Speedy's Mazdaspeed 3 Clutch Replacement

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

I've owned a first-gen 2007 Mazdaspeed 3 for nearly 14 years and have really enjoyed driving it.  While I used it mostly for going to/from work and the occasional road trip, it didn't see an extreme amount of miles and so it only has about 85k on it at the moment.  It's one of those cars that "clicks" with me, so I'm not in any hurry to unload it.  It's been treated well with more periodic maintenance than the schedule calls for.

Last November, right at 13 years, the turbo started smoking and I had to rebuild it.  It's a known issue with these first-gen cars, and I'm surprised the stock K04 lasted as long as it did.  Ultimately I sourced a new CHRA (Center Housing Rotating Assembly) and just transferred the turbine housing, compressor housing, and wastegate actuator over to the new CHRA.  It cured the issue and the turbo has been making full boost with no problems.

While making that repair I discovered a leaking front strut, so that prompted an upgrade to Bilstein B6's all around in December.  It's been one of my complaints about the car since it was new; the suspension always felt underdamped and bouncy.  The new B6's really helped; the ride is more controlled but still comfortable.  I'd buy Bilstein again in a heartbeat.

This past March, just as SARS-COV-2 was spreading, I started to have problems with the clutch slipping.  It was more of a problem in 5th gear, but it started doing it in 4th gear as well, and I knew it wouldn't be long before it slipped a lot more.  I drove the car a few more times, but since we all started working from home my need for transportation went down considerably.

They say trouble comes in threes, and maybe that's true.  If so, hopefully this clutch repair along with the struts and turbo will keep the car going for awhile and I can get a few more fun years out of it.

I debated about unloading the car vs. fixing it, but in April I chose to fix it for two main reasons: 1) I know the whole history of car, and it's in great condition overall.  2) The value on the open market is so low there's nothing really to lose if I screw up the job and destroy it.  With some extra courage coming from the turbo rebuild and the strut replacement, and no pressing need for the car, why not try something even more complex?

And so the story started in April.  I spent a few weeks reading through the factory service manuals, listing all the needed replacement parts and special service tools to do the job.  I went shopping and found pretty much all my parts at Edge Autosport, and that made me very happy.  Getting the special tools, though, was much more difficult.  My local dealer wouldn't source and sell them to me (********!), and the distributor in the USA only deals with wholesale accounts.  I approached another distributor in Germany, but they refused to sell to me as well.  I tried some other Mazda specialty sites, but they focused more on RX7s and RX8s.  I was pretty much out of luck for certain special tools and decided I'd have to make some as needed.

In May I started placing orders and the parts and availalbe tools arrived pretty quickly.  My main problem was an engine support bar I bought from a seller on Amazon; when the package arrived it was missing the main support bar but had all the other parts in the box.  It took about two weeks to resolve the issue since the seller went back to his supplier to get a replacement instead of breaking open one of the other 18 he had in stock to get me going faster.  I missed my window to start the job on Memorial Day weekend, so the car stayed together and was driven gently until the July 4th weekend came.

I had a long weekend scheduled for July 4th and put the car on jack stands.  As is typical in North Carolina, July and August are pretty miserable with the heat and humidity.  I think I did some of the easy disassembly steps at first, but it was so uncomfortable in the garage even with a fan blowing I hated working on it.  Since the car wasn't really needed that badly, I shifted my mindset and decided to do other things and just let it sit until the weather started to cool down more.

In September we started to have some nicer days, so I made progress on the project during evenings and weekends.  At this point I was treating the repair more like a hobby (instead of RC!) and less like an urgent issue.  Time to go to the beach?  OK!  A new season on Netflix to binge-watch?  Yeah!  So while this project was still on my mind many days, it wasn't that important.  I think in some ways this mindset helped me because there were a few times I was stuck with a problem but could easily walk away and just sleep on it for a day or two.

Anyhow, this past weekend I finished the job and took the car out to break in the clutch.  It all went back together, nothing is leaking, and there are no loose parts.  I think I'm ready to call this a success.  Here are some pictures and highlights from the repair...

I can't overemphasize how nice it is to have factory service manuals.  I have paper copies as well as PDF copies for the complete vehicle and the transmission.  It's always great to have the documentation and the lessons learned from others through Google searches.

I followed the whole process per the book procedure, and when it came time to remove the transmission it was really difficult with the front subframe in the way.  Ultimately I pulled the front subframe, and it was so much easier to slip the transmission off the engine onto a motorcycle/ATV jack.

Here's the engine suspended by the passenger side motor mount and the engine support bar.  The bar is angled to align the hook with the tab on top of the engine.

Transmission on the jack.  The local Harbor Freight had a few different transmission jacks available, but I went with the motorcycle/ATV jack because it would go as low as 3.5" above the floor.  This was really important for getting the transmission out from under the car.

And here we have a pile of parts as a result of following all those disassembly steps above.  I started laying parts out from left to right to keep them in sequence; there are three rows of parts here...

It was actually pretty nice to have the engine hanging like it was.  I could sit cross-legged where the transmission normally resides, and it made it very easy to clean the old silicone sealant off the engine block and oil pan.

Once I had the engine and transmission separated, and all the clutch parts removed, I proceeded with cleaning the transmission and installing new parts.  Ultimately I put in new drain/fill crush washers, new release bearing and fork, new axle oil seals, and a modified breather vent.

Axle seal installation was one of those steps where it would have been nice to source the special service tool.  What I had to do, instead, was buy a bearing installer kit from the local Harbor Freight and then use plumbing parts to transfer the hammer forces to the edges of the seal.  I tried pretty hard to not deform the seal's metal construction nor deform any of the rubber parts.

The custom tool worked a treat!

I also made another tool for the other seal, but this one wasn't as nice.  The closest plumbing part I could find was a PVC shower drain.

With the transmission prepped I worked on the engine.  First up was replacing the rear main seal.

