[JoeMini]

Nice !

 

[louis110]

A few weeks ago, a friend and I played around with hijacking the OEM infotainment screen to display performance gauges. This was previously done by other people using the Torque app + a 3rd party app that enables your OBD2 reader on Android Auto (OBD2AA). However the developer of OBD2AA stopped supporting the app, and now there is no way to properly display gauges onto the infotainment screen.

We used a 3rd party AA adapter (it's a standalone device that can communicate with your car without the need for a cell phone). First we tried downloading the Torque app directly to the adapter, and running it though the car's AA. Although we could fire it up, the software for the adapter and Torque were meant for touchscreens, meaning that nothing really worked through the car's infotainment wheel.

We ended up running Torque off a phone, and using the AA adapter to screencast the phone onto the infotainment screen. Although this worked, and was cool to watch, it was inefficient. Your phone had to be running at the same time, and hotspot the entire time. Proof of concept in the pic below and the IG video.

I ended up buying a OBDLinkMX+ from Amazon, which has its own proprietary app for displaying gauges, clearing codes, and other info. So far I'm mega impressed with it.

I've given up on trying to display the gauges on the infotainment screen, but I now have my phone neatly mounted just to the right of the climate control panel, which is always displaying the gauges below.

Oh, I guess you can say shit is getting real 👀.

 

[louis110]

As I alluded to in my last post, I received my DRTuned Tier 1 kit and got straight to work. It's quite the involved process, requiring a lot of back and forth with DR to get software license keys, providing data logs before and after each flash, etc.

At this point, I've flashed the ECU to my DRTuned base tune. There is about a 100km run-in period before data logging and sending the logs back to DR. With limited driving on my base tune, right off the bat my car is running a lot smoother at idle. After the Corksport RMM install, the car would vibrate quite a bit on start up, at idle, and certain low rev conditions. I don't know what voodoo DRTuned cooked up, but now the vibrations at start up and idle are completely gone. They're still there going from a stop to start as you're transiting from the 750-1300 RPM region but way more liveable than before.

Even managed to capture some 0-60 times on the stock ECU map to do some comparison with the DRTuned map later on. On a 14C deg night, 1014 mbar air pressure, almost a full tank of 91 octane gas, out of 3 runs I managed to record a fastest time of 5.86 sec. This was done with sport mode on, traction control off, and in auto mode, as I found the car bogged down too much in between shifts when using the manual mode.

 

[louis110]

And the good times keep rolling!!

I bought the Mikstore ambient lighting kit last year (before I even bought the car) but due to trepidation and intimidation by the installation process I procrastinated. I finally mustered up the courage to tackle it this past weekend.

Firstly I laid everything out, and did a mock up of how everything is supposed to connect. This is super important because the supplied instructions are absolutely trash, telling you to tap into the wrong fuse, not providing wiring steps for the standard kit (the standard kit lacks some PNP harnesses, centre console lights, and replacement door trim).

I labelled the connections, so that once at the car there was no doubt.

Aimed to do the whole front section of the car first, then do the rear doors another day. Door panels and dash trim came off relatively easily using DIY instructions available online and the supplied instructions.

This is the part that frustrated me the most. Half my time was spent trying to figure out where to draw power from. The supplied instructions tell you to run the fuse tap through the firewall and replace a 7.5A fuse in the engine bay fusebox. WRONG! The supplied fuse tap from the kit is a 10A fuse. I looked up the fuse diagrams and ended up using the 10A taillight fuse located by the driver's feet fusebox.

Below you'll see the required fuse pulled out. The other 10A fuse to the left of it is also for the taillights. I'm not sure why there's 2.

The main wiring harness also has these 2 connectors, "voice box" and "trumpet", which are not explained anywhere. I capped and stowed them, and tucked them away.

The door harnesses on the standard kit use a ground and power wire with pin connectors, which confused the hell out of me. I thought you had to jam them into an OEM connector somewhere, but you just tie the ground to the door panel, and splice the yellow power wire to a harness in the OEM door controller.

The supplied instructions vaguely identify which wire on the right hand door you need to splice into. They don't however tell you that the left hand door has completely different colours of wires for that same harness. Again, after wasting a bunch of time trying to figure this out, just copy what I did if you ever go through with this:

From the Mikstore instructions, front right door:

Front left door, purplish wire, top row, 2nd from the left. The harnesses from left to right are more or less symmetrical, so it's always this position wire you splice into.

 

[JoeMini]

A few weeks ago, a friend and I played around with hijacking the OEM infotainment screen to display performance gauges. This was previously done by other people using the Torque app + a 3rd party app that enables your OBD2 reader on Android Auto (OBD2AA). However the developer of OBD2AA stopped supporting the app, and now there is no way to properly display gauges onto the infotainment screen.

