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It might just be your battery. My factory battery in my '08 3 didn't quite last 4 years.
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Jul 2, 2015 00:30
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Despite neglecting my car and paint for the past six months, it really cleaned up nicely with some no rinse car wash and clay bar, followed by a sealer.
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Jul 6, 2015 05:19
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Your gas door cover offends me, sir.
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Jul 6, 2015 07:00
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Google Butt posted:Your gas door cover offends me, sir. It's a factory option as far as i know, and the PO is the one to blame if I'm wrong.
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Jul 6, 2015 07:46
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MetaJew posted:It's a factory option as far as i know, and the PO is the one to blame if I'm wrong. Yes, it was a factory/dealership option and we should all feel bad about it.
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Jul 6, 2015 09:26
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Whatever guys, it's better than a decal like on the BRZs and FRSs, and I'm not going to waste my time or money on something I only see when I fill up with gas.
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Jul 6, 2015 17:26
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MetaJew posted:Whatever guys, it's better than a decal like on the BRZs and FRSs, and I'm not going to waste my time or money on something I only see when I fill up with gas. I was just messing around man  I've been looking at some new tires.. Anyone that has a gen 1 run 225/40/18 on stock wheels? I'm looking at the pilot super sports.
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Jul 6, 2015 17:32
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Google Butt posted:I was just messing around man I did for quite a while; ran Ventus V12 Evos for a long time. I'm now running 245/40-18 Ventus R-S3 on 8.5 ET 50 wheels (need a roll in the rear, stock suspension).
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Jul 7, 2015 07:28
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boodah posted:I did for quite a while; ran Ventus V12 Evos for a long time. I'm now running 245/40-18 Ventus R-S3 on 8.5 ET 50 wheels (need a roll in the rear, stock suspension). How did that increase in rubber effect the handling? I don't want to go massive, afraid it will feel like poo poo.
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Jul 7, 2015 07:48
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I'm thinking about buying an '08 3 Hatchback (grand touring) with 93K miles. I've read a few pages of this thread but not all of them. Anything I should be looking out for? I'm going to check it out tomorrow. The Autocheck on the car is good, and the car is stock and looks clean. I'm sorta bummed it's an automatic, but I think I can deal. Reliability reports on the internet seem somewhat varied, but I also know people usually only write when something goes wrong. Any thoughts? It's either this or an Acura TSX.
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Jul 8, 2015 07:53
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I don't have any experience with the regular 3s, but my 09 MS3 hasn't given me any issues in my five years of ownership. I took it to the dealer twice while it was under warranty. Once for when the passenger door speaker blew itself out, and another time when the door guard trim started coming unglued. Assuming it has been well taken care of, I don't think it would be a bad car.
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Jul 8, 2015 08:07
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grahm posted:I'm thinking about buying an '08 3 Hatchback (grand touring) with 93K miles. I've read a few pages of this thread but not all of them. Anything I should be looking out for? I'm going to check it out tomorrow. The Autocheck on the car is good, and the car is stock and looks clean. I'm sorta bummed it's an automatic, but I think I can deal. Is it a speed? Regardless, take it to a mechanic for a pre-purchase inspection, a compression and a leakdown test (most important). That's generally the best practice.
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Jul 8, 2015 09:01
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grahm posted:I'm thinking about buying an '08 3 Hatchback (grand touring) with 93K miles. I've read a few pages of this thread but not all of them. Anything I should be looking out for? I'm going to check it out tomorrow. The Autocheck on the car is good, and the car is stock and looks clean. I'm sorta bummed it's an automatic, but I think I can deal. I've only had mine for six or so months but so far so good. The most disappointing thing about to me is the quality of the paint - especially on the roof it's really thin so I have a bunch of little chips. E. also I have a rattle in the dash, but I'm 90% sure it is something that got dislodged when the cabin air filter was replaced.
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Jul 8, 2015 09:55
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MetaJew posted:I don't have any experience with the regular 3s, but my 09 MS3 hasn't given me any issues in my five years of ownership. I took it to the dealer twice while it was under warranty. Once for when the passenger door speaker blew itself out, Huh, apparently this is more common than I knew, my '11 3 did the same thing. I've been pretty impressed with the sound system overall though. Also have noise in my dash but a mechanic I asked seemed to think it was fine. The top fan speed seems so drat loud though (and worse on head/floor split).