This car was built back when Ford owned a 33% share of Mazda, so there are some common parts shared between the two companies.  For this installation I sourced a tool from OTC comparable to Ford's 303-328 and followed the procedure shown above.  The key thing about this tool is it keeps the lip of the seal pointed in the right direction and it prevents any nicks/cuts from the end of the crankshaft.  I didn't want the whole job sunk by a leaking seal.  New seal in place:

Next up was the pilot bearing and flywheel.  For the pilot bearing I used the handle from the bearing installer tool to drive it in so it was flush with the face of the crankshaft.  Then I used a deep socket with a brass hammer to drive it in some more, and checked the depth with some digital calipers (spec is 4 to 5 mm in).

To torque the flywheel bolts there's a holding tool under it.  I had to lie on my side and put a foot against the engine while pulling on the torque wrench for the final torque values.

The clutch alignment tool supplied with the kit was made of plastic and had some slop in the pilot bearing, so as I was installing the pressure plate I checked the edge of the clutch disc relative to the edge of the flywheel with the digital calipers again; it was off by maybe 0.25 mm so that seemed close enough.

The pressure plate was easy enough.  It has a slight interference fit with the flywheel's dowels, so I tapped it with my fist in a few locations to seat it against the clutch disc.  At that point I hand-threaded all the bolts and started to torque them in a star pattern in quarter-turn increments.  The idea was to apply pressure to the plate evenly so as to not bend the pressure plate and keep the clutch disc in position.  The clutch kit is a South Bend Stage 2 Endurance with about 100 ft-lb more capacity than the OEM clutch.  I'm hoping the clutch will survive a long time since it won't be used to full capacity (330 ft-lb peak at the crank).

I made some alignment pins out of 10 mm long bolts; the intention was to keep the transmission from rotating too much while installing it, but I found they actually made the installation more difficult.  The reason is you need to be able to rotate the transmission a little bit to help the splines of the transmission align with the splines of the clutch disc.  Oh well; I removed them as soon as I realized what was going on.

My son and I worked together; he manned the jack while I kept adjusting the transmission angles and testing fitment.  We had to place some blocks of wood and some carpentry shims in various locations to keep the transmission aligned just right.  Once I wiggled the gear selector lever and the splined shaft slipped into the clutch disc, we were so happy to have the transmission case slide right in and line up with the dowels in the engine block.  We quickly installed and torqued all the bolts, removed the jack, and raised the powertrain into normal position again.

[markbt73 5316]

Wow, congrats on a successful repair! I've never tackled a FWD clutch, but I've done a friend's old Ford Ranger (easy-ish) and my Mazda Miata (much harder, especially since I chose a 100 degree day to do it).

That photo of the subframe lying on the floor reminds me that I still need to replace the back engine mount on my Corolla. The subframe needs to be dropped down to do it, because they used studs on it instead of bolts (thanks a bunch, Toyota). Not looking forward to that one.

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

I replaced the OEM motor mounts with some polyurethane mounts from SURE Motorsports; these are meant to be stiffer than OEM and help control engine movement under hard acceleration.  I already had the lower mount from 10 years ago and had just replaced the polyurethane last year, so I wanted the full set.

I went back and forth a few times and made sure to center the mounts' holes relative to the chassis, then torqued everything down.  It was nice to remove the engine support bar and have the engine suspended by mounts again.

The chassis cross brace, front subframe, power steering rack, and power steering heat shield went back in.  Again, my son helped me with the front subframe as it's pretty large and heavy.  We had to rotate the front sway bar over the steering tie rods and get the end links in position with the struts.

The axles went in next; I prepped the outer joints' splines with antiseize to help with removal in the future.  I used new circlips with inner joints per the replacement procedures.

Then the front suspension was reassembled.  Lower ball joint pinch bolts, brake lines, sway bar links, tie rods, ABS sensor wires, and axle nuts...

The starter motor, wiring harness bracket, and slave cylinder went in next.  The original starter motor dust shield/gasket crumbled when I removed it, so I had to find some self-adhesive foam material to make a new gasket.  The slave cylinder is brand new; I didn't want to take a chance with the old part and stiffer pressure plate spring.

That took care of most of the lower work.  The charge air cooler and blow off valve hoses were next.

Cold air intake, MAF sensor, and fuel pump resistor...

AEM dryflow filter and splash shield.

Charge air cooler cover, battery box, and ECU cover...

I had charged the battery and found it hadn't lost that much while sitting outside the car...

All buttoned up..

At this point the car was basically ready to go, but I wanted to start it and check for leaks/noises/weirdness.  It fired right up and it came up to temp.  No leaks, nothing odd, so I was happy to drop the car on the ground at that point.

The last step was to torque the two bolts holding the suspension arm bushings in place.  This has to be done with weight on the suspension so the bushings are captured in their natural position.

Good to go!

My wife and I went for a drive around town to mail some bills and pick up lunch.  Three things jumped out at me right away:

1) The clutch seemed really binary and difficult to drive for the first few miles.  But, as we put some more city driving on it, the engagement became more progressive and easy to modulate.

2)  The pedal travel seemed a little wonky at first.  There seemed to be too much pedal free play, and the engagement point seemed pretty close to the floor.  I had bled the hydraulics extensively and knew there wasn't any air in the system.  Again, as we drove around town it seemed like the pedal returned to its factory feel.  The effort got lighter, the free play shrunk, and the engagement point lifted off the floor somewhat (maybe coupled with the progressive feel).  So, it seemed like parts were breaking in and things were seating.

3)  The motor mounts were LOUD.  I had no idea these polyurethane bushings would be this loud.  The vendor explained it might take a few hundred or a thousand miles to break them in, and it's true that in first 20-50 miles we noticed the harshness starting to reduce.  I'm going to drive it this way for a full oil change and make a judgment call later; I might switch back to new OEM top mounts (but keep the lower poly mount) just to improve the noise more.

So, I'm very happy with the clutch, but the jury is still out on the motor mounts.  We'll see how it goes.

With this weight off my shoulders, I may very well start fiddling with RC again!

[ACCEL 2014]

that's a lot of clutches, Mazda's have three who knew?

Buildn' the Cobra was fun, but when i have to work on any other vehicle it's generally because i have to and it's absolutely no fun even if it's simple.

