2004 Mazda 3 - any mods avail yet?

[<AAA-MOD>]

I've just purchased a new Mazda 3 Sedan. I haven't searched overly extensive yet, and thought i'd pose the question here. Any mods sites or parts sites recommended? any Mazda specific discussion forums out that could assist me? I don't pick it up for a couple days. when i do, i'll probably do the "user's rides" pic thing.

[Spastik_Roach]

Nice choice! Those cars look great!

As for mods, it really depends on what you want to do. Do some basic mods first such as a few exhaust upgrades (No fart cans) and maybe a performance chip. Maybe just maybe Mazdaspeed could help you out?

[eyebrows]

I would say to get a ECU that will up the rev's to an limit of like 12,500 (most after market ecu's that ive seen do more than that but any way) and all mods made after that can be controlled by the ECU, motec have the best system ive seen (m400) and that should be a good start. by the way cool car!!! (we need pic's!!! )

[Spastik_Roach]

Eyebrows thats absolutely riduculous he will have to rev the absolute shit out of it to get any power!

[Sweeney921]

assuming that he won't be using it on the track, I don't think he would ever need to rev it that high on streets. thats an absolutely insane redline; it's reaching the redlines of crotch-rockets

[cp01ae]

Not to mention the fact that a red-line that high on a daily driver would kill the reliability. Suspension, ECU, Exhaust, it all depends on what you want to spend and what you want to get out of it.

[Sweeney921]

true, true

[GT500]

Not to mention that it'll brun out the engine in no time.
Take up a search on google if you haven't tried, Mazda3's are nice cars.

[eyebrows]

i was just saying that the rev limiter is basically removed lolz... it doesn't actually up the rpm's to that much, again i have word my post badly... lolz... it just gives u the ability to go that high if u wish to and you would probably need a lot of mod's to get it there plus a tune through your laptop. and just to the guy that said it would kill everthing including the ECU, the ECU is what is givin the car the ability to rev so high dw i stuffed up my post any wayz lolz u should also have a look at the ecu's like the motec system they will explain it much better than i can.

[megotmea7]

not to mention without proper cams and cam timing there will be NO power up in that range, and buying a motec first is a waste of money, you'll see little power come of it, you'll need to know how to tune it, and for the money you'll be able to buy a couple mods that will not affect the reliability. if he was looking to make a street/race car he'd rip out the engine build it up for n/a or turbo before hed need a stand alon engine mangament system. at very most he'd need a piggyback fuel computer. please dont talk about stuff you dont know about. it just shows the limits of your knowledge...
sorry im an asshole today

[eyebrows]

yes u were an asshole and it was uncalled for, but since i don't give a F!@# i'll let it slide plus i was wrong and u were right a exhaust system would be the way to go for the first mod or suspension, an after market ECU is for other things. the reason i suggested it was because some of your other mod's can be controlled from it. and just so u know my limited knowlage is only because ive been learning about ecu's for about two weeks! ive been trying to learn with the little i could find on them. if u have something can bring me up to speed on them i will be happy to read it so my knowlage wont be so limited.

[Suka]

Is this link any help?
http://www.pickleloaf.com/cars/mazda.htm

[Egg Nog]

yes u were an asshole and it was uncalled for, but since i don't give a F!@# i'll let it slide plus i was wrong and u were right a exhaust system would be the way to go for the first mod or suspension, an after market ECU is for other things. the reason i suggested it was because some of your other mod's can be controlled from it. and just so u know my limited knowlage is only because ive been learning about ecu's for about two weeks! ive been trying to learn with the little i could find on them. if u have something can bring me up to speed on them i will be happy to read it so my knowlage wont be so limited.

To make this as simple as possible, an ECU is essentially just a fuel management system. It can tell the injectors when and how much to inject, but beyond that, it has no real control over the physics of the engine.

Rather than feeling offended, feel enlightened to hear that removing the electronic rev limiter is quite simply an awful idea. The limiter itself doesn't take away power or detract from speed/power in any way. Instead, it prevents potential wear from people who might think that there's loads more fun to be had above the limiter. The engine is capable of revving higher, by means of a improper downshift or something like that, but there's no good from doing so.

If you take a look at any dyno graph, you'll notice that after reaching peak power at a certain point, it drops again. Revving higher than the car is set to will only get you as far as this, where more fuel is consumed and less power is gotten from it.

An aftermarket ECU isn't a bad idea, as far as getting a little more power goes. It will refine the power and torque curve (through the way that it injects fuel) to suit the demands of a more performance-oriented owner. They are usually able to squeeze a little more power from them as well (at a loss of average efficiency), though not always. In some chips, like DINAN's tuner chip for the E39 BMW M5, it serves only to change the power/torque curve a little, and to remove the top speed limiter. They were actually unable to manage any more top-end power than the stock chip was capable of.

I hope this helps a little...

[eyebrows]

yeh it helps a lot but don't ECU's controll more than fuel managment? that was the impression ive been getting.

[Egg Nog]

yeh it helps a lot but don't ECU's controll more than fuel managment? that was the impression ive been getting.

Well, you may have noticed that I said "to make this as simple as possible" as my first sentence. I was trying to make my point by talking about the things which would only have an effect on the physics of the engine itself. ECUs are all different... the very primitive Bosch D-Jetronic system in my 914 controls only the fuel management. Modern ones control everything from door locks to wiper fluid levels (basically the brain of the entire car). Nothing like wiper fluid levels would affect something like engine RPM though, so I made the distinction, and simplified it a lot.