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These are the two tires I’d consider. I’ve never bought Continentals but the Pro and ExtremeContacts are highly regarded. We get occasional snow on our little Alabama mountain, so the CC2 three peak rating won me over on our RAV4. We’d be ready for a roadtrip to the Gatlinburg or something to...

Never thought a fairly common tip would be that controversial but there’s always one in the bunch. Pretty hard to crossthread a spark plug on the end of a hose is all I’m saying. Good risk mitigation for first timers asking how difficult it is to replace spark plugs. Let’s remember who we are...

Take it or leave it, I found it useful for something I haven’t had to do more than once every 5-10 years. Granted it’ll be more often now with the 2.5T, and I think the spark plugs aren’t seated nearly as far down a tunnel of sorts compared to my previous vehicles.

It’s funny you mention that. The hose is what I used to try and get a feel for it threading correctly vs blindly turning a ratchet. On my previous vehicles, the spark plug was always slightly too far down in its recess to turn comfortably with my fingers. The spare fuel line I used was my only...

Only other tip I can provide is to use a 12-18” bit of spare hose or fuel line that fits on the spark plug stem. Use it to help get the spark plugs started in the head. When I was a teen I cross-threaded a new spark plug when I was changing them in my 97 Nissan pickup. Needed my grandfather to...

Take your time and you’ll get it. Take pictures of where you’re removing those plastic pop rivets and such. Trickiest part to removing the front bumper to me is carefully pulling the exterior trim around the wheel well out. Trim removal tool helps. Don’t need to remove all of the wheel well...

Reminder that Aisin also offers an FZ equivalent transmission fluid. $8 a quart at Rock Auto. Aisin claims it’s synthetic (if that’s important to you anyway). Mazda OEM vs aftermarket was down to price for me, not necessarily conventional vs synthetic.

I wonder if deliveries from Partsouq (Dubai) are getting additional tax/duties next month. Buying in bulk for my Turbo wasn’t too bad early last year but not sure if thatll hold true soon.

Those metal rivets need to be drilled out. I wouldn’t do that though. Id remove the whole bumper from the car to replace the horn. Won’t need to remove the metal rivets if you do it that way. You need a rivet gun to redo them, the OEM part is crazy expensive for some reason (I redid them with...

I convert these cards to Amazon credit for this reason. They usually have a short expiration date too but worth it if I don’t forget to use it.

I took a look in my engine bay this morning, but I’m still skeptical. I don’t think all of the screws will be exposed. I think you can get one screw out but I think another screw is covered by another piece of trim attached to the car. That’s what makes me think the bumper still has to come off...

You might be right, I honestly can’t remember when I was replacing my grill when it got shattered by a giant rock. The top trim comes off easy enough, but you’ll probably need a right angle screw driver to go after the screws on the rear of the accent.

I can confirm my 23 Turbo is actually a black piece painted red from the factory. I found a Reddit post where a user took the vinyl wrap and just shoved it into the nooks and crannies with a non marring tool. https://www.reddit.com/r/CX5/s/wJcX5HRFVf

Guessing tow capacity there is 3500 lb rating

Totally not worth the effort if I remember correctly. If you can’t see the screws holding it to the grill from the backside (via the engine compartment), you have to remove the whole GD bumper from the front of the car.

My 21 RAV4 Hybrid is pretty bad about it. Every couple of weeks the infotainment freezes, goes dark, and reboots. I haven’t gotten around to trying a firmware update but this reminds me to look it up and get it on the to-do list.

I did the lemon law process in Florida over a decade ago and it sucked. You'll have to look up the laws for your state to see what you have to do. Generally, the manufacturer is allowed 3 fix attempts for a recurring issue during the first 2 years of ownership. Like you said, there is also a...

That’s a great question, I’d ask your service center first. As you suggested any out of pocket repairs right now would be at your risk. It may just be a free repair once the extended warranty is approved and in place.

No worries, best of luck! I figure the worst they do is say no, but reimbursing only a part is much cheaper than what most have paid at a dealership to fix 😄

It was pretty easy to submit the claim with the info on the postcard. I used the online portal and uploaded the pdf invoice from MazdaSwag, hit submit. $196 shipped last year for the K1Y3-61-1JZA display repair kit, it’s now running low $200s (if that’s the kit you need anyway). I’ll report back...