"Jetstreamer" (jetstreamer)
02/23/2018 at 03:16 • Filed to: Mazda, Mazdaspeed, mazda6
7
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"Jetstreamer" (jetstreamer)
02/23/2018 at 03:16 • Filed to: Mazda, Mazdaspeed, mazda6 | 7
| 23 |
Just love this angle
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I’m not a frequent poster, but some of you may remember a few posts about a Mazda 6 MPS or Mazdaspeed 6 for U.S. folks that I bought last summer. Long story to follow, scroll down for summary, haha.
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I bought this Mazda 6 MPS, or just MPS6 for short, last summer while looking for my first car to own. I’m 28, but had never needed a personal car before, nor room to own one. That changed last year, I had my own parking and wanted something to get me out of the city and have fun with.
The MPS6 is basically Mazda’s attempt to put something in line with the WRX and Lancer Evo’s of the time. It’s a souped up version of their family sedan, with a bit more of an aggressive body, a turbocharged 2.3L four-cylinder making about 260bhp when new, a 6-speed manual, all-wheel drive that is front biased but capable of 50-50 delivery, full leather interior and more goodies.
Since the Evo’s and WRX were not exactly in my budget, I gambled on this MPS6 that had the odometer rolled back by 100k KM/60k miles, no known service history, a few small issues and 6 months left on the inspection.
Since then I did some small work on the interior and lights by myself, like giving the leather some loving care and removing the horrible window tint foil. The main issue has always been an airbag light that is permanently on, which prevents the car from going through inspection, it would fail already solely based on that. I had done some research and tried ‘home’ fixes but nothing works. I procrastinated and come December I had made an appointment with the local Mazda dealer to diagnose the issue, but their diagnostics hardware broke down and I couldn’t get the issue solved before the inspection lapsed. So from 1st of January onwards, my car was basically illegal to drive.
Because I don’t need my car as daily driver, I once again procrastinated, but now finally got around to getting shit done. The dealer seemed like a way too expensive road to go down so I looked around for an alternative.
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Found a place called MazdaAbi, which literally translates into Mazda Help. They barely speak English (I’m a Dutch expat in Estonia) but we managed to agree on a time and date, and when I showed up yesterday, the guys were super patient with my limited Estonian skills. Talking slowly, keeping it simple.
I asked them to do a full inspection of what needs to be fixed to get it through an inspection. And to check the airbag light. And they delivered. Found issues with the alternator belt, some alternator bearings, oil issues and managed to find out more about the airbag issue. It’s probably a crash sensor on the driver side mounted at the bottom of the center pillar. The car had hit something, that I knew, but airbag hasn’t fired as far a I know. So hopefully it is just a sensor to replace, but their diagnostics guy can find out more so I’ll wait for that. He’ll be available in a week or so, vacation for him.
Told them to replace the belt, bearing and put in fresh new oil. While they worked on it, they found one of the engine mounts was cracked, told them to fix that too. The were working on the car for about 4 hours in total, including the initial inspection, and it ended up costing me about €220 which I thought was fair.
Car runs better after this. I think an issue with fairly rough shifting, as in putting the car in the gear you want taking too much effort, has been solved by fixing that engine mount. Perhaps it caused some alignment issues between engine and transmission or something. The best part is that those guys in the shop absolutely loved the car, thought it was great and in relatively awesome condition. I think it’s one of the reasons they were so patient with my deficient language skills. I will probably be going back to them for all other stuff I need as well.
So far, this car has been worth the money put into it. I paid about €4000 for it, put €600 worth of summer rubber on it (went all-in on quality, haha), needed about €40-50 to fix some lights, €150 for a new exhaust, €100 for a new battery because the old one couldn’t handle the -15C cold if I didn’t drive it every single day. And now €220 in repairs. So slightly over €5000 into it now. If it stays under €6000 to be all good for inspection I’m happy. By then it will be a €6000, thirteen year old car, but it is so much fun and drives well and looks cool as fuck in my opinion.
Then I can start dumping money into a pit on some mods like fancy Corksport exhaust, nicer air intake, suspension bits and just put money into it I will never get out but that will make me enjoy the car even more.
Pretty pleasant interior
Svend
> Jetstreamer
02/23/2018 at 04:53 |
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Nice. A former colleague was looking at a Mazda 6 MPS a while back to when all the engine mounts in his Mazda 3 borked on him.
