MX-3.com

Hello everyone -- my name is James and I'm addicted to Zoom Zoom. Joking aside, I'm from the Lehigh Valley and I'm an avid Subaru fanatic. Why am I here you ask? Well, I just picked up my first Mazda. I've been looking at Miata's for a while now, but I came across an MX3 at a price I couldn't refuse.

It needs few things to be legal like brakes, rotors, and tires -- but for the most part it runs great for having 144k on the odometer. I was shocked when I crawled under and saw the lack of rust on it.

I'm here to learn more about the car like its quirks, things to look out for, and possibly do a manual trans swap since it is an automatic =(.

Here are a few pictures of the MX3:





Here's my old Subaru 2.5 RS that I regretfully sold:



Here's my 2005 WRX lightly modded:

Sweet RS, the 05' is not bad either, but I am a fan of the RSs.
The MX-3 is a pretty good car. This site is aged and has a ton of good info. The quirks are the auto seatbelt- but you may be in Canada and not have to worry about that (not sure where Lehigh Valley is). The ignition module in the disty is prone to fail. The auto trans overheat, so get a external cooler if you keep it for long. The trans swap is just about the same as every other car, get a donor manual MX if you can. It is easier than buying all the parts from different places. There are guides on here for directions and parts lists.
Welcome to the community, that is a good looking MX-3.

Welcome! That looks like a good start! Depending on what you want to do, there's alot of info here.
Subaru is one of my favorite makers all the way from the days of the Brat. Nowadays, the local MX-3 crew beats them at autocross consistantly, and we're not allowed to talk about street racing. If you do any modification, I'd like to see a worklog!
It's very satisfying to have something quick that is all built and inexpensive.

Welcome Also from the lehigh valley area (Pennsylvania), and my daily driver is a suby too

welcome from new castle and my dd isnt a subey lol

Welcome to the forum! Nice looking cars, all of them! Glad to see another person joining the Mazda crew

_-Night-Shade-_ wrote:Welcome to the forum! Nice looking cars, all of them! Glad to see another person joining the Mazda crew

Thanks . My friend owns a Mazda B2600i 4x4 -- he's an avid Mazda fan.

hotsiit wrote:Welcome Also from the lehigh valley area (Pennsylvania), and my daily driver is a suby too

I live in Allentown, where you at?

fowljesse wrote:Welcome! That looks like a good start! Depending on what you want to do, there's alot of info here.
Subaru is one of my favorite makers all the way from the days of the Brat. Nowadays, the local MX-3 crew beats them at autocross consistantly, and we're not allowed to talk about street racing. If you do any modification, I'd like to see a worklog!
It's very satisfying to have something quick that is all built and inexpensive.

Honestly, I don't have big plans. Some wheels, some new springs/struts, new radio since it has none haha. I would like to do a manual trans swap but thats way down the road. Oh yeah, I had a 1987 Subaru BRAT . I don't do any street racing, or really any auto-x, but that's something I want to get into in the future as well.

PATDIESEL wrote:Sweet RS, the 05' is not bad either, but I am a fan of the RSs.
The MX-3 is a pretty good car. This site is aged and has a ton of good info. The quirks are the auto seatbelt- but you may be in Canada and not have to worry about that (not sure where Lehigh Valley is). The ignition module in the disty is prone to fail. The auto trans overheat, so get a external cooler if you keep it for long. The trans swap is just about the same as every other car, get a donor manual MX if you can. It is easier than buying all the parts from different places. There are guides on here for directions and parts lists.
Welcome to the community, that is a good looking MX-3.

Yeah I am too - it was so fun to throw around in the twisties. When I first jumped in the MX3, I found myself from smiling ear to ear because of how much it reminded me of it.

Neither seat belt work anymore, but I noticed there was a recall on the drivers side. I would like to get the replaced under the recall if I can and if not, I'll just pull the steel cord that retracts it out and just leave it all the way back.

I drive around 25k a year, all highway so there's always a constant flow of nice cool air, but I'll DEFINITELY look into a trans cooler since they are cheap .