Another Speed I want to buy

[philip B]

I’m looking into buying another speed 3 why because why not. I’m obsessed and they are fun easy to work on if you have the right tools and I do. Also see it as somewhat an investment as these cars start to dwindle in numbers and become a rarity. I plan on keeping them for years to come.

The guy selling is a mechanic and has had up to 5 Mazdaspeed. Currently owns 2 Mazdaspeeds and an evo so the guys is fluent in cars and Mazdas.
He is through a friend of a friend.

The car for sale is his 2007 Mazdaspeed and he had it for one year roughly and bought it from another mechanic who did not do much to it.

Body- 180k
Engine- swap with a 2nd gen Mazdaspeed has 115k on it. Swap was do to low compression numbers on oem engine with cylinder three being the culprit.

Mods done-
INTERIOR -

Radio android navigation,CarPlay,

J2 seats


EXTERIOR -

iJDMTOY LED signal light smock (fenders )

Rear tail light led

STI wheels and spacers

Tires goodyyear new 3k miles

Brake pads and DBA Club Spec 4000 Series T3 Slotted Brake Rotor SINGLE


ENGINE -

115k miles replace engine with obviously a new vvt

Turbo BNR S4 2gen

HkS intake air filter

Map sensor - Bosch 3.5 bar new

Spark plus 1k miles NGK LTR7IX

JBR 3 inch aluminum intake

Wesgate external TIAL MVR 44mm

Exhaust manifold- XS POWER full exhaust

High pressure fuel pump

New injector seals CS BRAND and clear 1k miles

BOV -turbo smart

CS engine mount

Act clutch stage 3 HD 2k miles

EGR delet

Cobb boost controller

Cobb accessports

Front mount intercooler -treadstone and pipe 3.5 inch

Damond stage one oil catch can

Damond PCV Plate

A/C and heat work good

compression numbers for engine swap was 175-180

comes with two ecu maps 93/e30

tuning he said was done by PR tuning Performance so idk if he meant PD but I don’t think I’ve heard of them before.

DRIVE TRAIN-
Has cv axles upgrade rated for 600 hp

issues-
Engine light due to deleted egr and damaged wheel sensor.

Asking price $9500
He’s throwing in the sport seats and extra painted valve cover and Intake manifold he did not have time to put on.

Down side has had 13 owners and is exempt from odometer reading from engine swap.
CARFAX listed below.

 

[Awafrican]

115k miles replace engine with obviously a new vvt

Engine- swap with a 2nd gen Mazdaspeed has 115k on it.

so the used engine has 115k on it? was the vvt actually serviced because I don't read putting a used engine in as vvt service, what's current compression not at time of swap.

what's a wheel speed sensor cost? I wouldn't be buying it with that buggered.

 

[Easter Bunny]

Gonna wanna confirm those error codes at the very least

 

[philip B]

I went to just take a look at it today. He even plans on selling his second gen Mazda all in for the evo 8 now.
VVT was new installed with the engine swap he explained I do not need to worry about a new VVT as he knows they tend to gernade even on the second gen after some miles and that it only came with the engine.
My mistake he meant tire pressure sensor.
His EGR delete did not get tuned out so engine light from that. I tuned mine out through versatuner.
he still has VCTS on intake.

Will be checking compression before buy. I asked him about that and he said he doesn’t mind getting his gauge and doing it in front of me.
It’s exempt from odometer reading due to engine swap as well as 13 owners it did get repainted a same color red but it was done very processionally just from it being old and paint wearing, better than how mine was done. He bought it with the turbo and exhaust manifold already installed but he modified everything else. He said turbo is only doin 18 psi and his tuner recommended against any higher due to the exceeding engines limits with our upgraded internals.

He lives in North Carolina and I’m in Athens Ga so we both had to drive 2 hours to meet. We did take it for a couple wot pulls and the thing flew way faster than my speed with his bsnr 4 I peed myself a little surprised how fast and powerful we could push our speeds, but I won’t let that fool me I’m looking at it next week again. Besides codes would the accesport show all codes on ecu ? I use versatuner so I have no experience with it.
He said he tuned through PR performance tuning down in Florida it’s a small little company that has experience with the Mazda community and based on today and looking through the web nothing alarming came up and I can try to retune if needed.

Fluids checked out. Oil leaks none asked if I could jack up the car if I felt like I needed to he was more than willing. Car was in NC most of its life so rust is not something I’m worried about. I asked about oil consumption he said he changes every 3000 miles and has not had any issues it sat around most of the year.