Nice improvised tool you made speed, i've kept every one i've made and what's funny is they all have only been used once.

Well have fun with your car and will you put some oils pots on the ground for me?.

[Bash 356]

You made that whole job seem like a breeze lol. That's a super nice looking speed3 and I'm glad you decided to keep it since it seems every other speed3 (both generations) that I see has been modded to death with a giant ebay special turbo, an awful bodykit, and a fartcan exhaust. 

[Re-Bugged 10156]

Well worth the time, money and effort you’ve put into it mate, as it’s in such fantastic condition throughout. You would never find another one like it.

I’m sure once all the new bits and pieces settle in and get acquainted with each other it will feel more like home again each day. Great job. 

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

23 minutes ago, Bash said:

You made that whole job seem like a breeze lol. That's a super nice looking speed3 and I'm glad you decided to keep it since it seems every other speed3 (both generations) that I see has been modded to death with a giant ebay special turbo, an awful bodykit, and a fartcan exhaust. 

Yeah, I guess it's a breeze if you take 3-4 months to do it!  I wasn't under any pressure to finish it in a single weekend, so that was good.

Some areas that gave me problems included:

• Starter motor:  There's not a lot of space between the engine and the radiator, and there's a mess of wiring and coolant hoses blocking everything.  It took a few tries to pivot, rotate, and wiggle that stupid part out of the car.
• Wiring harness brackets:  These were really annoying.  The harness has zip ties and push-in posts in certain locations that make manufacturing easy, but service difficult if you want to preserve those posts.  It took a number of different needle nose pliers to get behind some of those brackets and release the fingers so the harness could be lifted out of the way.
• Drive shafts:  I had to take an OTC slide hammer attachment and reshape it with an angle grinder to make it fit the joint cup properly without damaging the seal dust shield.  It took some trial and error to make that work.
• The transaxle itself:  Just because it got hung up on the subframe, and it was no fun removing the subframe with the transaxle hanging down and resting on a jack at the same time.  Definitely a lesson learned:  clear the space completely even if it's a little more work.
• The power steering rack:  Initially we were trying to remove the bolts from below the car and my son and I had all sorts of crazy arrangements with flex head ratchets and cheater pipes.  Later we figured out it was way easier to come from the top and down the firewall with a few extra long socket extensions.
• The clutch slave cylinder:  I had topped off the reservoir and asked my wife to help pump the pedal.  I was amazed there was ZERO movement at the slave cylinder when we first started.  There's basically nothing to bleed if the fluid doesn't reach the slave.  What I had to do was open the bleed valve completely and let it "gravity bleed" to get about half the air out.  At that point we had some slave cylinder movement, and it took a good hour or two bouncing between the floor and keeping the reservoir full since the reservoir is baffled and the clutch side has very little volume.  Lots of changing positions for this procedure, but when it was done I knew it was 100% purged of air.

They're all solvable, and like I said, sometimes it was better to walk away and come back later.  Putting the starter motor back in was like that.  It was later on a Thursday night and I couldn't get it in position no matter what I tried.  Then I came back to it the next night and dropped right into place in 3 minutes.  Crazy!

(By the way, I'm sold on wobble extensions for a few tight spots.  Torquing some of the turbo bolts on the earlier repair and accessing some of the wiring harness bracket fasteners wouldn't have been possible without these tools.)

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

14 minutes ago, Re-Bugged said:

Well worth the time, money and effort you’ve put into it mate, as it’s in such fantastic condition throughout. You would never find another one like it.

I’m sure once all the new bits and pieces settle in and get acquainted with each other it will feel more like home again each day. Great job. 

Thanks!  Yeah, I think it's getting harder to find clean Gen 1s with single-owner history.  They're either modded to death, crashed, or in the junkyard by now.  The deciding factor for me will be parts availability in the future.  Fortunately, the 2.3L block seems to be common between this car, the Mazdaspeed 6, the CX-7 SUV, and I think some of Ford's Ecoboost products.

[tamiya3speed 464]

Nicely done Speedy.  Certainly the preparation you did before starting put the job on a path to success.  I also want to note how jealous i am of the car being that clean underneath.  Here in Ohio, on a 14 year old car, everything is typically a rusty mess.  The job would include a healthy mix of rust penetrant, cheater bars, and bad language to get everything free.

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

9 hours ago, tamiya3speed said:

Nicely done Speedy.  Certainly the preparation you did before starting put the job on a path to success.  I also want to note how jealous i am of the car being that clean underneath.  Here in Ohio, on a 14 year old car, everything is typically a rusty mess.  The job would include a healthy mix of rust penetrant, cheater bars, and bad language to get everything free.

I know exactly what you mean!  My parents still live in northeastern Ohio and they've lost a number of vehicles to rust before the powertrain gave out.

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

I've been driving the Speed 3 casually for the past two weeks just breaking in the clutch some more.  It was pulling slightly to the right going down a straight road, and I could feel a little tire scrub in more aggressive driving on the highway, so I took it in for a wheel alignment this morning.  I was a little worried removing the subframe and steering rack would make alignment challenging, but it turned out fine, and I could feel the difference taking it back home later in the morning.

It kind of inspired me to go back to my original shopping list from April and update it.  If anyone else is searching the Internet on how to replace a Mazdaspeed 3 clutch, I thought maybe this list would help him size up the job.  This assumes the person thinking about doing this also has a garage space, several jacks and jack stands, a toolbox full of regular tools like screwdrivers, wrenches, sockets/ratchets, breaker bars, torque wrenches, and other tools, and a helper for a few of the bigger/heavier steps.  Click on the image to make it larger, and right-click to save it.

The spreadsheet captures several options since I was trying to decide whether to do the bare minimum or go all-in with some upgrades.

