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Flatlander937's 2009 Mazda3i autocross prep/progress thread

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#1 ·
I'm going to be autocrossing my car locally for the entire season this year(did 4 events last year and got hooked). Making this thread to track progress/modifications done/etc.

As you may know the entire class structure of the SCCA stock classes is fixing to possibly change in the near future. This year I am not going to be competitive... I'm starting off with some 400 TW Goodyear Eagle GT all season tires... the plan is to burn them off this year, buy a second set of wheels and two sets of tires for next year. One of the potential changes is allowing a +/- 1 inch in diameter of the wheels from stock... which would allow me to run 16x6.5(which I would prefer to run for autocross for tire cost reasons). Whether this change goes through or not will dictate what I buy.

I'm going to be running the car locally in the HS class in our "tire index" for this year.

There was some internal debate about going to STF or not, decided against it because I don't want to lower the car... Especially after having to plow through a bunch of snow this past winter... much lower and I'd possibly be stuck. Plus with the proposed rules for the "street" class to replace "stock," that should take care of making a very daily driveable Mazda3 that is somewhat reasonably competitive.


Onto the car:



It's a 2009 Mazda3 i-touring value... with zero added options except for the IT-V package. No sun roof, no spoiler, no 6-disc player, no auto dim rear view mirror, etc. The IT-V package was a 2.0L, 5spd, with 17x6.5" wheels and fog lights.

At the very last event that I ran last year, I managed to nail a cone into the passenger side fog light, which broke it. So that is one thing I needed/wanted to take care of before the new season started. It was also time to do front brakes.


....
 
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#2 ·
Here are the pictures from the rotor/pad install. I went with Hawk HPS pads and mid-grade rotors from Napa.

The old rotors came off in two pieces thanks to being crazy rusted on:



When it comes to cleaning rotors... the best thing is HOT soapy water. The fact is that if you clean your rotors with brake clean, and they don't rust... then there are oils and contaminants on the rotors keeping it from rusting. If you clean them off and they get some slight surface rust... that's how you know they're clean:









I also applied anti-seize to the rotor wheel mounting surface so the wheels don't get seized on when removing them.

You also want to take a wire brush and clean the brake caliper brackets really well to prep them before you grease them:





You also apply grease to the pins, and the pads themselves in the same spots, and where the caliper body and caliper pistons will contact the pads as well. There are other threads for that.
 
#3 · (Edited)
And onto this weekend, I had the following stuff to change out:



And the front bumper to pull to fix the broken fog light:



I went with Spyder brand fog lights... OEM lense alone is $100, I got both sides new for $60 with all brackets and everything. It's OEM equivalent, only thing that would probably get me in trouble at a National event might be the fact that the new housings are plastic, not metal. Nobody will care locally and I can face the fact that this will NOT be a competitive car and I don't have the time to get super competitive myself in a short period of time. Only thing that kind of sucked was that I could not find the clear lense version in stock... so I got the yellow fogs. It's sort of growing on me.





Then I bled the brakes... you can follow this procedure that I've posted for bleeding the brakes CORRECTLY. The Mazda3 has a cross-split brake system... meaning you bleed in order of right rear, left front, left rear, right front. Check this link for details:
http://www.mazda3forums.com/showthread.php?t=394323

I also made a baller-ific brake bleeding bottle. Used an old beer bottle, label ripped off.. drill a hole in the top to tightly fit a clear hose into(used some 1/4" clear fuel line for a lawnmower), and VERY IMPORTANT: pierce a small hole in the cap in addition to the other one. I found out that without a vent hole, the bottle built up pressure and when I finished bleeding the first caliper, I took the hose off the bleeder and it spewed EVERYWHERE.


I changed the oil and filter with Mobil1 5w20 and a Purolator PureOne filter.

And I changed the trans fluid for some Redline MT-90. Here was how I found it easiest to change:





It takes just a few minutes to pull the air box so it's worth the time. I'll add that I suggest changing the trans fluid when it's warmer out... it took about 20 minutes to pour all of the fluid in at 32 degrees out.


That's all for now. After a few events I am going to get an autocross alignment(or possibly attempt to align it myself at home), and probably buy a K&N drop in filter, though I don't expect any real difference from the filter.

Struts/shocks might come late in the season if all goes well. First event is in a few weeks on April 7th... so hopefully will have an update then. :wink:
 
#6 ·
Thanks! Yeah we'll see what happens with this Stock class shake up when the SEB makes a decision. Still a possibility I might go to STF next year, but if this street class goes through, then that's much less incentive for me to do so.

