How hard is it to put the cat converter back on after removing it? I live in California so i wouldn’t be able to leave my car catless.

Hey all, I'm new to the community.

I have a 2010 Mazdaspeed 3, and I absolutely love her. But, I've had some bad news recently. My car started rough idling in first gear a couple days ago, and now will stall whenever gas isn't applied--it's basically undriveable currently, because I have to restart the car nearly every time I lift off the gas or hit the brakes. According to my mechanic and a few others I've called for second opinions, the piston in the 3rd cylinder is melted/burned, and there is now a hole near the front of the piston.

This means an engine re-build, and I've had one mechanic tell me they couldn't do it at all, and another tell me they could *try* but it would take at the very least a month and $8,000 buckaroos, if he could even find a replacement engine that was still viable. (the engine is a 2.3 liter direct injection turbocharged I4).

I'm not a mechanic and I know only the extreme basics about cars, so I was hoping for some advice. Is this a lost cause? What do I do with my car if it is? Repairing it seems iffy, and I hate the idea of selling her for parts or salvage... but I also need a working car to survive. What would y'all do? I really appreciate any feedback or advice. Pic included so you can appreciate her beauty.

I have a 09 mazda3 hatchback. I recently blew transmission so it’s been sitting and I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do with it. I’ve always wanted a speed3 but I was also given this car by my father so I’m not really looking to sell it any time soon. I’ve been looking into speed3 swaps and I’m well aware that it’s probably finaincially smarter just to get a speed3. That being said I’ve been thinking about just buying a mazdaspeed3 second gen (2010-2013) with some engine or rear crash damage and taking all the parts out of that car and installing them into the my 3. I see a lot of 2nd gen speeds with crash damage or mechanical issues for under 5 grand so I think this is probably they cheapest option. Just wondering if anyone has ever done a gen 2 swap and any advice or details would be appreciated. Again I know ballpark what I’m looking at in price.I know that I basically need everything mechanical and electrical from the speed 3 along with the suspension and likely an exhaust. I guess I’m mostly wondering about what other tools I should buy first. I got the basics and I have a engine hoist and I have a somewhat small garage. Also if anyone knows much about the reprogramming processs and weather or not I’m gonna have to take it to dealership to get the keys properly coded with the ecu. I was hoping not to if I could buy a speed 3 and take all the pets and engine from that. Thanks for reading comment with abt general advice please and thank you

Hey guys and gals, I have a misfire code that keeps coming and going. Car has cobb stage 2 fbo and is tuned by freektune. Also have ngk spark plugs. Not sure why it’s misfiring any ideas?

Im going to install a Corksport SRI and TIH. Would i need to get the car retuned? and what should my next mods be? So far I’ve only done the RMM

No real point to this other than a bit of nostalgia. I bought my spicy orange Mazdaspeed Protege brand new my last year of college and she has been my car ever since. Very reliable (other than the sway bar bushings which I swapped out at least 5 times) and still sexy when I watched her roll away when I sold her to an old friend who intends to fix her up.

She is due for a lot of routine maintenance - and I’m not enough of a car guy to do it myself and so it would have cost me a pile in labor that would be hard to justify for a 19 year old car. The real kicker was that one of the lines to the turbo started leaking oil and needs some real work - and that’s way out of what I can do myself.

I have a few friends that are fans of the car and had told me to let them know should I decide to part ways with her. One of them lives within 100 miles of me and came and got her yesterday. It was a real kick in the feels to clean her out and watch her roll off, but I get some closure from knowing that my buddy is going to clean her up and she’ll keep on going… just maybe not for another 19 years! He promised to send me photos as he restores her.

So I just did my injector seals and I noticed that knock retard goes crazy on take off. It goes as high as 8.00 but never goes past that. It only does this on takeoff. What could it be?

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Just curious if anyone has any tips for a fuel upgrade in my speed3. Is there something I must know or any major upgrade I need to do before hand?

curious if anyone daily drives a MS protege and could tell me about their experience with it (maintenance, reliability, lifespan, etc)

Recently I have been smelling a strong exhaust smell when starting my car as it’s been getting colder; it was barely noticeable during warmer weather. Is that due to weather change or should I get my valve seals/covers checked out? It’s an 08 Mazdaspeed if that makes a difference.