• BE:  Bare Essentials, this is the minimum of material and tools I thought I could get away with.
• E:  Esssentials, basically a full set of material and tools to do the service procedure.  There are more new parts, more tools.
• MM:  Motor Mounts, there are only two part numbers here for the polyurethane motor mounts.
• MC:  Mazda clutch, the OEM parts needed to do replace one-for-one with factory parts and original torque/power specs.
• LC:  LUK clutch, LUK supplied the OEM clutch, so buying LUK directly saves quite a bit of money for the same torque/power specs.
• SC:  South Bend clutch, the "Stage 2 Endurance" upgrade capable of holding +100 lb-ft of torque, feramic pucks one side, normal pucks the other side

At the bottom of the spreadsheet are some combinations of BE/E + LC/SB + MM and the cost spread was from $1600 to $3000 depending on options selected.  As you know from the previous posts, I went for all the essentials, the motor mounts, and the South Bend option.  I'm still accumulating mileage and heat cycles on the motor mounts, but if someone asked me to make a decision today I'd say skip the upper motor mounts (assuming he has the lower poly mount) and save $500 and a few hours on the job.

Maybe the last thing to post about are some reflections on changes I've made to the car over the past 14 years and whether some of these were worth it or not.  My application/perspective is to make this car as enjoyable on the street and highway as possible, but it's not meant to be a track car.  Someone who wants a track toy would think about these modifications differently than I do.

