Mazda 3 MPS Mk2

Author
Discussion

pimpchez

Original Poster:

899 posts

183 months

Friday 11th April 2014
quotequote all
Firstly i have been a member on here for years, even before I signed myself up i was an active lurker. I just don’t post as much as i should maybe...
Anyway vie never had a car i have personally deemed worth of putting up on here so now i do here is my 6 month old ( to me ) mk2 3 MPS .

Firstly this is what i came from , it served me well 40k miles in 3 years including being at uni . Unfortunately all good things have to come to an end. I needed boost in my life.










Let’s start with the day i bought it .The week before on the test drive i noticed the steering pulling heavily to the kerb, it was awful .Anyway i agreed with the dealer (franchise Mercedes) that this issue would be sorted before i collected .So i haggled a bit of the price as the car wasn't perfect (new tyres needed) and the normal stone chips.

A week passes and i take half a day off work, travel the 60+ miles with a big grin on my face even though vie ripped all the audio out of my old car .By the time i sign all the paperwork its 2.15 and i need to wait until 3 for my insurance kicks in, this soon passes as i try to pair my phone with the cars Bluetooth.

So I am on my way and within 100m i notice the steering hasn’t been sorted to my horror , i try to fob it off to the roads and go on a long test drive ,by this point it’s 4 on a Friday and imp fuming . I ring the salesman and ask was the tracking really sorted (I have the paperwork in front of me) and he assures me it was ok. I take the car back and get one of their techies to drive it and confirm what is happening.
So I now have the option of a refund or letting them fix it. Now considering the salesman had never heard of an MPS before it came in from auction, it didn’t fill me with confidence. So I said what about I take it to my local Mazda on Monday and you guys pay for it. He agreed and off I went, fast forward to Monday Mazda’s solution was 3 new Avon zv5s, so I thought great.
This didn’t fix it they said change the other new tyre for a matching Avon so I did, after much arguing it was found the steering wheel itself needed re aligning. So 3 new tyres for free wasn’t to be sniffed at 
Anyway enough of the boring stuff, my original plan was to stay standard as it was a massive jump from the T-sport already.

Here is my mod list haha :
Corksport stage 2 intake
Autotech hpfp (fuel pump)
Total mps tmic
Forge v2 bpv
Mij catback with 4" cannons
Total mps downpipe
BNR stage 3 turbo
Cobb 3 port EBCS
Heko wind deflectors
Cobb Accessport
Throttle body coolant delete
Upgraded charge hoses

I blew my old turbo (ko4) “trying“ to keep up with a silly power Subaru the other week so had to get the BNR to get back on road . It took me 2 weekends and a week of after work time but it’s done now .

I am not chasing silly power but I will upload a virtual dyno report after the tune is complete .
These are seriously underrated cars, in the eyes of Joe public and really fickle but I love it even though it’s leading me to financial ruin I won’t keep it much longer….



Edited by pimpchez on Friday 11th April 09:37

Sobored

128 posts

155 months

Friday 11th April 2014
quotequote all
Awesome car! Love the fact not people people know (joe public) the MPS is bloody quick wink It can suprise a few!

pimpchez

Original Poster:

899 posts

183 months

Friday 11th April 2014
quotequote all
Thanks mate , yes its quick as standard especially on the motorway .


Now its well quite special for what it is ,in a non obvious kind of way. No one expects 300 whp+

GregK2

1,660 posts

146 months

Friday 11th April 2014
quotequote all
Love these! Look great, the mk2 especially.

decadent

2,173 posts

175 months

Friday 11th April 2014
quotequote all
Love these. Remember being the passenger my brothers Cooper S and a Mk1 version left him for dead off of the A1 roundabouts. I knew what it was but he didn’t and wasn’t impressed.

Fruitcake

236 posts

127 months

Saturday 12th April 2014
quotequote all
A chap where I work has had his converted to 4wd and is looking for 700bhp in his Mps.

parabolica

6,715 posts

184 months

Saturday 12th April 2014
quotequote all
Fruitcake said:
A chap where I work has had his converted to 4wd and is looking for 700bhp in his Mps.

bozzy101

506 posts

139 months

Saturday 12th April 2014
quotequote all
Fruitcake said:
A chap where I work has had his converted to 4wd and is looking for 700bhp in his Mps.
That'll be quick!

Edited by bozzy101 on Saturday 12th April 22:52

aspirated

2,539 posts

146 months

Saturday 12th April 2014
quotequote all
Fruitcake said:
A chap where I work has had his converted to 4wd and is looking for 700bhp in his Mps.
Wow, a Haldex AWD borrowed from the 6 MPS i presume?

