Got a new car! Mazda 3

[Kokit]

Hello all! I haven't been here for too long!
I sold my Elantra got a new mazda 3 1.6 HB AT. Great car. Later I made some pics

[SuperGLS]

Only one pic? Congrats on the new car.

[Munky]

Congrats! Your car looks like an ant from here...

[evan938]

good choice. my g/f hasnt had any major issues with hers..only that the a/c sucks in the summer...apparently theres a TSB for it we're going to have done this summer...during the winter it doesnt matter

[Silentwolf]

good choice. my g/f hasnt had any major issues with hers..only that the a/c sucks in the summer...apparently theres a TSB for it we're going to have done this summer...during the winter it doesnt matter

Yep cause the thermostat resistor is set high. Someone on EXD got a lower resistor and can get the AC down to ~60 now.
http://www.elantraclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16410&hl=Mazda+conditioning

Pardon me, added a thermistorwell one of the weak points about the mazda3 is the A/C. it's pretty weak. there's no "max AC" setting, and while the cooling is adequate most of the time, it struggles to keep the car cool on 95+ days when it's really humid. IIRC, the elantra was slightly better, but not great either.

on the mazda boards, this is a HUGE area of complaint, mostly from users in the deep south or dessert areas. only one person on the forum was able to figure out a workable mod... so good, in fact, that mazda should have incorporated this from the beginning. you can probably guess who that person was... yep, you guessed right... NOT me, lol.... it's my twin, a guy named bill. he's to the mazda3 what i was to the elantra.

anyway, he discovered that the major A/C hardware is the same on many mazdas (compressor, condensor, evaporator, etc) yet only the mazda3 has the anemic A/C. but the hardware is totally capable of cranking out ice-cold air.

turns out it's all computer-regulated, and for some reason, mazda engineers decided that the A/C on the mazda3 should only cool the vent air down to 44 degrees. by comparison, most american cars with honkin' AC systems churn out vent air at 35-39 degrees. bill's solution was to "fool" the system into thinking the air is 4-5 degrees warmer than it really is, so it would keep cooling longer. he did this by adding a resistor across the AC thermistor (a thermistor is basically a temperature sensor, much like the coolant temp sensor). it increases in resistance as temp goes up. so he calculated how much more resistance he had to load across the thermistor to make the AC system "think" that the air temp was 4-5 degrees warmer. it's not too much different than using a resistor to fool an O2 sensor, but that's a little more complicated than a simple thermistor.

it worked like a charm. the only problem is that in normal weather, it's *too* cold... and the only solution is to turn the temp dial up.

so i took his mod a step further and hooked up a nice OEM-looking pushbutton switch with an LED... i call it the "Max AC" switch. i use it when i need really cold air, like when i just get into the car on a 95 degree day, then switch it off for "normal" A/C. i also wired it so that the mod only comes on when the A/C is on...pretty slick!

if anyone here thinks their elantra's A/C is too weak, adding a $0.99 resistor is pretty easy!

here is a pic of the mod, with it off and on:

[WytchDctr]

Ive had a Mazda5 for two years now (same chassis) and other than the tires that came on it sucking arse (started cracking) it has been a great car.

[Jlivan]

Congrats on the new car! Roof & hood look good :thumbsup:

[Kokit]

Promised pics? sorry for the bad quality, made by Nokia 6233)))