PDA

View Full Version : New member - darkwarden


darkwarden
28-02-2010, 08:02 PM
Hi Everyone,

I am new to the forums and I have only really in the last 6 or so months gained an interest in cars and the inner workings since gaining my P-plates.

About Myself: I have worked in IT my whole life, although in different areas, originally I started at Dr PC as a workshop engineer and later progressing to workshop manager and then later onto a operations manager and sales role. After leaving this role I went on to work at Cellnet (now closed in Adelaide due to a restructure and closing of the branch) as a sales support officer. After the redundancy at Cellnet I was picked up by one of my customers from there, I now work at Datacom as an Account Manager.

Car History: My Mazda Astina 323 1997 BA V6 is my first car and I love it to bits, with a little under 210,000 k/s on the clock it seems to be holding up well, but it has not been smooth sailing since I got it over a year ago. The RAA check on the car went well with only a few small things being picked up.

The history of the car is a little interesting as it once used to live two streets away from where I have lived all my life, after that owner it stayed within Adelaide and was always serviced by Mazda, however at one point it moved to country South Australia, in Kadina to be precise, there are plenty of dents in the front bumper and bonnet likely from small rocks and bits flicking up. The car has now moved back to Adelaide and resides two streets away from the original owner.

After a few weeks of having the car the little ABS light decided to pop up and I decided it was time to get a full service done on the car and get it looked over thoroughly. The first service wasn't so bad, expensive but expected from a car that came from a used car dealership, the ABS was fixed with a simple re-soldering of the connection to one of the wheels. Also of note on the first service, it was brought to my attention that the front discs needed to be replaced, not re-worked and ground flat again, but REPLACED entirely……

Before replacing the discs I decided to take care of a few comfort items in the car, once I got my Ps and started driving on my own I noticed that the stock stereo didn't like playing track 3 on any CD and the security system was a bit old, missing a remote and the central locking not working properly.

First point of action was the central locking, after taking apart the doors it was discovered that the black, tar-like substance that holds the inner lining in place had dripped onto the rods that were connected to the locks and the solenoids, after cleaning these rods and the clips that guide them the front passenger door now would unlock completely upon pushing the button on the remote.

Second item on the list that was taken care of was the security system, this was replaced by Tonkins in Adelaide with a Viper security alarm, the new system is much better and now has two remotes and the range of the system is not over 400-metres, not sure why I need this but fun to play with, especially the panic feature….

Third item was the stereo system, I got the Clarion CX509A double DIN unit, the unit has bluetooth so it works with my iPhone and also plays music from the iPhone but doesn't allow control over playback, play/pause, next/previous track, etc. In the process of doing the head unit, I got the rear speakers replaced as the rear left speaker has water in the connections and was very fait to hear anything from, the water was as a result of the previous owner/servicer installing the speaker and the clip for it upside down so rather than sheltering the connection from water, it collected it…… The rear right speaker was simply just dead.

The fourth and unexpected item appeared a few days after getting the new stereo installed and taking a 2-day trip to Gold Coast the car would no longer start, the alarm and immobiliser was going off whenever you tried to start the car, a quick call to the RAA we found that the car battery was flat, after a jump start and a bit of a drive all was okay again but this prompted the hunt for a high capacity battery for the car, after a extensive hunt I came to the conclusion after being told several times that there is no high capacity battery available for the BA series. After a check with Mazda too, they tested my battery and said that it was "weak", I picked up a replacement from MotoQuipe and fitted it myself.

While replacing the battery the new alarm decided to kick in and think that I was trying to seal my own car, after about a minute of being dissuaded by a persistent painful noise, I discovered the purpose of the two keys that Tonkins gave me after the alarm was installed, they control the siren itself, after a short moment I managed to silence the thing and finish off the battery installation, my hearing returned about an hour later. The new battery helps but still with a few days of not driving the car it takes longer than normal to crank the engine, there is clearly still a drain on the battery coming from the stereo.

A little before Christmas in 2009 I eventually got the discs replaced and a general service on the car, the brakes have improved a lot since getting them replaced as expected.

In recent developments in the car, I recently replaced all four tires on the car with Yokohama C-Drive, and the other week the clutch hydraulic line decided to rupture on my way home from work, after a quick tow to Mazda again and a weekend without the car while waiting for the part to come in from Melbourne everything is now up and running again.

Now, with all that history in mind there are some additional things I want to look at doing to the car to improve the looks and features.

- Replace front speakers as they are the stock speakers and not as good as the new rear speakers.
- Find a compact subwoofer, I don't want pounding bass just some more depth to the music, does anyone know if the compact subwoofers are any good?
- Replace headlights with HID lamps. Anyone know of any good conversion kits that are relatively simple?
- Look into modification options for fog lamps, anyone seen anything good?
- Headlight LED lips.
- Rear lights - LED options - anything out there that are good?

Anything else that people have done that is good? Looking for ideas, but not really sure where to go to look at stuff, I'm not really into body kits or laud exhausts I like cars that look good and sound nice without being hugely loud.

I'm new to car stuff, I have done electrical work before as a hobby so I have a good understanding of it but mechanical work isn't something I have done before but I want to get a better understanding of the car and how to maintain it myself.

Any suggestions or advice above is appreciated, I look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers - Dan.

marcs_sp20
28-02-2010, 08:16 PM
Welcome to AGT Dan ;)

All I am going to say is wow, that was a bit to read, but good to hear you have a car that has a full history, something not seen too much these days :)

Cheers
Marc

Rupewrecht
28-02-2010, 08:20 PM
Welcome to AGT!

darkwarden
28-02-2010, 08:23 PM
HAHAHA - Wanted to share the history of the car, since it is a 12-year old car there is a back story to it as with all cars.

