Mazda 3 MPS Mk1
I thought after owning the car now for over six months, it was about time I put up a project thread!
So here goes!
I bought the car form a lad called Josh from Salisbury at the beginning of June. The car was the best of four I looked at over a two week period although it had slightly higher mileage. It had a full Rentech service history and there were receipts for everything, all manuals, both keys etc so the deal was sealed!
The Spec:
2005 Clio 182 Cup
Recaro Trendlines from Clio Trophy number 465
Speedline Turinis from Clio Trophy number 465
Magnecor 8.5mm Leads
And some pics the day I picked her up:
I was really pleased with the car the only issues were that the wheel had melted as they all do and the driver’s side door mirror glass was smashed in-between me looking at the car and picking it up, but I haggled £40 off the price so no problem!
Also the car kept crying, the headlight washer jets were leaking and it repeatedly emptied the washer jet bottle. So I fitted these:
They stopped the water from flowing when the motors were not pumping so no more randomly emptying washer bottle!
I also popped down to Renault and got a new wing mirror glass and whilst I was there I bought a new badge for the rear, 197 style!
I got the car home and it stayed as it was for the first month and then I got the itch!
I toyed with the idea of having the interior trims made in carbon fibre so I bought some di-noc carbon vinyl and had a go..
I was quite pleased with the look of the vinyl so I sourced some more interior bits and these were held on to for real carbon to be sorted.
Next I got hold of a brand new scorpion de-cat pipe for only £40 and despite having only the standard exhaust system I thought id fit it and see how the car was..
So out with the cat
In with the de-cat
Cheers Tim!
The de-cat made the car rev a little better and made the standard exhaust a bit more fruity!
I also had a new number plate made up by fancy plates to fit exactly in the aperture that is moulded in the bumper so no over-hang
And a fresh rear too
And finally got around to fitting the new 197 “Renaultsport” badge
The plan was to leave the car like this for a little while then I had a slight problem
The alternator died and it needed a new one. I looked at reconditioned units, but decided to go for a brand new OEM Valeo unit as buy cheap... buy twice! So after a lot of hassle my mate Tim fitted it, but wasn’t an easy job!
All fitted along with a new auxiliary belt and kit it was good as gold!
After the alternator clearing me out for one month I had some cheapy mods to do!
Silvervisions and Led front side lights to match the Xenon’s
LED rear number plate light bulb fitted
And that was it for a few weeks.
I then got myself booked in on the Renaultsport track day at Silverstone on the 4th August so a few upgrades were in order!
Firstly brakes:
DS2500’s, ATE Super blue fluid
The correct ones!
And fluid
K & N Panel Filter fitted
And I bought a Schroth Profi II Harness for the track day. This harness has eye clips on each belt so I fitted a set of high tensile steel eyelets from MSAR so the belt could be clipped in and out for track days, harnesses on a daily driver are a pain!
Then it was off to Silverstone for the day!
Was a fantastic day and learnt a lot about the car! The weather was awful for 2 thirds of it though! Car was faultless and averages 18mpg! Ouch!
The only issue I did find during the day was that a couple of times when really working the brakes the servo assistance just went leaving a rock solid pedal, it would stop, and stop well but only if I jumped on the pedal. This intermittent problem was set to confuse myself and several specialists for several months!
The day I was at Silverstone my new Piper 182 exhaust system arrived so the next day off I went to get it fitted, and whilst at it I decided to fit all the carbon parts I had collected since getting the car
New exhaust on tick over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dswG0fCkwls&feature=related
Streamline carbon exhaust trims
Absolute pig to fit, quite poor to be honest but look fab once the hassle had passed
Streamline carbon door Bullets
Wheel badge
Interior light surround
Dash strip 1
Dash Strip 2
And gear knob with decal set in the resin
Carbon Fog Light Surrounds
Excuse the flies, and you can see the washers decided to start leaking again gggrrrrr
So guess what...
Carbon washer blanks!
And a carbon front Renault Diamond
After having the exhaust fitted I went down to JMS in Surrey and had a 12k service and re-map done, along with a set of matched upper and lower inlets
The map certainly livened up the car, and the popping and banging was fun... for a little while!
Since buying the car the steering wheel was the last interior part I really wasn’t happy with, and after being messed around with wheel refurbishment promises from an un named member I decided to go for something different!
