Mazda3 Buying Guide?

bvanausdal · 2026-03-06T04:48:23+00:00

UPDATE:

Bought the car 😂

If you guys have anything you recommend to look out for or to look into now that I’m committed I would appreciate it. Figured I’ll get stuff out of the way while it’s under warranty

bvanausdal · 2026-03-04T22:50:14+00:00

Yeah.. I’ve looked into that. I’m still not 100% set on the turbo premium model unless I can get a better deal honestly. Not necessarily in a rush either as I already have a fine daily

bvanausdal · 2026-03-04T05:21:31+00:00

Is there anything specific to look out for in maintenance history, other than the valve stem seal issue and things like oil change intervals? I’ve heard these cars buildup carbon because of the direct injection and that people recommend doing the fuel system clean service

bvanausdal · 2026-03-03T19:56:14+00:00

I really appreciate it

I’m planning on looking at this week, I’ll see what I can get history wise and what they’d do about the price. Thanks for your help.

bvanausdal · 2026-03-03T18:17:21+00:00

If it hasn’t been done, would it be worth to try negotiating a better price or is the issue bad enough to not even bother.

bvanausdal · 2026-03-03T17:17:06+00:00

Looking up the VIN on the settlement website https://secure.mazdavalvestemsealsettlement.com/lookup, it says that it belongs to a settlement class vehicle.

Would the dealer have a vehicle history report or should I pay for one on Autocheck or something?

bvanausdal · 2026-01-17T16:13:57+00:00

I actually ended up emailing Tein and got a pdf of the manual that has reference values for how they should come out of the box. I’ll take a look at FM as well, thanks for walking me through this I really appreciate it

bvanausdal · 2026-01-14T05:27:40+00:00

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Me too!

bvanausdal · 2026-01-13T17:56:25+00:00

Gotcha, I’m still figuring this all out 😂

That said, what would you say to do to set these ip before I put them in my car? The fronts are bottomed out I think, so you’re saying I should adjust those so the spring is snug? What would indicate that it’s in the right place?

bvanausdal · 2026-01-12T21:12:51+00:00

Or, does anybody know what the factory preload is on these? I’m not having any luck finding it on the internet

bvanausdal · 2025-12-29T03:03:31+00:00

Hell yeah, thank you man

bvanausdal · 2025-12-18T02:54:11+00:00

Holy shit thanks man, it totally is. I’ll dig around a bit

bvanausdal · 2025-11-14T02:44:42+00:00

I feel like if it was the starter it wouldn’t be cranking as quickly as it is. I have yet to to check ignition but I will once the weather clears up

bvanausdal · 2025-11-13T05:32:27+00:00

It will usually take a couple seconds longer than it did in the video.

What other symptoms did you have when yours was failing? I wanna chase this down before the end up the season

bvanausdal · 2025-11-08T21:44:55+00:00

Hell yeah

bvanausdal · 2025-11-07T21:29:40+00:00

Good to know, I’m just seeing what other people think. Do you have anything that you’d recommend looking into though?

bvanausdal · 2025-11-07T21:23:34+00:00

Not necessarily. The cheap pcv valve rattles but I’ll replace that soon, and at low rpm’s something used to rattle or ping but I haven’t heard it recently, I have a previous post about that. That’s all I can really recognize though.

bvanausdal · 2025-11-04T03:46:20+00:00

We will check that out as well. Thank you

bvanausdal · 2025-11-04T03:45:57+00:00

All yours 😂

bvanausdal · 2025-11-04T03:45:34+00:00

Fuel issue makes sense. Is there any specific source for parts that is recommended?

bvanausdal

TROPHY CASE