Hey guys, looking for any insight into the difficulty of putting a r/s into a 2006 Mazda 3. I have a friend who wants one put in and I was curious as to the ease of removing panels in this vehicle and how accessible the wires are in this particular car. Any insight would be be appreciated.
Nice car to work on.
Here's a general outline:
Panel under steering comes off by removing screw behind hood lever. Start by pulling the top first.....careful bottom right has a hinge like hook, don't break it.
Three screws to remove shroud around steering to access ignition wires and immobilizer.
Clutch bypass in drivers kick - one of three gray/black - requires ground during crank. Stay away from clutch switch because firstly it isn't easy access and secondly it is very fragile - can break easily.
Door pins are rest-at-ground type for 4 and 5 door models. They are found at BCM/fusebox under glovebox in a brown plug. Need to create a pull-up circuit using 8 diodes and four resistors.
E-brake is easy access.
The toughest part is trying to get a tach wire under the hood. One method is going through the large grommett behind the glovebox. Maybe others have insight as to better way for tach.
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Prepare your future. It wasn't the lack of stones that killed the stone age.
Big Dog is right very easy car for a R/S.
I put one in mine in about an hour. The car comes apart very easy and goes back togther nice without anything out of place.
For the tach wire, there is a small white plate just to the left of the break pedal in an auto, (where the clutch goes for a stick)
that should be easy to get through, and for a stick I would use the large grommett Big Dog noted behind the glovebox.
Have fun.
You can use the hood release cable grommet its small but if only running 2 or 3 wires through it's fine. You can also use the domelight wire in the passenger kick BLACK/ blue it's got a delay but works just fine much easier than diodes. Tach is also pretty easy left of the battery under the cover there are 4 wires on the front any one of those will work