Good write up Tony. You are very detailed oriented which is good!

You must've really had to wack on that brake rotor!

Interesting and good info on the diagonal bleed order. I didn't know that. I've always used a power bleeder which luckily is pretty idiot proof and I think you can bleed in any order you want, but I'll remember this little nugget of info especially if I use the traditional method.

I just changed the gear oil in the trans as well. Power bleeder came in handy for that too. :)
Yeah... I fiddled with my rotors for about 2 hours, no luck, went out and bought 3 cans of different rust penetrants and a 4 and a 10lb sledge hammer. I wanted to get it done right meow! :eviler:

On another note been driving around with the MT-90 changed for a few days... at first I noticed nearly no difference, but as I drive on it more it's smoothing out more and more which is great. I read on www.bobistheoilguy.com that it would take some time for the trans fluid to "shear" and it might take up to a thousand miles to really notice the full benefits of a fluid change... there might be some truth to that after all.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Good write up Tony. You are very detailed oriented which is good!

You must've really had to wack on that brake rotor!

Interesting and good info on the diagonal bleed order. I didn't know that. I've always used a power bleeder which luckily is pretty idiot proof and I think you can bleed in any order you want, but I'll remember this little nugget of info especially if I use the traditional method.

I just changed the gear oil in the trans as well. Power bleeder came in handy for that too. :)

 
#7 ·
First Cincy SCCA points event is in a couple days... and I just went out and bought a Gopro so I can try to study my driving and figure out what needs most improvement.

I'm going to need to improve my driving with people like Jack Burns running in the Tire index class with me. :ugh: Hopefully I get a chance to really pick his brain on the Mazda3.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Results are not posted yet, I didn't do so great. We only got 4 runs due to some timing problems... of those 4 runs only 2 were clean, others were DNFs because I got lost once and another time I came out of a corner too fast and ended up on the wrong side of a gate.

I had a friend riding along with me on all my runs, I know I won't be competitive this year so having the extra weight doesn't concern me this season.

Here was my first run, it was a clean run as in no cones hit and no DNF, but I know I overdrove the car in several places and was taking some lines too far out. Wasn't really going all out as it was the first run and just wanted to stay on the course. This was taken mainly to see my buddy's reaction... he had a death grip on his seat belt and gets an increasingly uneasy feeling as the run progresses... lol.




Run #2... Around the 1:04 mark I went in too fast and ended up on the wrong side of a pointer cone.



Run #3... this was my only decent/clean run.



And run #4... I missed a gate... you can hear me yell "awww... shit" :alaugh: I put the camera right behind the front wheel for this... pretty crazy how much the tire deforms under cornering.




I ended up running 46psi in the front and 50psi in the rear which was just perfect... the car rotated very predictably... even "drifted" the rear end out nearly the whole way around the left hand sweeper after the two offset gates on a couple of the runs.

edit: Results are posted, there are some errors(missing my first run), but it wasn't my fastest(it was ~65 second run). Also apparently I did actually hit a cone on my third run, my raw time was 61.481 + 2 second penalty for a cone so my fastest was a 63.481.

Final results:
http://cincyscca.com/wp-content/uploads/SoloResults/2013/PE1/pe1fin.htm

Overall PAX results:
http://cincyscca.com/wp-content/uploads/SoloResults/2013/PE1/pe1pax.htm



I got a chance to talk w/ Jack Burns, and also got to see/meet the current driver of his old car that won the 2007 Nationals. If you look at the results... I've got a LONG way to go to even be close to the other top HS drivers... Jack Burns and Dave Santel. Friggin Minis.
 
#11 ·
Thanks! Yes it is... I realized watching the videos that I forgot to pull my seat forward so my arms are at ~90 degrees on the wheel... I remember last year that made a MASSIVE difference in how well I could control the car, one of the pro drivers showed me that and it cut about 3 seconds off my lap time immediately.

Totally awesome .. Keep it up ... Where are u competing ?
In the Cincinnati, OH region. I'm actually in Dayton, but the Western Ohio Region doesn't have such a great event site, though I'm going to make it a point to go once or twice since I can get more seat time in there(less participation = more runs).
 
#12 ·
Well the temptation to go to STF and just have fun is far too great. My motor mounts are on the way out and I want to take care of them for good.

