MS3 cost of ownershop > $5k per year? (stock)
 

hello,

I purchased '13 MS3 this August with 17k on the odo. It was a salvage title that the body shop inspected and said was in good shape. so I took a chance. ugh.

first week the HID headlamp had water in it - didn't notice when I was purchasing and of course seller didn't mention. my bad. hit the wallet for ~$1250

now I'm about fifteen hundred miles into the car after a couple months and it is smoking like crazy. dealer tells me the turbo seals are bad and the dealership can barely find a replacement stock turbo and it looks like $2400 just for the K04 turbo.

Of course Corksport offers a better turbo for $1100. (guy at Corksport was really nice and helpful too btw) But then you need the upgraded fuel pump component for about $400. and then you also need Accessport tuning for another $600 - and then on top of that the tune itself is another couple hundred dollars. All this before labor costs. So probably ball park $3000 for me as I have almost zero time for working on cars these days. nor the tools.

Anyway, I'm feeling defeated by my MS3. I don't want to throw good money after bad. Is this a rare story? are MS3 cars just poorly designed with unreliable expensive parts that will bankrupt any poor sap who owns one?!? I thought I was buying a sort of reliable performance car...

what is the general idea of cost of ownership of these cars?


Thanks
-Bruce

You could donate and most likely find all of the things you're looking for used much cheaper. I don't have a 2nd gen MS3 so I won't speak to the reliability going forward.

What made the car have a salvaged title? I think I would've walked away from that, regardless of what the shop said, but you've crossed that road now.

As said before if you go VIP you can snag a k04 for fairly cheap and save some cash.

Your problem is that you bought a salvage title without having an independent mechanic look at it.

On my 2010 I purchased new I have put on one set of tires front brake pads once and regular oil changes.

I got my 2013 MS3 used at around 15k as well and I now have 42k, and no issues

sent from my Nexus 6P

These issues can be from prior damage, donate here and buy a used k04 or even from ebay, replace #done , i have almost 50K on my car and the only issues i have had are the ones that I caused myfself.

I may spend more than $5k a year on my MS3, Meth kit, exhaust, intake, tires, ....

Not much on repairs, unless I broke it :-)

How many miles, dealer probably wouldn't have fixed the headlight(because of damage) but the turbo is still under the factory power train if you are still indeed stock.

thanks guys. I bought the car because I had heard that most people have few problems with reliability. And that is what you guys are saying too, so that is good to hear.

I did actually have two independent mechanics look at the car up on a lift. Compression was tested too. That was in addition to the frame shop and also tire shop that did an alignment check first. So actually it was four separate shops that I drove to in order to assess the car. I had a lot of reservations about buying a salvage title. And it bit me in the butt anyway, so yeah, in the future I will NEVER buy another salvage title vehicle for the rest of my life. Car was in a front end collision that had been repaired professionally. There is almost zero evidence that it was ever in a wreck so I thought it was in good shape.


I am not clear on what is meant by "donate" here and then get used K04? Do I need to donate money to the forum in order to purchase a used turbo from someone on the board? I'm okay with that I guess. just curious.

thanks everyone for your responses.

-Bruce

is this turbo on ebay too good to be true?
 

New for Mazda mazdaspeed 3 2 3L MZR Disi K0422 882 K0422 881 Turbo Turbocharger | eBay

this turbo on ebay is $216 dollars. It is from "KMotors"--- how could it be legitimate?
can a used or remanufactured K04 be a fairly cheap item?

Donating to the forum gains you "VIP" status. This opens up areas of the forum that "Brownies" are locked out of. You'll gain access to the For Sale/Want To Buy sections, access to shop manuals, Autocheck access, etc... It's worthwhile.

If you're looking for a K04 that's a good place to look.

Donating is the best 25 bucks you will spend on your car.

First problem? Salvage title.

KO4s practically get thrown away here. Donate, and post a want to buy.

These cars are stout, so I wouldn't necessarily be scared of the car. Salvaged title, you're bound to run into something eventually. The headlight isn't surprising to me at all, especially if they used an aftermarket headlight (most likely). The turbo going out at 17K is impressive. lol

I hope you got a good price on it, at least. lol

Donate brownie faggot.

bought mine with 10k on it a little more than a year ago. Now have just shy of 21k on it. only thing I've done are regular oil changes, air filter, cabin filter, and a set of tires for winter. other than that, the car has been great.

