Nope, after doing some tight turns with accel and braking its not clicking like a CV, which i inspected yesterday and were looking great, its a serious single clunk. Going to start looking into symptoms of fucked differential. Wouldn't surprise me with the tight turning in autoxing and trying to lay down lots of torque to pull out of the hole. Oh well, racing this weekend, might have to play in the stock class with the wifeys car.

BNR has definitely helped. Now i just gotta get the suspension caught up.

Thanks for the info Mandinca. I will open up my valve cover this weekend and take a look at it. The sound I have is pretty faint, but audible with the windows open and fan turned off.

But it has been atleast 3 years since I had a look inside the valve cover. This would be a great excuse for me to open it up :silly:. I can also look at the cams for wear and the timing chain while at it...

And question - Do i have to take apart the VT to see this fitting? Or remove this fitting? Or is it visible from the outside?

Hey, thanks again.
Ren.

Maybe that's not it then, mine was a very audible rattle for a second or so at start up. After that it went away. ANyway, when you look at the actuator it will be obvious.
You might need to turn the engine over to see the button (as it might be on the underside depending on where your engine stops) but you won't need to take it apart.
Check your chain for slack as well while you're in there although you can do that through the filler cap. Also, check the cam cover for wear marks on the timing chain end. Little nicks in the underside could indicate a loose or worn chain. As you know, these are interference engines, a broken chain is catastrophic.

Anyway, you're most welcome. I learned a lot from these forums so just trying to pay it forward.

Let me know how it turns out.

Closing in on 162,000 miles in my 2007 ms3 and running strong! Have seen a few north of 175k and even 188k on the 100,000+ mile club thread in the General section.

I get between 25 and 28 mpg most of the time.

I bought her off the showroom floor, without bothering with a test drive, and have never looked back. Only mods are:
- MSCAI
- AP with Stage 1 tune - have been running an ancient v107 map for a long time. Finally looking to play with ATR, just upgraded to v2.31 map today.

Major work needed has been as follows:
- 43,000 - tranny went out; the needle bearing cage basically dissolved. Covered by warranty; replaced clutch since it was open.
- 105,000 - replaced all bushings - not cheap. They were torn up by our bad roads up here.
- 130,000 - oil pump sending unit replaced, also replaced slave cylinder
- 148,000 - AC compressor seized, melted the belt, destroyed alternator - $2000 in repairs.
The timing chain was also making some noise, so replaced that and the VVT.

I do seem to go through tires for some reason. Favorites so far are my current Continental ExtremeContact tires. I run 40r's.

Current status:
- small spot of rust by taillight :-( I have fixed most other dents and such
- might be using a little oil between oil changes - possibly 1/2 quart?
- original turbo, never any smoke (other than from my tires)
- had to pull the horn fuse a while back - it would decide to go off at weird times. Couldn't find the cause.
- I wish my cat would die so I would have no choice but go to a Cobb dp

I also have a red 2012 speed3 with 16,000 miles - my wife drives it. I love my genwon!

Holy shit!!! I almost can't believe your post. You not only have a metric shit ton of miles but also you quite possibly have the longest lasting original K04 I have ever seen. You sure you are talking MILES and not KILOMETERS? Lol

Yes, it's legit. I will have to snap a photo of the odometer - should have done that when it hit 160,000. I am nuts about the car, and think I must have gotten a good one, again other than the tranny problem which thankfully showed up under warranty. (I also have photos from my service guy of what the tranny parts looked like - I should post them too.).

I have driven it pretty hard over the years, which has mostly shown in how I go through tires. I drive about 30,000 miler per year - it's about a 95-mile round trip for me to work every day. I have gotten very good life out of the brakes, though. I guess I am always trying to go faster, not slower. :-)

About to start self-tuning with ATR - ran a few logs the other night, and saw I was consistently pulling from 2500-6500 in about 6 seconds in 3rd gear, with an OTS map, with only a CAI as physical mods. Excited about what I might unleash through tuning. :-)

Hopefully I will not finally blow the turbo in the process.

79250 no problems to date

My 2006 MSP 6 bought new..currently it has 168,000 miles.
Went over a few big potholes and divided median hard, still run very good with..
Passenger mount fluid leaked..
Turbo is doing fine
Engine has no leak but Pivot trans. shaft seal leaks ( cost $7 at dealership). delayed the repair bc it's stopped leaking.
Brakes replaced at 145K miles as well as the rear shocks.