I'm also coming to realize I won't be competitive for probably a few years... but I want to actually drive faster in raw time more than anything... so I'm going to STF which will allow a few performance upgrades and suspension shenanigans.

I'll actually be registering in the local "STO" street touring open class... which is an attempt to be a catch-all for all of the street touring classes, to be lumped together and become a PAX class much like our wildly popular tire index class. Larger classes with more participation are more fun than single person classes.
 
#14 ·
Well the temptation to go to STF and just have fun is far too great.

... but I want to actually drive faster in raw time more than anything... so I'm going to STF which will allow a few performance upgrades and suspension shenanigans.
This was my curse. I was never super competitive in STS2 with my Miata (had a guy in my class that podiums at the Nationals), but I held my own and had good PAX times. Then the mod/speed bug bit, and my mods would have pushed me into SM where an N/A Miata would just get murdered. So, I left AutoX behind and started doing track days.

Some guys are happy in AutoX, others it's like a gateway drug to other forms of racing. Either way, I think it's important to enjoy the car and the racing.
 
#13 ·
Had Points events #2 and 3 last weekend. I did OK on Saturday, I know I left some time on the course as I had 2 runs that were 1 sec faster than my cleanest, but I hit a cone in the slalom each time. :eek:h:

On Sunday I was real happy with my time considering I'm all bone stock on all season tires.






And the results are here.. click on the respective links for each event:

http://cincyscca.com/autocross/scheduleresults/



The track was just slightly different each day to change things up.

I was running in STF to start accumulating points for this season despite having nothing done to really be in that class YET...

However I've been working with Dynotronics and tuning the ECM... should have this done before the next event. Details on that are going on here:

http://www.mazda3forums.com/showthread.php?t=451105&page=29
 
#16 ·
Been meaning to upload this pic... this is from the base dyno run before tuning:




Here was the dyno graph of my bone stock car. I'm fairly sure this dyno is pretty generous, but whatever... it's a base line tuning tool, not a dick measuring tool... especially not since it's a freaking Mazda3 :chuckles:


Still finishing up the tune stuff, I have another auto-x event this weekend and I'll have this installed by then. I bought an OEM Mazda passenger motor mount since mine feels like it's made of jello... taking off from a stop in normal driving feels like you have to wind up a rubber band before it takes off :alaugh:

A lot of the aftermarket mounts are poorly designed or just too stiff. Plus all it will really take to make the stock mount good is to fill the giant air gaps with material so it's not able to stretch itself to the point of breaking.


Started off by taping off the one side to contain the mess:



Then used this 3M Window-Weld to fill in as best as possible from the side shown here. The stuff is THICK so once it's stuck it's not going to run or anything... so I filled it best as possible, then flipped it over, peeled off the tape, filled from the opposite side, then used my fingers in a glove to smooth it out a bit so it doesn't look like complete crap:






I did this on 6/11... going to let it cure until 6/15 and install it... auto-x on 6/16.

Going to buy a rear motor mount and do the same thing with the remaining window-weld at some point in the near future.
 
#18 ·
I did this on 6/11... going to let it cure until 6/15 and install it... auto-x on 6/16.

Going to buy a rear motor mount and do the same thing with the remaining window-weld at some point in the near future.
I did this my my RMM on my old car (before it got totaled.) It definitely helps, and it's a happy medium between suck and poly. That windshield weld is pretty thick stuff even before it sets, so I'd advise anyone using it to have a decent quality caulking gun ( I bent the handle on my cheapy just squirting the stuff into the mount). I believe 4 days to cure is probably conservative, as I gave mine 8 hours and reinstalled it. I did let it set for 24 hours before driving though.
 
#21 ·
I'm not entirely sure... I think it was losing a signal from the wire. Here is a graph vs MPH as indicated by the dynomometer. I had graphs of each printed out should there be an issue comparing the before vs the after on one or the other.

As for the torque curve, I think that has a lot to do with my craptastic worn motor mounts.



I did this my my RMM on my old car (before it got totaled.) It definitely helps, and it's a happy medium between suck and poly. That windshield weld is pretty thick stuff even before it sets, so I'd advise anyone using it to have a decent quality caulking gun ( I bent the handle on my cheapy just squirting the stuff into the mount). I believe 4 days to cure is probably conservative, as I gave mine 8 hours and reinstalled it. I did let it set for 24 hours before driving though.
I've noticed a huge difference in the pliability from the 24 hrs after filling the mount, to 48 hrs, and now at 72 hrs(just checked) it is basically solid.

