Mazda 3 MPS (2005-2008) Exhausts + Intakes + other questions

[VTECMACHINE]

Hi guys,

I tried using the search function, but couldn't find what I was after. Sorry in advance about the length of this.

Alright, i've been looking at a few mods for the MPS. When I get it, I want to order a few parts immediately. Thing is I don't know much about these, or Turbo's in general to be honest. However, I just want subtle modifications. I went a bit too nuts on the previous car, but I want to make the MPS simple etc. So just looking at intake, exhaust and maybe a set of springs. Want everything to be a QUIET as possible.

The intake I think have chosen is the Autoexe air box. I see there are a few different designs though. The full boxed one and the SRI with either a carbon of FRP block off plate. Also looks like you need a seperate battery cooler duct? It's a bit confusing when I don't have the car yet, so I have no idea what i'm really looking for. Any difference between the two designs in term of power. I prefer the boxed one, as it's more legal. Is this more quiet? What other intakes are there? I know there are short and long ram ones. Do lots of people have issues with sucking up water, because I really don't want to have to worry about that every time I drive in the wet.

OK Exhausts... I see there are a few Japanese branded exhausts I can buy. Please stick to Japanese brands. Reason I say this, is that i've played with yankie stuff previously, and the parts have never lasted and never fit properly.
Don't worry about money, but which one out of the following is the quietest, and the "best" for 3 MPS's? If i'm missing one, please suggest it!

* Autoexe muffler
* Fujitsubo
* HKS Legamaz premium
* Mazda speed muffler
* RE Ameniya Dophin tail

I'm really liking the RE Aminya one. That's a catback right? Where as the other's are just mufflers?

SPRINGS

Anyone know the springs rates of OEM? Also, any one know the spring rates on Autoexe, and Mazda speed springs? Anyone got these, on OEM shocks?


Last stupid question:

What is the chassis number and engine number of these 3 MPS's?

THANKS EVERYONE!!

[RedDjinn]

Hi, i have the mazdaspeed lowering kit. wouldnt run it with oem struts as they are 30%stronger 15-20mm drop i dont think the struts would last long. i have a set of konis yellows, work well with these and the koni's give you some damper adjustment on the front. just watch with the rear camber links with wider rims i have Rx8 rims 18x8 +50 offset 235/40 tyres. the camber links have + camber the tyres do rub scrub on guards. but the links do help with understeer, you tend to lose the back a bit rather than front understeer.

good luck wth teh decisions as this is have the fun of modding

[VTECMACHINE]

Thanks for that mate.

15/20mm drop is perfect, and i'd be comfortable to run them on stock struts. So a 30% increase in spring rate. That sounds good It's either going to be springs or Tein Super Streets. I've had experience with Koni Yelllow, and me and my friends have had lots of issues with them. Glad you are enjoying them though, they are very good value for money.

[Doc]

sorry its not jap.. but you can not beat magnaflow

[VTECMACHINE]

Thanks. I don't mean to seem one minded at all. Thanks for recommending magnaflow. I forgot they existed. What are the prices like? Catback, or axelback? Are they loud or quiet?

Who has got a Corksport exhaust? Going of Youtube video's they are really loud.

Seems as if the Japs use 75mm / 2.9 inch, and the yankies are usually always go slightly bigger with 80mm or 3 inch.

I really want to get some feedback on the RE Ameniya exhaust. As this is the one I am currently most interested in.

[MattMPS3]

From the names you have mentioned they all all going to be attention grabbing (noisy) items, the AutoExe boxed intake is pretty loud, probably not far off any other SRI Ive heard, as are most of the mufflers listed (especially the Corksport).

Intake,
A quieter intake option would be the BEGI airbox, its still an SRI by nature, but its all fitted within a pretty hefty aluminum airbox, so it is quite muffled, you can still hear the turbo noises externally, just not as loud as other options. The quietest performance option would be a drop in K&N filter into your stock airbox, anything else on the market will give you an earful of turbo whistle and whoosh.

Exhaust,
I dont know that I have really heard of any quiet jap built exhaust systems, a good choice would be as Doc mentioned, a 3" magnaflow cat-back from Best mufflers, you wont see much in performance without also doing a downpipe, in fact you will get better performance from changing the down-pipe and retaining the stock cat back, than the other way around.

Springs,
I dont know the stock spring rates off hand, I have the Eibach's in mine and it is slightly lower (~15mm) and a tad firmer, not teeth rattling stiff like some of the jap coilovers.
Another item that helps these cars no end is a set of Cobb swaybars, these reduce the factory body roll, while still maintaining a comfortable ride.
I have heard a lot of good reports running Bilstein shocks, these are on my to do list.

