 with MT but 2012 2.5l was the only year and config in the US with MT.