Stock with no filling you can twist the mount by hand with relative ease quite a bit. At 24hrs you can tell only the outside is cured as you can still move the mount pretty easily and watch the stuff stretch. 48 hrs it was noticeably stiffer but when poking the window weld you can tell it's not quite 100% cured... and just checked at the 72hr mark you can feel it's stiff as it will probably get, and doesn't feel gooey at all when pushed with force. You can barely flex it by hand now except when exerting a lot of force on it.

I think 3 days is probably about right. Doubt I will see a difference tomorrow but will report if I feel otherwise.

My main reason is aftermarket mounts = $$ and I don't have the time to bother fabbing my own, though I MIGHT go that route for the RMM since it's very simple to do. I could even just make a big empty "hole", but a sleeve for the bolt to go through, hold it all in place and fill the space with window weld... making it my own bushing. Actually that sounds like a pretty darn neat idea... it will only cost about $20 in materials at very most. :lol:

i'm going to do the same thing with JB Weld and see how it turns out. i looked on their website and the breaking points are way higher than anything it would see in this application
JB Weld is going to be MESSY as hell... I hate the stuff personally.

Are you changing classes - the 'work' you did to he motor mount is not HS legal.
Yes, I've been running in STF since event #2 this year. The ECM tune is not legal for HS either. I look forward to see if it's a really noticeable difference this weekend.
 
#22 ·
Don't recommend JB Weld for this application. You need some flex to allow the engine to align itself, and I'd be concerned about breaking the aluminum portion of the mount.


Sent from my iPhone with Tapatalk.
 
#20 ·
Are you changing classes - the 'work' you did to he motor mount is not HS legal.
 
#23 ·
Well, ended up not going to the event today because 1) I was out late last night with friends and just overall tires from the work week and 2) it was an 80% chance of rain/thunderstorms at the event site 1.5hrs away... and it was my first Father's Day and decided I wanted to spend the day with my wife and son instead. Seemed kind of silly to stand around in the rain all day to drive my car for 5 min on Father's Day.

On another note, the motor mount got installed yesterday, feel a few minor vibes at idle, more noticeable with A/C on but overall not bad at all. Nothing like my Jeep was with poly motor and trans mounts. If you have any experience with them, it's about comparable to a PT Cruiser at idle... those pieces of shit vibrate damn near no matter what you try to do:chuckles:

And when I inspected the mount, a small bit of it squirted out from the center. It was not 100% fully cured. If you look to do this, let it cure for a full week IMO. My old mount was actually not broken(surprising I know), just super pliable probably from the age of it. I may just clean it off and fill it as well to have a "spare" and swap out to refix my brand new mount. FWIW it was the front of the mount that stuff squirted out from... which means it was in reverse(engine torques BACKWARDS when going forwards) or it was under engine braking(or bad shifting... ha). It still very stiff and feels 100% better than before. You can tell there is some compliance in the mounts still when launching or taking off, but the level of mushiness is about what you would expect to be for a stock vehicle(any vehicle other than a Mazda3 that is).


And my wonderful wife got me an air compressor for Father's Day... woot woot!




30 gal cast-iron oil-lubed belt driven 110v Campbell Hausfeld was $400 at Tractor Supply. This thing is infinitely quieter than my dad's oil-free compressor ever was. I've basically just done the break-in procedure on the pump and checked the tank over for leaks and ran my 1/4" air ratchet to test it out. Going to change the oil in the pump tomorrow and carry on.:coolio:
 
#24 ·
Happy Father's Day to you sit. This is technically my second, but I spent my first 600 miles away at work.


Sent from my iPhone with Tapatalk.
 
#26 ·
Thanks!

Ohhh man.... Nice compressor .... The only way IMO... Awesome


Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App
Thanks!



Anyway today I finally got the time to wash and wax it... looks gooood again.







Here is a pic of my other mod that should lower my PAX times by about 1 second...



Here are a few pics of my filled motor mount:



And you can see the little bit that squirted out... doh. Let it cure for a full week before using! Luckily this is on the front of the mount, meaning it only loads that side when in reverse or engine braking.

 
#27 ·
You're really reminding me about now just how badly I need to polish and wax my car. The paint has so many fine scratches in it, it looks like the PO rubbed it down with a scuff pad.

Oh the joys of the automotive ignorant and automatic car washes.
 
#28 ·
Yeah I'd been putting it off for a while. My front clip looks horrible up close. The hood has a billion little chips too... stupid Mazda paint.


