Mazda Mps 6. What do I need to know?

I had a 6mps a couple years ago - took a while to find one as most of the ones close to me were in a pretty poor state. I had it for about a year and it was a money pit. When it worked, it was ace, sub 6 sec 0-60 and nice awd slides in the wet - basically it's a sleeper scooby which goes under the radar and somehow has amazingly cheap insurance for the power.

The car itself is good and I got the impression that when new it would have been ace, but at 7 years old, it was past its best.

There's so few of them about, especially decent examples, that I'd imagine someone on the owners club to know the history of anything for sale.

problems or issues to think about:
1) Timing chain stretches and needs changing about every 70k miles (there's a MPS "specialist" garage up in windermere, and speaking with him, he's even suggest they could be worth changing every 50k).
2) The rods are like chocolate and most tuners seem to have had issues with cars popping, so 90% of the owners group use a guy called Justin (or J-tune) as his tunes seem far safer than others - so, if it's been tuned elsewhere, then potentially walk away.
3) The rear diff mounts are also chocolate, so need upgrading if you plan to launch the car regularly.
4) the rear drive shafts are a slightly harder chocolate and seem to be the next thing to go once the rear diff mounts are sorted.
5) the mazda underseal/rust protection is awful, so expect the underneath to be a state by now.
6) the AWD system is temperamental and needs all 4 wheels to be the same (from memory, i think the manual even states that all 4 need to be the same model tyre) - if you find a car with different tyres (or front/back different) then it's probably not been looked after and the rear diff could be poorly. So, expect to fork out for a full set of 4 tyres anytime you need 1...
7) the bonnet has a air scoop built into its design - a small opening on the front lip which sends air to the top mounted intercooler. But, it's also a great water trap and the bonnets are prone to rust, so check that.

The common tuning route is with a Cobb Accesstuner - a great device, which has its own software to upload the tunes. Cobb chose to stop Joe Public having access to the software (and each copy is linked to the device's SN) so now you can't road tune with a Cobb & Justin :( So, look at Versatune for the present preferred option.
 
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If you want fast for 4K then look at the Vectra VXR :D i always remember that Top Gear episode when they put the MPS, VXR and ST220 together and despite the fact they all had similar power the VXR spanked the both of them easily and would also achieve 300bhp with a map.
Here is the clip it's at the end they race them.
 
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A car with weak suspension and drivetrain bits are not my idea of reliable, especially if you want to drive it hard on the regular.

Old car + turbo + 4wd + cheap car. Ideal recipe for a money pit.
 
As above, the amount of potentially expensive failures would make me want to walk away from anything other than the most pristine, rust free standard car.

Especially when you can buy a 2 litre wrx that, although obviously can have its own problems doesn't really have anything like.the watch list above and is dirt cheap to make quicker

Rust is the biggest one tbh, buy a car that's rotten and you can spend all your time with it just trying to slow down the spread rather than enjoying the thing
 
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Dav4 said:
If you want fast for 4K then look at the Vectra VXR :D i always remember that Top Gear episode when they put the MPS, VXR and ST220 together and despite the fact they all had similar power the VXR spanked the both of them easily and would also achieve 300bhp with a map.
Here is the clip it's at the end they race them.
Click to expand...

The Vectra was also utterly crap and would not go round corners for toffee.
 
kona786 said:
Old car + turbo + 4wd + cheap car. Ideal recipe for a money pit.
Click to expand...
It's the old choose 2 from: cheap, fast or reliable...

The other "fun" with the 6mps - it was a joint venture between Ford and Mazda, and it almost felt like it was put together by flicking through the FoMoCo's parts catalog and bodging together. Helped by v few being sold here over the 18months they were available (think the total sales were about 1k - as corroborated by https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/vehicle/mazda_6_mps), not many Mazda dealers know them well, let alone any independent garage - for ref. Youngs garage in Ambleside has now somehow got the reputation in the owners group for being the goto place for info these days, and ironically the MPS "specialist" TotalMPS is probably the worst place to go - I would almost suggest instantly walking away from any car tuned or even serviced by them due to their awful reputation... The front 1/2 of the car is pretty standard Mazda 6 (apart from the engine), but the AWD system is unique to the car and finding parts is (or was for me) a nightmare... Even the Mazda parts system quoted part numbers for items used on the standard 2wd 6 and surprisingly the rear of the 6mps is quite different... e.g. I had an ABS sensor go, nothing major, got the part number from online and £25 on eBay, only to find it wouldn't fit. Took it to my local garage and they scratched their heads as their system called the same part number I had bought. So, bit the bullet and took to Mazda and they ordered a replacement - guess what, the same part I had that wouldn't fit... Eventually they got the right one, but due to having to get Mazda to source the part & fit it, it was considerably more than the original £25. Same goes when I needed a new rear caliper - instead of just being able to order off Eurocarparts (or wherever), it needs some digging and searching (e.g. I think the MPS rear calipers are from a Ford and I think I've heard in the past the driveshafts are from a Volvo).