• Tires:  The car came with Bridgestone Potenza RE050A extreme performance summer tires.  They lasted about 17,000 miles and I tried a lower-cost option with some Kumho Ecsta SPTs.  They also lasted about 20,000 miles.  Both tires had sharp handling for turning, but they both had lackluster forward bite in the street.  Plus, my winters are below 0C and come with dustings of snow, so these were not great for part of the year.  Both tires turned hard in the colder temperatures.  After the Kumhos wore out I switched to Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 ultra high performance all season tires.  I actually like these quite a bit.  The tread pattern, compound, and sidewall construction make a huge difference.  I no longer have any problems with forward bite or braking at any temperature on the street, and I sacrificed only a little steering response.  I feel more confident in the rain and 1-2 dustings of light snow we get each year.  Plus, the Continental tires took some of the harshness out of the bumps in the road.  Overall they provided more comfort, more bite for accelerating/braking, and only gave up a little steering.  Conclusion:  I'm pretty much hooked on these for street/highway use.
• Wheels:  When I bought the Kumho tires I also bought a set of Enkei GTC01s to save a few pounds per corner.  I thought the lighter weight might help with some of the bounciness/underdamping I felt in the suspension (less unsprung mass), plus they had a nice bling factor to them.  For the longest time I thought these looked great with the black chrome/black scheme of the headlights and tail lights, but as time went by my eye started to see the stock brake calipers and rotors more and more.  When I mounted the first set of Continental tires to these wheels, the light bulb went off and I realized the tire played more of a role in comfort than any weight savings in the wheel.  So, for my second set of Continentals I switched back to the OEM wheels, and I think I'm in a happy spot where the brake calipers and rotors aren't quite as prominent anymore, and the ride comfort is the same thanks to the tires.  Conclusion:  Tires make the difference; OEM wheels are just fine, and ironically are probably more unique since many Speed3 owners put custom wheels on their cars.  No point in showing off stock brake parts.
• Brakes:  I'm still on the original rear rotors and pads, so nothing to say there.  When the front pads wore out, I switched to some Centric rotors and Hawk HPS pads purchased from Tire Rack.  I could have sourced some Mazda parts or equivalents from Volvo (S40), or some generic stuff from the local parts store, but I was keen on trying some Hawk pads.  I didn't want a pad that would wear too quickly, nor did I want a track pad that needed some heat before working, and the HPS series sounded pretty good.  Anyhow, these pads and rotors have been on the car for quite awhile, and for street/highway use I'm 100% satisfied.  The rotors haven't warped and the pads have plenty of life in them; braking is smooth and there's plenty of bite.  I haven't had any instances of fading.  Conclusion:  I'd buy this combination again, or some other rotor plus Hawk HPS pads.  No complaints.
• Brake lines:  After about ten years I swapped from the OEM lines to some Goodridge stainless steel braided lines.  The goal was to see if I could get any more direct feeling between the brake pedal and the pads.  I guess my expectations were high, because I didn't notice any meaningful difference between the OEM lines and the Goodridge lines.  Conclusion:  Not worth it in my application, I'd be inclined to skip this in the future on another car.
• Struts/shocks:  Mentioned at the top of this thread, these made a huge difference and settled down the suspension.  For the front struts I just transplanted the OEM springs with some spring compressors; the rear has the OEM springs as well.  Conclusion:  I'm 100% satisfied with Bilstein B6 struts and shocks; they work fine with the OEM springs and the Continental DWS tires I'm running.
• Sway bars:  While the front subframe was out I toyed with the idea of installing stiffer front and rear sway bars.  But, I've never really felt like the car needed to corner any flatter or rotate any better, and I've read any number of threads where other owners were breaking sway bar links, ruining bushings, or getting clunking noises from interfering parts.  Then you have to probably invest in adjustable end links to dial out any preload on the bar, and I'm not convinced it's worth it for the street.  Conclusion:  Lubing the sway bar bushings to address creaking noises is good enough (for me).
• Transaxle fluid:  When the car was brand new it seemed like shifting between gears was a little vague and inconsistent.  People on the forums were experimenting with a variety of gear oils.  Some included the friction modifiers for the limited slip differential, others did not.  At one point I read the transaxle was built by Getrag and used in some European Ford vehicles, and they recommended XT-M5-QS gear oil.  So, I tried some and it was definitely better than Mazda's original fill.  It's pretty pricey at about $20/quart (3.5 quarts needed), but it seems to work fairly consistently across temperatures.  Conclusion:  Between the factory fill, some Mobil 1, and the Ford XT-M5-QS, the Ford oil worked the best for my use.  Plus I feel better using something closer to spec for the transmission.  I haven't tried Redline or Royal Purple oils.
• Rear motor mount:  The factory original rear motor mount was very soft.  Creeping through parking lots in first gear, you could really feel the sponginess of the rubber.  Under hard acceleration, shifting gears was a little wonky since the engine was rotating and loading/unloading the mount so much.  I went for a StreetUnit billet aluminum motor mount, and it immediately made a big difference.  There was far less rotation of the powertrain in the engine bay, and that helped with some shifts.  It did take some time for the polyurethane to break in; vibrations at idle with the air conditioner active were noticeable.  At any other engine speed all vibrations disappeared.  After about 10 years the original polyurethane's mounting hole started to go egg-shaped, and the mount was squeaking pretty badly under the car.  StreetUnit still supports this mount with replacement bushings, so last year I refreshed those and all is well again.  If anything, the new bushings are a little nicer and don't contribute vibrations at idle as much as the old ones.  Maybe they're a different durometer?  Conclusion:  I would absolutely recommend a rear motor mount for this car and would do it again in a heartbeat.
• Solid shifter bushings:  This was the last area I looked into during my quest for the perfect shifting Mazdaspeed 3.  The shifter assembly in the center console was secured to the floor with rubber bushings.  Maybe Mazda was trying to isolate some vibration from the shift lever itself, but the side effect was I'd sometimes get caught on a selector gate.  The selector springs in combination with the rubber bushings didn't make shifting any easier, so I went with some TWM solid aluminum bushings to anchor that assembly to the floor completely.  It worked really well; instead of a floppy springy sensation, the shifter feels more like a bolt-action rifle now.  There's no question about selector/shifter position.  Conclusion:  Definitely put in some solid shift bushings.  It completely changes the feel of the lever for the better.
• Breather vent:  I mentioned the breather vent in the thread above.  Basically, what happens over time is a rubber plug under spring compression semi-seals itself to the breath vent on the transmission.  When this happens, pressure builds up inside the case.  Some people have attributed this to difficult shifting in higher gears; others have noticed the hiss of air when they open their transmission drain ports.  This leads to concerns about pressure forcing gear oil out the axle shaft seals.  I can't say I've directly experienced any driveability issues, but I did hear some hissing when I drained the fluid while working on the clutch.  The modification is to pull the crimped cap off the breather vent and replace the rubber plug with a sheet metal equivalent that won't get stuck.  I did this as mentioned above, but since I wasn't having shifting problems it doesn't seem to have made any difference (for now).  Conclusion:  Not sure if it does anything, but it's easy to do, costs nothing, and doesn't put anything at risk.
• Cold air intake:  This is one of the first modifications I made to the car after 1 year of ownership, or 9,000 miles.  Some other owners were trying different cold air intakes / short ram intakes and posting dyno charts, and it looked like the Mazdaspeed (sourced from AEM) cold air intake was providing about +25 hp and +50 lb-ft of torque peak.  For a car that comes from the factory with 263 hp and 280 lb-ft, this is a meaningful gain for a few hundred dollars.  After a little while people started complaining about check engine lights and fuel trims that were outside normal limits; I never had that problem, but when AEM issued an air flow straightener I bought and installed one in front of the MAF sensor.  Conclusion:  Well worth the money, definitely provides more zoom-zoom along with some nice turbo noises.
• Turbo inlet pipe:  Some people noticed the OEM turbo inlet pipe was kind of restrictive, plus it was made of plastic and kind of questionable quality.  I bought a Cobb silicone turbo inlet pipe with the intention of eliminating any restrictions and upgrading to a nicer part.  To be honest, since I'm not running a larger turbo or making any more boost, it doesn't provide any driving benefit from what I can tell.  However, I will say the OEM piece was pretty pathetic especially where it connected to the turbo inlet, so I have no regrets spending the money for a decent silicone hose here.  Conclusion:  Just a "nice to have" for me, probably essential for someone doing something more extreme with his Speed3.
• Turbo:  I mentioned this at the top of the thread; the current turbo is just the stock K04 rebuilt with a new CHRA.  I'm not after a lot more power, and I like the way this unit spools, so rebuilding it was an economical choice.  If this turbo dies in the near future, I'll probably take a closer look at a BNR S1 or S2 instead.  For now this is fine.  I'm still running the stock charge air cooler and high pressure fuel pump as well.  Conclusion:  None, really.  It's good enough for me.
• Cat back exhaust system:  I upgraded from the factory exhaust system to the Mazdaspeed cat back system the same time as the Mazdaspeed cold air intake.  Supposedly the exhaust is worth another +5 hp, but I bought it more for the sound.  It's not as raw as a straight pipe or as raspy as a resonator delete, but it does provide more growl under throttle.  It doesn't drone too much at highway cruising speeds.  Conclusion:  After watching lots of YouTube videos of other owners and their exhaust systems, I just wanted the matched CAI/CBE set to keep it simple.  It's more of a personal choice, really, unless you're going for a down pipe/straight pipe setup for pure performance reasons.  Don't want to annoy the neighbors too much.
• Clutch:  As noted above, I went for the South Bend Stage 2 Endurance setup and opted for a new slave cylinder.  After break-in the pedal free play is good, the engagement point is good, the engagement is smooth and progressive, yet it holds with no slipping at what pulls on the highway.  The pedal force is slightly higher but not annoying.  Conclusion:  Though I haven't accumulated many miles on it, I'm 100% satisfied with this flywheel/clutch disc/pressure plate setup and I'd buy another one.  Seems like a good quality product.
• Passenger/driver motor mounts:  Shortly after this car was introduced Mazda issued a recall for the driver side / transmission motor mount because there were instances of it failing, allowing the whole engine to drop in the bay.  It was considered a safety issue so it became a recall.  I took my car in right away and exchanged the mount, and it never gave me any problems.  As part of the clutch replacement job it seemed like a good time to try some stiffer top mounts to go with the stiffer rear motor mount.  These SURE/StreetUnit Torq S3 mounts continue to get quieter, but the car is still louder when accelerating from a stop light.  What's interesting is all the noise seems to be in the passenger compartment; it's not audible to someone outside the car.  I say this because the technician doing the alignment today was moving it around the parking lot, and I could not hear any trace of noise except for the cat back exhaust.  Maybe there's hope?  Conclusion:  Essential for big power builds and track use, but I'm still waiting to cast judgment on this.  Worst case, I'll go back to new OEM rubber mounts.
• Radio:  The OEM radio malfunctioned after a few years of ownership; the 6-disc changer jammed and the eject button refused to work anymore.  Even though this was supposed to be a Bose system, the sound wasn't that great either.  I went to Crutchfield online and ordered a JVC head unit and steering wheel interface to maintain the same button functions.  They supplied the mounting chassis/face for the center console as well as wiring adapters, and it all went in easily enough.  Changing the head unit revealed the Bose amplifier, speakers, tweeters, and subwoofer actually sounded just fine; all the dullness came from the OEM head unit from a different supplier.  So this was a big improvement, plus the double-DIN chassis/face provided a storage compartment under the head unit.  Great for sunglasses, a phone, or a wallet.  Two complaints:  1) The original trip computer was no longer available but the display is needed to show HVAC settings, and 2) the JVC display was difficult to read in sunny conditions.  Just a few years ago I changed out the JVC head unit for a newer Sony with Bluetooth.  The display is more readable and this makes streaming music much nicer than plugging in an aux cable.  Conclusion:  Don't bother with the OEM head unit; it's not that great.  Keep the Bose amps/speakers/subwoofers and upgrade the source.
• Center console display:  All of the gauges and controls have red lettering/numbering on top of a black background, but for some reason the original radio display had black characters and symbols on a red background.  Even the newer JVC and Sony head units have programmable colors for the buttons and display, and that's all set to red on black as well.  So, I read where some people had done a modification to the original radio display by peeling off the front polarizer and applying a new polarizer in a different orientation.  I bought a second radio display off eBay, made sure it worked, bought some LCD polarizer film, and went to work on it.  The end result is I now have red HVAC symbols and temperature on a black background like the rest of the control and display scheme.  It looks great at night but could afford to be slightly brighter during the day.  It would be easy enough to open the display and change the red LEDs to some others with higher output to compensate, but it's not enough of a problem to do something.  It's still readable during the day.  Conclusion:  Worth doing only if it bothers you.