Sadly he bought a knackered BMW M3 that was totally molested and then bought a knackered MG ZR to daily drive while his BMW was being repaired. Both cars came to nothing and he lost out on a lot of money because of his stupidity.
If only he’d bought the Mazda 6 MPS when he was first looking. Lol.
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Jetstreamer
> Svend
02/23/2018 at 05:21 |
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Yeah, such a shame of the waste of money. But to be fair, these things are getting harder to find in good condition and I think I kind of lucked out with my gamble. Looking at a site like Autoscout24, throughout Europe there aren’t many out there and the cheaper ones look a bit molested.
I was honestly expecting to make the most expensive mistake of my life buying this car. Like driving it until inspection expired, finding out the car was total trash and moving on. But I have been pleasantly surprised so far, just hope the airbag issue is a simple fix.
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Svend
> Jetstreamer
02/23/2018 at 05:39 |
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No it’s all bad. He got what he deserved. He was skipping out on his wife with another woman.
just looked on Autotrader U.K., there are 13 MPSs available out of the 1,265 Mazda6s.
If you need any parts there are non MOT’d cars that runs and drives for £250.
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Jetstreamer
> Svend
02/23/2018 at 06:13 |
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Haha, OK, that changes things.
Damn, that might be an idea actually. Due to whatever this car hit, the front bumper doesn’t fit very well, the front splitter is in pieces and the airbox got disconnected and is basically fixed with duct tape (but working well). Getting those things, wheels, or even just original headlights out of one of those might be worth the trouble of getting it over here... Assuming that all parts swap over easily between RHD and LHD models, not sure if there would be a difference in headlight setup.
Edit: Plus, awesome road trip opportunity... You got any links to non-MOT’d ones? :D
Spanfeller is a twat
> Jetstreamer
02/23/2018 at 06:19 |
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Ya had me at Mazda MPS.
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Svend
> Jetstreamer
02/23/2018 at 06:37 |
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Here’s the Autotrader page.
There are ones with some MOT left on them which should see them drive out the country before they expire or even just trailer one back to Holland and job done.
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Jetstreamer
> Svend
02/23/2018 at 06:43 |
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It would be a slightly longer roadtrip all the way to Estonia, hehe. Two-three days of non-insured, non-MOT’d driving... Would be a bit of risk, but yeah, maybe bring it to Holland, get the parts out, take those to Estonia, job done.
Edit: Ah, the cheap ones out of your link are regular 6s’, the cosmetic parts like bumpers etc won’t transfer unfortunately.
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Svend
> Jetstreamer
02/23/2018 at 07:05 |
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Oh shoot. Sorry about that.
You could try breakeryard.com
For other parts that aren’t strip able from other cars.
Textured Soy Protein
> Jetstreamer
02/23/2018 at 10:10 |
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I used to own one of these, same color and everything although in the US it was badged as Mazdaspeed.
Mine developed the usual Mazda rust problems. It sounds like you’re up to speed on most of the common issues but they include fueling problems like the HPFP and engine/transmission mounts that can make for driveline clunking.
The best modification you can do to the suspension is get some negative camber in the front end. The stock ride height is actually higher than the regular 6 of this era because Mazda wanted to have more ground clearance for the awd bits. But they raised it with taller shocks & springs, without changing the suspension arms, so in stock form it’s actually at a positive camber.
Lowering it and adding some camber kits to dial in the alignment will make a huge improvement in front end grip. I used AutoExe springs and SPC camber kits. I kept the stock shocks because I was trying to do it on the cheap but I would recommend doing shocks at the same time. The thing is not every shock says it’s compatible with the awd version but some that aren’t technically spec’d for it will still work. The AutoExe springs give the perfect amount of lowering, to me at least. This is the car shortly before I got rid of it:
MarquetteLa
> Jetstreamer
02/23/2018 at 10:22 |
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Glad to hear it’s working out for you! Do you know if your airbag has been replaced? As far as I know, the MS6 was part of the Takata recalls.
Do you get snow in Estonia? I’ve been having some fun in it here in Colorado.
Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW!
> Jetstreamer
02/23/2018 at 10:47 |
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My old roommate had one of these and it was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Corksport exhaust sounds amazing. If you do their downpipe though, is kind of a pain in the ass to install. They cone with very good instructions. I was impressed with the overall quality of their exhaust.
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Jetstreamer
> Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW!