If I do get it I’ll be posting pics and any hidden issues I did not see before buying.

 

[Awafrican]

I dont know pricing on these state side however it seems like it is probably a good buy

 

[philip B]

I dont know pricing on these state side however it seems like it is probably a good buy

just been comparing and contrasting on websites for Mazdaspeeds for sale around me and most are 2010-2013 gen with 100k-160k miles for between $9k-13k some were stock others look like they had stuff done but no upgrades like I would be getting.
What’s weird is the few and far between Mazdaspeed 2007-2009 gen were more expensive with average 100k to 160k miles and asking between 11k to 14k obviously they looked to be stock in pics so maybe that’s why untouched virgins. These are all through dealers did not see any from private sellers.
Another reason I don’t want to nessisarily buy a expensive stock speed where I’d have to spend 6k to get it up to 400hp where I can buy one pre built that’ hasn’t just had parts thrown at it.
It’s hard to say if but engine swap and new clutch are major components that would of taken me a large amount of my time to do and money and I got kids so time is something I don’t want to give to much up on.

 

[L337TurboZ]

This is my old Mazdaspeed 3. I live in Charleston SC and sold it a few years ago. The tuning was done by Freektune when I owned it so unless whoever purchased it from me decided to get it re tuned for no reason then maybe PD did it?

Also the intake manifold the guy has is probably the spare manifold i ported and never got around to installing.

I sold the car to some Navy kid so I could buy a truck. All the mods on this car were ones I installed. I also put in a used engine when I got it. Then did VVT maintenance later on.

Whoever had it after me must have burnt up that engine. I took good care of that car and often wondered where it went lol. The STI wheels were off my friend David's WRX.

One thing not mentioned and worth looking at is if there are still braided lines and bronze bushings in the brake system. I did those upgrades to the car. The DBA rotors are cause I use those on my Eunos Roadster

 

[Raider]

This is my old Mazdaspeed 3. I live in Charleston SC and sold it a few years ago. The tuning was done by Freektune when I owned it so unless whoever purchased it from me decided to get it re tuned for no reason then maybe PD did it?

Also the intake manifold the guy has is probably the spare manifold i ported and never got around to installing.

I sold the car to some Navy kid so I could buy a truck. All the mods on this car were ones I installed. I also put in a used engine when I got it. Then did VVT maintenance later on.

Whoever had it after me must have burnt up that engine. I took good care of that car and often wondered where it went lol. The STI wheels were off my friend David's WRX.

One thing not mentioned and worth looking at is if there are still braided lines and bronze bushings in the brake system. I did those upgrades to the car. The DBA rotors are cause I use those on my Eunos Roadster

This is a rare moment to find the previous owner!

Also never heard of PR performance. Might be good to get a tune redone by Will.

 

[L337TurboZ]

The AC and heat work well because I had to replace the compressor, expansion valve, and the condenser due to compressor failure.

This was for sale near me a few months ago. I had debated buying it back from the dude who owned it then but decided not to as I had my fun with it and I'm more focused on my BMW now.

It was a solid car. I can't say the quality of the work done to it now but I'm a good technician and my work is top notch. If you search the How To section you'll see my post about oil pan resealing. It was done on that car. I may have the old tune files for it from Freektune. I'd have to search around my emails but im sure they're there.

FWIW I sold it back in 2021 for 10k. I bought it for 800 dollars years ago with a blown motor

https://imgur.com/gallery/800-dollar-mazdaspeed-3-project-continued-QXKEnji

 

[philip B]

The AC and heat work well because I had to replace the compressor, expansion valve, and the condenser due to compressor failure.

This was for sale near me a few months ago. I had debated buying it back from the dude who owned it then but decided not to as I had my fun with it and I'm more focused on my BMW now.

It was a solid car. I can't say the quality of the work done to it now but I'm a good technician and my work is top notch. If you search the How To section you'll see my post about oil pan resealing. It was done on that car. I may have the old tune files for it from Freektune. I'd have to search around my emails but im sure they're there.

FWIW I sold it back in 2021 for 10k. I bought it for 800 dollars years ago with a blown motor

https://imgur.com/gallery/800-dollar-mazdaspeed-3-project-continued-QXKEnji

The guy who owns it now and is selling his name is Christian and is Mexican and he barely speak English had to bring a translator. I met him though his friend/my friend that also has a Mazdaspeed and thats how I was told he was selling it.

