What have you done to your Mazda6 today?

[tunersteve]

Good thing we're not doing a DP on the MS3, we've actually got a little room to work with. Qwik, which DP did you get?

Nice price on those AW mats. Markup on them from the dealer is insane. I was able to snag a new set for $35 not too long after I got the car, and they're worth every penny.

 

[chiefmg]

Only 250 more miles...

 

[Qwik6]

Downpipe is in!!! I think me and my dad set a world record. 3.5 hours. Anyhow we started around 6 this evening and I was driving it by 10. Install was def. a PITA. She just didnt want to give up the stock downpipe. Removed all the engine mounts except the drivers side and pried the engine forward about 3 inches to gain clearance.

We put in the corksport downpipe and the corksport resonated test pipe. I couldnt believe this thing is as quite as with just the magnaflow and test pipe. No droaning at all on the highway. I didn't get a chance to put it to the floor but I does seem better. I need to remake maf tables tomarrow as LTFT's at idle are now 19% as they were 5 without this downpipe. Wierd how that is. Also the heat from this thing was enough to start meling the cloth on the o2 sensor wires. I need to find a good insulator to cover these in. o2 sensors were pretty easy to remove even with 63k miles. pb blaster was my friend here.

Now my exhaust smells just like a lawn mowers...

 

[coyfish]

are the spark plugs the 4 big wires on underneath the TMIC ?? or are those fuel injectors?? Also brief how to rundown??? Numerous sites say use antiseize and dielectric grease but I have never heard of that . . .

 

[chiefmg]

Antiseize- compound that helps keep fasteners from corroding. You can buy it for different types of metals and conditions (temperature, pressure etc). Awesome stuff especially for anything under the car.

Dielectric grease- you can find this at better Radio Shacks. Helps protect contact points on electrical parts as well as providing a better path for electricity.

The four wires you see underneath the TMIC are going to the coils. You have to remove the two bolts holding the coil in place (I think they take an 8mm socket) then pull straight up on it. If you look down into the well you will see the top of the spark plug.

Back on topic. Cleaned the all weather mats, they look pretty good but there is still some crud down in the recesses. Apparently the previous owner never cleaned them as they were out of the weather inside the car at the junkyard.

 

[tunersteve]

You can pick up dielectric grease at the auto parts stores as well, along with the anti-sieze.

 

[coyfish]

Installed my spark plugs just now. Didn't use grease or antiseize because most tutorials I found didn't use them and th stockers seemed dry. Anyway wen't for a test drive in perfect 55 degree weather. Car felt sort of sluggish down low in the rpm range. Also kind of dissapointed because my knock is pretty similar to what it was with the old plugs. My scangauge is picking up anywhere from 2-5 knock pretty much everytime I WOT in 3-4rth gear. Usually its fine until I get around 5K rpm then it pops up. I let off as soon as I saw it. Because of that i didn't really "feel" any stutter or hesitation or sound so maybe its a false reading ??? But then again thats a pretty high / consistant false reading.

Installed SU's pre gapped to .03-.032 denso ITV22's. Im not running my COBB AP yet as im waiting for a custom tune. I don't know what the problem could be . . .

 

[Qwik6]

This may be a stupid question. But did you check the gapping?

After 60 miles of my downpipe I am getting knock retard ALL the time. I can idle and blip the throttle. 2 degrees of kr!! ltft's are at 18% at idle and jump back to 1%. Was cruising down the interstate and saw it hit 5.9 and it held. Now I will test out the maf with a datalog and adjust to see if this will eliminate it.

On a plus side my 6000k bulbs came in mail today. About to put these on.

 

[Jay Davidson]

On a plus side my 6000k bulbs came in mail today. About to put these on.

Definitely keep us posted on that. I've been thinking about switching over everything up front (fogs, parking lights, and low beams) over to 6000k.

