Mazda3 quirks

[Gen1GT]

-Can't have air recirculating when it's blowing out of the windshield vents
-3rd gear grind
-Weak parking brake (can't even lock up the rear tires in the rain)
-Drive door armrest isn't high enough to be used as an armrest (even with the seat all the way down and my 79" reach)
-No chance in hell of heel-toe downshifts with these pedals
-Throttle lag...blipping the throttle for downshifts is a slow process. When you lift off the gas and put in the clutch at the same time, the revs climb for a split second


Who else has quirks (I have more, but I thought I'd let others contribute)

[froggy]

-Can't have air recirculating when it's blowing out of the windshield vents
-3rd gear grind
-Weak parking brake (can't even lock up the rear tires in the rain)
-Drive door armrest isn't high enough to be used as an armrest (even with the seat all the way down and my 79" reach)
-No chance in hell of heel-toe downshifts with these pedals
-Throttle lag...blipping the throttle for downshifts is a slow process. When you lift off the gas and put in the clutch at the same time, the revs climb for a split second


Who else has quirks (I have more, but I thought I'd let others contribute)

have never ever had 3rd gear grind on me, you might want to have it checked out in your case or try changing to a synthetic gear oil.

you might need to check the tension on your brake handle I have no problem locking the rear wheels to do either burnouts or to slide the rear end out rally style on turns

79" reach? I assume your meaning finger tip to fingertip across your chest and not just with one arm

I have no problem heal-toeing with these pedals, what I do is I jam my heal into the centre tunnel, point my toes over to the brake pedal, and just use the outside of my foot to blib the throttle by rolling it a little bit.

For your other points I have to agree with what you've said, but the slow response off the throttle is just a drawback of having the electronic throttle body. there are 3 things that you can do about it:

1 get used to the delay just like turbo guys do when trying to come out of a corner on the gas

2 switch the throttle body out for an Australian spec TB with cable throttle linkages, or another cable linkage TB or

3 Get a sprint booster which will dramatically reduce the lag time. Because I'm cheap and I don't want to ruin my warranty, yet, I've just gotten used to it

Oh and another quirk I'd like to add is the fact that the steering wheel column doesn't have enough of an adjustment for me to get into my ideal driving position

[Kappa]

it only goes 180 or 190 and you can reach that in fourth gear... then the big bad governor turns on..

[taz4432]

have never ever had 3rd gear grind on me, you might want to have it checked out in your case or try changing to a synthetic gear oil.

you might need to check the tension on your brake handle I have no problem locking the rear wheels to do either burnouts or to slide the rear end out rally style on turns

79" reach? I assume your meaning finger tip to fingertip across your chest and not just with one arm

I have no problem heal-toeing with these pedals, what I do is I jam my heal into the centre tunnel, point my toes over to the brake pedal, and just use the outside of my foot to blib the throttle by rolling it a little bit.

For your other points I have to agree with what you've said, but the slow response off the throttle is just a drawback of having the electronic throttle body. there are 3 things that you can do about it:

1 get used to the delay just like turbo guys do when trying to come out of a corner on the gas

2 switch the throttle body out for an Australian spec TB with cable throttle linkages, or another cable linkage TB or

3 Get a sprint booster which will dramatically reduce the lag time. Because I'm cheap and I don't want to ruin my warranty, yet, I've just gotten used to it

Oh and another quirk I'd like to add is the fact that the steering wheel column doesn't have enough of an adjustment for me to get into my ideal driving position

I have a grind from 2-->3 sometimes...just going into 3 in general it can be iffy but it's been better lately. Switching to Redline MT-90 when my order comes in on Thursday so hopefully that'll make a big difference (not even sure when the tranny fluid was last changed, if ever, as I just got the car).

I have size 12.5-13 feet, so heel and toe with these pedals essentially out of the question...heck, there's barely room to get my foot on the gas without hitting the brake pedal too.

Not sure if the previous owner modded the TB at all but he did other mods to the car and my throttle feels fairly responsive. I know the lag you're talking about and I hate it but don't really seem to have much lag on my 3.


it only goes 180 or 190 and you can reach that in fourth gear... then the big bad governor turns on..