Everything is orginal
Oh..engine takes about haft quart of oil every 1000-1500 miles. Maybe its has turbo leaks?

Maybe the tranny stopped leaking because the fluid dropped below a certain level, I would fix it to be sure. The hardest part is getting the engine mount bolts undone.
If they come off easily the whole job takes an hour, if that. There's a write up here -

http://www.mazdaspeedforums.org/foru...placed-116267/

I make some additional comments on the second page, make sure you read them.

Your passenger mount, same thing, half hour to replace if the bolts aren't done up with a dealer air ratchet. Mine were so I had to take it to a shop to have them loosen them half a turn. I bought a stock mount from rockauto.com for under $50 incl shipping.

I had its trans fluid top again already last week..No more leaking so far. MAP sensor check engine came on again today.. I had it changed last month, don't know why but will clean it out

I will keep an eye on the seal for leak..other than that timming chain loose abit after 168k:dance::usa:

I've been driving around with a CEL for a month now, probably the O2 sensor since I'm using a quart of oil every 200 miles. Replacing the turbo as soon as my rebuilt KO4 comes. Hopefully that fixes the issue.
Good to hear that you got a good one, amazingly on it's original turbo.

You don't have an ap to check the code?

Probably tappin dat ass

97K on my 2007. Original Turbo with no issues, VVT replaced at 80K. No issues besides VVT warranted by Mazda

Nah, it means a trip tp NAPA etc. I just haven't had the time.

Addendum. 156+K miles. Just had the timing chain, guides, tensioner and VVT actuator replaced. Boku $$$$$. Would have done it myself but no garage. I did do the shaft pivot seal in the driveway and it was way easier than the thermostat.

Ren - a lot of extra work but you may as well go whole hog and replace the timing chain, chain guides and tensioner. Because if the VVT is bad, pin or otherwise, the chain and all that mess should be replaced as well. To Mandinca's point, these are interference motors and the chain will stretch as you drive like you should...

Updating my Original engine 2006 MSP 6 170,000 Miles...
Engine has no leaks except the pivot shaft shifter seal
fill oil nearly a quart every 1000 miles or so..I think oil leaks at turbo seal.

bring your car to any autozone..Check engine light issue for free

Pivot shaft is an easy fix, just read the how to. The seal is about $8 from the dealer.

I'm working on my turbo now and trust me, it's a bitch.
I got everything off last weekend except the oil drain pipe which bolts to the underside of the turbo. I couldn't get to the bolts so had to put everything back...yeah, I was seriously pissed. 9 hours in total for nothing.

I've been told that it is possible to do it if you remove the downpipe completely but I'm also told that you have to support the engine on a floor jack, unbolt the mounts and rock the engine forwards to create space to remove the downpipe. F me Mazda.

My dealership quoted $1200 in labor. I've asked them to tell me how their techs do it. Haven't heard back yet.

Yeah I know. The light is off again right now. I'm guessing it was for missfires due to the oil coming through the turbo or past the rings.

I need to check the oil usage too...time to replace the original turbo. Its has 170K miles on it. recently has issue with noise came from wheel well. Checked it..mechanic said it wasn't the bearing (replaced right Bearing with National brand $42 last July 2012) Drive axles look good but will test it out for the noise.

Test wheel with hand placed at 12 and 6 o'clock positions, wheel is tight. Dont have any issue with tires neither. Michellin Primacy flat-free tires ($134 at Direct Discount Tires) are supper!:biggthumpup:

07 speed 3 just hit 100k yesterday. Nothing really big has came up yet and I hope not :)

Keep an eye on your oil consumption. My wife's CX-7 used all the oil between changes at around 120K. Blew the motor.

Ya just took mine to the shop 2 days ago. Getting clutch replaced and finally getting a downpipe lol. Also the boot on the joint ripped. So I'm getting it fixed next time I get a dyno. So far that's it. Nothing major

SO thats what that is at start up.

FML.

Have a coolant leak and a transfer case leak.. and that.