So that's about it.  This post is for posterity; maybe it'll provide some perspective and guidance to someone who picks up a second-hand Speed3 in the future.

[ACCEL 2014]

On 11/14/2020 at 6:17 PM, speedy_w_beans said:

I've been driving the Speed 3 casually for the past two weeks just breaking in the clutch some more.  It was pulling slightly to the right going down a straight road, and I could feel a little tire scrub in more aggressive driving on the highway, so I took it in for a wheel alignment this morning.  I was a little worried removing the subframe and steering rack would make alignment challenging, but it turned out fine, and I could feel the difference taking it back home later in the morning.

It kind of inspired me to go back to my original shopping list from April and update it.  If anyone else is searching the Internet on how to replace a Mazdaspeed 3 clutch, I thought maybe this list would help him size up the job.  This assumes the person thinking about doing this also has a garage space, several jacks and jack stands, a toolbox full of regular tools like screwdrivers, wrenches, sockets/ratchets, breaker bars, torque wrenches, and other tools, and a helper for a few of the bigger/heavier steps.  Click on the image to make it larger, and right-click to save it.

The spreadsheet captures several options since I was trying to decide whether to do the bare minimum or go all-in with some upgrades.

• BE:  Bare Essentials, this is the minimum of material and tools I thought I could get away with.
• E:  Esssentials, basically a full set of material and tools to do the service procedure.  There are more new parts, more tools.
• MM:  Motor Mounts, there are only two part numbers here for the polyurethane motor mounts.
• MC:  Mazda clutch, the OEM parts needed to do replace one-for-one with factory parts and original torque/power specs.
• LC:  LUK clutch, LUK supplied the OEM clutch, so buying LUK directly saves quite a bit of money for the same torque/power specs.
• SC:  South Bend clutch, the "Stage 2 Endurance" upgrade capable of holding +100 lb-ft of torque, feramic pucks one side, normal pucks the other side

At the bottom of the spreadsheet are some combinations of BE/E + LC/SB + MM and the cost spread was from $1600 to $3000 depending on options selected.  As you know from the previous posts, I went for all the essentials, the motor mounts, and the South Bend option.  I'm still accumulating mileage and heat cycles on the motor mounts, but if someone asked me to make a decision today I'd say skip the upper motor mounts (assuming he has the lower poly mount) and save $500 and a few hours on the job.

Maybe the last thing to post about are some reflections on changes I've made to the car over the past 14 years and whether some of these were worth it or not.  My application/perspective is to make this car as enjoyable on the street and highway as possible, but it's not meant to be a track car.  Someone who wants a track toy would think about these modifications differently than I do.

