Do take note that the volume will automatically adjust upwards the faster you go, take care of your hearing

If you set loud initially, it will get even louder when you speed up.

Yeah the audio system on the new mazda3 is really good. Even my friends compliment it when they sit in my car. Bermaz told mr they have improve it vs pre face lift

I have it. Liking the practicality of a hatchback so far

Care to elaborate? bigger boot space?

Alright, finally i changed my battery after dragging it for so long by putting it on life support (battery charger) weekly to squeeze the life out of it....but made a host of discovery that i hope the rest here don't need to experience....

Managed to crank the engine to a start, but i think that last crank just killed the battery straight away. Other than the battery and istop error, got engine check light, ABS check light, SCBC check light....

The best of all, when start to drive, whoa, the car really behaved like a bitch.
- Get into reverse, freaking shunt.
- Get into drive, freakish shunt from 1st to 2nd.
-Then when start to accelerate from standstill, the throttle response was like snail pace acceleration, thankfully no one horned me.
- Drove one the road, transmission shifting pattern damn weird; seeing the rpm needle, seems like the transmission not engaging properly.
- Cannot upshift to 6th gear.
- When looking at the fueling rate, was richer than usual.
- The infotainment OS unstable and seems like keep restarting, the speaker was acting like how it sounds when you keep plugin and plug out, pop pop pop all the way despite muting it.
- Then when push harder down the accelerator paddle, can see that the LED clusters are flickering light want to sei forr anytime.

Thankfully the brakes acted normal. Initially i wanted to make a 30 minutes drive to a shop with great service which was further to get the battery replaced. But observing how the car was behaving, i just couldn't take the risk of driving further and longer. So just made a trip to the nearest, franchised official mazda 2S centre.

I had a bad feeling that they are going to charge me 1k for the battery (from what other owners here mentioned) but was surprised they quoted me 550. I know outside can get up to 150 cheaper, but it is within reasonable premium judging that they are consider official mazda....They gave me amaron hi life, backed with 18 months warranty. And based on their own experience, this is better than the factory unit.

Then they pluged in their diagnostic system to check and clear all the error codes...mainly TCM and PCM low voltage codes...underpowered....no wonder the car was behaving so odd.....

I came to a conclusion, in the bid to squeeze more efficiency and probably to optimised sourcing across all model range, the factory fitted alternator is barely powerful enough without a properly functioning battery as buffer....I understand from experience that a car with dead battery but functioning alternator jump started, would still drive as normal. But my car, just almost 2 years old (37k km), with the first dead battery, despite the engine crank started, was actually electrically underpowered. Hence the above listed behaviors and the fault codes. Without a proper functioning battery, this car can't work properly.

The last time i checked 10 days ago, the unpowered voltage, it was at 12.2V....so all you guys can have a rough benchmark now, once lower than that, you are damn near a dead battery anytime.

----

Coincidentally, at the service bay was a car with failed engine...the technician pointed me to the oil pan, 2 large broken chunk of parts was there....i suspect could be the piston rod cap but wasn't sure as the technician himself cannot confirm because the engine wasn't disassembled yet....on the exterior, seems like a modded car...not turbocharged; but must have made a really bad tuning or driven somewhere wrong as the technician pointed out the existence of a lot of water in the oil sump...asked how much for the engine block itself cost ; RM19k...just the block itself, no other eingine components....wow....

This post has been edited by wkc5657: Aug 24 2017, 03:25 PM

wkc5657, a dead battery can actually suck up the alternator power and pull down the system voltage leaving insufficient voltage to operate the control system and accessories. You were lucky your alternator wasn't destroyed by the high current low voltage condition.

I'm not sure bro....the battery worked well yesterday.

Based on my experience with the santa fe in my family, i met a situation where the battery just died after i parked the car for a haircut about 2 years ago. It required a jump start, but didn't exhibit issues like these during the drive after jump started. And although not a common occurrence but not exactly something out of the blue moon, cars with died batteries and jump started technically shouldn't have issues with driving on a dead battery.....and it should not be so as there are emergency situation that just require a jump start and no available new battery supplies available....

So either the default factory fitted alternator was spec'ed to be a little on the weak side, hence the incidences of Q85 batteries not lasting long on many of our cases here....or maybe my alternator unit on my car is a mini lemon unit, not bad enough to be rejected during QC, but could be below mean average performance.

Why i deduced the alternator to be on the weak side was because the symptoms didn't improve despite the rpm rising even towards 3000rpm. Alternator should by default provide more current/charge when the rpm is faster, but the LEDs in my dashboard cluster flickering is pretty much a sign that the charge isn't enough. By right, with rising rpm = rising current/charge from the alternator, the LEDs and the electrical symptoms should subside.

Oh well....thankfully, at least i didn't get a cut throat price on the battery at the mazda 2S i visited....and hope other skyactiv owners have a little more awareness of the possible weak link on electrical performance of the skyactiv range...

Slightly bigger boot space but because it's a hatchback, the entry point is flat, as in don't have to lift things that high up.

Also, bigger boot door, easier to organise stuff as compared to sedan.

wonder if its safe to charge the car battery using external charger while its connected to the car? will the electronics get scrambled?

Yes, it will be fine, provided you get a proper lead acid charger that have build in circuit controls and fail safes. Most commonly found are chargers from bosch and ctek. I'm using it for all the cars in the family for 3 years, no issues.

my friend is currently looking for a mazda 3, but cant decide on whether to get it new (GVC HS) or second hand (previous GS, year 2015/2016).

if we were to put the warranty aside, is it worth it to get the new one? (roughly around rm400 difference in terms of monthly payment)

hope you guys can give some opinion on this.

go search for mazda anshin for mazda preowned car, got official warranty from mazda if not mistaken

both gvc and non-gvc is good car, gvc has nicer interior and better soundproof though

just test drive both and follow her/his heart.

hi owners...

M3 0-100 how many seconds...can't seem to find official numbers

anyone letting go / looking for 1pc of ori Toyo 18' tyre?
i've 1 faulty tyre, so letting go the other one or getting used one from you..

age < 3 months / 3k KM

8.9 seconds, based on singapore spec :
http://www.mazda.com.sg/wp-content/plugins...page=&zoom=auto

Any issues with warranty adding front bumper sensors and things like auto brek lock, auto folding mirrors etc?

No warranty issues if you install at an authorized accessories shop but expensive.

I was told by the service centre that even plug and play (no wire cutting) can void warranty. But they can only void warranty for related items. Some risk has to be taken or you can't touch anything for 3 years. Even doing tinting outside carry a risk. Engine malfunction problem? "The chemical used in tinting seeped into the dashboard and corroded the wires". This actually happened to one Honda owner.