02/23/2018 at 13:04 |
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The videos I have seen with the Corksport exhaust do sound really, really good. Like better than a 4-cylinder has a right to sound, haha. It’s in the future for now, but when the time comes I’ll throw in the full package exhaust system.
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Jetstreamer
> MarquetteLa
02/23/2018 at 13:06 |
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Yep, it’s snowing right now and plenty of snow in general. But the car is not road legal right now due to expired inspection and not insured and such, so I’m doing the prudent thing and not driving it unless absolutely necessary.
Yours is looking good by the way :).
ateamfan42
> MarquetteLa
02/23/2018 at 13:10 |
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As far as I know, the MS6 was part of the Takata recalls.
Correct. It was actually part of the very first list of recalled cars.
I waited in the “parts pending” queue for a couple of years, then finally sold the car last year. Now Mazda keeps sending me notices to come in an fix it, despite me having informed them via web site, mail, and phone that I no longer own the car.
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ateamfan42
> Textured Soy Protein
02/23/2018 at 13:13 |
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The best modification you can do to the suspension is get some negative camber in the front end.
Couldn’t agree more. Of all the modifications I made to mine, springs + shocks were my favorite.
I still have a number of parts (suspension, intake, short shifter, motor mount, and more) for sale via Craigslist & Mazda6Club forum in case anyone is looking for a fair deal on used stuff.
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ateamfan42
> Jetstreamer
02/23/2018 at 13:17 |
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I think an issue with fairly rough shifting, as in putting the car in
the gear you want taking too much effort, has been solved by fixing that
engine mount. Perhaps it caused some alignment issues between engine
and transmission or something.
The engine & transaxle move as a single assembly. It is the movement relative to the shift linkage (which is attached to the chassis) that can cause shifting issues.
Even when new, the factory motor mounts permit a fair amount of movement, and upgrades are usually beneficial. I had a CP-e rear/lower upgraded mount on mine (available for sale by the way!). There are a couple of upgrade options available for the upper/side mounts, and Turbine Tech made an additional fourth lower front mount.
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Duck Duck Grey Duck FTMFW!
> Jetstreamer
02/23/2018 at 14:13 |
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Yeah, I was super surprised at how it sounded. It was glorious and not too bad inside the car itself.
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Jetstreamer
> ateamfan42
02/23/2018 at 14:25 |
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At the moment I only asked them to fix the one that was broken, maybe not ideal but the rest will follow.
I haven’t decided on a time to start modding yet so I am not exactly in the market yet for motor mounts, hehe.
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Jetstreamer
> ateamfan42
02/23/2018 at 14:28 |
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I have no service history and not sure how to check the type of airbag installed. I suppose that will be the next step, might have to go to the Mazda dealer for that.
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MarquetteLa
> Jetstreamer
02/23/2018 at 14:53 |
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Not sure how recalls work in Europe, but here in the States you can enter your VIN in a government-operated website and it will give you a report on any outstanding recalls for your VIN.
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Jetstreamer
> Textured Soy Protein
02/23/2018 at 15:03 |
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Yeah, I remember you mentioning the same things on one of my previous posts about the car. I was looking at an Eibach Pro Kit with Bilstein B12 shocks. Saw that on another car and looked very good. But I haven’t looked at a lot of alternatives yet.
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Textured Soy Protein
> Jetstreamer
02/23/2018 at 15:26 |
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At the time I got the AutoExe springs, Eibach didn’t have an application specific to the Mazdaspeed/MPS. But apparently they do now, part # 5543.140. I’m sure they’re fine too.
Not sure if the Bilstein B12 kit (which has B8 shocks and Eibach springs) comes with the MPS-specific Eibach springs. The B8 application doesn’t specify among different trims, it’s the same part across the different trim levels and other cars sharing the platform.
There also (at least in the US) appear to be Koni Sport shocks available, which also don’t appear to be specific to the Mazdaspeed. Koni also has a kit that supposedly is specific to the Mazdaspeed. It might have those same Eibach springs. The Koni front shocks are inserts that require cutting the stock housings up. Not sure if that’s the case with Bilstein.
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Jetstreamer
> Textured Soy Protein
02/23/2018 at 17:01 |
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I see that there is plenty more research to do for me, haha. I’m going to come back to you when the time comes to start modding.
I actually came across this B12 kit while looking for specific MPS addons, so I am fairly hopeful it is all set up for it. I’d prefer to have it be a ‘simple’ swap so I can always go back to stock if needed for whatever reason.