197 Steering Wheel and Airbag conversion
It’s not a straight swap, the firing mechanism from the 182 airbag as to be swapped with the 197 one so it works with the wiring, and the cruise control wiring needs to be re wired to work with the controls. But the end result was a much much better feeling wheel, which sits about an inch closer and looks great
After having this fitted I then upgraded the front door speakers to a set of Alpine Coax speakers as the standard Renault speakers are, well, pants.
Then things started to get a little more serious and I started looking at various other ways of improving the cars performance and was booked in on the Cliosport.net rolling road day at Tour De Force. Before heading down to TDF the night before I fitted a power flex upgraded dog bone mount
This made a fantastic difference to the gear change, and it felt so much slicker! It also stopped the occasional bang from the exhaust I kept getting if I did a poor jerky gear change!
The next day it was off to TDF
And performance French cars magazine were in attendance and got a great shot of my car spitting a flame on the dyno..
My results were very good too
179.9 BHP & 160.4 Ft Lb torque, I was very pleased, and Matt @ TDF commented that it was a very healthy car!
The final photo for the magazine
The next time the car was going for a little trip it would be much more significant with the purchase of these:
Cat-cam 428 performance cams! These were going to be fitted by Dan @ 519 Automotive (sidewaysdanny) so that’s where we went the next week.
Whilst having the cams done I had the chance to tart the engine bay up a little so I went mad with Dan and various tins of paint!
And then the rocker cover was off and cams fitted..
Everything was so clean under the rocker cover, it’s clearly had a very good life!
Then back to the painting, the rocker cover now with red crinkle finish paint like the Type-r Honda engines
And the finished Engine, new cams fitted with full cam belt kit, new aux belt, and a lick of paint
I drove the car home unmapped, but the car felt a little hesitant so I was not happy to drive it for the 9 day wait to take it to TDF for mapping so she sat at home and I pinched lifts for a week!
Then on the 13th November I headed over to TDF where I originally made 179.9 bhp and 160.6 ft lb for mapping...
Back on the rollers with map custom live mapping the car
And the final figures overlaid over the previous power run 4 weeks earlier..
193 BHP & 165.4 ft Lbs of Torque!
Very happy!
Next plans are Throttle bodies and I’m looking into it as we speak! Sorry for the essay but done a lot and not done a project thread!
So here goes!
I bought the car form a lad called Josh from Salisbury at the beginning of June. The car was the best of four I looked at over a two week period although it had slightly higher mileage. It had a full Rentech service history and there were receipts for everything, all manuals, both keys etc so the deal was sealed!
The Spec:
2005 Clio 182 Cup
Recaro Trendlines from Clio Trophy number 465
Speedline Turinis from Clio Trophy number 465
Magnecor 8.5mm Leads
And some pics the day I picked her up:
I was really pleased with the car the only issues were that the wheel had melted as they all do and the driver’s side door mirror glass was smashed in-between me looking at the car and picking it up, but I haggled £40 off the price so no problem!
Also the car kept crying, the headlight washer jets were leaking and it repeatedly emptied the washer jet bottle. So I fitted these:
They stopped the water from flowing when the motors were not pumping so no more randomly emptying washer bottle!
I also popped down to Renault and got a new wing mirror glass and whilst I was there I bought a new badge for the rear, 197 style!
I got the car home and it stayed as it was for the first month and then I got the itch!
I toyed with the idea of having the interior trims made in carbon fibre so I bought some di-noc carbon vinyl and had a go..
I was quite pleased with the look of the vinyl so I sourced some more interior bits and these were held on to for real carbon to be sorted.
Next I got hold of a brand new scorpion de-cat pipe for only £40 and despite having only the standard exhaust system I thought id fit it and see how the car was..
So out with the cat
In with the de-cat
Cheers Tim!
The de-cat made the car rev a little better and made the standard exhaust a bit more fruity!
I also had a new number plate made up by fancy plates to fit exactly in the aperture that is moulded in the bumper so no over-hang
And a fresh rear too
And finally got around to fitting the new 197 “Renaultsport” badge
The plan was to leave the car like this for a little while then I had a slight problem
The alternator died and it needed a new one. I looked at reconditioned units, but decided to go for a brand new OEM Valeo unit as buy cheap... buy twice! So after a lot of hassle my mate Tim fitted it, but wasn’t an easy job!
All fitted along with a new auxiliary belt and kit it was good as gold!
After the alternator clearing me out for one month I had some cheapy mods to do!
