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DIY -> Mazdaspeed 6 OEM aluminum pedal covers in your regular 6!!!

7K views 6 replies 3 participants last post by  waughoo 
#1 ·
I had always admired the speed 6 metal pedals and decided I wanted a set for my 04 MTX wagon. I know there are a lot of aftermarket kits with metal covers that I could install on my wagon, I just didn’t like the fact that those were not OEM Mazda. Upon initial review of the scope of work for the project, it seemed easy enough as they were just metal pedal covers that go in place of the existing rubber ones. As I’ve found out with all things speed 6, it is not that simple to just swap them into your regular 6; they LOOK the same, but there are some subtle differences. I learned a lot by reading this fellow’s DIY over on the Mazda 3 forums: HOW TO ADD OEM MAZDASPEED3 PEDALS TO YOUR MAZDA3

The first thing I found out was that the curve of the accelerator pedal is not the same on the regular 6 as the speed 6 and thus, I could not just change out that metal cover. Unfortunately, this would require the whole accelerator pedal assembly. Since the accelerator pedals on the speed 3 and regular 3 were a direct swap (per the write up I linked above), I went on blind faith that the speed 6 accelerator was a direct swap for the regular 6 accelerator pedal (Spoiler alert: they ARE the same and ARE interchangeable). The other thing I found out is that the metal dead pedal has its own rest that is under the carpet. This rest is technically the same dimension as the one in the regular 6 but has the threaded inserts that allow it to be screwed down through the carpet. As far as I could tell, the brake and clutch were just replacement covers that needed to be swapped on (spoiler alert: they aren't a direct fit but can be correctly installed: more on that later).

SHOPPING LIST:

  • Speed 6 accelerator pedal (Complete assembly)
  • Speed 6 clutch and brake pedal covers
  • Speed 6 dead pedal cover (GET THE SCREWS!!)
  • Speed 6 dead pedal bracket (under the carpet)


Accelerator assembly:



Clutch and Brake pedal covers:



Dead pedal cover with screws and pedal bracket (black plastic part):
 

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#2 · (Edited)
Since at this time of starting this swap, I didn’t know for sure that the accelerator pedal assembly was a direct swap, the first pedal I started with was the accelerator pedal. If the speed 6 accelerator assembly did not make my throttle body work, I was going to bail on the whole project. They looked pretty similar in comparison so I decided to take my car’s pedal off the firewall. Just to make sure things didn’t get messed up, I removed the battery connections before unplugging the accelerator pedal in my car.





The quick comparison of them laying next to each other indicated that they should bolt up just fine, and that the socket for the car’s harness was identical. So, I connected up the speed 6 accelerator pedal to my car’s wiring harness and left it dangling. I then reconnected the battery and started the car. It started right up (good news). I then got down into the foot well and hand operated the new speed 6 accelerator pedal and the car revved as expected. GOOD NEWS!!! As far as I could tell, this project was a go!

I shut the car off, removed the battery cables again and then set to work remounting the speed 6 accelerator pedal to my regular 6. It is held on with two studs welded onto a bracket mounted to the firewall. Here’s the bracket. It required a bit of work to get the socket on the nuts, but a universal joint helped with that part.





After getting it secured down on the firewall, it will look a bit like this! (NOTE: you can see the extension I used with the universal joint laying on the floor in this picture.

 

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#3 · (Edited)
Next up was the dead pedal. To get to the dead pedal bracket, you have to pull up the carpet. To start with I took off the trim that covers the fuse box (not just the cover, but the whole kick panel on the drivers side that surrounds the fuse panel). It’s pretty straightforward so I won’t go into much explanation here. After that’s off, peel the carpet back and roll it towards the center of the car till you can see the whole dead pedal bracket.







Now that it’s exposed you’ll need to remove it. There’s a large nylon bolt in the lower hole that needs to come off. Once that’s off you can gently rock the pedal bracket back and forth while pulling and it should pop right out. Despite being very similar, the speed 6 bracket has two screw sockets that are used to hold the metal cover on over the carpet.



In this picture, the one on the left is the regular 6 bracket and the one on the right is the speed 6 bracket. Above right and below left of the upper knob you can just see the screws poking through the nylon socket inserts.






Here’s a front view… here you can see the two sockets at the upper portion of the pedal bracket.





Now… to get the holes in the carpet, I removed the metal pedal cover from the bracket and then reinstalled the screws into the nylon inserts of the pedal bracket leaving them out about ¼”. I then installed the pedal bracket on the car, and folded the carpet back over the pedal bracket. Using my fingers, I located the screws where they pressed on the carpet and used a razor knife to cut the carpet away to show the screws. This is not my finest work, but since the dead pedal cover will go over the top of the carpet and cover the rough cuts I made, I decided to try and forget it (it’s not working so well).