-Jay

 

[Qwik6]

Got them in and just got back from a drive. They look great! Very white. Much cleaner than stock also much brighter.

 

[coyfish]

No I didn't check the gapping. I don't have the tool so I just compared them to stock and they "looked" the same. Im getting my car tuned soon. Im going to have them work with it. If I still get knock ill have them pop the IC off and check the plugs. If that doesn't work then I guess ill have a compression test to check my rods.

Very annoying. They may be false readings though because I didn't feel any timing pulled or noise. I felt real knock once and i felt a hesitation and heard a very ugly noise. A popping noise.

 

[chiefmg]

You should always check the gap on spark plugs before installing. The feeler gage is cheap and easy to use. Just don't make the mistake it appears many folks do and break the center electrode by using it to pry on. You bend the side electrode using the part of the feeler gages designed for it if you need more clearance. If you need less you can light tap the center closer on a hard surface.

 

[VRMS6]

Dealer visit this morning, they agreed the key is bad so ordered a new one. Have to take both my existing keys in for programming when the new one arrives (they say) so looks like it will be another couple of days for the AP install. I know they can program a new key with two existing ones without hooking up to their machine, but just in case...

Plug the AP up and enjoy... We do not look for A.P. or other reflashes unless there is a engine issue...
<--------------Mazda Service Advisor

 

[mysleeper6]

Stock battery finally gave up the ghost, giving me justification to replace it with an Optima Red Top.

 

[chiefmg]

In the process of installing my AP.

 

[coyfish]

After spending about 2.5 hours in the hot florida sun I took off the front portion of my pin stripes (just those on the hood). Talk about a tedious pita. The car was too hot to touch and the stripes still broke everytime I lifted them. I used goo gone to get rid of the excess stickiness only to mess up my paint. After a good wash / wax I can still see rainbow colored film where the pin stripes used to be. In a month ill have my car detailed and clay bar'd and hopefully they can buff that off.


Just curious but any of you guys use the rubber "disc" that you stick on a dremel tool to remove pin stripes?? People say it works and the stripes come right off but I don't want to damage the paint. Honestly im not going to touch the pin stripes unless i discover a better way. Its a 3-4 hour job easy . . .

 

[chiefmg]

AP is installed. Spent the last hour trying to get my Dashhawk upgraded, for now I ended up using my old laptop with XP. Have to do some research now to see where everyone has set their KR alert limits.

 

[Evolved]

After spending about 2.5 hours in the hot florida sun I took off the front portion of my pin stripes (just those on the hood). Talk about a tedious pita. The car was too hot to touch and the stripes still broke everytime I lifted them. I used goo gone to get rid of the excess stickiness only to mess up my paint. After a good wash / wax I can still see rainbow colored film where the pin stripes used to be. In a month ill have my car detailed and clay bar'd and hopefully they can buff that off.


Just curious but any of you guys use the rubber "disc" that you stick on a dremel tool to remove pin stripes?? People say it works and the stripes come right off but I don't want to damage the paint. Honestly im not going to touch the pin stripes unless i discover a better way. Its a 3-4 hour job easy . . .

I've been wanting to remove the pinstripes that I have my my CGM. Personally, I wouldn't touch a cars paint with a dremel no matter the tip. I've removed pinstripes before and a claybar job will remove everything. The issue that you'll have is that the car is going to be at a really high surface temperature which will mess up the process.

 

[tunersteve]

I've been wanting to remove the pinstripes that I have my my CGM. Personally, I wouldn't touch a cars paint with a dremel no matter the tip. I've removed pinstripes before and a claybar job will remove everything. The issue that you'll have is that the car is going to be at a really high surface temperature which will mess up the process.

You'll really want to do that in the shade, since you don't want all the paint hot, just the areas where the glue is. You can also try lighter fluid or mineral spirits, but make sure that you rinse the paint well, then I recommend claying shortly after.

 

[amillman2]

kinda noob on the subject.. whats claying and what does it do??