Hmm...I've never tried but I'm at 3000-3500rpm in 5th at 120, so I'm not sure how true that 180-190 in 4th is. I wonder if the PO changed the ratio.

[TheMAN]

swapping to the ms3 gas pedal will fix the heal & toe problem

[Donutz]

I modded some of these problems away:

- Can't have air recirculating when it's blowing out of the windshield vents
-3rd gear grind - Redline tranny fluid
-Weak parking brake (can't even lock up the rear tires in the rain)
-Drive door armrest isn't high enough to be used as an armrest (even with the seat all the way down and my 79" reach) - Agreed
-No chance in hell of heel-toe downshifts with these pedals - blip the throttle with the side of my foot instead of my heel
-Throttle lag...blipping the throttle for downshifts is a slow process. When you lift off the gas and put in the clutch at the same time, the revs climb for a split second - TB ground, bsd, ecu tune

[taz4432]

I have a grind from 2-->3 sometimes...just going into 3 in general it can be iffy but it's been better lately. Switching to Redline MT-90 when my order comes in on Thursday so hopefully that'll make a big difference (not even sure when the tranny fluid was last changed, if ever, as I just got the car).

I have size 12.5-13 feet, so heel and toe with these pedals essentially out of the question...heck, there's barely room to get my foot on the gas without hitting the brake pedal too.

Not sure if the previous owner modded the TB at all but he did other mods to the car and my throttle feels fairly responsive. I know the lag you're talking about and I hate it but don't really seem to have much lag on my 3.



Hmm...I've never tried but I'm at 3000-3500rpm in 5th at 120, so I'm not sure how true that 180-190 in 4th is. I wonder if the PO changed the ratio.

So...that comment about 4th gear is true after all. Heh. Didn't quite go all the way there but close enough to verify.

Hopefully when I switch out the tranny fluid this weekend the shifts will be smooth and crisp!

[Gen1GT]

I'm going to get aftermarket pedals (which are wider) to correct my problems heel-toeing.

Another quirck:

-piss poor engine braking. Just letting off the throttle in 5th gear doesn't slow the car much less than downshifting into 3rd, and then 2nd. I guess that's another issue with an electronic throttle...you never really know how much that butterfly plate is open.

[Mazda3X2]

it only goes 180 or 190 and you can reach that in fourth gear... then the big bad governor turns on..

Lol, yeah that's a big problem. You didn't pay for a sports car capable of 200km/h plus speeds. Also it is fairly common for cars to hit their top speed in a gear lower than it's highest (overdrive) and actually lose speed if shifted into top gear.

[taz4432]

I'm going to get aftermarket pedals (which are wider) to correct my problems heel-toeing.

Another quirck:

-piss poor engine braking. Just letting off the throttle in 5th gear doesn't slow the car much less than downshifting into 3rd, and then 2nd. I guess that's another issue with an electronic throttle...you never really know how much that butterfly plate is open.


Let me know which pedals you go with and how they workout. I'd love to get new pedals when I have some cash to spend so that I can actually heel-toe. If you're not located too far I could probably swing by to check them out when you get them, if you don't mind. :D

[TheMAN]

I'm going to get aftermarket pedals (which are wider) to correct my problems heel-toeing.

Another quirck:

-piss poor engine braking. Just letting off the throttle in 5th gear doesn't slow the car much less than downshifting into 3rd, and then 2nd. I guess that's another issue with an electronic throttle...you never really know how much that butterfly plate is open.
the issue isn't pedal width or spacing... its the offset
the gas pedal is too deep in the foot well compared to the brake pedal... the ms3 raises the pedal offset from the floor to make the pedal depth more in line with the brake/clutch pedals... I had NO problems heel and toeing in the ms3

[Kappa]

Lol, yeah that's a big problem. You didn't pay for a sports car capable of 200km/h plus speeds. Also it is fairly common for cars to hit their top speed in a gear lower than it's highest (overdrive) and actually lose speed if shifted into top gear.

true lol its a good point but in my dreams i fly by everyone :)