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Jul 8, 2015 13:11
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grahm posted:I'm thinking about buying an '08 3 Hatchback (grand touring) with 93K miles. I've read a few pages of this thread but not all of them. Anything I should be looking out for? I'm going to check it out tomorrow. The Autocheck on the car is good, and the car is stock and looks clean. I'm sorta bummed it's an automatic, but I think I can deal. My 08 had about that many miles on it when I bought it a couple years ago. My experience was that *the* motor mount had already gone bad and was replaced. That was a red flag to me on the carfax report until I realized that it's very common on 3's. Aside from that, the shocks and struts were in poor shape and needed replaced. So that doesn't really answer your question, but I thought I'd share my experience.
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Jul 8, 2015 14:58
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Thanks for the replies. My situation is: I have a 5-speed 2002 Protege5 with 130K miles and a power steering pump that needs to be replaced. It could probably also use some suspension work and other things that an 14-year-old, 130K mile car with 4 owners needs. I figure I could put 1-2 grand into it and it would be good for a few years. The 08 3 I'm looking at has 93K miles, is an auto/hatchback/grand touring with every option except nav. I could get it for 9K, maybe a tiny bit less. DO I: 1) deal with my car, fix it, have a slow-ish/loud/unrefined but otherwise ok car for another few years OR 2) spend 9K on the 2008 3, hopefully sell my car for around 4K, and have less money but a better car 3) do something else? Different car? Sell all cars move to the ocean and live on BOAT? THOUGHTS? I have the money to do it and won't be financing, but part of my thinks I should just deal with my lame slow car for a couple more years. On the other hand, it sucks to put a lot of $$ into an older car that I won't be able to sell for any more, and that's a little unrefined. Idk u guys give me some wisdom. Also,nI don't work on cars myself, so factor me having to pay someone to do repairs into it all.
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Jul 8, 2015 21:57
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What are you looking for in a car? If you're looking for a "fast" Mazda, you should be looking at the Speed, which will run you about 15k for a lowish mileage gen 1.
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Jul 8, 2015 22:14
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Google Butt posted:What are you looking for in a car? If you're looking for a "fast" Mazda, you should be looking at the Speed, which will run you about 15k for a lowish mileage gen 1. I don't need fast, but reliable and at least somewhat fun is ideal. The top end of my budget is like 9500 though.
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Jul 8, 2015 22:36
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grahm posted:I don't need fast, but reliable and at least somewhat fun is ideal. The top end of my budget is like 9500 though. Miata Is Always The Answer.
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Jul 8, 2015 23:19
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Rhyno posted:Miata Is Always The Answer. I wish! I also need to be able to carry drums and people.
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Jul 8, 2015 23:27
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grahm posted:I wish! I also need to be able to carry drums and people. Get a hard top and a roof rack.
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Jul 8, 2015 23:28
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You can tow with a Miata, right? 
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Jul 9, 2015 02:07
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kefkafloyd posted:You can tow with a Miata, right? Of course.
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Jul 9, 2015 02:16
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grahm posted:I don't need fast, but reliable and at least somewhat fun is ideal. The top end of my budget is like 9500 though. I've had my 2006 since new and I love it. I don't put many miles on it now so it's at 75k. I put a lot of that in the first few years. It's been reliable. I have a stick shift model though. It's a good car.  image credit to sza
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Jul 9, 2015 02:45
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CharlesM posted:I've had my 2006 since new and I love it.
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Jul 9, 2015 02:49
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grahm posted:I'm thinking about buying an '08 3 Hatchback (grand touring) with 93K miles. I've read a few pages of this thread but not all of them. Anything I should be looking out for? I'm going to check it out tomorrow. The Autocheck on the car is good, and the car is stock and looks clean. I'm sorta bummed it's an automatic, but I think I can deal. I had an '08 sedan grand touring that I owned from new to about 85k. During that time the only unusual things I recall are a power steering line recall, having to replace the serpentine belt and tensioner twice, and five transmission flushes based on the fluid looking burned which seemed a bit excessive at about 18-20k between changes. I don't recall what the maintenance schedule was so maybe that was normal? Fuel efficiency isn't that great either, especially compared to the newer Skyactiv engines. Then again I was doing a 22 mile round trip commute five days a week in heavy traffic so it was really the worst case scenario for the poor thing.
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Jul 9, 2015 03:46
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Word of mouth (technician phone conference) at the dealer is a CX-3 in US ports sometime in August.
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Jul 9, 2015 10:15
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Honestly, I'd just fix what you have now. If things continue to break or if rust becomes an issue, if that's a problem where you live, then you can still look for another car later on. I'm sure you would be able to find a similar 3 later on.