• Tires:  The car came with Bridgestone Potenza RE050A extreme performance summer tires.  They lasted about 17,000 miles and I tried a lower-cost option with some Kumho Ecsta SPTs.  They also lasted about 20,000 miles.  Both tires had sharp handling for turning, but they both had lackluster forward bite in the street.  Plus, my winters are below 0C and come with dustings of snow, so these were not great for part of the year.  Both tires turned hard in the colder temperatures.  After the Kumhos wore out I switched to Continental ExtremeContact DWS06 ultra high performance all season tires.  I actually like these quite a bit.  The tread pattern, compound, and sidewall construction make a huge difference.  I no longer have any problems with forward bite or braking at any temperature on the street, and I sacrificed only a little steering response.  I feel more confident in the rain and 1-2 dustings of light snow we get each year.  Plus, the Continental tires took some of the harshness out of the bumps in the road.  Overall they provided more comfort, more bite for accelerating/braking, and only gave up a little steering.  Conclusion:  I'm pretty much hooked on these for street/highway use.
• Wheels:  When I bought the Kumho tires I also bought a set of Enkei GTC01s to save a few pounds per corner.  I thought the lighter weight might help with some of the bounciness/underdamping I felt in the suspension (less unsprung mass), plus they had a nice bling factor to them.  For the longest time I thought these looked great with the black chrome/black scheme of the headlights and tail lights, but as time went by my eye started to see the stock brake calipers and rotors more and more.  When I mounted the first set of Continental tires to these wheels, the light bulb went off and I realized the tire played more of a role in comfort than any weight savings in the wheel.  So, for my second set of Continentals I switched back to the OEM wheels, and I think I'm in a happy spot where the brake calipers and rotors aren't quite as prominent anymore, and the ride comfort is the same thanks to the tires.  Conclusion:  Tires make the difference; OEM wheels are just fine, and ironically are probably more unique since many Speed3 owners put custom wheels on their cars.  No point in showing off stock brake parts.
• Brakes:  I'm still on the original rear rotors and pads, so nothing to say there.  When the front pads wore out, I switched to some Centric rotors and Hawk HPS pads purchased from Tire Rack.  I could have sourced some Mazda parts or equivalents from Volvo (S40), or some generic stuff from the local parts store, but I was keen on trying some Hawk pads.  I didn't want a pad that would wear too quickly, nor did I want a track pad that needed some heat before working, and the HPS series sounded pretty good.  Anyhow, these pads and rotors have been on the car for quite awhile, and for street/highway use I'm 100% satisfied.  The rotors haven't warped and the pads have plenty of life in them; braking is smooth and there's plenty of bite.  I haven't had any instances of fading.  Conclusion:  I'd buy this combination again, or some other rotor plus Hawk HPS pads.  No complaints.
• Brake lines:  After about ten years I swapped from the OEM lines to some Goodridge stainless steel braided lines.  The goal was to see if I could get any more direct feeling between the brake pedal and the pads.  I guess my expectations were high, because I didn't notice any meaningful difference between the OEM lines and the Goodridge lines.  Conclusion:  Not worth it in my application, I'd be inclined to skip this in the future on another car.
• Struts/shocks:  Mentioned at the top of this thread, these made a huge difference and settled down the suspension.  For the front struts I just transplanted the OEM springs with some spring compressors; the rear has the OEM springs as well.  Conclusion:  I'm 100% satisfied with Bilstein B6 struts and shocks; they work fine with the OEM springs and the Continental DWS tires I'm running.
• Sway bars:  While the front subframe was out I toyed with the idea of installing stiffer front and rear sway bars.  But, I've never really felt like the car needed to corner any flatter or rotate any better, and I've read any number of threads where other owners were breaking sway bar links, ruining bushings, or getting clunking noises from interfering parts.  Then you have to probably invest in adjustable end links to dial out any preload on the bar, and I'm not convinced it's worth it for the street.  Conclusion:  Lubing the sway bar bushings to address creaking noises is good enough (for me).
• Transaxle fluid:  When the car was brand new it seemed like shifting between gears was a little vague and inconsistent.  People on the forums were experimenting with a variety of gear oils.  Some included the friction modifiers for the limited slip differential, others did not.  At one point I read the transaxle was built by Getrag and used in some European Ford vehicles, and they recommended XT-M5-QS gear oil.  So, I tried some and it was definitely better than Mazda's original fill.  It's pretty pricey at about $20/quart (3.5 quarts needed), but it seems to work fairly consistently across temperatures.  Conclusion:  Between the factory fill, some Mobil 1, and the Ford XT-M5-QS, the Ford oil worked the best for my use.  Plus I feel better using something closer to spec for the transmission.  I haven't tried Redline or Royal Purple oils.
• Rear motor mount:  The factory original rear motor mount was very soft.  Creeping through parking lots in first gear, you could really feel the sponginess of the rubber.  Under hard acceleration, shifting gears was a little wonky since the engine was rotating and loading/unloading the mount so much.  I went for a StreetUnit billet aluminum motor mount, and it immediately made a big difference.  There was far less rotation of the powertrain in the engine bay, and that helped with some shifts.  It did take some time for the polyurethane to break in; vibrations at idle with the air conditioner active were noticeable.  At any other engine speed all vibrations disappeared.  After about 10 years the original polyurethane's mounting hole started to go egg-shaped, and the mount was squeaking pretty badly under the car.  StreetUnit still supports this mount with replacement bushings, so last year I refreshed those and all is well again.  If anything, the new bushings are a little nicer and don't contribute vibrations at idle as much as the old ones.  Maybe they're a different durometer?  Conclusion:  I would absolutely recommend a rear motor mount for this car and would do it again in a heartbeat.
• Solid shifter bushings:  This was the last area I looked into during my quest for the perfect shifting Mazdaspeed 3.  The shifter assembly in the center console was secured to the floor with rubber bushings.  Maybe Mazda was trying to isolate some vibration from the shift lever itself, but the side effect was I'd sometimes get caught on a selector gate.  The selector springs in combination with the rubber bushings didn't make shifting any easier, so I went with some TWM solid aluminum bushings to anchor that assembly to the floor completely.  It worked really well; instead of a floppy springy sensation, the shifter feels more like a bolt-action rifle now.  There's no question about selector/shifter position.  Conclusion:  Definitely put in some solid shift bushings.  It completely changes the feel of the lever for the better.