With the holes now in the carpet, you can remove the screws and install the dead pedal onto the bracket. Now you’re almost done!!







Now, I thought, the rest would be a snap!! It's just swapping pedal covers. How hard can that be?
 

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#4 · (Edited)
I was wrong! I removed the two regular 6 rubber covers for the clutch and brake and started to stretch the aluminum and rubber covers from the speed 6 onto the bare pedals. I started with the clutch. It was a lot of grunting, swearing, stretching of rubber, and writhing in the drivers foot well. I managed to get one all the way on and thought, man that sucked, but I’m glad I got it done.

I looked a little closer and found out that the side of the pedal cover was bulging out at the top of the pedal on both left and right sides!! This meant that the pedal itself was larger than the pedal cover. No wonder it was such a bugger to get on there. I unfortunately didn’t get a picture of this as I was pretty bummed, but committed to getting it done. In studying the pedal cover, I noticed that the bottom of the pedal was nice and flush with no bulging.

This told me that the car’s pedal was the correct width at the bottom, but not at the top. I then had the idea to measure the pedal cover at the bottom with my dial indicator





I then measured the pedal and found out that the speed 6 pedal cover was roughly 3mm larger than the actual pedal in my car at that same location. I then went to the top of the pedal cover and used my dial indicator there…





And compared it to the pedal in the car. I was indeed correct that the pedal was larger (though I didn’t need a dial indicator to tell me) but now I was armed with the information to tell me how much material to take off my car’s pedal.

I took the outside dimension of the top of the speed 6 pedal cover, subtracted 3mm (found from measuring the overall width of the lower edge of speed 6 pedal cover minus the car’s overall width at the lower edge of the pedal), and that was what I needed to remove. Using a Dremel tool with an abrasive drum bit, I began slowly taking a little bit of each side of the pedal until its overall dimension was about 3mm smaller than the speed 6 pedal cover’s outer dimension. Make sure you remove the same amount of pedal from each side!!! This was a very tedious step and I used a lot of care and regular measuring with the dial indicator. I erred on the slightly larger side of margin as I always knew I could take more off, but putting more back on required a whole new pedal assembly!!!

After a lot of nerves and careful checking, I tried the pedal cover again. To make the pedal cover slide easier over the pedal, I sprayed on some soapy water mixture to the pedal and the cover and began stretching. I used plastic panel pry tools to help work the lip of the pedal cover over the pedal (here’s a close up of the back of the pedal for reference)





It still took a lot of wrestling, but it was a lot easier now that the pedal was the correct size to accept the pedal cover. I then repeated that for the brake pedal and now I have a set of factory OEM Mazdaspeed pedal covers in my 04 Mazda 6 MTX wagon!





I’ve had them on now for a couple weeks and I’ve got a few notes about how they are different. I had worried that the aluminum covers would be slippery compared to the original rubber ones. I don’t find that to be the case in practice. The clutch and brake have rubber knobs (that’s what you see sticking out through the aluminum pedal pad). They stand proud of the bracket by about 3mm. The rubber is pretty soft and thus allows plenty of grip. I was also worried about the accelerator being slippery since it doesn’t even have the rubber bits. It turns out that’s just not even a concern. In practical driving situations, I can not tell a difference between the old pedal and the new.

Now, for my favorite part of this mod that was unexpected. I am a heel toe driver using my toe to apply brake on deceleration into a corner, double declutching, and using my heel to blip the accelerator to rev match the transmission to the lower gear. I learned this on my classic car which has VERY rudimentary synchros, and is a necessity for down shifting. Despite not being as necessary, I carry this practice over to my modern car.

Before this mod in my 6, I always had to shift my right foot over in a rather inconvenient way to actually fetch both the brake and the accelerator at the same time. Now, with the speed 6 accelerator pedal, I can catch it with out even adjusting my foot. It has a larger pedal surface area at the bottom with a little wing that sticks out towards the brake side. This alone was worth the change as now I can efficiently heel toe with very minimal effort. Not to mention, they look GREAT!!

I hope this write up helps someone else out there. I’m sorry that I don’t have more detailed photos of the “resizing” of the clutch and brake pedals to fit the speed 6 covers. It’s slightly possible that this resizing step is specific to the 1st gen PRE facelift (03-05) pedals. If you have a post facelift gen 1 (or gen 1.5 if you prefer), then you might not have to resize the pedals. It’s worth checking with a dial indicator before you get into it with the Dremel.
 

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#7 ·
Crazy huh? I've got a few more planned too. Didja see the speed6 folding mirrors mod DIY I posted? Another DIY in the DIY section. Watch your head this time ?
 
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