New to the Forum, check out my progress so far!

[TheMZ5wagon]

Hello everyone,
New to the mazda5 scene.
I'm a bit of an oldtimer in the car scene been modding cars for 15+ years now.
I also own a few other modded cars at the moment between me and wife were are up to 6 in total. Newer bmw f30, newer caddy ats4, two 2nd gen turbo eclipse spyders, a honda odyssey and now my new daily mazda 5
Story on the mazda 5 is back in 2009ish I had a buddy who's naighbour had an 08 5speed lowered on 17s with tints. I dunno, for some reason I loved it specially for practically wise!
So 11 years later and here I am with an 07 5speed that I scooped up for $1200.

As the story goes with every crazy car guy it hasn't taken long for me to mod it and make it my own lol.
I got it with tinted tail lights, tinted windows, lowering springs on factory suspension and blacked out headlights inside.

Bought this 5 back in April this year and have done a few things so far.
-all maintenance done (brakes, plugs, air filter, trans fluid, brake fluid, coolent and oil)
-custom 2.5 id exhaust from cat back
-custom fitted dual exhaust from a 2010 mazdaspeed 3
-17x10 wheels on 18offset painted chrome red
-brand new struts and shocks all around on 1/2" rubber coil spacers to keep from blowing the new shocks on the lowering springs
-brand new tie rods
-brand new end links
-brand new front control arms
-3 deg timing mod
-custom factory air box with intake at foglight
-hella style horns

What I am currently working on rite now as I drive the bmw before the snow flys:
-oil catch can mod
-all rust fixed
-custom fogs yellow tinted led
-custom fog light air intake inlet
-custom fender flares to compensate the poking wheels
-All interior lights to red led including lcd hvac/clock screen
-remove all silver trim including hvac dials to gloss black
-full sql stereo build. Two 8" subs in custom box running 1600rms. Two 8" subs in each door with 6 drivers up on dash. All powerd off 4 amps. I'm a huge audio guy lol

Future plans during this winter:
- heated seat mod or retrofit if I can
-few extra usb charging plugs inside
-some custom interior lighting
-demon eyes in the headlights
-headlights eye lids
-custom front splitter
-custom rear splitter
-custom side skirt splitters
-new exhaust tips
-bigger/longer rear spoiler
-carbon fiber wrapped roof and spoiler

Final plans:
-put together a turbo setup and tune to make 200whp+ reliable daily

So hopefully I will be talking to some of you in the near future with this build and I'm sure I'll need some help. The forum has been very useful to me so far.

I leave this off with a few pics ofhow I got it to the current setup and I'll update this as I go.

 

[Antoine]

You did start a thread already, awesome...Great progress so far and I'm looking forward to more!

 

[TheMZ5wagon]

Figured I'd add some new updates on the build.
So far Iv mainly taken more apart, interior pretty much gutted and finished my instrumental cluster mod. I wasn't able to do the 08+ cluster without having it reprogrammed to my keys. So I got two 08 clusters from the junk yard and stole/unsoldered all the red and white LEDs of them. Also took apart an old 1157 red led bulb for some bigger brighter LEDs.
Used the blacked out cluster face overlay along with the tinted plastic shade from the 08 as well.
Sanded the orange off all the needles in order to make them lite up white.
After soldering all the LEDs in place the hard part really was making the cluster light up with key in order to see the cluster durning the day. So after alot of testing and going thru wiring diagrams I was manged to figure it all out.

Here are some pics of the assembly

I'll have pics of the finished product tomorrow and in the car all lit up.

And here is what the 5 looks like now.
Ended up taking the carpet out in order to run all the stereo wiring along side the factory harness's as there is tons of it to hide.
Once I had the carpet up I noticed a bunch of surface rust so while I got it up I'll address that as well. Started grinding some away already. Tomorrow I'll have it all done and rust free.

 

[Antoine]

Great to see progress here but sorry to see that rust!

 

[TheMZ5wagon]

Thanks bro! And no worries here about the rust as I already have it all fixed up
Just waiting on the paint to dry now
Rust be gone! Lol

 

[teetee1]

Have you checked the three engine mounts? I am not into car mod but I have heard this generation Mazda 5 and the equivalent Mazda 3's engine mounts go bad like clockwork.

 

[TheMZ5wagon]

Yup I have. My two top ones are fine but my bottom tranny mount could use replacing soon. I'm probably gonna order two new factory top ones from my supplier and an upgraded one for the bottom tranny mount and just do it all at once.

 

[Bigpat27]

Welp I’m jealous

 

[TheMZ5wagon]

Welp I’m jealous

I'll take that as a complement lol. Thanks bro

 

[teetee1]

May I know which portion of the car had rust? I have a 2015 model and think of rustproofing it myself before it starts to be a problem. Was the before and after photos showing the front driver's doorjam?

 

[TheMZ5wagon]

May I know which portion of the car had rust? I have a 2015 model and think of rustproofing it myself before it starts to be a problem. Was the before and after photos showing the front driver's doorjam?

Yup mostly the driver and passenger side kick panel area. Also where the seat bolts are for both front and middle seats. If you pull up your carpet there are tons of holes to get into areas with some rust proofing. Also where the clips were for the plastic along the bottom door frame were rusty too. Also good holes for rustproofing there

 

[TheMZ5wagon]

Some more updates on the build.
Got all my stereo wiring in finally. Now time to add my amps put all the interior back together and build the sub box.

I decided after pulling the carpet up and finding a cavity under each front seat that was filled with styrofoam I'd mount both my highs amps there and the sub amp in the back cubby where the jack goes. I cut the styrofoam out just where it was filling the cavity under the front seats and left it filling the cavity that's in front of the middle seats as that where you would step in and set your feet when sitting in the middle row so that had to stay.

So I went with dual 4ga ofc power wires coming in. One for the highs amps on a fuse distribution block and the other straight to the back to power up the sub amp.

I decided I didn't want to drill/screw the amps to the floor so I made a lexan piece that I urethaned to the floor that way I can screw the amps to the lexan instead.

Here is the fuse box that will be under the center arm Consol. Also set it up so that if I need to replace a fuse I can just lift the cupholders up and out in order to do so

And here is some of the wiring. Note everything was ran along side of pre existing factory wiring so I keeps a pure stealth and OEM look

 

[Silentnoise713]

Awesome build thread and great pics.

Any thoughts on suspension? I have a set of yellowspeed coilovers that I think will fit you very well. Also have both MS3 Front and Rear (w/bracket and end links ) Sway Bars. Been in storage too long, need gone.

Mazda5 YellowSpeed Dynamic Pro Sport (DPS) Coilover Review

This post is for you loosenut. Appreciate all your helpful insights/contributions and since you are the only other person here curious about the YS, figure I share give full disclosure. You can read their marketing materials for the highlights. Ill try and fill in the on the devil in the...

www.mazdas247.com

You should consider MS3 front calipers - noticeable improvement stopping power and pedal feel

Guide: - MS3 front brake conversion

In an effort to increase the safety of my family, I plan to convert the brakes of my van to Mazdaspeed 3 spec. The rears are already shared with the MS3 so all i did in the rear was slotted StopTech rotors clamped by Hawk HPS pads. The real work is on the fronts. The general opinion on the web...

www.mazdas247.com

 

[TheMZ5wagon]

Awesome build thread and great pics.

Any thoughts on suspension? I have a set of yellowspeed coilovers that I think will fit you very well. Also have both MS3 Front and Rear (w/bracket and end links ) Sway Bars. Been in storage too long, need gone.

Mazda5 YellowSpeed Dynamic Pro Sport (DPS) Coilover Review

This post is for you loosenut. Appreciate all your helpful insights/contributions and since you are the only other person here curious about the YS, figure I share give full disclosure. You can read their marketing materials for the highlights. Ill try and fill in the on the devil in the...

www.mazdas247.com

You should consider MS3 front calipers - noticeable improvement stopping power and pedal feel

Guide: - MS3 front brake conversion

In an effort to increase the safety of my family, I plan to convert the brakes of my van to Mazdaspeed 3 spec. The rears are already shared with the MS3 so all i did in the rear was slotted StopTech rotors clamped by Hawk HPS pads. The real work is on the fronts. The general opinion on the web...

www.mazdas247.com

Where are you located?

 

[TheMZ5wagon]

More updates!
Amps are in and all wired up. Finished the passenger door panel to fit my 8" and 5" speakers.
Now I'm on the hunt for some tweeters that will keep up. Going to check some out tomorrow at a car audio store about an hour from me as I have a set or two in mind for the build .

Here is the amps all mounted to the lexan mounts I made under the driver and passenger seats. Will be totally hidden under carpet.

Running the wires thru the doors was a pain but I managed to drill.out some empty slots and feed wire thru.

Here is the passenger door setup. Need to just finish up the driver side now.

 

[TheMZ5wagon]

Got the carpet back in and one door done and tuned. Must say it's pretty loud and clear. Could hear it from in the garage with the door closed down my 150 foot driveway lol
I'll do a video once all done

No amps visible! Success!

 

[Antoine]

Nice audio upgrades...Looking forward to the video!

 

[TheMZ5wagon]

Hey everyone,
Iv been mia for a little bit but haven't given up on the Mazda not just yet LOL. I actually got some serious infected kidney stones and had to go in for surgery so I've been kind of out of it for the last little while but starting to feel
better again so I'm starting to get back at it with the Mazda and all the upgrades. So here's what I've done as of lately mainly some more audio upgrades.

Started my box for my two 8" dbdrive subs. Got a bit of a theme going on with it. I have 6 kids so I figured they would enjoy it. Plus it's something different.
Also iv been trying to upload a video nuts it won't let me. Just keeps saying "oops something went wrong" not sure if it's me or site?

And the wife got me a custom bass knob made for my birthday to match.

 

[Antoine]

Welcome back @TheMZ5wagon...Glad you're ok and feeling better!

Great updates and fun theme...You mentioned video issues, were you trying to upload directly to the site? The current file size limit is 16.384 MB.

 

[TheMZ5wagon]

We have a new update to the Mazda, decided I needed to pull the dash because the speakers were just not enough. Now I'm putting another four in the top of the dash! Sucks that I got to pull the whole dash just to cut four holes. LOL