Bought mine new in 2013. I have close to 40k miles on it now. Only tme in the shop was for a gasket on the hpfp I fucked up when installing AT internals.

Besides that, oil changes and TLC.

Hopefully after you get those isues fixed you will have the same experience as most of us.

Donate and read, you will feel alot better.

I'm not sure this is correct. After a total loss, I'm pretty sure even your factory warranty is invalidated. Read this on Edmunds.com. I know for SURE all warranty EXTENSIONS are definitely void, especially the ones for smokey turbo/shitty VVT. Ask me how I know.

And to echo everybody else, you can definitely get used parts on here for waaaay cheaper than you can if you just roll into a dealer and write them a blank check to fix your shit, but you're probably going to have to turn some wrenches unless you know a mechanic that will install used parts for you.

Also, the costs you described are (hopefully) 1-time fixes/purchase, defintely not PER YEAR so calm your tits. At this point, you took the risk to buy a salvaged title car so now your choices are dump it and run away ASAP (like you probably should have done in the first place) or hunker down with your credit cards, read read read on this forum and lie in this expensive bed you've made.

Like stated above, the issues with your car so far are one time fixes. The headlight issue is lame but that is a risk you take with a salvage title car. That has nothing to do with the car itself. The turbo issue IS a common issue. If you buy a better turbo you will not need another one for a long time. Do not buy a chinacharger off ebay. If you want to cheap out on vital parts this is not the car for you. Pay to play. Seriously you run a risk with any used car, you have no idea how it was treated before you took the keys.

Honestly, if you upgrade your turbo, put in hpfp internals, buy a accessport and replace your rmm you should have a car that is faster than stock and not need any major repairs for a while. Add some supporting mods and a custom tune and you will have a very quick ride. Don't cheap out. If you cant afford to do the job right then buy a cheap k04 off the forum and install it yourself. It will put hair on your chest and if your lucky you will cut yourself so you can sport some scars. Chicks dig scars.

Last point I will make is to do some research. There are bandaid fixes for a smoking turbo. Mine smoked when I got it. I replaced the banjo bolt, put in thicker oil and raised my idle and the smoking issue went from a daily thing to only happening once every other month. I could have drove on that turbo for a while longer but I put a bigger better turbo in called it done.

www.mazmart.com Mazda Mart is a salvage yard for Mazdas. I used to get some parts from them for my Miata.

Yeah, unfortunately just because things checked out for some routine inspections doesn't tell you how much the thing was abused. Sorry to hear, man.

My 2010 now has 76,000 miles on it and, aside from my mods, the only non-wear item that has needed replacement is the passenger motor mount. It's about $100. I did the labor. Easy fix. $20 a year ain't bad.

Sounds like you have a chance to turn at least some of these repairs into mods, so maybe follow the path being forced on you haha.

Well whether you upgrade or stay stock, get involved in your local NATOR forum and maybe somebody cool will help you turn wrenches and save some money.

Either way, make sure you keep on top of oil changes every 3-4k miles moving forward and pray to whatever your God is that your vvt doesn't die. Cuz you definitely can't get that replaced for free with a branded title.

Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk

I would just try to get connected with your local Nator and ask someone to sell you a used K04. Lots of people have ones that are at least usable laying around. But they all fail eventually the way we use them on this forum.

And I second going VIP. I've saved hundreds on parts by buying on the F/S forums here. Posting a WTB for a K04 would probably get you some hits right away. Then you can beg your local Nators for help with the install. ;)

Like everyone else has said, donating opens up the market place for your account and you'll see used K04's going for a few hundred dollars plus shipping. I bought my car new and it currently sits at 43k and has never been to the shop aside from the downpipe I was too lazy to install myself. Even with modding the car has ran reliably but then again I did everything in moderation, followed the proper steps to modding, and always got tuned for my mods.

Thanks for the tips everyone.

I did donate and became VIP member.

Good point about these being one-time fixes. The K04 is "hit and miss" I hear so hopefully should get it up and rolling this week.

Definitely took a chance on the salvage title - paid $14k for the car with 17k on the odometer and seemingly had absolutely nothing wrong with it.

