My 2006 Mazda 3 hit 100k

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Well, count my 2006 Mazda 3 in the 100k club. Not that this kind of mileage is impressive or anything, but in the eyes of a lot of "non-car" people, it is still a magical barrier between a good car and a beater.

My experience with this car is a very positive one. It still has that nice and solid ride with no creaks or rattles in the cabin. There are few slight squeaks that show up during very low temps, but even those are not too noticeable. My wife, for example, doesn't hear them.

In the course of almost 7 years and 100k I had driver side strut mount bearing replaced twice under warranty, as it was making a creaking sound during low speed maneuvering. I think the second replacement was due to improper installation, as it was needed within a year of replacing the original one. In any case, it's been about 4 years since, and everything is in order.

Outside of warranty, I spent about $160 in repairs not related to maintenance.
- $100 was for the passenger side engine mount.
- $20 for replacing the HVAC control light bulbs. I replaced them myself, but I got the little bulbs from the dealer, as I had a limited window of opportunity to get the job done and didn't have time to find them. It was still a highway robbery to charge $20 for such small bulbs.
- $40 was spent on replacing the serpentine belt tensioner pulley, twice. The first one only lasted two years before the bearing started making noise. Let’s hope the one I replaced this year lasts longer. But at least the job is extremely easy and takes all of 10 minutes or so.

This is about it. The rest was just regular maintenance. It doesn't consume any noticeable amount of oil and the slushbox shifts nice and smooth.

Oh, there is one very annoying and a pretty negative thing. The dash board is cracking
mad.gif
Fortunately it is a separate piece right under the windshield, so the crack will not make its way across the dash, but this is pretty poor design or choice of materials. One day I may feel adventurous to take it all apart and fix it, but for now it annoys me to no end.

All in all, this car has been great. I had my doubts when I was buying it, as Mazda is not exactly portrayed as a solid car maker, but I liked the ride quality and the overall look and feel of the car, plus my wife likes it as well, that I said "what the heck" and got it.
 
Nice! We have 72,000 on our 2007. 2.3L. I think one of the engine mounts is going on ours as well. Was it covered under warranty?

Also, what transmission fluid have you been using?
 
Originally Posted By: buster
Nice! We have 72,000 on our 2007. 2.3L. I think one of the engine mounts is going on ours as well. Was it covered under warranty?

Also, what transmission fluid have you been using?


No, the mount was outside of warranty, so I had to buy a new mount and replace it. It is quite easy, actually.

For the tranny fluid. At about 15-20k miles I flushed the tranny with Castrol Import Multi Vehicle ATF. It stayed there until 60k, with two drain and fills in between. At 60k, I flushed the tranny with Petro Canada Multi Vehicle ATF. I did not perform any drain and fills so far, as the tranny operates normally. I plan another flush when this fill has 60k on it.
 
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Interesting that you mention the low temp squeak. My 2008.5 Speed3 does that as well. It is clearly something in the rear suspension. At work, I park every day in a garage with speedbumps. When it gets below about 20F it squeaks horribly going over those bumps. Anyone figure it out?
 
Originally Posted By: Indydriver
Interesting that you mention the low temp squeak. My 2008.5 Speed3 does that as well. It is clearly something in the rear suspension. At work, I park every day in a garage with speedbumps. When it gets below about 20F it squeaks horribly going over those bumps. Anyone figure it out?


The cheap rubber bushings most OEM's use in suspensions will become less pliable and contract in colder weather. This will cause the suspension joint to have a looser feel and squeak sometimes.
 
Good timing. My 2006 Mazda 6i sport is about to turn 100k in a few weeks. Car is still in excellent shape.

I had some creaking sounds at low speeds when the weight shifted, specially from a stop, adn it turned out to be dust up in the springs. The dealer showed me how to spray it out. Once I learned that, no complaints. I wash out the upper spring area every time I wash the car and no more noises.

I had one repair. I had to replace my AC condenser because it cracked from taking a rock at 75mph. Other than that, zero repairs. Just changed oil and filters at about 10-12k intervals and flush brake fluid every 3 years or so.

I'm still on the factory break pads and rotors.

I am on my 2nd set of tires. I replaced the OEM michelin at 60k with some yokohama as530s.

My cost of ownership with this car has to be relatively low.
 
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As for ATF I am still using M1 ATF in the Fusion 5 speed auto even though M1 droped the Mazda MV rating. I called Mobil tech about them droping the MV rating and they said the fluid is the same as when they showed it. Multiple ATF ratings are hard to certify, XM chose not to list all of the ones they used to cover. Anyway, great engine and trans combo.
 
For my 6i it is about 29mpg "city" driving for me and 31-31.5 MPGs on trips if i can keep it under 77mph.
 
I bought my 2007 Mazda 3 sport with the 2.3 brand new.
I sold it last may, and had only accumulated 40k miles in that time. The car was probably the absolute best car I ever had. The only thing I ever did was replace the tires once, and routine OCI's. I changed the trans fluid to Mobil 1 at around 8k miles and that was it. The car was as close to a perfect car as I have ever owned. From my sig you can see that we like Mazdas in our house.
My better half loves her mazda 2, and I have to admit its a fun little car to flog around in. And my MX5.........daily driver thats a riot to drive. That just flipped over to 31k and its 7 years old. We bought the 2 in May and it just turned 2k miles.....Yeah, we don't go very far.
 
Nice to hear the possivive review of cars today. So nice when you get that car that does so many thing well during the driving experience. And too, a car that was designed well in it's exacution and styling.

My daughters '06 3i has served her well since she bought it in Aug'09. She now has 93K miles and going strong. A little front wheel bearing noise but, the bearing has no movement, just some noise!

She recently had a tranny leak at one of the cooler lines on the banjo fitting. An easy fix! I just cut off the rusty part of the tube with a tubing cutter, cleaned eveything else and reconnected the rubber hose further down toward the banjo fitting with a new clamp.
 
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