Thanks for the welcome guys.

Clean_Cookie
28-02-2010, 08:46 PM
hey! nice to see its in good shape now, hate to think of how much its cost you though!! worked out the other day in 18mths of owning it just buying, running and insuring the car has cost me over $10000!!!

look forward to seeing the mods come with some pics! btw our headlights arent really made for HIDs... youve probably seen hondas or even suziki swifts (they are simply THE WORST!) with blinding lights after the conversion. i added hid to my high beams and they are stupidly awesome bright but owuldnt dare do the mod to the low beams... i almost blind myself if theres a sign infront from the refection...

on the other hand others have done the mod and seems to have worked ok for them. one day ill pick up a set of bulbs to try it out :) until then im happy with my narva blue vision (about 50% brighter than stock... i.e you can actually see with them haha!)

70NYD
28-02-2010, 08:55 PM
hello and welcome :)
1st i have to say WOW what a write up, awesome intro i feel like i know u now :p
ok now to answer ur questions
HID - there are kits everywhere. they all involve pretty much same things. ones in stores here will set u back about 250. ones on ebay from china (ie the cheapest ones) are about 70 ish. i have the latter version and they are still working as new about year and a half later (my mate bought his here for more than 250 and they kicked the bucket 2 weeks ago and now he has same ones as me :p)
LED taillights - only one option for LED taillights and thats from europe (austria i think???) you can go and do it your self as wel ( i am in process right now i jsut hit a bit of a wall with the reflector to make them legal LOL)
LED headlight lip - straight forward, u bake the light housing in an oven to seperate the glass from the plastic, about 180 ish for 10 min or so (might be a little less like 150 i cant remember) and yeah done ;) im gonan b pulling myn apart im makin something special

hope u enjoj your stay
oh as tc3 said our low beams lack the auto adjustment required to make HID legal, but one +ve is that the low beam is already a projector type light housing (not a reflector like the highbeam) making it somewhat more legal (as all stock HID reside i na projector due to the way it emits light givin it a distinct area of ilumination)

so fresh
28-02-2010, 09:18 PM
hey hey welcome to agt.
that was some history the back drop would've been awesome in kadina

darkwarden
01-03-2010, 09:26 PM
Cool, thanks guys.

Don't tell me how much you have spent TC3 - I don't want to think about it :P
Interesting to know the low-beam headlights in the BA don't really suit HID lights but that the high beams do....

70NYD - Thanks for the heads up on the kits, I'll look into the China option, was there a site you ordered them from that I can take a look at. On the LED tail lights, thats a bit annoying that the UK would be the only option... I might have to see if I can find my soldering iron and get practice again.

As for the headlight strip, you're serious? Bake the light housing? Sounds a little full on, has anyone tried one of those hand-held heat guns that can be used for stripping paint off woodwork? Might do the job and add some extra control when it comes to heating the housing without stressing the plastic too much. Would love to see what you end up doing.

Just to clarify - what do you mean by "but one +ve is that the low beam is already a projector type" What is the +ve?

Thanks guys for the input - Cheers

70NYD
01-03-2010, 09:59 PM
+ve is positive. sorry, im 22 lol

u could try a heatgun but the oven thing is the easiest and fastest, and it allows for everything to expand evenly rather than localy. its not as hard as it sounds, here is a guide (http://www.club323f.com/club323f/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29716&sid=3c09359fe99cec11d996811974a1790e)
oh and it might be better to keep it at 150 for exactly 5 min and then pry it apart, then put it back in for another min or so and pull it apart (how i did it) to stop the droop thing he was talking about. myn didnt droop :p
as for the HID i got it of DIANESHOP from ebay ;)

spenaroo
01-03-2010, 10:23 PM
welcome to astinagt, im also in adelaide and own a 1.8L i4 BA astina (1994)
if your interested there is a mazda cruise on the 14th go to ozmazdaclub.com for details (under the churches area)

mikey_something
02-03-2010, 03:36 PM
welcome mate

i did HID for my low beams and i have found them an excellent upgrade with the same light spreading as the original bulbs (tested with a light gun camera) and haven't been flashed by any other drivers so i'd say they are ok :) but technically illegal :p

http://www.newpro-tech.com.au/

those are the guys i got them from, probly midrange in price, tony was talking about $70 ones and ive seen phillips kits in Autobarn for $499 so $149's not that bad :)
piss easy install too :)

great write up by the way :)

Clean_Cookie
02-03-2010, 05:04 PM
regarding HID... yeah i cant really comment on low beams but highbeam flings the light EVERYWHERE... which is good - what they are supposed to do, but these are easily 20x brighter (55W rather than the cheaper 35W) than stock. id only recommend 35w (or even 30w) for low beams. aparently (according to the huge HID forum guys who are mad about them) the cheaper globes slowly change colour so they end up looking weird - but hell who cares for $100ish! they also have come to the conclusion that the expensive top of the line ones control the light alot better... but youd expect that wouldnt you for $1000 lights!


just some info ive found from various places :)

darkwarden
02-03-2010, 09:22 PM
Thanks guys, any info you have is appreciated.
Thanks for the links to shop sites too.

Cheers.

darkwarden
26-12-2010, 08:54 PM
*UPDATE*
Well, three weeks ago I sold my Astina 323 1997 BA V6 Hatch, sad to see the car go but it was time to get something newer and more comfortable.

I have replaced the car with the Mazda 6 2009 Luxury Sports Edition. I'll get some photos online soon.