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.
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.