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Jul 9, 2015 16:32
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mariooncrack posted:Honestly, I'd just fix what you have now. If things continue to break or if rust becomes an issue, if that's a problem where you live, then you can still look for another car later on. I'm sure you would be able to find a similar 3 later on. Yeah I think that's what I'll do. I drove that 3 last night and it was nice, but not something I want to spend that much money on.
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Jul 9, 2015 19:20
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I suggest sticking with the old one as well. Unless you start to run into prohibitively costly repairs. Mazda parts are not expensive from what I can tell when looking, at least compared to my piece of poo poo VW that I took very good care of and yet it still managed to suck over $5k in repairs out of my wallet before I folded and traded the VW in.
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Jul 9, 2015 21:53
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I ended up selling my Protege5 because once they got it into the shop it needed $2,000+ of work. Thinking of buying a 2008.5 Mazdaspeed 3 with 124K miles for $10K. One owner, always serviced at Mazda, no mods, talked to the Mazda mechanic for a while today and everything checks out, new shocks, brakes, tires, 120K mile service done at Mazda. Needs a new EGR valve and serpentine belt, which will cost under $1,000 (I confirmed that that is all it needs by the Mazda tech, and it'll cost less if I decide to do it somewhere else). What do you all think? High miles for the year but the price seems good, at least for my area. And higher miles means that all of the normal 100-120K services / replacements / problems have been dealt with. Anything I should look out for?
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Jul 18, 2015 01:52
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Sounds like a good deal to me. I got my 2008.5 for $15.5 with 50k, bone stock.
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Jul 18, 2015 01:58
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A grand to do the EGR valve and serpentine belt seems really high! I removed and cleaned my EGR a couple of times in my speed6. A serpentine can be done by anyone with no effort at all. With the EGR valve removal you will need to remove a vacuum line from the plastic turbo inlet pipe that is pressed on to this tiny molded plastic nipple that breaks off the second you breathe on it. You can get rid of that horribly formed piece of garbage for a nice smooth silicone inlet pipe from COBB or others for ~$130. Check with the mechanic but I remember one of the local techs telling me the plastic turbo pipe replacement was usually included in the replacement of the EGR because of the broken nipple thing.
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Jul 19, 2015 05:48
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I did it! By far the dopest car I've ever owned / most $$ I've ever withdrawn from my bank account. I'm hoping it lasts me a while. Somewhat Heroic posted:A grand to do the EGR valve and serpentine belt seems really high! I removed and cleaned my EGR a couple of times in my speed6. A serpentine can be done by anyone with no effort at all. With the EGR valve removal you will need to remove a vacuum line from the plastic turbo inlet pipe that is pressed on to this tiny molded plastic nipple that breaks off the second you breathe on it. You can get rid of that horribly formed piece of garbage for a nice smooth silicone inlet pipe from COBB or others for ~$130. Check with the mechanic but I remember one of the local techs telling me the plastic turbo pipe replacement was usually included in the replacement of the EGR because of the broken nipple thing. Yeah the serpentine anyone could do. The Mazda tech who worked on the car said he recommended me getting the EGR done by Mazda because there is some other part(s) they'll know to clean than a non-Mazda mechanic might not necessarily automatically do? I know nothing about cars so I don't know if that's bullshit or real; what I might do is look up what needs to be cleaned online and then tell that to my mechanic, who always does a great job.
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Jul 19, 2015 19:54
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Nice, looks clean! I've never seen a white ms3 in person.
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Jul 19, 2015 20:02
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I cleaned out the EGR on my MS3 twice, and I even managed to do so without breaking any of those stupid vacuum nubs. It's really not that bad, certainly not a $1k job. Any decent mechanic can sort it out (and probably do it faster than I did).
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Jul 19, 2015 20:17
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The mazdaspeedforums are a great resource for our cars, pretty much any modification or repair has been discussed or documented there. Beware that it's a dogshit community aside from the information and for sale forum.
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Jul 19, 2015 20:29
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And you need an /annual/ membership to view the for sale section, right?
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Jul 19, 2015 20:49
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MetaJew posted:And you need an /annual/ membership to view the for sale section, right? I think it's a $25 donation for access. It was worth it for me because I got a gen 2 fuel pump with AT internals and a v2 AP for a deal.
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Jul 19, 2015 21:10
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That's a great looking hatch. They are really solid cars and I think Mazda got a lot right and proving themselves by not getting too explody when maintained properly and not 2ned with sic modz.
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Jul 20, 2015 07:10
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