• Breather vent:  I mentioned the breather vent in the thread above.  Basically, what happens over time is a rubber plug under spring compression semi-seals itself to the breath vent on the transmission.  When this happens, pressure builds up inside the case.  Some people have attributed this to difficult shifting in higher gears; others have noticed the hiss of air when they open their transmission drain ports.  This leads to concerns about pressure forcing gear oil out the axle shaft seals.  I can't say I've directly experienced any driveability issues, but I did hear some hissing when I drained the fluid while working on the clutch.  The modification is to pull the crimped cap off the breather vent and replace the rubber plug with a sheet metal equivalent that won't get stuck.  I did this as mentioned above, but since I wasn't having shifting problems it doesn't seem to have made any difference (for now).  Conclusion:  Not sure if it does anything, but it's easy to do, costs nothing, and doesn't put anything at risk.
• Cold air intake:  This is one of the first modifications I made to the car after 1 year of ownership, or 9,000 miles.  Some other owners were trying different cold air intakes / short ram intakes and posting dyno charts, and it looked like the Mazdaspeed (sourced from AEM) cold air intake was providing about +25 hp and +50 lb-ft of torque peak.  For a car that comes from the factory with 263 hp and 280 lb-ft, this is a meaningful gain for a few hundred dollars.  After a little while people started complaining about check engine lights and fuel trims that were outside normal limits; I never had that problem, but when AEM issued an air flow straightener I bought and installed one in front of the MAF sensor.  Conclusion:  Well worth the money, definitely provides more zoom-zoom along with some nice turbo noises.
• Turbo inlet pipe:  Some people noticed the OEM turbo inlet pipe was kind of restrictive, plus it was made of plastic and kind of questionable quality.  I bought a Cobb silicone turbo inlet pipe with the intention of eliminating any restrictions and upgrading to a nicer part.  To be honest, since I'm not running a larger turbo or making any more boost, it doesn't provide any driving benefit from what I can tell.  However, I will say the OEM piece was pretty pathetic especially where it connected to the turbo inlet, so I have no regrets spending the money for a decent silicone hose here.  Conclusion:  Just a "nice to have" for me, probably essential for someone doing something more extreme with his Speed3.
• Turbo:  I mentioned this at the top of the thread; the current turbo is just the stock K04 rebuilt with a new CHRA.  I'm not after a lot more power, and I like the way this unit spools, so rebuilding it was an economical choice.  If this turbo dies in the near future, I'll probably take a closer look at a BNR S1 or S2 instead.  For now this is fine.  I'm still running the stock charge air cooler and high pressure fuel pump as well.  Conclusion:  None, really.  It's good enough for me.
• Cat back exhaust system:  I upgraded from the factory exhaust system to the Mazdaspeed cat back system the same time as the Mazdaspeed cold air intake.  Supposedly the exhaust is worth another +5 hp, but I bought it more for the sound.  It's not as raw as a straight pipe or as raspy as a resonator delete, but it does provide more growl under throttle.  It doesn't drone too much at highway cruising speeds.  Conclusion:  After watching lots of YouTube videos of other owners and their exhaust systems, I just wanted the matched CAI/CBE set to keep it simple.  It's more of a personal choice, really, unless you're going for a down pipe/straight pipe setup for pure performance reasons.  Don't want to annoy the neighbors too much.
• Clutch:  As noted above, I went for the South Bend Stage 2 Endurance setup and opted for a new slave cylinder.  After break-in the pedal free play is good, the engagement point is good, the engagement is smooth and progressive, yet it holds with no slipping at what pulls on the highway.  The pedal force is slightly higher but not annoying.  Conclusion:  Though I haven't accumulated many miles on it, I'm 100% satisfied with this flywheel/clutch disc/pressure plate setup and I'd buy another one.  Seems like a good quality product.
• Passenger/driver motor mounts:  Shortly after this car was introduced Mazda issued a recall for the driver side / transmission motor mount because there were instances of it failing, allowing the whole engine to drop in the bay.  It was considered a safety issue so it became a recall.  I took my car in right away and exchanged the mount, and it never gave me any problems.  As part of the clutch replacement job it seemed like a good time to try some stiffer top mounts to go with the stiffer rear motor mount.  These SURE/StreetUnit Torq S3 mounts continue to get quieter, but the car is still louder when accelerating from a stop light.  What's interesting is all the noise seems to be in the passenger compartment; it's not audible to someone outside the car.  I say this because the technician doing the alignment today was moving it around the parking lot, and I could not hear any trace of noise except for the cat back exhaust.  Maybe there's hope?  Conclusion:  Essential for big power builds and track use, but I'm still waiting to cast judgment on this.  Worst case, I'll go back to new OEM rubber mounts.
• Radio:  The OEM radio malfunctioned after a few years of ownership; the 6-disc changer jammed and the eject button refused to work anymore.  Even though this was supposed to be a Bose system, the sound wasn't that great either.  I went to Crutchfield online and ordered a JVC head unit and steering wheel interface to maintain the same button functions.  They supplied the mounting chassis/face for the center console as well as wiring adapters, and it all went in easily enough.  Changing the head unit revealed the Bose amplifier, speakers, tweeters, and subwoofer actually sounded just fine; all the dullness came from the OEM head unit from a different supplier.  So this was a big improvement, plus the double-DIN chassis/face provided a storage compartment under the head unit.  Great for sunglasses, a phone, or a wallet.  Two complaints:  1) The original trip computer was no longer available but the display is needed to show HVAC settings, and 2) the JVC display was difficult to read in sunny conditions.  Just a few years ago I changed out the JVC head unit for a newer Sony with Bluetooth.  The display is more readable and this makes streaming music much nicer than plugging in an aux cable.  Conclusion:  Don't bother with the OEM head unit; it's not that great.  Keep the Bose amps/speakers/subwoofers and upgrade the source.
• Center console display:  All of the gauges and controls have red lettering/numbering on top of a black background, but for some reason the original radio display had black characters and symbols on a red background.  Even the newer JVC and Sony head units have programmable colors for the buttons and display, and that's all set to red on black as well.  So, I read where some people had done a modification to the original radio display by peeling off the front polarizer and applying a new polarizer in a different orientation.  I bought a second radio display off eBay, made sure it worked, bought some LCD polarizer film, and went to work on it.  The end result is I now have red HVAC symbols and temperature on a black background like the rest of the control and display scheme.  It looks great at night but could afford to be slightly brighter during the day.  It would be easy enough to open the display and change the red LEDs to some others with higher output to compensate, but it's not enough of a problem to do something.  It's still readable during the day.  Conclusion:  Worth doing only if it bothers you.

So that's about it.  This post is for posterity; maybe it'll provide some perspective and guidance to someone who picks up a second-hand Speed3 in the future.

I just had to repost all this wonderful information...............................Dang dude, you go son!

[Blista 1519]

I don't know why, but I always really enjoy reading threads like this.  Somewhat ordinary car with a few years and miles on it getting treated well and posts with attention to every detail.  Even seeing you're using the OEM wheels makes me happy. 

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

A little bit of advertising from back in the day...  It still makes me smile!