The frustrating thing - it's a great year-round car (when working) and I think the Mazdaspeed6 has a good following in the States, but here it just rusts too quickly and is too odd-ball to have many garages/people that know the car well enough to support it.

Dont get me wrong, i loved the car, but I found myself just being relieved I got to any destination without a new clunking sound instead of being able to enjoy the drive, so knew it was time to part ways. If I was to do it again, I would happily have one up to about 5 years old, but I (personally) wouldn't go near one older than that, which rules them all out. But - I have to admit, I (think) I got a lemon, so might be slightly jaded, but looking at the Facebook group, it looks like more and more are having problems this year.
 
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Yaay someone looking at a 6mps, Im onto my third one.

1st Red one, had timing chain done for piece of mind (mileage) and a drive shaft.
I sold it because it was the 500+ tax bracket

2nd one was a silver one, replaced the one above wanted for absolutely nothing, bought it as it was low tax. Sold it as it has silver and I hate silver cars and went to look for a nice 2.2 Civic Type S

Get joined up on http://www.mpsowners.co.uk/

3rd one is my current, it appeared whilst I was looking for a civic, Low Tax, 1 owner, low miles, decent nick, YES! Flew to Exeter and picked it up, think I covered about 700 miles that first weekend lol

DereksDontRun said:
I had a 6mps a couple years ago - took a while to find one as most of the ones close to me were in a pretty poor state. I had it for about a year and it was a money pit. When it worked, it was ace, sub 6 sec 0-60 and nice awd slides in the wet - basically it's a sleeper scooby which goes under the radar and somehow has amazingly cheap insurance for the power.

The car itself is good and I got the impression that when new it would have been ace, but at 7 years old, it was past its best.

There's so few of them about, especially decent examples, that I'd imagine someone on the owners club to know the history of anything for sale.

problems or issues to think about:
1) Timing chain stretches and needs changing about every 70k miles (there's a MPS "specialist" garage up in windermere, and speaking with him, he's even suggest they could be worth changing every 50k).
2) The rods are like chocolate and most tuners seem to have had issues with cars popping, so 90% of the owners group use a guy called Justin (or J-tune) as his tunes seem far safer than others - so, if it's been tuned elsewhere, then potentially walk away.
3) The rear diff mounts are also chocolate, so need upgrading if you plan to launch the car regularly.
4) the rear drive shafts are a slightly harder chocolate and seem to be the next thing to go once the rear diff mounts are sorted.
5) the mazda underseal/rust protection is awful, so expect the underneath to be a state by now.
6) the AWD system is temperamental and needs all 4 wheels to be the same (from memory, i think the manual even states that all 4 need to be the same model tyre) - if you find a car with different tyres (or front/back different) then it's probably not been looked after and the rear diff could be poorly. So, expect to fork out for a full set of 4 tyres anytime you need 1...
7) the bonnet has a air scoop built into its design - a small opening on the front lip which sends air to the top mounted intercooler. But, it's also a great water trap and the bonnets are prone to rust, so check that.

The common tuning route is with a Cobb Accesstuner - a great device, which has its own software to upload the tunes. Cobb chose to stop Joe Public having access to the software (and each copy is linked to the device's SN) so now you can't road tune with a Cobb & Justin :( So, look at Versatune for the present preferred option.
Click to expand...

Dont go anywhere near a Cobb tuning solution, they've changed it recently and you are limited to Cobb "approved" protuners as Above Versatuner is the way to go :)

1) It's a known issue on the MPS platform yes, however not a prohibitively expensive job, ~5-600 maybe if/when it needs done. If the car has the revised VVT Actuator then you have a far better chance of it not needing done. It's easy to hear anyway so not of huge concern that it's just gonna crop up on you.

2) Bit of an unfair point tbh mate, "Known Tuners" that don't know how to
tune the rather fickle MPS platform ramming far too much power in low down and bencing/snapping rods is the proper way to put it imho. Theres a numebr of UK companies that claim to be able to tune an MPS and simply cant. I've seen a number of cars for sale with the "tuned by BBR" the first thing that they do when buying then is get shot of the BBR map lol, hell even the Cobb OTS ones are better :p Yes everyone uses a lad called justin (DJJUT) on the forum, he's mapped in excess of 300 mps's now iirc

3) If you wanna be pushing power and launching here there and everywhere then yes uprated diff mounts would be suggested. However I do believe even Gibbo in the Mustang is looking to uprate his Mounts as they are known to snap is abuse. Driven normally then no problem, Id drive mine like I stole it everywhere and my diff aint fallen off :p

4) 3 cars, I've needed one drive shaft, not a hugely inherent problem, worth noting that if you plan on pushing silly power then driveshaftshop do ones rated at 500bhp ;)

5) jap paint mate, paper thin, common rust spots are arches, especially where the rear bumper meets the arch. There was actually a recall for this.

6) Correct, it's advised that all wheels re using the same tyre and are within a couple of mm tread wise. NOt an expensive job tbf, drop to 225/45/18 instead of the stock 215 to save a huge wodge of cash. I prefer Uniroyal Rainsport 3's on mine, tried Eagle Assy's utter garbage, had me on edge constantly as they didn't feel safe. Uniroyals I'll quite happily chuck the car all over the place :p

7) I must say I've never come across this, either mentioned on the forum nor on any of my 3 cars. Theres a small surface rust bubble at bottom right of my bonnet, nowhere near the scoop section tho.

So pointers...

As with all cars, lower mileage the better but you'll pay a small premium for this. Lower owners more favourable too. If it's been tuned by BBR or ToalMPS then walk unless it's at a price that you can't really say no to and you're prepared to get it mapped right away.

Maintenance, typically an oil change every 6k miles for most I think the manual recommends 9k. Most also change to 5/40 oil, to assistance with the turbo seals.

As much as I'd like mine to be worth more :p yeah 3k is a good figure to get a 6, the gen 1 3's seem to be dropping at the moment.

If you're tipping 80k miles and theres no proff that the tming/VVT has been done then I'd be using mazda numbers to haggle ;) Mazda charge best part of 1k for the Timing kit plus labour, however...

For parts/spared the majority of use use http://edgeautosport.com/ this is for replacement and also upgrades :) Regular group buys too.

A Full timing kit direct from Mazda US is About £350ish. I also think Turbo Dynamics have started stocking them around the same price in/around Manchester.

Indeed the garage of choice for most is Young Motors in Ambleside, Davie Hastie has a huge knowledge of the platform and has built, repaired, maintained, modded and forged a vast majority of the MPS now.

Any other questions mate just ask, and get registered over on the forum for the buying guide :)

And if you didnt catch it before...
Avoid totalMPS! :P
http://www.mpsowners.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=20073
 
I always liked the 6 MPS but they do sound like a bit of a pain to keep on the road. It'd be ok if it was a 2nd car as it wouldn't matter how long it took to source parts but then it's just not special enough to warrant being a 2nd car. The rust on modern Mazda's is terrible which is such a shame as i really love the cars but don't think i'd want to take a punt on any because of it, unless you own your own bodyshop anyway!

Why are you not looking at getting a WRX instead as it's seemingly all of the plus points of the 6 but with hardly any of the downsides?

Also a lot of AWD cars are very fussy with tyre sizes, with any scooby you need to make sure all 4 match as even tyres from different brands but the same size can have quite a bit of a difference.
 
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To be honest I did look at the wrx but I decided I rather have the looks of an understated saloon with some power this is why I was intrigued by this. Reading up on the issues that they can have does make me wonder this is why they're so cheap. Though I don't mind fettling with one and doing minor jobs. It will however take me a long time to find a decent one judging by how many are for sale.
 
If you see any yer interested in pop a link up on the owners forum, if there's anyone local we're more than happy to go have a look for you.

Also might be able to give info on the history if it was previously a club owners.

As above a slight change to tyre size WILL save a fair chunk of cash on tyres :)
I paid I think about 280 for a full set of rainsports

just be prepared for running costs, need premium fuel and I get 21-22Mpg ish
They do run rich on the factory tune unfortunatley :(

EDIT:
BTW a few owners haev said that their car felt great at 300/300 and 330/330 so you might have set a good target
 
VED is changing in 2017 to a flat £140 for cars older than 5 years, so no point in making a decision based on VED cost.
 
Thanks for the help guys. I was offered one yesterday for £3750 with 60k on the clock and fsh. Owner put a new ecu in and bought it as a non runner. Though I declined his offer, the more I have thought about it the more I have scared myself with the potential problems which can occur with these cars.

Thus, I have decided to save and get a better car instead like most have suggested.
 
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