Fruitcake

236 posts

127 months

Sunday 13th April 2014
quotequote all


I know very little about what he's had done. Since he's had it back from the tuning company he uses its been back and forth to get little repairs done. I'm pretty sure he said its the only 4wd conversion 3 in the UK.

Edited by Fruitcake on Sunday 13th April 07:54

pimpchez

Original Poster:

899 posts

183 months

Sunday 13th April 2014
quotequote all
I know him ,I was meant to be going to the dyno day today but I had to pull out due to the turbo going I didn't think I'd fix it in time so gave my place up .
The money he has spent is stupid ,my mate has a 600bhp 6 .

My tune isn't finished so would be no point me going on today as Im only at 330bhp 360lb ft ish

bozzy101

506 posts

139 months

Sunday 13th April 2014
quotequote all
pimpchez said:
My tune isn't finished so would be no point me going on today as Im only at 330bhp 360lb ft ish
"Only..." Lol.

Alfahorn

7,766 posts

208 months

Sunday 13th April 2014
quotequote all
Awesome left field hot hatch, love it!

Medic-one

3,105 posts

203 months

Sunday 13th April 2014
quotequote all

Looks nice in red, been looking at all sort to replace the misses boring shopping trolley (corsa) with, can't believe i've never thought of, or even looked at these!

pimpchez

Original Poster:

899 posts

183 months

Sunday 13th April 2014
quotequote all
bozzy101 said:
pimpchez said:
My tune isn't finished so would be no point me going on today as Im only at 330bhp 360lb ft ish
"Only..." Lol.
Ye its basically were i was with a finished tune on the ko4 turbo with the stock downpipe . Doesnt feel that much quicker .

Good news a guy with the same turbo as me and a few more mods (3 bar map sensor ,3" maf housing) made 385 on the dyno today so i think thats were il be soon wink



Went for a blast with some mates today ;p

Edited by pimpchez on Tuesday 22 April 15:53

pimpchez

Original Poster:

899 posts

183 months

Tuesday 22nd April 2014
quotequote all
Just a small update , i think i am getting a slight exhaust leak. i know that the gaskets are terrible but it appears that vibration is shaking the nuts free from the bolts grrrr .

pimpchez

Original Poster:

899 posts

183 months

Monday 28th April 2014
quotequote all
Exhaust leak now fixed , with spring washers .I got it done one a ramp this time as i couldn't be bothered doing it myself on stands again .

The remap process has been suspended as i either need higher octane fuel/meth/nos to run more timing or more boost less timing.

A 3bar map sensor will be purchased and installed in a couple of weeks.

pimpchez

Original Poster:

899 posts

183 months

Wednesday 18th June 2014
quotequote all
Well the day has come , even though i dont want to i have but my car up for sale .

I cant justify keeping the beast anymore

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/m...

pimpchez

Original Poster:

899 posts

183 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
Update

Well the car wont sell , even though its up an reasonable price .
So i will keep it until the mileage is high.

For the last few months ive had a slight knock over pot holes and large bumps , so i thought il change the rear droplinks when i get chance .
So off i went to screwfix to invest in a angle grinder to cut the old ones off over a hour later in rain it was off and the new one in ,the knocking was reduced but not gone .

So i made sure all bolts were tight which they where until i got the shocker top mounts. Which resulted in a snapped bolt frown



After that was sorted , I turned my attention to the random hesitation on part throttle i was getting randomly. First port of call was to the blame the tuner , after checking for leaks between air filter and exhaust i found the MAF sensor was rocking on the housing along with air straightener falling out .




A litte bit of zip ties , glue and ducktape patched it up until i managed to source another .The original was a corksport one but i didnt want another so i bought a SURE one. This is slightly longer which results in a tight fit for my air filter.700 miles later all is well .

On friday i got my car on the ramp to install the uprated rear engine mount as the stock one was terrible and failing , while up there i noticed my front tyres were bordering slicks .



I ended up with some falken 914s as i got them at mates rates so couldn't moan there for the price fitted.

A few weeks ago the owners group had a mini meet in a country park and i took my mates VXR for the run up north.


The car is nearly where i want it now ,but i will hold off more mods until next year .


pimpchez

Original Poster:

899 posts

183 months

Monday 15th September 2014
quotequote all


A guy on the forum can make plates and stickers so i thought why not .




The end of august i upgraded my system to 3" which helped massively after 5500rpm it also fixed a slight exhaust leak i had .

I finally managed to get my 3bar map sensor on as i just couldn't stomach the price of the harness it needs i set up a GB to spread the shipping.

Tuning has started , il get a catch can on at some point then the car will make way for something more sensible early next year.