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Ow, knowing that just hurts. I like my Mazda3, but yeah, the parts are crazy. And it hasn't been the most relieable.

It's interesting to read your thoughts. I have a 2006 Mazda 3 2.3L manual hatchback, which I've had since it was almost new. I agree pretty much with everything you've said. I have 175K miles on the original clutch, which I thought was impressive, but 400K kilometers is insane. My clutch has...

@wtd Thanks. I was just looking to see if my Mazda has an orifice tube, but I don't see it anywhere on the diagrams in the Mazda service manual and it's not a part that Rockauto or others list as available for my car. Does that seem plausible? If so, I may not have a way to check how dirty or...

On their website, the available boots for my car say they are manufactured by EMPI. Anyway, I've already got the Mazda boot.

This is unrelated to my original question, but is it worth having the condenser (or anything else) flushed, while I have my car at the auto ac specialist to get the ac system evacuated? I think they said flushing the system costs $80, which I'd rather not pay given my money situation (although...

That's a clever idea. I'm planning, though, to take it to an auto ac shop to have them evacuate the system and then recharge it after I replace the parts. It's not too expensive and seems worth having done by someone with the right equipment. I could borrow a pump and the manifold gauges for...

Thanks. I don't know what kind of Volvo you have, but I think the V40 of that era was built on the same platform as the Mazda3 and also maybe the Ford Focus. So they share and/or have a lot of similar parts.

I think I looked for the boots for the ball joints on the control arms, but Mazda didn't sell them. But I'll check again. I'm also kind of figuring that if the boot on the ball joint tore and is dried out, the bushings on the other end of the control arms (which are hard to really inspect) are...

Thanks. That's interesting. My system isn't really functional now to do that. But that's good information.

The thing is on most cars (except the European cars) you can't get a new OEM CV axle. You definitely can't for the Mazda. And I was reading around a lot on the forum here and the general consensus seems to be that the rebuilt and aftermarket CV axles are poor quality and often fail within a year...

I guess with the non-OEM parts, I've read about low control arms not fitting correctly sometimes. I don't want to have to send things back to Rockauto. And I've read about some parts, like ball joints, failing after a year. Even if they're under warranty, I don't want to keep doing the same...

Yeah, I don't know what is up with Mazda and their part costs. Some of them are insane. I guess there just aren't that many Mazdas on the road. Maybe since there are more Mercedes, they make a lot more of those parts and so there is more of an economy of scale? The Mazda boot did come with the...

Thanks for the suggestions. Yeah, I got the OEM boot, even though it cost an absurd $70.

Thanks for the thoughts. I have to detach the ball joint on the lower control arm from the knuckle, to get the axle out for rebooting it, but not unbolt the other end of it. I guess I could just do one front lower control arm now and the other late, but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me...

I'm planning to reboot the inner CV axle on my Mazda 3, which is torn and clearly leaking grease. In the process of examining that, I noticed that the boots are torn on a lot of the other front end suspension parts (it's a 2006, with 175K). The boots on the ball joints of the lower control arms...

Right. I'm already planning to take it to a shop to evacuate the system and then do the recharge, after I put the new parts in.

Thanks to everyone for the thoughts on this. Thanks for the suggestion. Can I add all of that together directly to the compressor (because it will get circulated through the system)? Or should I add 1 oz directly to the drier through one of the ports where the lines connect?

Thanks. As I mentioned, the high pressure line is leaking, which I plan to replace. It has some oil residue on it. Should I be concerned about how much oil might have leaked out with the refrigerant? Or would that be too little for it to really matter?

Thanks. Any advice on how to do this if I don't take the whole system apart, but rather just replace the compressor and drier?

I have a 2006 Mazda 3 2.3L, with an ac compressor clutch that's basically falling off the compressor. They system actually still works (though it's not as cool as it should be). The compressor did not seize. But obviously I can't have a clutch that's rattling around. I tried to replace the...