Looks good from 5ft though :)
 
#30 ·
Autocrossed this last weekend. Did okay. The lot we ran at really sucks with all the loose crap on the surface, it is on a large slope, and the start line began with a right turn up hill... awesome conditions for a low powered open diff FWD car :eek:oh:

50/60 in raw time:
http://cincyscca.com/wp-content/uploads/SoloResults/2013/PE5/pe5_raw.htm

36/60 in PAX time:
http://cincyscca.com/wp-content/uploads/SoloResults/2013/PE5/pe5_pax.htm

Here's the overall results, I'm the only one in my class:
http://cincyscca.com/wp-content/uploads/SoloResults/2013/PE5/pe5_fin.htm

I was just short of 2 seconds off of Dave Rudy(the really damn good Mazda3 driver in HS in the Tire Index class)... on a short course like that it is pretty bad.

It was a really damn confusing course as well, I had a DNF first run out as I got lost toward the finish... the next two runs were spent trying not to screw up, then my last few runs I just had a hard time driving the whole course consistently... there was a stupidly tight Chicago box that would punish me every time.


Tires would help too :eek:oh:

Will post some GoPro videos whenever I find the free time to upload them.
 
#31 · (Edited)
Here are some pictures that the club photographer took of my car. First pic is from PE#1, second is from PE#5.






Not sure if there was any camera trickery... but looks like the wax made a huge difference :lol:
 
#33 ·
Ha thanks!


I'm delving into trying to figure out my P0138 code. Likely the rear O2 sensor, but I'm going to try and verify it's not a wiring problem before I blow ~$80 on a sensor.

Also currently awaiting the final tune from Dynotronics. Should be getting dyno'd again in the next few weeks if I get it and all is good.
 
#36 ·
No. My last email response from dynotronics was June 17. The only other response was in the Dynotronics thread when I was told to email them... which I did Sunday(July 21). I am waiting on them.

Because I am not "paying" for the tune I'm not expecting to have super fast responses as I know they are buried with other stuff and paying customers... so for that reason I am not going to waste the dyno operator's time to come in on a Saturday(they do this only by appointment) by scheduling when I'm not positive it will be ready and safe.


I DO have an autox test and tune event on Sunday... I don't know how the format will be run(how many runs and stuff) but I MAY try to load the stock tune after getting baselin
 
#37 · (Edited)
So my bad... Test and Tune was Saturday... Sunday was just a "fun run" event but I ran it and definitely had the fun :alaugh: The course was great, were were running on the airport pad... it was perfectly flat concrete with not a single obstruction on the whole pad. It was a BIG course... the National Tour is being held there next weekend, I might go and watch for a few hours but I didn't enter, nowhere near ready for that yet.



Anyway w got 7 runs, I had one DNF, one was a +1, one had a nice spinout and my last run of the day was fastest with a 71.388. John Souder has a fully prepped HS(on street tires) Mazda3 and ran a 67.693... so I'd say since my car is basically stock on all seasons I'm incredibly happy with how I did. I finished 40th in PAX in STF, if I were running the HS-T index I'd be 34th. I keep an eye on overall PAX to try and track my progression.


The ECM tune really helps with the throttle response mid-corner and in slaloms, it's more instant rather than like you have a sponge below your foot. Also more torque off the line, had no problem spinning the tires all the way in first gear to redline, before the tune when I've launched(on much less grippy surfaces mind you) I'd get off the line spinning but it would catch grip before reaching redline, sometimes to the point of bogging if you launched at too low RPMs, but usually it catches grip and slows a tad.


I'm uploading the videos to my computer now, I'll put them on Youtube over the next day or two. I never did do anything with my videos from the runs at Turfway park, I'll have to add one or two of those as well.



Here are the results:

Final - http://cincyscca.com/wp-content/uploads/SoloResults/2013/SummerFunEvent/funwithconcrete_fin.htm

Raw - http://cincyscca.com/wp-content/uploads/SoloResults/2013/SummerFunEvent/funwithconcrete_raw.htm

PAX - http://cincyscca.com/wp-content/uploads/SoloResults/2013/SummerFunEvent/funwithconcrete_pax.htm
 
#38 · (Edited)
And here's a video... this was my run #4... was going so well until I spun in the first slalom... it was a good spin too... first time I've ever completely lost it in this car.



And here's my 7th and fastest/final run of the day:





Also all seasons do NOT like concrete one bit:

Fronts:





Rears



 
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