Now unless he lying which he could be he may have not done anything to it and just bought it and now he’s just wanting to sell it. He said he bought it around 2023 so maybe that navy kid turned around and sold it. He mention the turbo and exhaust was pre installed so I don’t know if the rest of those mods where done by him now or not. Thanks for chiming in with the information.
Based on the info for the price I think it’s still a good buy especially now I know who the previous owner was

 

[philip B]

He has a whole team/group apparently on instragam with some Sti and WRX and Mazdaspeeds and they go together to car meets ect

 

[philip B]

Here’s the text messages. Do you recall the serial number for the engine replacement I can see if it’s the same number? Did it come with a Cobb access port ? it has one now which which would indicate re tuning if It didn’t come with one when he bought it.
I’m assuming he just bought it and did minor things to it if at all


He also has that weird air intake filter on it which I’ve never seen before.

 

[L337TurboZ]

I sold the car with the access port. ALL the mods minus the painted valve cover and intake manifold were done by me. The clutch however may have been replaced. I did put a single mass lightweight flywheel and ACT clutch in it originally.

The guy local to me who got it from the Navy kid had been driving it but got low compression or knocking i don't remember which.

I do not have any serial numbers for the block. More than likely someone's put another junk yard engine into it.

I did swap out the HPFP internals with Corksport internals but it had another brand I dont remember which in the HPFP that came with the original engine I got from the junk yard.

They may have had it retuned if they put the ported intake manifold on it. However the manifold i ported
I deleted VTCS and did a pretty good job. The only thing that needed to be finished on it was porting and smoothing the throttle body inlet port. The casting was awful from the factory and with a gasket on it you could see metal sticking past the gasket opening.

 

[philip B]

I sold the car with the access port. ALL the mods minus the painted valve cover and intake manifold were done by me. The clutch however may have been replaced. I did put a single mass lightweight flywheel and ACT clutch in it originally.

The guy local to me who got it from the Navy kid had been driving it but got low compression or knocking i don't remember which.

I do not have any serial numbers for the block. More than likely someone's put another junk yard engine into it.

I did swap out the HPFP internals with Corksport internals but it had another brand I dont remember which in the HPFP that came with the original engine I got from the junk yard.

They may have had it retuned if they put the ported intake manifold on it. However the manifold i ported
I deleted VTCS and did a pretty good job. The only thing that needed to be finished on it was porting and smoothing the throttle body inlet port. The casting was awful from the factory and with a gasket on it you could see metal sticking past the gasket opening.

He’s saying the used engine he put in was a gen 2 with 115k on it. What was the engine you put in it ?
What was the odometer reading when you sold it? Comparing how many miles the car has been driven now vs then.


I’ll have him do a compression test in front of me to confirm engine health only way to sort of know if it’s a trash engine he put in or not.

 

[L337TurboZ]

I had put a gen 2 in it originally. I dont remember the odometer reading. Like I said I sold it about 3 to 4 years ago. I think it was around 160k? Maybe 170k.

Whoever bought it just dogged the crap out of it and treated it like crap. I had that car for a few years. Daily driven. I took it back and forth to Atlanta for training numerous times without a single problem.

The only thing I can say about the body itself is that the roof and spoiler were repainted. When I had it the PO had plasti dipped the roof and the spoiler had clear peeling.

 

[philip B]

I had put a gen 2 in it originally. I dont remember the odometer reading. Like I said I sold it about 3 to 4 years ago. I think it was around 160k? Maybe 170k.

Whoever bought it just dogged the crap out of it and treated it like crap. I had that car for a few years. Daily driven. I took it back and forth to Atlanta for training numerous times without a single problem.

The only thing I can say about the body itself is that the roof and spoiler were repainted. When I had it the PO had plasti dipped the roof and the spoiler had clear peeling.

Thanks, he may have had to put a new engine in it then from the kid that sold it.
He does not seem like the type to drive them into the dirt given his current profile and other vehicles he has. He said he bought it from a previous mechanic that didn’t do anything with it so who knows if he bought with a bad cylinder from him. I’ll take pictures of the engine bay and what not and how it looks now and post information up if I see anything that looks like it was Jerry rigged after you sold it.
For a 2007 it looks solid and nice and the wot pulls were strong as ballz. Either way I will give it a good home with plenty of care.


Yes, if you happen to still have the old tune files to send them my way I would appreciate that. I have versa-tuner as well i wouldn’t mind looking at them for future flashing and if the current tune is no good.

 

[L337TurboZ]

Did you end up buying it?

 

[philip B]

Did you end up buying it?

I ended up not buying it. Not anything against the car really but the dude was lying about what he did to the car and barely spoke English so I chickened out