I wouldnt knock the US gear too hastily, most of the parts for this platform have been developed and manufactured in the US, I appreciate that you may have had bad experiences on another platform, but I can tell you that the reputable US manufacturers are making some top notch parts for these cars, by comparison (and everyone knows how much of a fussy bugger I am with quality of after-market parts) my car is fitted out predominately with cp-e parts, the only jap branded part is my HKS bov, which was part of the cp-e kit.

From what I can gather about AutoExe, is that your paying premium dollar for sticker bragging rights, the parts are no better than anything else out there, if you believe that paying nearly double for a part that is just as good (or sometimes not as good) as its US counterpart, knock your self out, at the end of the day its your coin.

I dont mean to discourage you, but after playing with cars as long as I have, I really dont rate the majority of the jap "performance" brands out there, most of them are just highly polished crap that looks pretty under your bonnet.

[VTECMACHINE]

That was extremely helpful.

Regarding the US parts stuff, I used to be a Japanese brand whore (haha), then thought i'd give the US parts a go, and yeah they are great and I get exactly what you are saying, but I have been discouraged from buying them through my experiences with big name Honda US parts. The guys in the states are nuts with Hondas, and have built some of the fastest ones. But even still, every single part broke on me or wouldn't fit right. I haven't had one bad experience with any Jap part with quality or fitment. Considering, i'm planning on making this car a pure street car with a tiny bit of performance, I think i'll stick to JDM parts this time around, as I won't be spending massive amounts of money - only wanting exhaust and intake.

However, you can't go wrong with an exhaust, and if you say a magnaflow cat back is good - I will definately look into it. Does anyone have a Video of one? Just want to compare noise levels.

Noted, K&N filter in stock box, and Cobb swaybars and Eibach springs also. I was told that it's better to change the dump rather than the catback. However, people screw their turbo seals etc? Is this a common problem?

Thanks alot for that post, it was very helpful!!

[Bankai]

thinking ahead vtecmachine i like your style lols!! good luck man im looking into some intakes and exhaust atm for my car

[RedDjinn]

Thanks for that mate.

15/20mm drop is perfect, and i'd be comfortable to run them on stock struts. So a 30% increase in spring rate. That sounds good It's either going to be springs or Tein Super Streets. I've had experience with Koni Yelllow, and me and my friends have had lots of issues with them. Glad you are enjoying them though, they are very good value for money.

what problems did you's encounter with teh Koni's?

[VTECMACHINE]

what problems did you's encounter with teh Koni's?

All 4 sets me and my friends have put on our cars leaked within 5-30,000 km's. The oil pissed out the top of the strut where you adjust them.
I do know some people that have had them in for years though, and couldn't be more happy with them.
Also, being an oil damper opposed to a gas damper, what I found at the race track was that as they got hot over the day, I had to keep making them harder and harder, until I ran out of adjustability - as oil gets hotter is becomes thinner. Where as the gas shocks (BuddyClub's, Tein's, Endless Zeals) get harder when they heat up, as gas expands - which lead me to turn them down through out the day. They are good for street I guess, but for track work, they didn't suit me. They are good bang foor buck though, and if you baby them, they'll last a long time. Hopefully more than my set that lasted 5000 km's. I returned them and got my money back though, which was good. Not saying all bigger branded coilovers are good though. The BuddyClub Racing Spec dampers lasted well, and they were horrible. Changing to Zeal Function X saw my lap times drop 2.1 seconds at WP.

---------- Post added at 07:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:39 PM ----------

thinking ahead vtecmachine i like your style lols!! good luck man im looking into some intakes and exhaust atm for my car

Thinking ahead is the best way to do it. You actually end up spending less money that way. Hopefully this thread is useful to you too

[MattMPS3]

I have heard of a few Koni failures of late, they seem to have let themselves go a bit, I had a set a long time ago and they were a fantastic shock, there also seems to be a fair bit of variation on dampening rates out of the box.
The Bilsteins are a monotube gas shock, so no issues with oil and viscosity there, but if you are planning to do a fair bit of track work, then definitely look into a set of coil-overs. I dont have any first hand experience with them, but all reports are that they totally transform the handling characteristics of the car. If you can live with driving a car that is stiff as a board a jap branded set should cost you about 2k, if you want ride comfort and the handling, a euro set will cost you double that.

