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1995 Mazda MX-6 LS Build

[date: 2003 .. 2022]

I bought this car in 2003 off eBay with 116k miles, and turned the outing into a 1000-mile road trip to drive it back, with the sunroof down (except through some shockingly wild rainstorms in Colorado), and doing 115 MPH in Wyoming at midnight. Nonstop from Dallas to Salt Lake City. A great memory.

Eventually the car reached 250,000 miles, and everything was just worn out and tired. I am currently finishing a rebuild.

I would love to do some events with the SCCA. (Also have a second car... it was going to be a parts car, but my son might build it.)

I have a collection of notes taken while working on this car over the years, and will slowly be organizing them here.

Standard repairs

New suspension
New exhaust
New brakes
Engine tune-up
...

Troubleshooting

idle.gmi

Rebuilds and restorations

I replaced all bulbs (including in the dash, which brightened it)

Rebuilding the passenger side axle

distributor.gmi

The door hinges wear and let the door sag

shifter-bushings.gmi

Shifter knob: My wife re-wrapped the shifter knob with new leather.

Upgrades

JSPEC headlights. I picked up a very clear and clean set shipped from Japan. I fabricated some mounting brackets.
Thicker rear sway bay.
Front and rear strut bars.
Headers: Currently just the ebay variety.

Future?

Wheels: RX8?
Battery relocation, and/or lightweight AGM battery (Braille?)
ABS delete: The parts car has ABS. I hate ABS. Once it kicks in, you have no feeling of what the road is doing.
AC: I might add this back later, but if so, with [Envirosafe](http://www.es-refrigerants.com/) instead of R-134a. I've read repeatedly that Envirosafe is less demanding on the compressor (and therefore the engine). [There seem to be many competing alternative refrigerants: MaxiFridge, Freeze-12, etc. Tread carefully and remember we all share this ball of rock.]
[PS delete](http://www.mx6.com/forums/2g-mx6-general/237178-how-convert-your-power-steering-rack-manual.html): This one is slightly more questionable, but after "upgrading" to electronically controlled steering in newer cars, I suspect I would like to "downgrade" to completely manual steering, at least if the car will see more spirited driving. I drove manual steering as a kid and it's not that difficult. I have read that manual gives better feedback than even power steering (forget electric) when cornering, so you have a bit more warning before you lose grip.

Companies

AWR Racing - sway bar

Xtremethings Cutom engineering for the KL engines

MX6 fabrication