Definitely no bilsteins, sway bars or ball joints now :(

It's possible to do the timing with the engine in, however, when I tried to do mine I couldn't get the chain tensioner to release so wasn't about to unbolt the cam...ended up putting it back together and having Mazda do it. If you have the tools and knowledge to pull the engine it should be easy enough, just make sure you have the SST's. Someone on here loans them, I have his name somewhere.

Coolant leak ? Should be easy enough to fix if you can find it unless it's one of the turbo coolant pipes which will take some work to get to.

Transfer case - common issue on these cars. Is it definitely the transfer case or could it be the pivot seal on top of the transmission (where the gear cables attach) ?
That is also a very common place to leak and the tranny fluid runs down under the car and all over the underside of the transfer case....look down in your engine bay to the transmission to see if you have fluid pooling on the cover where the cables are. If it is then it's an $8 part and a two hour repair. There's a pivot shaft seal "how to" on here.

Good luck.

Sadly, I have neither the tools or knowledge to do either. I'd be willing to if it wasnt my dd but the time would be the other factor.

I do believe its the water outlet of some sort.

Last time I looked down near the transmission (tuesday'ish), I saw coolant. Not much in the way of oil or fluids - the dealership showed a picture of 'my' transfer case with oil all over it.

Thanks for the informative reply - quite appreciated.

Just wanted to say thanks for this. Very very helpful!

I fucking love MSF!

As somebody recently said to me :

"It's what we do on here"

Or, to give you a better idea of what kind of community we have, one of the other members practically forced me to let him do a motor switch on my MS6 when I have the money available. Some really great guys in here.

Why did you say 'my' transfer case ? That sounds like you aren't sure it's actually a picture of your TC and you think the dealer is trying it on with you.
Have you had a look for yourself ?
The transfer case looks like the attached picture.

Yeah, timing is not a job for the non-mechanically inclined.
As for the transfer case/pivot shaft seal....dry that pivot shaft plate off as well as you can and dry off the underside as much as possible as well then drive a few miles and see if the plate gets wet before the transfer case does. If it does it's most likely the pivot shaft seal.
The hardest part about changing it is undoing the engine mount on the transmission. If it's so tight you can't undo it take it to a tire shop or somewhere and ask them to loosen it a turn. I had to do that once, cost me $10 to buy the guy lunch.
The rest of the job is easy, just follow the how to and you'll have it done in under 2 hours. No special tools needed, just a good metric socket set and pliers....and a tube of instant gasket for the transmission plate you have to remove or it will leak from there instead of the seal :-) (as I found out for myself)

Just bought a 08 MS3 with 110k on it. Runs just fine with just a Cobb intake and HKS BOV. Previous owner said he didnt have any issues with the car and mazda inspected it before I bought it and didn't find anything major wrong with it.

After a few weeks now I just hit 111k and still getting use to driving a manual again as well as getting use to the car, which isnt hard its pretty easy.

Im hoping to keep it as long as I can I love it.

Not sure why I quoted it really. Picture looks the same except yours is cleaner than mine.

As for the transmission mount, I'm having the dealership do the vvt tsb, transfer case re&re and added the jbr side mounts to that install while they're at it.

'08 ms3, 57k miles, owned it for about 10k now...no problems so far, not even a CEL :D and i'm fully bolted minus a front mount!

Just bought a 07 MS3 with 192k. Going to drive it until the engine blows and then do a rebuild. So far, the car is running great.

Holy shit. How much did you pay?

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Is that 192k yards ? What did the previous owner do, work in a different hemisphere ?

I paid 5k. I have no idea what the previous owner did. Thing still runs like a champ, though. I just bought it as a cheap, fun car to take overseas with me.

Did you do a compression test, leak down, and pisston height?

Now is this miles or kilometers lol.

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07 ms3 101,000 miles
new clutch @80k
o2 sensor @99k
ko4 inspected/new seals @90k

only repairs that i know of.
running stupid fast till zoom boom

Wow! $5000 bucks. Hell if it blew up tomorrow it's probably worth it just for parts.

I wanna see an Odometer photo!



As for me 107000 miles on a 2009.

Yeah for $5000 I would buy the car just for parts...even if it's a 1st gen. Would have a spare block, turbo, ecu, transmission, fuel pump, everything.

I just passed 140k today. '06 MS6 that drinks more oil than I care to mention. Ok, a qt every 200 miles.