Silvervisions and Led front side lights to match the Xenon’s
LED rear number plate light bulb fitted
And that was it for a few weeks.
I then got myself booked in on the Renaultsport track day at Silverstone on the 4th August so a few upgrades were in order!
Firstly brakes:
DS2500’s, ATE Super blue fluid
The correct ones!
And fluid
K & N Panel Filter fitted
And I bought a Schroth Profi II Harness for the track day. This harness has eye clips on each belt so I fitted a set of high tensile steel eyelets from MSAR so the belt could be clipped in and out for track days, harnesses on a daily driver are a pain!
Then it was off to Silverstone for the day!
Was a fantastic day and learnt a lot about the car! The weather was awful for 2 thirds of it though! Car was faultless and averages 18mpg! Ouch!
The only issue I did find during the day was that a couple of times when really working the brakes the servo assistance just went leaving a rock solid pedal, it would stop, and stop well but only if I jumped on the pedal. This intermittent problem was set to confuse myself and several specialists for several months!
The day I was at Silverstone my new Piper 182 exhaust system arrived so the next day off I went to get it fitted, and whilst at it I decided to fit all the carbon parts I had collected since getting the car
New exhaust on tick over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dswG0fCkwls&feature=related
Streamline carbon exhaust trims
Absolute pig to fit, quite poor to be honest but look fab once the hassle had passed
Streamline carbon door Bullets
Wheel badge
Interior light surround
Dash strip 1
Dash Strip 2
And gear knob with decal set in the resin
Carbon Fog Light Surrounds
Excuse the flies, and you can see the washers decided to start leaking again gggrrrrr
So guess what...
Carbon washer blanks!
And a carbon front Renault Diamond
After having the exhaust fitted I went down to JMS in Surrey and had a 12k service and re-map done, along with a set of matched upper and lower inlets
The map certainly livened up the car, and the popping and banging was fun... for a little while!
Since buying the car the steering wheel was the last interior part I really wasn’t happy with, and after being messed around with wheel refurbishment promises from an un named member I decided to go for something different!
197 Steering Wheel and Airbag conversion
It’s not a straight swap, the firing mechanism from the 182 airbag as to be swapped with the 197 one so it works with the wiring, and the cruise control wiring needs to be re wired to work with the controls. But the end result was a much much better feeling wheel, which sits about an inch closer and looks great
After having this fitted I then upgraded the front door speakers to a set of Alpine Coax speakers as the standard Renault speakers are, well, pants.
Then things started to get a little more serious and I started looking at various other ways of improving the cars performance and was booked in on the Cliosport.net rolling road day at Tour De Force. Before heading down to TDF the night before I fitted a power flex upgraded dog bone mount
This made a fantastic difference to the gear change, and it felt so much slicker! It also stopped the occasional bang from the exhaust I kept getting if I did a poor jerky gear change!
The next day it was off to TDF
And performance French cars magazine were in attendance and got a great shot of my car spitting a flame on the dyno..
My results were very good too
179.9 BHP & 160.4 Ft Lb torque, I was very pleased, and Matt @ TDF commented that it was a very healthy car!
The final photo for the magazine
The next time the car was going for a little trip it would be much more significant with the purchase of these:
Cat-cam 428 performance cams! These were going to be fitted by Dan @ 519 Automotive (sidewaysdanny) so that’s where we went the next week.
Whilst having the cams done I had the chance to tart the engine bay up a little so I went mad with Dan and various tins of paint!
And then the rocker cover was off and cams fitted..
Everything was so clean under the rocker cover, it’s clearly had a very good life!
Then back to the painting, the rocker cover now with red crinkle finish paint like the Type-r Honda engines
And the finished Engine, new cams fitted with full cam belt kit, new aux belt, and a lick of paint
I drove the car home unmapped, but the car felt a little hesitant so I was not happy to drive it for the 9 day wait to take it to TDF for mapping so she sat at home and I pinched lifts for a week!
Then on the 13th November I headed over to TDF where I originally made 179.9 bhp and 160.6 ft lb for mapping...
Back on the rollers with map custom live mapping the car
And the final figures overlaid over the previous power run 4 weeks earlier..
193 BHP & 165.4 ft Lbs of Torque!
Very happy!
Next plans are Throttle bodies and I’m looking into it as we speak! Sorry for the essay but done a lot and not done a project thread!
Last edited by a moderator:
