So...what causes engine-grenade in the MS3?

[Mike240SX]

It's actually very easy to keep it stock, when the MS3 is your "reliable daily driver" and you have something else for a project. My MS3's motor isn't getting touched until I have something else to drive in case of a catastrophic failure.

 

[Texaco]

I heard something about 5,000 US MS3's per year, so figure 15,000+ units sold so far. Now factor a few stock MS3's that have blown (per world wide internet) and even adding some more the % is really-really low.

Mods vary to the extreme...but my read is that guys going for 20+% power increase are at risk on the stock internals.

 

[F430TECH]

I thought there was only 10,000 MS3's built total? The run of 08.5's and 09's were just relabeled.

Us 08.5's just got lucky with the refresh...alacantra FTW!

 

[bjjer]

I thought there was only 10,000 MS3's built total? The run of 08.5's and 09's were just relabeled.

Us 08.5's just got lucky with the refresh...alacantra FTW!

Thats funny because I passed on a white GT for my silver sport, different strokes. All I have is an intake and thats it for power mods, cant have my DD go pop.

 

[speed3se-r]

trying to mass produce an item to specific specs will not always work out like the original engineered test unit, so errors, shortcuts, mistakes in manufacturing process will be made, thus there will be some units out there that will fail because of this. Im pretty sure Mazda made sure that this engine would hold up with 263hp and 280ft-lbs unlike the Mazdaspeed Protege that Mazda had Callaway Cars slap on a turbo kit w/o hardly any internal modifications to handle the extra power.