We used a 3rd party AA adapter (it's a standalone device that can communicate with your car without the need for a cell phone). First we tried downloading the Torque app directly to the adapter, and running it though the car's AA. Although we could fire it up, the software for the adapter and Torque were meant for touchscreens, meaning that nothing really worked through the car's infotainment wheel.

We ended up running Torque off a phone, and using the AA adapter to screencast the phone onto the infotainment screen. Although this worked, and was cool to watch, it was inefficient. Your phone had to be running at the same time, and hotspot the entire time. Proof of concept in the pic below and the IG video.

View attachment 291328


I ended up buying a OBDLinkMX+ from Amazon, which has its own proprietary app for displaying gauges, clearing codes, and other info. So far I'm mega impressed with it.
View attachment 291329


I've given up on trying to display the gauges on the infotainment screen, but I now have my phone neatly mounted just to the right of the climate control panel, which is always displaying the gauges below.
View attachment 291331


Oh, I guess you can say shit is getting real 👀.
View attachment 291330

I have a OBD LINK (the green one)
You can link it to a track app link racechrono.
It will work and record when not at a track so you can record your
gauges when daily driving

 

[louis110]

I have a OBD LINK (the green one)
You can link it to a track app link racechrono.
It will work and record when not at a track so you can record your
gauges when daily driving

OBD Link makes several different OBD2 adapters (not sure what the differences are) but the app is the same across the board. I'm still learning all the different functions of it but I haven't figured out how to record data logs yet.

 

[louis110]

Power wire spliced.

Front left door all wired up. It's worth noting that the OEM harnesses (the 3 going to the black box) are flipped 180 degrees from the right hand door. Meaning the orientation of the harnesses between left and right are not the same, leading to a massive amount of confusion when you first look for the power wire to tap into. Notice here in the below picture, the yellow power wire is now BEHIND the harness when plugged in, vs the right side, where the tapped yellow wire is in front of the harness. CONFUSIONNNNN!!!

Fronts done. Still need to wire up the foot wells and the 2 rear doors. Super slick with the app to control colours and pulse patterns.

 

[MazdaGT_E]

Coming along NICELY!! one of the cleanest gen 4's out, no doubt!

 

[louis110]

Coming along NICELY!! one of the cleanest gen 4's out, no doubt!

Thanks man! Really appreciate that. The Turbo provides a great starting point, so I'm focusing on the performance bits first. I really want to upgrade my exhaust and front lip next.

 

[MazdaGT_E]

Thanks man! Really appreciate that. The Turbo provides a great starting point, so I'm focusing on the performance bits first. I really want to upgrade my exhaust and front lip next.

Nothing wrong with starting with performance mods! I look forward to watching this build

 

[PFederighi]

Awesome pic next to the jet and looks like you had some camping fun with the vehicle!

Nice to hear the tune smoothed out the low rpm NVH (my wife really enjoyed all the grumble herself). Interior mod turned out very nice. I'm not sure what to call it but I guess it would be somewhere within VIP style.

Interesting you added the hood props. For a second there I thought they were their Motion Control Beams (I have a set installed on a different vehicle) but they're definitely not for everyone.

Keep it up! Looks great and thanks for sharing

 

[louis110]

Awesome pic next to the jet and looks like you had some camping fun with the vehicle!

Nice to hear the tune smoothed out the low rpm NVH (my wife really enjoyed all the grumble herself). Interior mod turned out very nice. I'm not sure what to call it but I guess it would be somewhere within VIP style.

Interesting you added the hood props. For a second there I thought they were their Motion Control Beams (I have a set installed on a different vehicle) but they're definitely not for everyone.

Keep it up! Looks great and thanks for sharing

Perks of the job to get a shoot with an operational F-18. This car does it all, especially with the cargo basket, it was perfect for transporting bulky items that would otherwise take up space in the car, like the sleeping bags/tents/PFDs/air mattress.

It seems some people are reverting back to stock from the Corksport RMM because the NVH is too harsh for them. I recommend they just spend more money and get a tune to fix that lol. I'm really enjoying the LED lighting, it's kind of like a neo-VIP, similar to what the German marquees are doing with a lot of their models now. It really elevates the interior without being too ricey.

I was thinking of getting the motion control beams sometime in the future, but I expected them to decrease vibrations more while improving handling (similar concept to the Yamaha dampers on other cars). You're saying they introduced more vibrations?

 

[PFederighi]

What a perk! It's an awesome shot imo.