There is a soundclip here: http://www.bestmufflers.com/SND_mps.wav of the magnaflow system from Best Mufflers on Docs car (he also has a downpipe), he has since toned it down a little further with the addition of a resonator, the turbo seal issue is a tricky one, unfortunately most people dont know they have bad seals until they start modding, the bad batch seemed to affect the earlier production runs (06- early 08) builds, but there have also been reports of later ones failing, not as common as the earlier ones though.

[ToxicMPS]

Hi Vtec,

For springs I installed a set of Kings springs recently mated to Bilsteins for a 1.5 inch drop from stock. I am very happy with the result. I am not going to be doing much track work, the car is a daily driver. If money is not a problem and you'd be on the track a lot, you probably can't get past the Tein Superstreets with the electronic module IMHO.

For my exhaust I have a custom catback from Hitec Mufflers with Mille Miglia mufflers. Its quiet but still sounds good. It sounds like an expensive car lol Price was good as well. looking at dropping in a DP soon.

Keep in mind to do something with your computer as well with all the mods and you'll need a tune. ( Tunehouse installed the above mods for me including a Haltec, intake, FMIC and tune)

[VTECMACHINE]

MattMPS3, Thanks mate. I don't think you'll see major issues with the Koni's. Like I said, there are a few people I know that speak highly of them - unfortunately they failed on me and a few of my friends. Forgot about the Bilsteins. Yes, they really good, and I will consider them in time. I promised myself and everyone around me that I won't mod this car too much, and that this is my step to cut down on tracking for the time being. Saying that, it will see wakefield maybe one time a year at max. I trialed quite a few sets of coilovers in the DC2R, and have a set of custom valved and springed $3300 Zeal coilvers in there - So not going down that path again. This is 110% going to be a daily, and I need to keep it that way. So yeah Bilstein shock with lowered springs may be the go. Although, i'm going to just enjoy softer sussy for a while, then when I get bored, i'll start playing a litle :P

ToxicMPS: How are the Bilstiens man? Good for daily driving and how much did they cost (you can PM me this if you don' want to announce is publically). Yeah, a tune is the most important thing. I will look into this muccchhhh later. The 3 MPS has more than enough power for me though, so I won't be chasing power at all, just response really.


Question: So what do people think of the BOSE sound system, it is "good", "amazing", or is there room for improvment??

---------- Post added at 12:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:30 PM ----------

Oh yeah forgot to ask, regarding those Turbo Seals... are they expensive to buy and replace? Is that a warrenty thing, or not? Can you get after market "better" ones. Sorry, i'm a turbo noob.

[STEALTH_MPS]

hey mate. Ive got the corksport catback on my car atm and no downpipe..its only loud in the mornings on startup..Other then that though its pretty quiet.No droning on freeways or anyways and has a nice rumble when just putting around.At idle its barely noticeable imo. Its a really good quality piece.

[VTECMACHINE]

Nice. I thought they were hella loud.
MPS's sound like WRX's a bit.

[STEALTH_MPS]

ive got a vid in my mazspace if you want to hear what it sounds like in the morning

[VTECMACHINE]

What's Mazspace? Yeah, i'd love to hear it!!
Not up to scratch with the Mazda stuff yet! Soz

[STEALTH_MPS]

On the top bar it says mazspace. Where users can post pics of their cars

[VTECMACHINE]

Awesome, thanks brother.

I see you're in Sydney. We should have a meet up Better yet, does ozMPSclub have meet days or anything - hoping to attend one soon.

---------- Post added at 10:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 PM ----------

Just trying to see if I can keep somethings from the teggie.

Are Mazda's wheel nuts 12 x 1.5, just like Honda's are? If so, i'll keep my Kiks R40 nuts!
Keeping the rare tako grounding kit too.

[ToxicMPS]

ToxicMPS: How are the Bilstiens man? Good for daily driving and how much did they cost (you can PM me this if you don' want to announce is publically). Yeah, a tune is the most important thing. I will look into this muccchhhh later. The 3 MPS has more than enough power for me though, so I won't be chasing power at all, just response really.

I've only had the Bilsteins( with the Kings) for a couple of weeks. I do use the car every day though, and in Sydney's goat track roads they are excellent. I did get the opportunity to go for a fang along a nice curvy driving road close to a friend's place that I am familiar with and I really noticed the difference from the stock ones. ( mind you I still need to install a rear sway yet).
I think that some members here also have the Bilsteins with either Kings or Eibachs, they may also be able to give feedback. PM sent