I doubled down on this decision and ordered the Corksport Turbo. came in the mail yesterday with some supporting parts. Wasn't really looking for more power but ah what the hell, right?


Appreciate you all. seems like a good forum!

My 2011 MS3 has has no issues. just oil changes and new brakes pads every 3 years

Looking at your signature, your 2011 has been fine because a lot of it is new :-)

My 2011 has only had the problems I've given it ie. bent rod, otherwise running great

I eat up a set of brake pads every summer.
And a set of tires.

not if the car was salvage titled. that the only that that will "void" the warranty completely.

puke

thought I'd follow up from when I posted this originally.

I was pretty disheartened with MS3 after spending five grand during the first six months of ownership but the $5k was spent on various mods.... Corskport Turbo, AP, TIP, SRI, colder plugs, fuel pump upgrade, and a tune from Will Dawson at Purple Drank.

car is now a beast and wants to break traction when I hit the boost in 2nd gear. Thanks for all the support from other Mazdaspeed owners (except for Tokay444 whose comment was worthless and offensive and would've probably ironically prevented me from donating if that had been the only one. I guess he's probably 17 years old though so I should understand I suppose. nobody has any tact at that tender age.)

my opinion as a newbie to this site (who is now VIP of course) is this it is a good forum still with lots of quality people.

Delighted to hear that BS like that didn't turn you away from this site. Lots of great guys here with scads of knowledge they don't mind sharing. The odd pin-head as well but ... WTF. I did the VIP thing but haven't been spending much time here of late and let it slip. I'll get on it soon though as the bang for the buck is large.

@brucetopping; just found this thread, glad to hear that things are going well with your ms3 now! As for Tokay444 I'm glad you didn't get disheartand by him. As for yearly maintain costs, I bought my '13 pu in Oct '13 now i have 53k km, on it all I've had to do maintainance wise is oil changes, and just buying my first set of summer tires for the spring to replace the tires that came with... Brakes will prob be soon once I hit the track more. I also replaced the shitty oem transmission fluid for red line MTL, works much better

Sent via tapafail.

I second the Redline MTL! Get some and enjoy the nicer sounding tranny and better feeling shifts. I put some in my 2013 MS3 yesterday and its damn good stuff.

I also replaced the OEM trans fluid , but I used the stuff from Ford. shifts are a lot better than the OEM stuff

Glad you got squared away. There are plenty of us local to you that are more than willing to help with issues with these cars.

My family lives in como and i am in st charles. Always happy to lend a hand if needed.

Jarod

I like threads that end this way. Hope OP is happy and enjoyes murdering muscle cars that try and race him. Like the new mustang I embarrassed last night :01:

maybe my salvage title is a total lemon.
 

I started this thread last year after I had just purchased the car and had a couple of back-to-back problems. huge ones:

HID headlight housing was $1250
K04 died - installed Corksport turbo was about $2500 with supporting bits and labor.

now less than 10k miles later my power steering pump has failed.
dealer quoted over $1250 to install new pump. lol ( car has 27k on it.)
I guess if the battery gets a little weak it can destroy the power steering pump according to the dealer (due to voltage drop).

It's like these cars are made of fine china: easy to break and very expensive to repair.

Jeez. I am feeling so burned right now. I know I know, everyone can simply call me out for purchasing a salvage title car. my own fault. and you're not wrong.

but seriously who designs a single headlight that costs over a thousand dollars to repair? for vehicle that costs less than 30k to begin with?!? seems like the most inelegant solution imaginable from an engineering perspective. and seemingly a total microcosm for MS3 engineering. hopefully most of the engineers lost their jobs. grrrrr

(sorry just had to rant)

ask your dealer what ANY headlight for ANY car costs there (HIDs that is). to boot, you have HIDs that move with the power steering...more features = more cash.

As you suspected, your salvage title is likely the root of your issues and yours are not common, other than the turbo.

The old saying holds true for any situation. "you get what you pay for". In the end, you still might come out ahead so don't worry too much about it.

ebay is your friend BTW fuck a dealership in the ass.

I've had my gen2 just over a year now so I can accurately comment on this.

No failures.

Changed oil, rotated tires, changed plugs (crossed 60k on the car), put in gas. I would have done that on any vehicle though.

So that's not bad.