Interior mod looks great, I agree it's very similar to the German thing.

The MCB's are fairly expensive and most enthusiasts I've come across consider them a JDM 'snake oil' product. My personal impression is that they've mellowed out a lot of road / chassis noise and tracks smoother over rough surfaces. The vehicle they're installed on has custom Ohlins, subframe collars, chassis braces, very aggressive alignment, etc; which makes it not the most comfortable car for street use anymore but I feel the MCB's did reintroduce a certain amount of civility.

watch
watch

ps- there may be an update to these videos. I haven't been keeping up with all the new car stuff for a while.

 

[louis110]

So a couple of months ago, I got rear ended while backing out of my driveway...🤦‍♂️I guess I'm not immune to the Mazda 3 curse. Aside from a slightly bent quarter panel, the damage seemed mostly superficial. I finally had my car taken in by the body shop last week and got the car back within 3 days. There were unexpected surprises though.

Once the shop pulled my bumper off, they found significant frame damage underneath. They were pretty shocked because the bumper cover, for the most part, seemed fine.

Here's the left (undamaged) side for reference.

Anyway insurance and the shop got me sorted out. It's not a perfect job, but good enough. There's a slight crinkle in the bumper cover, and the fender alignment isn't 100% but I guess the car will never be perfect anymore regardless. I'll have to go back to get some overspray removed and some more wet sanding on some paint imperfections.

 

[louis110]

Whoops.

 

[louis110]

Downpipe arrived this week, just in time for 'CELgate'. For anyone not tracking, there have been a lot of people throwing a P0420 code after installation, even though CS' proto testing never had that issue, thus the pipe was sold as CEL free. They've actually taken the sales page down until they've gotten enough data gathering from warranty claims submitted by those affected customers.

Although, the craftsmanship of the metalwork is quite nice, check out those welds!

A pretty piece but unfortunately I had to cover up those beautiful welds for the sake of temperature control. I have already removed the rubber seal that goes over the firewall cowl, and you can really feel a lot of hot air escape from the back of the hood. Since I have no other choice but to install this thing one way or another, I went ahead and opened everything up and sent it to the powdercoater's for a cerakote treatment and applied gold foil to the back of the supplied heat shield.

Hoping to get it installed next week. I'm still running the stock catback, so I'll be sure to grab some sound clips of the before and after.

 

[louis110]

Messing about with some cardboard mockups for a NACA duct and dive plane idea I had. This would have to be a custom job, so not sure when I'll get it done, but I like!

 

[louis110]

Dropped off the car at my shop today to finally get the downpipe installed. Quick little shot with my mechanic's 2023 Supra on PS Cup 2s, KW coils, and TE37s.

Before the install I took some temp readings of the OEM downpipe (after a casual drive). The max temp I clocked on the outside of the downpipe was around 220 deg C. Basically the whole OEM pipe is covered with heat shielding so it ranged between 170-230 deg depending on where you took the reading.

Obligatory post-install photo. From what I was told, aside from a couple of stubborn nuts on the turbo, the install didn't present any issues.

A little bit of that gold reflect-a-cool heat tape poking out from the underside of the Corksport heat shield.

Taking a new temp reading off the heat shield, the surface temperature had dropped to 119 deg C under similar driving conditions.

However, when pointing the gun straight on the exposed part of the downpipe, even with the cerakote coating, I got a max reading of 275 deg C. Caliente! Would hate to see how much this would read without the cerakote.

And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't address the elephant in the room that had the Mazda forums lit up (pun intended) the last couple of weeks. I pulled out of the shop with no CEL, and almost made it all the way home without it popping up. About 9km into my drive I got the infamous P0421 code. I got home, cleared the code, and parked the car. Currently we're to monitor and send updates back to Corksport so that they can diagnose the overarching issue. I'm personally not too bothered, it's a bit annoying but there are work arounds if CS doesn't present a viable solution to fix this.

Overall impressions of the downpipe though:

Sound - I'll have to take some exterior sound clips revving out the engine, but all in all, with my stock catback exhaust, from the few revs I did inside the shop and the in-cabin noise on the way home, the car doesn't sound any different and could be mistaken for stock.

Performance - The most noticeable difference is that the car revs more freely now. The throttle response seems a bit snappier and the car feels very torquey through the whole powerband. This is on a pre-existing rev 1 tune on my ECU by DRTuned, so the next rev should be quite spicy.

 

[Mazda2023]

Exceptional build Sir. Very detailed. I Appreciate your post very much.

 

[louis110]

Exceptional build Sir. Very detailed. I Appreciate your post very much.

Thanks!!